SC is one of America’s fattest and among the worst for childhood obesity, study says
South Carolina has taken home a ranking that perhaps it would rather not have.
The Palmetto State was ranked the 9th fattest state in America in an analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website. The analysis, 2017’s Fattest States in America, was published on Tuesday.
South Carolina ranked the worst among its immediate neighbors, with Georgia coming in at 17th fattest and North Carolina at 16th. The Palmetto State trailed Oklahoma, which took 8th worst, and Alabama, which came in at 7th.
South Carolina ranked even worse in individual categories, coming in at 6th worst with percentage of adults with Type 2 Diabetes, 7th worst with adults who eat less than one serving of fruits or vegetables a day and 9th worst with percentage of adults with hypertension, according to the news release of the analysis.
Other obesity and overweight highlights from analysis, ranked from wost to average:
▪ 11th in percentage of adults with high cholesterol
▪ 12th in percentage of obese children
▪ 13th in percentage of obese adults
▪ 21st in percentage of physically inactive adults
▪ 28th in percentage of overweight children
Earlier this year, Columbia was ranked 11th among the country’s fattest cities and Greenville trailed at No. 12.
In the overall category, the country’s fattest states, ranked from fattest to average, were:
▪ Mississippi
▪ West Virginia
▪ Tennessee
▪ Arkansas
▪ Louisiana
▪ Kentucky
▪ Alabama
▪ Oklahoma
▪ South Carolina
▪ Indiana
A perpetually unhealthy lifestyle that leads to obesity contributes to a collective medical tab of nearly $200 billion, the release stated.
The estimated cost of diabetes in the U.S. for 2015 alone was $407 billion. Diabetes patients spend annually an average of $7,900 on health care costs, according to the release. Plus, the life expectancy of men and women with Type 1 diabetes is cut by 11 and 13 years, respectively.
Cynthia Roldán: @CynthiaRoldan
This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 9:00 AM.