A new report released today has some fattening news on obesity rates in Kentucky. We still rank in the top ten fattest states.
The report, released by Medical News Today says Kentucky is the seventh fattest state in U.S. And that leaves some officials scratching their heads.
The ranking gives little to be desired, with almost a third of the state overweight. Local nurse practitioner Brian Overbee finds this alarming.
"I expected the numbers to be high, i didn't expect them necessarily to be that high," Overbee says.
Overbee says this is an increasing trend, but the bluegrass state is not alone.
We're seeing an increase in childhood obesity, we're seeing it increase in type two diabetes in the younger and younger generations," Overbee says. "And it lot of it has to do with their lifestyle."
Kentucky is 4th in the nation when it comes to childhood obesity - at more than 39-percent. Department of Education Spokeswoman, Lisa Gross says the department is concerned with these numbers.
"We've got 660-thousand kids in the public schools system and the high percentage those kids are overweight obese," Gross says.
Gross says the local school systems are doing their part to decrease that number, including changing out items in vending machines.
"Now when you go in to a school system, you don't see the vending machines that are full of high fat items or sugary soft drinks or those kinds of things," Gross says.
Overbee says technology may be another factor.
"Technology can have some responsibility because now you have these hand held devices and things that children do besides going out and playing and that's why we're seeing these numbers increase," Overbee says.
And Overbee thinks these numbers won't go down anytime soon.
The report found obesity rates did not decrease in a single state in the last year. Four states, including West Virginia and Tennessee, have rates of more than 30-percent
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