Obesity in Mass. among nation's lowest – why that's so frightening

Newspaper headlines touting Mass. among the "lowest obesity rates in the nation" were likely cause for celebration for many Bay Staters, especially those who make their living here battling the national obesity epidemic. But now that we’ve had some time to digest the research, what is unfortunately emerging are some frightening facts about obesity in Mass.

Yes, Massachusetts ranked third-lowest obesity rate in the nation — behind Colorado and Hawaii, according to 2011 data published last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data shows that the South had the highest rates of obesity (29.5 percent) followed by the Midwest (29 percent), the Northeast (25.3 percent) and the West (24.3 percent).
And, yes, it’s true that the state’s obesity rate for 2011 — 22.7 percent — is nearly one percentage point lower than in 2010 and nearly 1 percentage point higher than in 2009, along with being a full 12 percent better than Mississippi, the No. 1 obese state in the latest data.
But the fact remains that the obesity levels in the state has doubled in the last 20 years and now one third of children in Massacusetts are either obese or overweight, along with two thirds of the adult population, according to Cheryl Bartlett, director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Community Health and Prevention.
“On a national level, (Massachusetts) looks pretty good. But we’ve got a long way to go,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett said that the goal of her organization is to see obesity levels fall to 5 percent in the state within the next 15 years. Only then will we start to see a significant decrease in Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes and high cholesterol, said Bartlett.