By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press The South tips the scales again
as the nation’s fattest region, according to a new government
survey. More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama
and Tennessee are considered obese. In part, experts blame
Southern eating habits, poverty and demographic groups that have
higher obesity rates. Colorado was the least obese, with about
19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey
done last year by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The 2007 findings are similar to results from the
same survey the three previous years. Mississippi has had the
highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama,
Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near
the top of the list, often so close that the difference between
their rates and Mississippi’s may not be statistically
significant. The South has had high death rates from heart
disease and stroke, health risks that have been linked to
obesity, some experts noted. The CDC study only su