15 minutes

in case you missed it. here is alex's fifteen minutes of fame article....another reminder of why we should move back to colorado!
CDC survey puts the obesity question on the table (right next to the dessert).
By JAMES A. FUSSELL
The Kansas City Star

If we’re not careful, the “Show Me State” is going to turn into the “Don’t Show Me State.”
As in, “Don’t show me your excess body fat.”

In a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracking obesity prevalence, Missouri was in the top third of states, weighing in at a bloated No. 13. Kansas wasn’t much better at 19th.

At No. 50, Colorado was the fittest state. That made us put down our doughnut and think:

What’s Colorado doing right that we’re not? And by that logic, what’s Mississippi, the fattest state, doing so wrong?

In pursuit of the truth — and flatter midsections — we raised our thick Midwestern fingers and started dialing.

Southern style

Our first call was to Mississippi State University in Starksville.

So, Lee Ann Joe, exercise physiology instructor, how do you explain your state’s poor showing?

“I guess we just have less activity here,” she said. “We’re at sea level, so we don’t have any hills to walk around. And in the summer, it’s so hot here you don’t want to be outside.”

Anything else?

“I suppose there’s a lot of nutritional aspects to it, too,” she said. “I don’t see very many people eating vegetables around here. And a lot of the vegetables they do eat tend to be cooked with fat of some sort. Another factor is that we’re a poorer state. You don’t have as much money to buy good food, which costs more than junk food.”

Guyana Jenkins, an office manager in the Hinds County Health Department in Jackson, agreed that income and Southern diets were big contributors.

“A lot of Southern people like fried chicken, cornbread and greens cooked with ham hocks and fatback,” she said.

And with more family members working, there’s not always time to prepare fresh, healthy meals.

“So you just grab fast food or a frozen dinner that has fat and sodium,” she said. “I guess they could get more programs to educate people about healthier eating. But then you have to have people who want to change. I wish they had more jobs where they had some sort of exercise routine for the employees, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes in the morning.”

Jenkins, who tries to educate her family about healthy eating habits, is bothered about her state’s ranking.

“It’s concerning because I’m a black American, and we’re dying from heart attacks and strokes. I don’t want to be in that category.”

Mountain mentality

On the other end of the spectrum is Colorado, a state where healthy eating and outdoor activities are as much a part of the culture as fatback and fried foods are in Mississippi. And perhaps as racks of ribs and cookouts are in Kansas City.

Alex Passett, the president of Kansas City chapter of the Colorado Alumni Club, says living here has changed him.

“Since I moved here from Colorado (12 years ago) I’ve gained 20 pounds,” the Overland Park resident said. “I don’t know if that’s because of geographic change or just going from my 30s to my 40s. It’s probably a combination.”

Don’t get Passett wrong. He loves living here.

“Give me a choice between a grueling bike ride or a slab of ribs and a tailgate, I’ll take the slab of ribs and tailgate any day,” the 43-year-old Sprint marketing manager said.

But there is a difference. First, there’s the climate. “Colorado’s climate allows you to go outside and do something more often,” he said. “The cold isn’t as cold, and the hot isn’t as hot.”

That gives people more options when looking for things to do.

Anne Schuster, a health and wellness coordinator at the University of Colorado, said Coloradans have cultivated a culture of health.

“In Boulder there’s a strong emphasis on eating foods that are close to nature,” she said. “And in Boulder especially, people work out quite a bit. And that doesn’t mean going to the gym all the time. It could be taking a walk or doing yoga. I think here people really love open space, and here we have access to a lot of trails. And, of course, we’ve got the mountains, and the mountain biking and the skiing.”

That said, Schuster doesn’t like the punitive nature of the body mass index, or BMI.

“BMI standards changed in 1997, and all of a sudden people on the cusp of being overweight were on the cusp on being obese,” she said. As a result, she said, ultra-restrictive BMI standards have a chilling effect on many regular people who find it difficult to get within the “healthy” range.

If you really want to live like Coloradans, she said, forget diets and BMI numbers.

Weight loss shouldn’t be the end goal,” she said. “It should be health. If we focus on eating a healthy diet, and staying active, a healthy weight will follow.”

Then, when someone says “show me,” Missourians will be able to answer “glad to.”