A national study released today ranks New Hampshire the 17th slimmest state.
The 'F as in Fat' report is produced by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It finds that last year, 26.2% of Granite Staters were obese, up slightly from 2010 figures.
The study also found that more than 12% of high school students in New Hampshire are obese.
"I think we have an environment that makes it incredibly easy to be overweight," says Dr. Karrie Kalich, an Associate Professor of Health Science at Keene State College.
"We’ve made it incredibly easy to eat something like 13 lbs. of sugar that we each consume each month and wheelbarrows full of fat each year. But we haven’t necessarily made it easy for people to be healthy.”
Obesity is tied to a large number of negative health outcomes, including type-2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
Mississippi ranks worst in the study with 34.9% obesity. Colorado (20.7%) is ranked the healthiest state.
In New England, only Maine (27.8%) has a higher obesity rate than New Hampshire.