Welcome to Huntington, West Virginia.
The area has the dubious distinction of being America’s fattest and unhealthiest city:
Nearly half the adults in Huntington’s five-county metropolitan area are obese “” an astounding percentage, far bigger than the national average in a country with a well-known weight problem.Huntington leads in a half-dozen other illness measures, too, including heart disease and diabetes. It’s even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth (half of them have).
Fast food is a staple for this economically depressed town, where at 200, there are more pizza joints than health clubs in the entire state of West Virginia.
The sad part is that some of the city’s doctors “noted the Huntington area is not in such bad shape by West Virginia standards.”
As the economic situation worsens in many small towns, expect Huntington to be a sign of what’s to come.
Update:
If you want to know what American’s healthiest city is, it’s Burlington, Vermont.
Creative Commons image license from Barbour.
topics: west virginia, poverty
