Data from BarBend.com looking at obesity levels in Virginia over the past 10 years reveals that just two of the Commonwealth’s 135 cities and counties have lower obesity rates than they did a decade ago.
The home base for AFP, Waynesboro, is 7 percent more obese than it was a decade ago.
The two localities faring better than a decade ago: Portsmouth (2 percent less obese) and Fairfax (1 percent less obese).
Danville and Emporia were tied at the top of the most growth in obesity list, with their obese populations growing 13 percent each.
Click here to see the statewide numbers.
Statistics show that a sharp increase in obesity rates began in the 1980s, yet public health campaigns since have, it seems, not resulted in reductions in people’s waistlines.
“The data clearly shows that, despite the warnings from public health officials, our lifestyles are becoming more sedentary and as a nation, we are becoming more obese,” says Max Whiteside of BarBend.com. “Obesity increases the risk of developing many diseases, and this is a crisis which is trending in the wrong direction.”
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