Colorado is rated as America’s leanest state. But that honor seems to stem from the health attitudes of some of the wealthier parts of the state. In towns like Pueblo, obesity is a real problem. Pueblo’s obesity rate reached 30% in 2014. That’s nine percent higher than the state average.
Pueblo is emblematic of many towns across the High Plains, and indeed across the US. In today’s United States, reports QZ.com,obesity is becoming the new face of disability.
As of last December, Pueblo had nearly 6,000 federal disability recipients. Three out of four of those were between the ages of 18 and 64—and many are suffering from obesity.
Cardiologist Michael Fenster explains: “In these lower socio-economic areas, what you see is people eating the cheap foods—the sodas, the bags of chips, the energy drinks.” He said there’s a direct correlation in between food consumption and obesity. And obesity leads to ailments like inflammatory conditions, neurodegenerative conditions, strokes, heart attacks, joints, diabetes.