Fat Texas? (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: work, hospital, homes)

[irwin]

I realize everything is bigger in Texas, but come on people.

I am a native Texan (grew up in San Antonio). The latest list of fattest cities in the country is out again:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...y_x.htm?csp=34

Thankfully, a Texas city is no longer the fattest city in the country, but they "fill" the top ten; pardon the pun. Houston has dropped to the 6th fattest city in the country now, down from 5th largest last year. Dallas is #7 and my home town of San Antonio is now ranked as the 2nd fattest city in the US.

If this was a one time thing, I don't think I would be that concerned. But the three largest cities in Texas are ranked in the top ten fattest cities practically every year. Two years ago Houston was the fattest city in the country. Now it simply is in the top ten. The other major cities in the state consistently share the dubious honor of fattest cities in the country. Even El Paso made it in there last year.

What is going on? This is certainly a sign of a problem; you don't see a similar pattern emerging from the major cities in California (another large state with three large cities). This is truly sad. This is not just a health problem, but also an economic problem for all the diseases that are byproducts of such horrible lifestyles.

Comments? Solutions?

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by irwin

I realize everything is bigger in Texas, but come on people.

I am a native Texan (grew up in San Antonio). The latest list of fattest cities in the country is out again:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...y_x.htm?csp=34

Thankfully, a Texas city is no longer the fattest city in the country, but they "fill" the top ten; pardon the pun. Houston has dropped to the 6th fattest city in the country now, down from 5th largest last year. Dallas is #7 and my home town of San Antonio is now ranked as the 2nd fattest city in the US.

If this was a one time thing, I don't think I would be that concerned. But the three largest cities in Texas are ranked in the top ten fattest cities practically every year. Two years ago Houston was the fattest city in the country. Now it simply is in the top ten. The other major cities in the state consistently share the dubious honor of fattest cities in the country. Even El Paso made it in there last year.

What is going on? This is certainly a sign of a problem; you don't see a similar pattern emerging from the major cities in California (another large state with three large cities). This is truly sad. This is not just a health problem, but also an economic problem for all the diseases that are byproducts of such horrible lifestyles.

Comments? Solutions?

A couple of years ago I reach my all time heaviest at 200 pounds, I am now back down to 175. My solution... I quit eating Tex-Mex.

[lifertexan]

These things are generally a crock.They have no way of measuring any cities actual fitness.What they basically do is look at how many fitness centers vs how many resteraunts there are in a city,and then make massive assumptions from there.Things such as people walking around their neighborhoods instead of in health clubs,whether the ones with with health club memberships go home and stuff a bag of potato chips down their throat every night,cities that have more people who do manual labor and don't need as much exercise,whether the people with health club memberships actually use them,none of these things are looked into.These things are as bad and unreliable assumptions as believing that everyone registered to vote actually does so (they don't),or that everyone who claims membership in a church goes every Sunday ( they don't).

Any true and meaningful ranking of various cities fitness levels would not fluctuate as much as these rankings do.I mean,seriously,how does Albuquerque go from 13th to first in one year? Does anyone really think that all of Albuquerque suddenly started riding bikes and spending every evening in health clubs? Watch where they end up next year. It's all just one magazine's media creation to sell more magazines. It got them in the news, and that was its purpose.

[irwin]

Lifer-

Well, here are their criteria:

1. Gyms - Number of clubs, gyms and fitness studios

2. Nutrition - Percent that consumes five or more servings per day and total number of health-food stores

3. Exercise/Sports - Participation in 103 sports and fitness-related activities

4. Overweight/Sedentary - Percentage of population that is obese, not participating in physical activity, at risk for health problems related to being overweight or from lack of exercise

5. Junk Food - Total number of fast-food places, pizza parlors, ice cream and doughnut shops (the temptation factor)

6. Alcohol - Total number of bars/taverns and alcohol consumption

7. TV - Number of homes using TV

8. Air Quality - The number of ozone-alert days and the amounts of pollutants

9. Climate - Combination of days above 32 degrees and below 90 degrees, amounts of precipitation and sunshine, and the August heat/humidity index.

10. Geography - Accessible recreational forests, lakes, rivers, waterways, mountains, and ocean beaches

11. Commute - Traffic delays due to congestion

12. Parks/Open Space - Total acreage of federal and state recreation areas, number and size of city parks and recreational open space

13. Recreation Facilities - Number of public basketball courts, swimming pools, tennis courts; and golf courses.

14. Health Care - Access and cost of hospital stay and cost of doctors' visits

Now, I would agree that some of these criteria are a little dubious. But, I think some are a decent indicator of obesity (fast food, commute, gyms, access to health care, etc).

And I would agree that any particular year's ranking seems unreliable. Yet, there is a pattern here. There are cities that are ranked fairly consistently in the top 10 fittest and there are cities that are ranked fairly consistently in the top 10 fattest. Unfortunately, Texas cities are in the later.

[lifertexan]

Please explain how they know anything about #'s 2,3,& 4. And what do #'s 6-14 have to do with being overweight?Air quality and longer commute times have anything to do with obesity?

Like I said,this survey is a crock.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by lifertexan

Please explain how they know anything about #'s 2,3,& 4. And what do #'s 6-14 have to do with being overweight?Air quality and longer commute times have anything to do with obesity?

Like I said,this survey is a crock.

I don't know about #s 2, 3, and 4, but on the others, I will give my opinion. Now how they get the stats, I don't know, but here goes......

6. Alcohol is extremely fattening. It all turns to sugar, a great weight gainer. People that sit and drink in excessive are bound to become overweight in most cases.

7. TV watching keeps one from exercising. Kids nowadays sit in front of the TV or video games all day and therefore, do not physically "play" like we did many years ago. Too many adults are couch potatoes as well.

8. On high ozone days, people are supposed to stay in and therefore, can't get any exercise outside. Of course, if one's home is equipped with exercise equipment, that problem is solved, or if one belongs to a gym, again, problem solved.

9. I for one get very little exercise outside in the summer because it's too darn hot, and I can't stand the humidity. I do walk after the sun goes down, but yard work is minimal as it's enough to make me pass out. Some places are too cold to be outside, at least many use that as an excuse, although we don't have that problem in Texas.

10. Where one lives I guess they take into consideration for the outdoor activities that can keep one fit. This one is kind of dumb, I think, because anyone can go outside of his or her own home and exercise. One really doesn't need all the things of nature suggested here.

11. Hmmm! Weird one, I guess. One just sits longer due to traffic congestion and by the time he or she arrives home, it's too dark to do any outside activies for one's health.

12 and 13. Again, physical activities for health and keeping fit and again, this can be done at home in many cases.

14. Records show why someone was hospitalized or had to visit the doctor and possibly many problems are related to obesity. All records will show the weight of the person.

Here is a really dumb comment from my doctor. I asked him, "I'm overweight, aren't I?" He commented, "Yes, but who in American isn't?" I'm just a bit above where I should be but coming from a doctor, that was really a goofy comment.

I know, some of my answers may be dumb and personally, I don't care how Texas ranks in the nation. Now matter who's at the top of the list, obesity is a nationwide epidemic in adults and even children. Usually, obesity is a choice and one can take charge and fix it.

As far as the children go, it's the parent's fault. Anyone that lets his or her children sit and play video games or watch TV hours on end needs to fix that. The kids will do anything they can get away with and unfortunately in this day and age, this hinders their health and education. Their minds are wasting away on, excuse me, but so much trash. They're certainly not learning when engaging in all the nonsense of today's world.

And last but not least, the eating habits of many Americans is terrible.

[AK123]

Like a previous poster mentioned, don't take that survey too seriously. It's a semi-educated guess, at best. Back in my grad school statistics class, I remember the professor talking about how extremely unscientific this Men's Fitness Magazine list is.

For example, if a city has more pizza and ice cream places than average, couldn't it just mean the city has a younger population/more children?

Plus, if Houston is so fat, how did it (and two of its suburbs) make this "skinniest cities" list based on BMIs from CDC data?
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...skinniest.html

[LastDallasNative]

If you look at old photos of Texans, you see that we used to be thin.

We did not used to have air conditioning, either, and we did not sit around and complain about it. We were pioneer stock.

This is a silly survey and one that some are using to justify their dislike of Texas. If they want to do that, more power to them.

[irwin]

Well, having lived quite a few places around the country, I can say there are some aspects of the lifestyle in Texas that is unhealthy. And again, I am saying this as a native. The number of fast food restaurants is rather scary. If you compare the number of fast food joints in a place like Houston to a place like Seattle, the difference is certainly noticeable. I pick Seattle only because I have spent quite a lot of time there (sister lives there) and it is consistently ranked as one of the healthiest cities. Also, the number of smokers in Texas seems to be much higher than other places I have lived/visited. Finally, the sprawl and driving culture I think cuts down on the number of people walking. This driving culture is also probably part of the reason there are so many fast food places (i.e. drive throughs).

I think maybe it is time for a little self reflexion instead of constantly looking at any criticism or data questioning the way Texans are living their lives as some kind of attack. Especially because of the real threat that obesity can have on one's life. That's all I am saying.

[LastDallasNative]

I'll bet Wash-Mex tastes awful! It sounds awful! Wash-Mex!

Better to live free and die than eat Wash-Mex!