Americans?

[Repubocrat]

That is because Colorado has a culture that emphasizes going out on the weekends and biking, hiking and also skiing during the winter. If I lived in Colorado, I would do the same because the scenery is incredible! Denver is a very bland city but the rest of the state is very beautiful

[EnjoyTheSilence]

The transition to HFCS hasn't helped matters, clearly. As Repubocrat pointed out, CO residents are generally very active because it's such an "outdoors" kind of state. From the obesity maps, it's clear that the southern states are the worst, probably because the poorer people in those states don't eat as well as people in CA or the northeast.

All in all, there is no single reason for obesity, but I blame the following:

- Decades of fast food culture, biggest burgers, etc
- Car-centricism to the extreme
- High fructose corn syrup in many of our foods
- Americans working longer hours on average than our European, Australian and Canadian counterparts (means less time to prepare proper meals and more 'stress eating')
- Lack of nutrition education
- Too many fast food restaurants in most of our cities, i.e. too many temptations to eat the wrong foods
- Most US cities are overdeveloped and lack parks, walking trails and cycle paths
- Lack of a feasible mass transit alternative in most US cities
- A healthcare system that is simply unaffordable for millions of Americans, even when it comes to preventive medicine and just plain old medical advice.
- ...and of course, it would be totally naive of me to say that some of us as individuals are also to blame!

[hartford_renter]

Originally Posted by Repubocrat

That is because Colorado has a culture that emphasizes going out on the weekends and biking, hiking and also skiing during the winter. If I lived in Colorado, I would do the same because the scenery is incredible! Denver is a very bland city but the rest of the state is very beautiful

One reason people in CO are more healthy is because they live at a high altitude, and that makes you less hungry. You also burn more calories I think because there is less oxygen in the air. I dont agree that Denver is a bland city, I would rate it one of the better ones in the US.

http://***.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/87/1/391

[Cornerguy1]

While a debate about why Colorado residents don't seem to be as obese as residents of other US states is certainly interesting, it really doesn't belong in the World forum.