by Zoë Pollock
These statistics from a new report are staggering:
Twenty years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 15 percent. Today, more than two out of three states, 38 total, have obesity rates over 25 percent, and just one has a rate lower than 20 percent. Since 1995, when data was available for every state, obesity rates have doubled in seven states and increased by at least 90 percent in 10 others.
The state with the lowest obesity rate today – Colorado – would have had the highest rate in 1995. In other food related news, the WaPo reports that menu labels with calorie counts rarely change what people order. Yglesias argues that "enthusiasm for the policy is so pervasive because the intervention is so utterly mild." Doug Mataconis disagrees:
There are already several sources out there where you can find out the nutritional content of the food served in most large chain restaurants, why people like Yglesias and Serwer think that mandating that this information be included on every restaurant menu when it’s shown it doesn’t really change behavior is extremely puzzling. … As with other such regulations, a menu labeling law will inevitably hurt smaller businesses far more than it hurts large ones.
(Photo: A 777-pound hamburger created on July 2nd during the Alameda County Fair in California.)
The Dish 