A view from the top, and the bottom: Checking in on healthy and unhealthy cities
Back in August the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention apparently released a study ranking the healthiest and most unhealthy cities in the country. No one really noticed it back then, but the Associated Press has since traveled to the healthiest and least healthy areas on the list to see what they’re doing to earn their respective titles.
Burlington, Vermont: Health comes naturally
The healthiest city on the list, which was based on health data from 2006 and ranked 150 cities and metropolitan areas, is Burlington, Vermont, a city of 40,000 on the shore of Lake Champlain and home to several small colleges. The town is basically built around physical activity, with residents who love to bike, ski, hike and take part in other outdoor activities.
Ninety-two percent of the city’s residents say they are in good health, and it measured among the best in the nation in terms of high rates of exercise and low rates of obesity. For a small town it’s relatively easy to find vegan food there, as well as grass-fed beef, and a food co-op keeps the citizens full of healthy foods when they’re not eating at restaurants.
The other side: Huntington, West Virginia
The most unhealthy city in the survey was Huntington, West Virginia, the metropolitan statistical area of which actually covers five counties in three states. On the surface it seems to be a town similar to Burlington. It, too, is a college town (Marshall University is there) of about the same population and ancestry — mostly white, from German, English and Irish extraction.
But that’s where the similarities end. People in Burlington are slightly younger on average (37 versus 40), fewer people live in poverty there (8 percent versus 19 percent) and people are more educated — 40 percent have a college degree in Burlington compared to just 15 percent in Huntington.
Folks in Huntington are among the nation’s heaviest, with nearly half of its citizens falling in the ranks of the obese. It leads the nation with a whopping half of its elderly residents no longer having any of their natural teeth.
Thirty-one percent of people there say they don’t exercise, 22 percent have heart disease and 13 percent diabetes. Those are at or near the top of the charts for all cities nationwide.
Poverty, tradition lead to weight gain
People in Huntington say there are two main reasons people are in such poor health there. The first is poverty: people can’t afford healthier food options and may not feel like they have time to exercise or the knowledge to make the right choices even if they could afford them.
The AP story notes that there are more pizza joints in the Huntington area (about 200) than there are health clubs or gyms in the entire state of West Virginia (149). It’s also a city that’s devoted to hot dogs and hosts an annual festival in their honor.
The second is that people in the area have always eaten high-fat, calorie-dense foods. It’s what was needed to work the coal mines, steel plants and other manufacturing jobs that are mostly all gone now. The biggest employers in the city these days are hospitals.
That’s not to say there aren’t people trying to change things. A local doctor has tried to organize a marathon and triathlon in the city (he can’t get a sponsor) and is working on getting support and funding for a riverside recreational trail. But many don’t seem to notice how overweight and unhealthy people are there, and they don’t have much motivation for change.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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