Everything Bigger in Texas, Even Obesity Rates?

More than 70 percent of the U.S. population aged 15 and older is overweight or obese.

Obesity is a disease marked by excessive generalized deposition and storage of fat, with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of over 30, while being overweight is having a condition where the person weighs more than what is considered normal for that height, age and sex.

Nine out of the 11 Southern states, have the highest obesity rates in the United States with Texas coming in as number 8.

A report released by WalletHub in 2013, ranked five Texas cities as being among the top-30 metro areas with the biggest weight problems. Findings from this report show that McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission, Texas, is home to the highest percentage of adults who are obese, highest percentage of adults who are physically inactive and fourth highest percentage of residents with diabetes.

El Paso follows McAllen as heavyweight champion, pulling the second highest rate of physical inactivity and diabetes in the nation.

In order to determine the fattest places in America in 2017, WalletHub’s analysts compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across three key dimensions:

1) Obesity & Overweight,

2) Weight-Related Health Problems

3) Healthy Environment.

Other factors that seem to play into the obesity epidemic are the rise of electronic entertainment, increased reliance on cars and a shift away from physical jobs to more desk-bound ones. Although Americans aren't spending more time at work and have more leisure time today, they do spend the majority of that time sedentary.

The report done in May 2017, showed McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission remained the first city with obesity-related, health problems, but El Paso moved to number 22.

This could be attributed to the health-conscious programs the city has implemented since, such as Move El Paso, Eat Well! El Paso, and Wild About Health.

Move El Paso was inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s "Let’s Move" initiative to reverse America’s obesity epidemic. El Paso’s version is an initiative that identifies and establishes safe walking trails and maps to encourage daily walking and other physical activity as part of a healthier lifestyle.

Eat Well! El Paso is a City of El Paso Department of Public Health (DPH) program made possible through support from the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. The main purpose of the program is to improve the local food environment by expanding healthy food options, as well as increasing awareness and knowledge of the positive effects that healthy food choices can have on the health of the El Paso community. Many locally-owned restaurants in El Paso have worked with the Eat Well! El Paso program to improve the healthy meal choices on their menus, helping to create a healthier food environment for the community.

Wild About Health is a collaboration between The City of El Paso Department of Public Health and the El Paso Zoo to promote healthy eating and active living for all El Pasoans by walking through the 35 acres of animal exhibits and choosing from a variety of healthy food options from their Passport Café.

From 2009 to 2013, a steady increase in the number of women who are obese was recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 21.7 percent to 26.9 percent in the span of those five years.

In response to rapidly increasing obesity in North America, health researchers and policymakers are considering novel approaches to counter the growth of this epidemic, such as implementing a junk food tax.

"If we want to solve this problem, we have to figure out what has changed for everybody," Ida Ortegon, the Director of Communications for the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, said. "We are a data driven organization, and the thing that stands out the most, is our food environment. That's where the action is. And it's not just that junk food is cheap relative to income, it's also that it's so much more convenient."

A 2003 World Health Organization–Food and Agricultural Organization report proposed that the cost and pricing of healthy foods were key considerations in the prevention of obesity. The inexpensiveness of unhealthy foods relative to fresh produce is thought to be an important contributor to the overconsumption of junk food.

Accordingly, by increasing the price of cheap, energy-dense foods, researchers hope that a junk food tax will prod consumers to reject unhealthy choices in favor of less energy-dense foods.

The report reviewed showed that when statistically significant associations were found between food and restaurant prices (taxes) and weight outcomes, the effects were generally small in magnitude, although in some cases they were larger for low–socioeconomic status populations and for those at risk for overweight or obesity.

Apart from proposals to tax unhealthy food and drinks, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, in the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress authorized the Healthy Incentive Pilot study to evaluate whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants, formerly known as the food stamp program, could be incentivized to increase fruit and vegetable consumption through a 30% price discount.

College campuses, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, are prime examples of junk food availability compared to healthy food and its pricing.

“I know there are healthier food choice at the buffet in the Union, but that takes away the easiness of grabbing a box of chicken nuggets, or a burrito, or soda from the vending machine” Rebecca Holguin, a Political Science major and Sophomore at UTEP, said. “Plus, even if we go inside the buffet, we can easily overeat and then it doesn’t matter how healthy the food is because the consumption would be large enough to be considered unhealthy. Especially when it comes to stress eating, which for sure I take part in.”

With fast food restaurants like Chick-Fil-A, Whataburger, and Pizza Hut, as well as various vending machines available not even five minutes away, not only at UTEP but in the community in general, obesity numbers in our communities are predicted to continue rising.

In 2015, 21 percent of adults in El Paso were unable to afford seeing a doctor, with the average visit costing $89. Twelve percent of adults had diabetes, with a 32 percent age-adjusted death rate.

The adult fruit and vegetable consumption was 15 percent, compared to the prior value of 11 percent, but being less than the state value of 17 percent. However, the percentage of adults engaging in physical activity dropped from 72 percent to 68.

Finally, 67 percent of adults in El Paso were overweight or obese. Mixed together, the cost of living, physical activity, and healthy food choices dictate what the future will be like for obesity and overweight rates.