Louisville Lands in Top 25 of 2022’s Most Overweight and Obese Cities
Fast food. Sigh. Wikimedia Commons/OpenClipArt.org
WalletHub released its 2022’s Most Overweight and Obese Cities in the U.S. list, and Louisville made the Top 25.
OK, so Louisville/Jefferson County actually ranked No. 24, but that’s out of 100 cities surveyed for the study. Here’s how it worked, in the words of WalletHub: “[We] compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across 19 key indicators of weight-related problems. Our data set ranges from the share of physically inactive adults to projected obesity rates by 2030 to healthy-food access.” Oh, and WalletHub was looking at metro areas versus just single cities.
The most overweight/obese city? That would be McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas. Landing at No. 100 was Boston-Cambridge-Newton up in Massachusetts/New Hampshire. Lexington didn’t fare much better than Louisville, landing at 28th on the bloated list. Cincinnati ranked 45th and Indianapolis 53rd.
WalletHub looked at three main categories: Obesity and Overweight ranking; Health Consequences, and Food & Fitness. A composite score was compiled from rankings in each category. Louisville/Jefferson County ranked 18th in the Obesity and Overweight category; 22nd in Health Consequences, and 43rd in Food & Fitness.
We know Louisville is highly regarded as a culinary destination, so maybe we just need to eat more vegetables. Actually, it’s probably more about overconsumption of fast food and, simply, bad eating habits in general. We’re all busy — sometimes the drive-through is all we have time for.
Still, Americans are notoriously some of the most overweight people in the world, as WalletHub points out, and it’s not just a stereotype — more than 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese.
“Such a finding should come as no surprise, though, considering the huge availability of fast-food and increasingly cheaper grocery items that have negatively altered our diets,” WalletHub writes. “Unfortunately, the extra pounds have inflated the costs of obesity-related medical treatment to approximately $190.2 billion a year and annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism to around $4.3 billion.”
