The federal Centers for Disease Control said this week that inactive Americans are eating themselves to death and Iowans are doing their part.The latest complete year of statistics collected by the public-health department is 2002, and more than a fifth of us reported not engaging in any physical activity. 38-percent of Iowans were overweight, 22-percent obese…which means more overweight using a body-mass index. More men than women are overweight, more old than young. The BRSS report — Iowa’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, finds Iowa ranked 41st out of all states, with more than six in ten of us heavier than our healthy weight. The federal study this week says unhealthy habits are fast approaching tobacco as the top preventable cause of death.Iowans were getting fatter according to statistics collected by the state health department, and were also being told by their doctors in rising numbers that they suffered from diabetes, which is often linked to obesity. The state figures also find a link between education and overweight. While comparisons by income were not much of a factor, Iowans with more higher education tended to eat less fat and more vegetables…the diet doctors say will ward off killers like cancer and heart disease and both improve and extend life.
Iowa's Radio News Network
