In Brief:
Americans are continuing to get fat, with obesity rates nudging upwards in 28 states over the past year, a new report shows.. "More than two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent," Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, said during a Tuesday news conference. The other top 10, also concentrated in the south, were West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina and Michigan tying with North Carolina for 10th place (29.4 percent). Michigan was the only state in the top 11 not in the South, an anomaly perhaps explained by the state's economy.. "Michigan certainly has been very hard hit, not just in the recent recession, but in the last decade or so," Levi explained.. "Just over 30 percent of African-Americans and nearly 40 percent of Latino children are overweight versus 29 percent of white children," Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and chief executive officer of PolicyLink, said during the teleconference.. "Twenty-three million African-Americans do not have access to a grocery store within a mile of where they live, and only 8 percent of African-Americans live in a census tract with a grocery store," Glover Blackwell said.
