Fit and trim? State ranking is a cause for concern

The grades are in, and they aren’t good.

The Trust for America’s Health, which regularly collects and publishes helpful though sobering information, says Missouri is among the many where obesity is bad and getting worse.

It’s not a new trend, and it’s pretty straightforward: More than one in four Missouri adults is not just overweight but obese, a figure that rises year after year. It’s the 13th highest rate in the nation, but nowhere is the picture very good. Only one state, Colorado, has an obesity rate below even 20 percent. This is a severe health threat, as obesity contributes to high blood pressure, hypertension and diabetes.

So what are the solutions? It’s a familiar list: Eat better. Turn off the TV – and the computer – and get out of the house. Have the schools serve better food, and have kids spend more time in gym class and more time running around in a park.

Progress comes in fits and starts. Our local schools, to their great credit, have cut down on the access to sodas and junk food in recent years. Our communities have lots of parks. But the folks preparing the data and recommendations also suggest things like more sidewalks and hiking/biking trails. Suburban America, however, turned its back on those things long ago. How did we arrive at the point that sidewalks are considered luxuries? It’s a problem decades in the making, and there is no simple or quick turnaround. We have built communities around the automobile-based lifestyle, and gas at $4, or even $8, will only affect that at the margins. Consider the irony of driving to the gym to get healthy, but people do it every day.