The best fast food chains are all in the Southern United States: Chick-fil-A, Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits (the biscuits are as tasty as the name is long), Whataburger (take your McDonald’s and shove it), and Waffle House (Kanye West, Big Boi, and Andre 3000 know what’s up). Perhaps not coincidentally, the country’s 10 “fattest cities” are also all located in South.
That’s according to a study conducted by analysts at WalletHub, who “compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across 17 key indicators of weight-related problems,” including Share of Overweight Adults, Share of Adults with High Cholesterol, and Access to Parks & Recreational Facilities (we need Leslie Knope, and not Sweetums, now more than ever).
Jackson, Mississippi, topped the “fattest cities” ranking with a total score of 84.93 (the lower, the better), or over two points higher than runner-up Memphis, Tennessee (82.78). Filling out — in every sense of the term — the rest of the top-10 is Little Rock, Arkansas (82.12), McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas (82.10), Shreveport, Louisiana (81.82), Chattanooga, Tennessee (79.23), Mobile, Alabama (78.86), Lafayette, Louisiana (77.03), Winston-Salem, North Carolina (76.74), and Knoxville, Tennessee (76.73). The only non-Southern city in the top-25 is Indianapolis, Indiana, at #21 (74.14). Congratulations?
Among the 100 most populated metro areas in the country, Seattle, Washington, was deemed the healthiest, narrowly beating out — you guessed it — Portland, Oregon. It requires a lot of self-restraint to not eat those damn fine donuts, but as has been proven time and time again, if you want to lose weight, cut out sugar. Maybe only go to Chick-fil-A once a week, too.
To check out the rest of the study, head to WalletHub.
(Via WalletHub)
