There isn’t a nation fatter than America. Americans are the most obesity-stricken people and paradoxically the most health-obsessed people in the world.

Because obesity levels in the United States are relatively so high; an impression is created among many foreigners that fat people roam all over the U.S. But that isn’t the reality and foreigners traveling in, say, Washington D.C. notice this. If one were to visit D.C., New York, Chicago and many other great American cities they would learn that most of the people walking the streets are really not fat. But the figures for obesity are still high.

That is because obesity is calculated as a national figure, but that national figure is not parallel to state figure. Very often state figures are lower than the national average, but it is the above-average levels of obesity that tilt the national average to such levels as to give the false perception that Americans are fat. That fact isn’t true. Americans are still pretty fat - with 26% of adults obese - but a few states carry a higher proportion of weight - literally - than their population figures would suggest.

The Economist created this chart:

The picture is bleak all around, but southern states have historically and remain the fattest. Mississippi leads with 33% of the population obese. I cannot imagine what it is like walking around a state where 1 in 3 people is obese. Not a nice image. These states increase the national average from bad to worse.

Why the south? The south has always been more obese because of socio-economic factors. It is not that southerns like these fired chicken more it is that they invented fired chicken because fired food is cheaper. For centuries, southerners have been frying food because fried food is more fulfilling - in that it fills you up - while being cheap. So while many southerners are a lot wealthier now, they have grown to their fatty “soul food”. And many southerns, especially Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and West Virginia; are still low-income class and the fatty food are more suitable to their budgets.