Obesity is also not evenly distributed across the U.S.
If you look at the rural/urban split it's more prevalent in rural areas[1], and if you look at the city breakdowns, the cities that foreigners are more likely to visit have lower obesity rates across the board [2].
So visiting the top-performing American cities (usually in the Northeast or West coast) understates the level of obesity in the country as a whole by a fair bit.
I had the realization that there are practically two different Americas after I took a road trip through the south after having lived in the Northeast for ~20 years.
> I had the realization that there are practically two different Americas after I took a road trip through the south after having lived in the Northeast for ~20 years.
I've lived in ~8 states and can tell you that "two" is a significant undercount of the number of Americas. (And I suspect the same is true for most countries — it certainly is for India).
I'd also be careful about drawing that line in too purely a geographic way. Geographic differences exist, but parts of Alabama and parts of upstate New York have more in common than their geographic locations might suggest (to pick two places I've been lucky enough to have lived in)
Agreed. This post comes from DC. I live there now. The obesity level, at least those in my public view, are much better than the other parts of America I have seen.
So visiting the top-performing American cities (usually in the Northeast or West coast) understates the level of obesity in the country as a whole by a fair bit.
I had the realization that there are practically two different Americas after I took a road trip through the south after having lived in the Northeast for ~20 years.
[1] https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20180622mmwr-...
[2] https://wallethub.com/edu/fattest-cities-in-america/10532