HispanicBusiness

Despite how the phrase "obesity epidemic" has become a cliche -- and despite a nationwide movement in the public schools to combat the phenomenon -- the waistlines of Americans continue to expand, particularly in the South, according to a new report.

The obesity rate for adults rose in 23 states over the past year, and did not significantly shrink in a single one, according to "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009", a report released this week by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Topping the list for the fifth consecutive year is Mississippi, where 32.5 percent of the population is obese. Not far behind is Alabama, with a rate of 31.2, followed by West Virginia (31.1 percent), and Tennessee (30.2 percent).

The thinnest state is Colorado, known for its outdoor lifestyle, where 18.9 percent of the population is obese. But even here, the rate crept up, from 18.4 percent the year before.

One alarming aspect of the obesity epidemic is the speed with which it has gripped the country. In 1991, not a single state posted an obesity rate above 20 percent. Today, every state except Colorado exceeds that threshold, according to the report.

Also disconcerting is the evidence suggesting the problem is worse among children. While the number of states with an adult obesity rate above 30 percent is four, the corresponding number for children is 30.

"The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the United States," said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of the Trust, in a statement. "How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?"

The report did not mention ethnicity, but Hispanics have long suffered from disproportionately high rates of obesity, and are two-to-three times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to have Type 2 diabetes.

However, several states with large Hispanic populations fared relatively well. When it comes to the thinnest states, California, New Mexico and Arizona ranked in the top third.

For all the momentum of the American obesity epidemic, the United States still isn't the world's fattest country. In 2007, it ranked nine of 194 on an index of the world's most obese nations by the World Health Organization.

The world's fattest nation at the time was Nauru, an island in the South Pacific with 13,000 inhabitants, 94.5 percent of whom are overweight, according to Forbes.com. Runner up was the Federated States of Micronesia, weighing in at 91.1 percent.

The report said nearly three-quarters of Americans are overweight, which is a less dangerous status than "obese."