Rural Americans are more likely to be obese

According to a new study on obesity that drew on data from the National Center for Health Statistic, American adults living in urban areas are less likely to be victims of obesity than those who live in rural areas. Researchers of the study believe the reasons why rural people are more obese is due to diet and their nature of isolation.

The traditional diet in rural America is usually full of rich, homemade foods, including a lot of meat, sweets, and fatty dessert, which is no doubt very high in fat. In addition to a diet that can easily make people obese, rural American adults also often encounter more challenges than their city-dwelling peers when it comes to attaining access to health care and other services that can keep their weight down.  Moreover, when people live in rural areas, physical isolation is another problem for them to face. As a matter of fact, it is pretty hard to get to a gym if you live outside of a town without one.

While the obesity disparity is quite prominent in adults 20 to 39 years old, there is not any difference in older age groups in rural and urban areas, which researchers believe might be attributed to the disappearance of strenuous jobs in rural areas. In the past, rural people had to do a lot of physical activities, such as walking, farming and all the other works around the house. With the rapid development of technology, most of the more difficult tasks are now handled by machines, freeing rural people from the burden of physical works.  Since the rural areas typically do not have a culture of physical activity as leisure time, obesity is not a surprising consequence. Physical activity is now a necessity for American people who live in rural areas, said a researcher.