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West Virginia continues to be the most obese state in the nation. State of Obesity 2025, the newest annual report from Trust For America’s Health, shows 41.4% of the adults here are obese.
The state’s children have a 24.1% obesity rate, the second highest rate in the nation.
“West Virginia has had higher rates of adult obesity over the years, and we’ve actually seen that it’s not only in terms of obesity, but also other related chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure,” said organization President Dr. Nadine Gracia.
The driving force, she said, has less to do with individual choice and more to do with seemingly unrelated challenges that West Virginia faces.
“Whether that’s issues like food insecurity or households that have lower income and higher rates of poverty, housing instability, lack of access to health care, those are some of the types of systemic barriers that we can also see to healthy eating,” Gracia said.
She said when people don’t have reliable access to food they often end up with food that’s higher in calories, less nutritious and that increases their risk of obesity and other chronic diseases.
“It is a paradox in that if you have food insecurity, it actually can place you at higher risk of obesity, similar to poverty. Poverty is a strong indicator for overweight and obesity,” Gracia said.
Nineteen states had obesity rates of 35% or more last year – down from 23 the previous year.