Report: Tennessee now has the second-worst diabetes of any state

A series of fast food restaurants are seen near Saco, Maine. According to a report released Sept. 16, about one-third of U.S. children and teens eat pizza or other fast food every day. A series of fast food restaurants are seen near Saco, Maine. According to a report released Sept. 16, about one-third of U.S. children and teens eat pizza or other fast food every day.

By Steve Johnson September 25, 2015 3 min read

If there’s a morsel of good news in a new report on obesity in the U.S., it’s that we’re not getting any fatter.

But there is still plenty of bad news – more than 30 percent of all Americans are overweight, and Southerners are heftier than residents of any other region.

The number of Tennesseans who are overweight actually declined slightly, from 33.7 percent in 2013 to 31.2 percent in 2014. The Volunteer State had the 14th worst rate in the U.S.

But trouble appears to be looming: 20.5 percent of Tennessee children aged 10-17 are overweight, the fifth worst rate in the nation.

And 16.9 percent of the state’s high school students are obese, the fourth worst rate nationally, according to the report released Monday by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.