Magazine ranks Houston the fattest city - again
For reasons I've never understood, Houston has a sizable self-image problem. City officials are extraordinarily sensitive to any slight- whether real or precieved. Being chosen as the country's fattest city- again- certainly isn't going to make the city fathers any happier.
Men's Fitness magazine has named Houston the fattest city for the the third year in a row.
The first year it was funny. Second year, sobering. Now locals are just kind of sick of it.
Says Karen Calabro, with the University of Texas Health Science Center's School of Nursing, "I would say it's not a scientific study. ... I read a lot of scientific journals, but I don't have a subscription to Men's Fitness."
Not that Houstonians aren't struggling to shed unwanted and even dangerous pounds, Calabro says. But it's a national problem, not a local one.
In December, a federal survey pointed to Memphis, Tenn., as having the highest percentage of overweight and obese adults among the 55 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.
After Houston earned the first unsolicited title, Shadston Pittman, fitness coordinator for the city's Parks and Recreation Department, visited Philadelphia, which owned the "fattest" ranking in 2000.
Philly had started a citywide campaign called "Fun, Fit and Free" to get its residents to slim down.
Houston had several get-fit campaigns after the first two No. 1 rankings from Men's Fitness.
Uh...can I get extra cheese on that??
