Fat chance for the children of the right

US States that voted Republican in 2008 "are now the biggest losers in the fight against childhood obesity," and yet they are also the states that most reject efforts to reduce obesity.

To me, the interesting thing about this table is what we public health people call “tracking.”  Obesity tracks (correlates) with other measures of poor health—diet, activity, prenatal care, health care—all of which also correlate closely with poverty.

The curiosity here is why people who lack access to education, health care, and, for that matter, healthful diets would vote for candidates who don’t want them to have those things, but that’s American politics for you.

Marion Nestle, while carefully distinguishing correlation from causality in her blog post on Obesity: the great political divide, arouses the anger of commenters who really don't get the point. From where I sit, it really is hard to know what might at least get them to think about it.