JACKSON, Miss. — After growing up in the Deep South, Gov. Haley Barbour is no stranger to fried chicken, syrupy candied yams and crumbly buttermilk corn bread. But Barbour, who often takes good-natured ribbing about his ample frame, is concerned about his state's growing reputation as one of the fattest, unhealthiest states in America.
On Thursday, Barbour will host the Healthy Mississippi Summit, where state and national experts will discuss ways to promote nutrition and an active lifestyle. The goal is a statewide approach similar to programs already operating in Arkansas, Michigan and elsewhere.
And taking a cue from Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — who lost 110 pounds to improve his health, after starting at 290 — Barbour says he'll lead by example.
"A lot of people will probably judge the seriousness of the program by how the governor acts," Barbour told The Associated Press, without specifically saying he was going on a diet and without giving his weight.
Mississippi leads the nation in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease — ailments that normally can be avoided through diet and exercise.
Barbour said that what is at stake goes beyond an individual's quality of life. "The chronic-disease burden in our state dramatically increases the cost of Medicaid and Medicare," he said. "Businesses lose money because employees miss work. We know that we have tens of thousands of people who are in bad health because of their behavior."
This fiscal year, it cost $3.8 billion to operate Mississippi Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the needy, aged, blind and disabled. It covers about 748,000 people, or about one in every four Mississippians.
Nationwide, chronic diseases cause 700,000 deaths a year, costing the economy $117 billion a year. Yale University obesity expert Dr. David Katz, one of the speakers for the summit, said obesity is prevalent in Mississippi because it has more poverty to contend with than other states. Nearly 20 percent of the state's residents are below the poverty level.
"Combine educational and economic hardships with the obesigenic factors that abound, and you have a perfect storm of irresistible, adverse influences," Katz wrote in an e-mail to the AP.
Minorities appear to be more susceptible. Katz said one of the most startling trends he's seen is that about half of blacks born in the United States in 2000 or after are projected to develop diabetes.
