Oregon has lowest rates of childhood obesity

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/03/AR2010050303132.html

Some promising news in the fight against obesity, and some not so. There hasn't been a proven causation as to why Oregon has a rate of only 9% (vs national 16%, and this is for obesity, it doesn't include just the overweight) but they think that one factor may be that the state has a high rate of breastfeeding. Oregon also has the best employer laws: women who are breastfeeding are entitled to pumping breaks (this was before the Health Care bill was signed) and I want to say that they're paid breaks, too. Other factors may be that they require chain restaurants to post nutritional information (also in health bill), and it is more of an outdoorsy state (ie: more physical activity). Unfortunately, what might be the biggest contributing factor is that the state is 90% white, and minorities tend to have higher rates of obesity.

What I'll take from the survey is that there are several things that have passed in the national health care bill that Oregon was already doing, so hopefully that might help a bit on a national scale. (The other thing that might help is to make everyone across the country food snobs that want fresh food from local sources, which is pretty prevalent all through the Pacific Northwest.)