Louisiana rated as unhealthiest state

Louisiana sank to the bottom of the rankings in an annual health survey of U.S. states, which found almost 1 in 3 bayou state residents is obese.

Louisianans as a whole are also more likely to succumb to cancer, die before 75 or be killed on the job than people in almost any other state, said a report today from the United Health Foundation, which is tied to health insurer UnitedHealth Group.

“Obesity is a key reason for our low ranking, and poverty and bad diets are fueling the problem,” said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman for Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals. “Here, we tend to fry just about everything, from chicken to fish to you name it.”

The state’s population has been ranked the most or second-most unhealthy every year since the survey began in 1990, underscoring broader problems in the Southeast, which the report calls the least healthy U.S. region.