DENVER (AP) -- Colorado prides itself on annual obesity rankings of the 50 states, consistently coming in as the thinnest.
It did so again Tuesday -- but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Colorado still failed to meet a national goal to lower obesity to 15 percent of the adult population.
2010 data reported to the CDC show 21 percent of Coloradans are considered obese. Mississippi was the highest state with 34 percent.
The CDC said 12 states have 30 percent or more of adults who are considered obese. No state had that level in 2000.
The data come from a state-based telephone survey that collects health information from approximately 400,000 adults aged 18 and over. The South had the highest obesity rate at 29.4 percent, followed by the Midwest at 28.7 percent, the Northeast at 24.9 percent and the West at 24.1 percent.
A report by two public health groups this month found Colorado had 19.8 percent of adults considered obese in 2010 -- a rate that would have been the nation's highest in 1995. The Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation authored that report.
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