CEDAR CITY -- Utah has dropped from second to seventh in an annual ranking of America's healthiest states.
Southwest Utah Public Health chief Dr. David Blodgett told The Spectrum of St. George for a Monday report the obesity rate in the Beehive State has crept up from about 20 percent in 2006 to 24 percent today.
That's still below the national average of 26.9 percent, and Utah ranked best in the nation in the smoking and binge drinking categories in 2010 Health Rankings recently released by the United Health Care Foundation.
The study looks at 30 health categories. Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks on one occasion for men, and four or more drinks for women.
Utah ranked second with 82.3 percent of the adult population engaging in physical activity.
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Information from: The Spectrum, http://www.thespectrum.com
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