AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine ranks 14th in the nation for its obesity rate, according to a new Gallup poll. The state held the same ranking in 2013.
While the obesity rate appears to be holding steady, Debra Wigand, the director of the Division of Population Health at the Maine Center for Disease Control, says Maine's overall obesity rate is still troubling.
"Well, in looking at data, in about 2000, it was 20 percent for adults; and at this point, it's about 28 percent," Wigand says. "So you can see there has been a slight increase."
Nationally, the Gallup poll found that obesity rates are at their highest level, with more than 27 percent of the population reporting that they're obese.
