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IMAGE SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons/ Church Street, Burlington, VT, 2004/ author: Jared C. Benedict
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Want to be healthy? Move to Burlington, Vermont.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued data indicating Burlington topped U.S. metropolitan areas in the number of people who say they exercise, are in great health, and have the lowest obesity and diabetes numbers.
Burlington is the largest city in Vermont with 40,000 residents. On the shores of Lake Champlain, it is a college town with the average age of 37. People get around on bicycles, they hike and ski. Community gardens and parks are a common interest, while eight percent are at the federal poverty level.
And in Burlington, nearly 40 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree.
On the other end of the spectrum, Huntington, West Virginia is America’s unhealthiest city.
Like Burlington, it is also a college town with an average age of 40, but nearly one in five live at the national poverty level.
Only 15 percent have a college degree. Nearly half of the residents are obese and half of the elderly have lost their teeth. Both towns enjoy pizza, but grass-fed beef might be found in a Burlington restaurant as well as vegan options.
Fast food goes hand in hand with poverty and biscuits and gravy are a staple in Huntington, as are donut shops.
In Burlington, Ben & Jerry’s, IBM and other employers push general health plans for their employees.
In Hungtington, the city of nearly 90,000 has been reduced to 50,000 today as chemical, glassworks, steel and locomotive parts manufacturing jobs have left.
The Associated Press did an analysis of the cities from the BRFSS data, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an ongoing telephone health survey system that tracks health conditions and risk behaviors every year in the U.S. since 1984. #