Miss. Ranked Fattest State in Nation

John Pilarinoh, a chef at Andrea's restaurant in Providence, R.I., prepares a healthy filet mignon and portabella mushroom salad, Monday, Aug. 27, 2007. According to a report by a national health advocacy organization, New England ranks in the bottom states of adult obesity. One reason is that New Englanders dine differently, tending to prefer quality of quantity. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) (Stew Milne - AP)

The state Department of Education publishes lists of snacks that are approved or banned for sale in school vending machines. Last school year, at least 50 percent of the vending offerings had to be from the approved list. That jumped to 75 percent this year and will reach 100 percent next year.

Among the approved snacks are yogurt, sliced fruit and granola bars, while fried pork rinds and marshmallow treats are banned. One middle school favorite _ Flamin' Hot Cheetos _ are on the approved list if they're baked but banned if they're not.

State Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds said he hopes students will take home the healthful habits.

"We only have students 180 days out of the year for seven hours in a school day. The important thing is that we model what good behavior looks like," he said Monday after finishing a lunch of baked chicken.

Bounds ate at a Jackson buffet that's popular with state legislators. The buffet included traditional, stick-to-your-ribs Southern fare: fried chicken, grits, fried okra, turnip greens.

Dr. William Rowley, who worked 30 years as a vascular surgeon and now works at the Institute for Alternative Futures, said if current trends continue, more than 50 percent of adult Mississippians will be obese in 2015.

Holland, who helps set the state Medicaid budget, said he worries about the taxpayers' cost of treating obesity.

"If we don't change our ways," he said, "we're going to be in the funeral parlors ... because we're going to be all fat and dead."

Here is the state-by-state breakdown of obesity rates, ranked from highest to lowest, released by Trust for America's Health:

Mississippi _ 30.6

West Virginia _ 29.8

Alabama _ 29.4