The West's growing waistline

Every time the national obesity numbers come out, with the obligatory map showing Colorado as a beacon of skinniness in an increasingly tubby American population, I can’t help but feel a smidge of pride. Colorado! The active state!  

But the comparative numbers only tell a partial tale of the United States’ weight-gain woe. Even in the mountain state, the percentage of portly people had grown significantly, up 2 percent since 2005. The West as a whole continues to follow the American trend of increasingly wide waists. 

Here at HCN, we thought it’d be fun to mash up these most recent obesity stats with the favorite fatty foods from each Western state. We polled our writers, interns, and readers to compile this list. As it turns out, variations of American Indian frybread (Navajo Tacos, for example) rule lard-laden cuisine across the West. Check out the map below to see our unique picks for famous fatty food in each Western state, along with 2010 and 2005 obesity rates. Have another famous Western state food to add to the list? Post it in the comments.