Public health experts are alarmed at projections that Utah's obesity rate is projected to hit 46 percent by 2050 — 10 percentage points worse than Louisiana's nation-worst rate presently.
About 24 percent of Utahns are currently obese, a rate that has more than doubled since 1989.
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In a health values study that Get Healthy Utah has called the first of its kind in the state, 11 percent of survey respondents believed they were at least "very overweight," compared with 30 percent of Utahns who actually are. On average, respondents predicted about 45 percent of Utahns are overweight to some degree, but 60 percent actually are, according to the study.
Respondents also identified obesity as a significantly lower public policy priority than items such as transportation and roads, air quality and overall "healthy living."
Bell said he believes personal underestimation of weight problems is closely related to placing less emphasis on the need for policies addressing obesity. That's because people's misunderstanding of their own level of health is "not just a little subtle thing," he said.
"People denied the extent of the problem and therefore they ranked the problem quite low among public policy priorities," Bell said.