From the USDA Food Environment Atlas

Poverty Map of the United States

Adult Obesity Map of the United States

Adult Diabetes Map of the United States

These maps are taken from the USDA Food Environment Atlas. That is a great website, displaying this and a great deal more information!

The rates shown are by county. (Counties are bigger in the west.) These maps show that, as expected, adult obesity is highly predictive of adult diabetes. They also show that poverty rates predict both obesity and thus diabetes.

Black Population Map for the United States

American Indian or Alaskan Native Population Map

for the United States

The Black population map is highly predictive of poverty, obesity and diabetes in the deep South, and the Indian population map is highly predictive of poverty, obesity and diabetes in the West.

The fundamental message of these maps is that the prejudice in the United States is very much alive and that it is causing poverty and leading to poor health in the groups experiencing the prejudice. If we want to survive economically in a globalized economy, we should probably find a way to get over these prejudices and bring all of our citizens to full participation in that economy.

There is a great deal of evidence that economic status predicts many health conditions, so the information conveyed in these maps is not new. I present them in the context of this blog to show that it is important not only to have the data, but to present that data in such a way that the interpretation is direct. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. These images show that the deep South has still not escaped the legacy of slavery nor has the West escaped the legacy of prejudice against Indians from out history. Of course, poverty is not limited to Blacks and American Indians, and there is also a White underclass that experiences excess poverty and its sequelae. poverty is the enemy. The American myth is that this is a nation of opportunity for all. The maps suggest otherwise.