RIPPLES of fat are spreading ever wider across America’s waistline, according to a report that suggests obesity rates rose last year in all but one of the nation’s 50 states.

A survey published by Trust in America’s Health indicated that almost one in four adults is clinically obese and almost two thirds are overweight.

Mississippi is the fattest state, while six more from the southeast are in the heftiest dozen. The state exhibiting the largest increase in obesity last year was Alabama, while only Oregon bucked the trend by holding steady at 21 per cent.

The trust, a non-profit organisation that promotes health education, highlighted figures showing that 7 per cent of US adults have diabetes and called for more government action to tackle an obesity epidemic that it says is endangering lives.

It is costing the country $39 billion (£21.6 billion) in extra healthcare costs — and billions in lost production.

There is a similar problem in Britain, where about one adult in five is obese but, as ever, it is bigger in America.

In recent months carmakers are reported to have been adapting designs to take account of the ever-growing American belly, with the Honda Accord sold in the US two inches wider than the same model in Europe and Japan.

Airlines are ditching magazines, seats and even lifejackets to compensate for the increased fuel costs of carrying their passengers’ extra pounds.

Meanwhile, US military strategists are worrying about America’s long-term security because so many potential recruits are too fat to fight.

The fast-food and soft-drink industry, which is estimated to spend $11.2 billion a year on advertising, is beginning to feel the heat. Seventeen states have recently passed legislation aimed at tackling childhood obesity. Super Size Me, a documentary film in which Morgan Spurlock became fat and ill by eating only at McDonald’s for a month, was widely seen as having helped to shame the restaurant chain into offering healthier options last year.

Yesterday, a Harvard health report suggested that fast-food retailers were deliberately targeting children by clustering outlets around schools, while earlier this month Bill Clinton joined a campaign to improve America’s eating habits. The former President said a lifetime of eating junk food had caused his “brush with death” last year.

Recalling his quadruple heart bypass surgery, Mr Clinton said: “I realised that one more time I’ve been given another chance and I wanted to make the most of it. The bottom line is we’ve got too many kids overweight and they’re walking timebombs.”

But the junk-food industry is fighting back against bans on the sale of drinks and snacks at schools. In June, Jodi Rell, the Governor of Connecticut, vetoed a statewide ban on unhealthy food in schools after being pounded by $250,000 of industry lobbying.

Sales of soft drinks in schools totalled about $700 million last year, with companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi keen to target consumers when they are young and establishing brand loyalties.

The National Restaurant Association, backed by a clutch of senior Republican senators, held a press conference this summer at which its president, Steven Anderson, said that food establishments “should not be blamed for issues of personal responsibility and freedom of choice”.

Legislation is also opposed by the libertarian Right in America, where organisations such as the Cato Institute are outraged at the prospect of the Government telling citizens how — or what — they should eat.

FAT OF THE LAND

Passengers’ weight gain caused US airlines to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 than in 1990

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