Mississippi takes top honors once again in the fattest-state contest, according to the results of a 2007 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The state has had the highest obesity rates every year since 2004.

While Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Louisiana are not far behind, Mississippi is the one with 30 percent of its adults tipping the scales at obese levels. Perhaps it's because the South has a lot of rural residents and black women -- both groups tend to have higher rates of obesity -- or because the typical Southern diet is rich in fatty and fried foods. Perhaps the results of this study are not entirely accurate -- it was conducted over the phone and not with actual weigh-ins.

Colorado wins for least obese state -- 19 percent of adults here are considered obese -- mostly because of its healthy and active communities. Skiing, biking, and hiking apparently keep Colorado folks moving.

Where does your state place? According to this CDC site, my state of Florida is 24.1 percent obese. Plug your state in here, choose the year '2007' and the category 'Overweight and Obesity (BMI)' and see how it compares.

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The guy who is labeled as the World's Fattest Man by the Guinness Book of Records has a reason to throw a big party. In fact, that's exactly what he told reporters his plans were going to be after having lost over 500 pounds. Manuel lives in Mexico with his mom and fiancee, but doctors from all over have been helping him slim down for the past two years.

His doctors from the United States, Italy and his home country are saying he's healthier now than he's been before. No surprise there; he originally weighed 1,257 pounds. His goal is to get that weight down to less than 300, and having dropped nearly half of his original mass, I think he's well on his way. How did he do it? The old fashioned way, of course: through diet and exercise.

He still faces quite a task to get there. Next month, Manuel is going to be lifted out of his house and driven around in a truck -- something that probably wasn't possible before losing so many pounds. It's encouraging to see positive stories like this hitting the headlines. Here's hoping we see more of them!

12 "healthy" foods that really aren't:

Why? Click to find out!

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Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is hating this news: His city has been named the fattest city in the nation.

Men's Fitness magazine has bestowed the honor of America's Fattest City on Las Vegas for the second year in a row. Basing its decision on at least 24 different factors -- sports participation rates, time spent working out, number of parks, average commute time, television viewing rates, legislative health initiatives -- this list, which shows Texas as a pretty porky state too, is meant to encourage cities to be healthier.

Mayor Goodman calls the magazine's study irresponsible journalism. Rather than taking offense, says editor in chief Roy Johnson, Goodman should use Sin City's placement on the list as motivation.

"Instead of shooting the messenger, go out for a run," Johnson says. "We use a lot of data, and we're very rigorous about this."

Maybe Goodman should shape up his city, like Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett did after placing 15th on last year's list. Cornett issued a city-wide plan to lose a collective one million pounds. This year, his city ranks 8th.

Cities that turned up pretty healthy include Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Denver, and Portland, Oregon. Why are these locations so fit? Minneapolis has more basketball courts and gyms per capita than any other city, Albuquerque has 57 percent fewer drinking establishments per capita than the national average, Denver tops participation rates in running, biking, and walking, and Portland folks reportedly eat lots of fruits and veggies.

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Now here are some kids who aren't messing around. They are mad. They want us to know about it. And here's what they have to say:

We're tired of being the fattest, most unfit generation ever. "Big industries" spend $12 billion a year advertising junk to us. Why? We influence tens of billions in spending. Health care costs will exceed $4 trillion just when we'll be raising our families, we're freaking out. We've got digital, communication, and tech-expertise no other generation's ever had. Join us sharing energy, creativity and social action that'll change the world. To junk food & big marketing -- "Get outta my face!"

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found food is the number one product advertised to kids, and this motivated bunch wants it to stop. Visit their blog here. Then check out this PBS Commentary. And this Washington Post story too.

Now tell us: What do you think?

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Yes, yes, we all know that Americans are getting fatter and fatter all the time. But wanna hear some good news? In a ranking of the most obese countries, the U.S. is not #1!

Sadly, however, we are in the top 10.

This is a pretty depressing article if you ask me -- over 74% of our adult population is overweight? I guess that shouldn't surprise me, since the issue is in the news so often, but it kinda does anyway. That's a really big number.

But back to the positive, at least we're doing better than the list topper, Nauru. At the #1 spot, 94.5% of their population is overweight. For the complete list of countries ranked from fattest to thinnest, click here.

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