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Prospect Jake Guentzel joins Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

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Harvey’s Lake American Legion Line Dancers perform at VA Medical Center

<p>All right, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, belly up to the confessional and admit it. We are fat.</p><p>How fat are we?</p><p>Fat enough to rank 20th in a review of the nation&#8217;s 100 largest metro areas. And yes, based on the statistics used in <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/fattest-cities-in-america/10532/" target="_blank">2016&#8217;s Fattest Cities in America</a>, &#8220;largest&#8221; has a double meaning: Big in population and big in a non-muscle way.</p><p>It gets worse when you dig a bit into the data used by WalletHub, which bills itself as &#8220;the personal finance website.&#8221; When it comes to &#8220;fat prevalence&#8221; &#8212; the percentage of people overweight or obese &#8212; our metropolitan statistical area (MSA) ranks third.</p><p>That&#8217;s right, only two MSAs on the list have worse fat prevalence: Indianapolis, Indiana, which ranked second in the category, and Pennsylvania&#8217;s own steel city, Pittsburgh, which perhaps needs a new nickname.</p><p>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton fared a bit better in the &#8220;weight-related health problems&#8221; ranking 35th. That ranking is compiled from six statistics for adults: inactivity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, eating fewer than one serving of fruits/vegetables per day and the obesity-related death rate.</p><p>The report comes on the heels of the more comprehensive annual &#8220;County Health Rankings&#8221; by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, which ranked <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/522578/to-our-health-luzerne-county-avoids-the-lowest-ranking-in-the-state" target="_blank">Luzerne County at 64th</a> among the Keystone State&#8217;s 67 counties. One of the heaviest factors in that ranking: In Luzerne county, 29 percent of adults were obese.</p><p>And it comes, as WalletHub notes, during National Nutrition Month, created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to focus attention on food choices and exercise. Such focus is important, the report notes, because the United States ranked as the most obese nation among 34 in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.</p><p>The news was not unexpected to Dr. Anthony Petrick, Geisinger Health System Director of Minimally Invasive and bariatric Surgery (a mouthful, but fat-free, title), though he admitted the Pennsylvania&#8217;s overall performance in the rankings was discouraging.</p><p>&#8220;I find it interesting and obviously concerning that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area specifically, and Pennsylvania in general, rank very poorly in all categories,&#8221; he said.</p><p>But the differences among the MSAs are smaller than the rankings may first suggest, Petrick added. &#8220;We are talking shades of gray,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It may be more prevalent here, but not in any fundamentally different way with most of the rest of the country, and in truth of the matter, with most of western society, where food is readily available.&#8221;</p><p>Petrick likened the solution to the battle against smoking. As the risks became more widely acknowledged, government and social pressure to curb tobacco use grew, including clear warning labels, decreased availability and banning must cigarette advertising.</p><p>In recent years, medicine has acknowledged obesity is not a condition that stands alone; it impacts many other health issues including high blood pressure, diabetes and sleep apnea.</p><p>&#8220;This constellation of diseases is all closely linked to obesity,&#8221; Petrick said. Which is why bariatric surgery is now called &#8220;metabolic surgery&#8221; as doctors try to treat all the conditions related to the obesity targeted by the procedure.</p><p>Geisinger has also been exploring genetic links to obesity, though it&#8217;s too early to be very useful, Petrick said. Besides, the bottom line is always the same: Controlling caloric intake and remaining active.</p><p>The problem, as it was with cigarettes, is that people need to start seeing the long-term risks from short-term indulgences that at first seem harmless. &#8220;There is lots of work (to be done) in the foreseeable future,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Anthony Petrick </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_Anthony-Petrick-2c-MD.jpg</photo0><caption0>Anthony Petrick </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_fat-3-23-2016.jpg">
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metro area ranks 20th fattest in the country