Feeling healthy, New Jersey? Well, a new study says you are. At least, healthier than folks in 40 other states.
Ozmosi, a health care analytics website, evaluated all 50 states on the following criteria: “air quality, obesity prevalence, physical activity, health conditions (cholesterol, cancer, and coronary heart disease), and sleeping, smoking, drinking, and food consumption habits.”
The resulting rankings found that New Jersey was the 10th-healthiest state in the country, beating out local rivals New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The study found that despite a prevalence of cholesterol in adults, which is fitting in a place that argues over what to call processed meat, the Garden State had low rates of obesity, smoking and binge drinking. The last of those is a firm rebuke of outsiders who know our beloved state only from “Jersey Shore.” It’s not all club-hopping and bottle service.
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The study said New Jersey has higher levels of physical activity, which, in theory, could be a result of potential club-hopping and bottle service.
The healthiest state in the country was determined to be Hawaii, with its glorious beaches and volcanoes, followed by Colorado, Vermont, Utah and New Hampshire. New England as a whole was well-represented in the top 10, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island clocking in at sixth and ninth respectively.
As for the least-healthy states, the Mason-Dixon line is perhaps overrepresented, with West Virginia ranked 49th and Kentucky 50th.
New Jersey is not a perfect state, by any means, but like Hawaii, it has beaches, and like Colorado, Vermont, Utah and New Hampshire, it has mountains, though perhaps not as impressive on either front. But combine that with the fact that that it’s only slightly less healthy, and you have quite a state.
