Healthiest Cities in the Nation

MSN posted an article about the countries most healthiest cities and I'm proud to say that good old California had 5 of the top 10 cities. They were judged on the following characteristics: health status, nutrition and exercise, plus mental health and life balance...let's see how our cities fared. I find the dental care category very interesting.

San Jose: Outstanding scores in the major categories of health status, lifestyle choices and diet. In the separate categories, residents of San Jose reported the study’s best scores in mental wellness, rate of cigarette smoking and consumption of fruits and vegetables. In one of the few negative areas, residents here did report one of the study’s highest rates of asthma.

• My brother and I were talking about how every kid we knew while growing up had asthma, strange thing - but kudos to the hometown, eh?
• I wonder where they found out about the rates of produce consumption...are they tracking the grocery store volumes? San Jose is also a big ass city - so maybe they are including some of the remaining orchards?
• Mental wellness - hmmmm how about all those suburban housewives on Prozac and Valium? JUST KIDDING.....hahahaha
  

San Francisco: SF showed strong scores in all major categories except mental wellness. Its residents had the study’s highest scores in BMI, dental care and the physical activity category. San Franciscans reported problems with sleeping and stress, and had the study’s highest rate of diabetes. San Francisco also had the study’s highest number of physicians per capita.

• I also read somewhere that SF is the skinniest city per capita or something - must be all the meth JUST KIDDING! Problems with stress and sleeping...must be all the meth - JUST KIDDING!!! I think all the kids are doing blow now anyways. no really, I think the whole nature of Silicon Valley's techno-geekness has people working the dot com hours still, even during slow periods
• Also, being the gay man captial means a higher rate of thin people. As my gay friend Thomas says "the gays aren't into fat" Also, with the high asian population, you're gonna get some skinn MF-ers....I mean if you just got off the boat, you're probably pretty skeletal.
  
• I can vouch for the physical activity category section, there's always people out super butt as early on weekends running, cycling and swimming in the bay..it is very SF to be outdoors excerizing, but why wouldn't you have so many scenery options
• Low mental wellness? That's because everyone living in SF has to sit through a shitty commute everyday to work in the south bay, road rage lives on.
  

Oakland: It earned above-average scores in all five major categories. Oakland was particularly strong in health status, with low smoking and good dental care. However, it did record high rates of diabetes and high cholesterol.

• I wonder what kind of food gives you high cholesterol??? maybe fried food? beating around that racist bush...wooo-whee
• I am stopping there before I pull out all the racist jokes
  

Sacramento: Above average in four of the five major categories, stumbling only in mental wellness. Residents there recorded the study’s lowest asthma rate and also had one of the top scores for exercise.

• Low on mental wellness? I think it may be the heat that causes the brain to melt. OMG I've been there in the summer and it is insanely hot.
• I find the top score for excercize interesting...I wonder if the two colleges there were also taken into consideration, especially with sports teams and their proximity to tahoe.
• VERY interesting on the low asthma. Maybe it's the dry heat thing like AZ? I know my allergies go into a funk when I'm in Sacto though.
  

Orange County: “The O.C.” was particularly strong in the categories of mental wellness, lifestyle pursuits and physical activity. Its health status scores were weak, with high rates of arthritis and hypertension. It also had the study’s highest rate of occasional smoking. On the positive side, it had the best score for getting restful sleep.

• I hate LA but I love the OC...and it's quite a pretty place for the wealthy to play golf and hang out so mental wellness and lifestyl pursuits you say? I think that county was designed as a master lifestyle pursuit.
• Arthritis - there's a lotta oldies but richies in the majority of OC, especially in Laguna Woods (formerly Leisure World) a massive retirement community with it's own zip code
• Hypertension?? you'd be stressed out for a heart attack if you were that rich too.
• Occasional smoking - I believe that's called social smoking...it's what us sorority girls do outside nightclubs when wasted