It's a conversation that no one wants to have but being healthy doesn't just mean avoiding COVID-19.

COVID-19 has been America's top obsession over the past year. It beat out football, baseball, reality television, the Royal Family, Governor Cuomo, and even food if you can believe that. I think it's very obvious that food was a close second during the pandemic and was probably number 1 before the coronavirus hit. I couldn't even tell you where health and wellness fit on America's obsessions.

I get that we had to support local restaurants be we're all guilty of overeating. The restaurant isn't going to fail if you occasionally don't get the side of fries with your fried chicken sandwich. I get it. I've struggled with my own weight for years but we can't praise poor habits especially when your life is on the line.

We can address that our nation and even our own state have a weight problem without shaming anyone. Poor eating habits are not genetic and they can be adjusted.  This state glorifies food and I'd argue more than any other state. I know we have the best cuisine but the numbers don't lie.

According to Trust For America's Health, in 2020 about 42% of American adults were considered obese. According to New York State, over 60% of New Yorkers were reported to obese in 2018.

We've been talking a lot about health over the past year and how we need to mask up to save people with pre-existing conditions but not once have I heard that one of the deadliest pre-existing conditions is obesity. Obesity can lead to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

The CDC says that there is a correlation between having a higher body mass index and having a more severe case of COVID-19 for people under the age of 65. People with higher BMI's experienced more cases of being admitted to intensive care, the use of ventilators, and even death.

The WHO almost compares obesity to an epidemic with almost 2.8 million people globally die every year as a result of being overweight.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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