What's Good
- Mayor John Cook sets a positive example, exercising as much as 5 days per week.
- Air quality here is among the best of any city in our survey, according to EPA air quality standards.
- On any given day in El Paso, there's a 20 percent more than average probability of sunshine compared to other cities surveyed.
- It rains only 49 days per year in El Paso. That's the 8th lowest number of rainy days in our survey.
- Binge drinking is less common here than most other places. In a national survey, only 12 percent of residents said they'd had five or more drinks at a sitting over the past 30 days. The average among cities in our survey is 14.74 percent.
- Fast food, widely implicated as a contributor to obesity, is less common in El Paso than most places in our survey. In a per capita comparison there are 33 percent fewer fast-food joints here than average.
- Texas has "snack tax" laws aimed at reducing obesity and improving nutrition.
- Texas is one of 28 states that participates in a CDC-sponsored program to reduce obesity and other chronic diseases.
- El Paso residents are 1 percent more likely than average to actually use their gym or health-club memberships, according to our comparison of membership trends and club use, including machine use, exercising with weights, cardio classes, yoga and martial arts, among others.
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What Isn't
- Texas state law limits or prohibits obesity-related lawsuits against food manufacturers and restaurants.
- According to the CDC, 27 percent of residents in El Paso area are clinically obese. The national average is 23.17 percent.
- In a CDC survey, 31 percent of adults said they hadn't had any leisure time exercise in the past month. The average in our survey is 23 percent
- Temperatures in El Paso top 90 degrees 109 days a year, making outdoor exercise less comfortable.
- El Paso residents received a bottom score in fruit and vegetable consumption, with only 24 percent eating the recommended five or more servings per day.
- Golfers are limited to 2 public courses. Relative to population, that's less than almost anywhere else we surveyed.
- There are 115 percent fewer tennis courts per capita here than average among cities in our survey.
- On a per capita basis, El Paso has 35 percent fewer gyms and health clubs than average, the 10th lowest in our survey.
- El Paso residents are 92 percent less likely than average to go cross-country skiing. That's the 4th lowest rate in our survey.
- Even table tennis doesn't get takers here - residents are 33 percent less likely than average to play table tennis - the 4th lowest rate in our survey.
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