Mississippi has topped the list of ‘fattest states' in the US with an obesity rate of 30% for the third successive year.

The Trust for America’s Health, an investigation group that focuses on preventing disease, states over 20 percent of mature residents in 47 other states are also considered overweight

West Virginia and Alabama track just behind, whereas Tennessee accompanies South Carolina at fifth place. The state, which bottoms the fattest states list, is Colorado, with just 17.6 percent of its inhabitants considered weighty.

The health specialists are upset that if the same obesity trends go on, Mississippi could face vast growths in the prime costs of treating diabetes, heart disease and other diseases caused by obesity.

Since obesity also accompanies impoverishment, the analysis also calls up Mississippi as one of the poorest states in the country, with the Delta being the most hapless area of Mississippi.

The Trust’s "F as in Fat" study combines statistics from 2004 to 2006 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Surveillance System.

In an attempt to overcome the rising obesity threat, Mississippi's public schools already are taking actions to control this problem by introducing a new regulation in school, which asks for 150 minutes of physical activity instruction and 45 minutes of health education instruction every week for pupils in preschool through 8th standard.

The Associated Press reports that there is a ban on selling of full-calorie soft drinks to pupils. In the coming year (2008), elementary and middle schools will permit only water, juice and milk, whereas high schools will allow only water, juice, sports drinks and diet soft drinks.