SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns are well-known for considering themselves to be clean-living, abstemious people.
But is that reputation actually deserved or merely self-deception?
A recent objective survey by Maine Lobster Now found that Utah ranks in the top five of all 50 states when it comes to healthy eating and drinking habits.
“People often want one clear answer to what healthy eating looks like, but everyday routines involve many different choices,” according to Julian Klenda, a spokesperson for Maine Lobster Now. “This ranking brings several of those measures together.”
The Main Lobster Now study compared U.S. states across 10 indicators, including consumption of fruits and vegetables, sugary drinks, fast food and alcoholic beverages.
The analysis also considered the health impact of those consumption habits in terms of adult obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and coronary heart disease.
That research found the Utahns aren’t particularly enamored of eating fruits and vegetables, with only 11.5 percent of state residents consuming fruit at least once a day and 8.3 percent consuming vegetables.
More than 50 percent of Utahns are also reportedly hooked on sugar-sweetened beverages.
But the Beehive State’s fourth-place ranking is solidly secured by the nation’s lowest incidence of binge-drinking of alcoholic beverages in the Maine Lobster Now study at 12.7 percent. That statistic is undoubtedly due to the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which claims more than 68 percent of the state’s population as among its members as of 2026.
The incidence of binge-drinking in other states in the top ten ranking varies from 16.5 to 20.3 percent.
Utah also scores with the lowest adult rates of high blood pressure (27.3 percent), high cholesterol (31.2) and coronary heart disease (6.6 percent).
Utah’s rankings in those disease categories outweighs the state’s average scores in term of diabetes (8.9 percent) and adult obesity (31 percent).
At the other end of the study’s spectrum as tops for unhealthy eating and drinking habits are the states of West Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi.
In a possible corollary to their healthy habits study, the Maine Lobster Now researchers found that fast food restaurants make up nearly 60 of all eateries in Utah, the third-highest share in the country.
Interestingly, Klenda notes, McDonald’s isn’t the most common fast food restaurant chain in any state.
Subway franchises are most prevalent in 33 states, Dunkin’ Doughnuts in 10 others and Starbucks in seven states.
Additional information about the healthy eating and drinkling study can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J_ycMZGLZgdgsLwNVTPCSp250Tma5LZXRbxHsqR-DRk/edit?gid=0#gid=0
The innovative business model of Maine Lobster Now allows customers from throughout the United States to get a taste of authentic, wild-caught seafood on demand, particularly lobster and crab. After a customer schedules an order online, that request is filled through overnight shipping to their door.