Men's Health Best and Worst Cities for Men, 2013

For men who thinking about relocating - or who will want to relocate after seeing where their city places on this list - Men's Health offers their 12th annual analysis of the best and worst cities for men in the U.S. My own city of residence, Tucson, placed 45th out of 100 cities named. I guess it could be worse, I could live in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Best and Worst Cities for Men 2013

Our 12th annual statistical smackdown unveils America's top towns for men—and places to run from

By Margaret Niemiec, Researched by Christa Sgobba, Posted Date: December 14, 2012 

Back in the 1860s, a gold rush lured men from all over the country to the Boise Basin. Some struck it rich, but most simply struck out. Today most of the gold is gone, but in its place is something much more valuable: a rich vein of health, happiness, and fitness that the men of Boise, Idaho, are mining every day. 

We arrived at Boise after a long journey measured not in miles traveled but in numbers crunched. All told, we delved into more than a dozen data sources in order to assemble city rankings in 38 different criteria, including everything from air quality to unemployment, cost of living to death rates. We factored in property crime and criminally long commute times. We even took into account the ratio of single men to single women. (After all, what's a great town if you can't enjoy it with a great woman?) But as much as this is Boise's time to shine, the rest of America's men don't need to rush there again. We've unearthed five nuggets of wisdom that will enrich your life no matter where you live.

THE 10 BEST

1. Boise, ID
Health: A-
Quality of Life: A-
Fitness: B+

2. San Jose, CA
Health: A+
Quality of Life: C
Fitness: A

3. San Francisco, CA
Health: A-
Quality of Life: C+
Fitness: A

4. Plano, TX
Health: A+
Quality of Life: C+
Fitness: B

5. Seattle, WA
Health: A+
Quality of Life: C-
Fitness: A-

6. Burlington, VT
Health: A+
Quality of Life: A-
Fitness: C

7. Austin, TX
Health: B-
Quality of Life: B
Fitness: A+

8. Salt Lake City, UT
Health: A+
Quality of Life: C
Fitness: B

9. Madison, WI
Health: B+
Quality of Life: A-
Fitness: B-

10. Portland, OR
Health: B+
Quality of Life: C-
Fitness: B+


THE 10 WORST

91. Tulsa, OK
Health: F
Quality of Life: C
Fitness: F

92. Detroit, MI
Health: F
Quality of Life: F
Fitness: C

93. Columbia, SC
Health: F
Quality of Life: D-
Fitness: D-

94. Cleveland, OH
Health: D-
Quality of Life: F
Fitness: D

95. Memphis, TN
Health: F
Quality of Life: D-
Fitness: F

96. St. Louis, MO
Health: F
Quality of Life: F
Fitness: D

97. Toledo, OH
Health: F
Quality of Life: D-
Fitness: D-

98. Charleston, WV
Health: F
Quality of Life: D-
Fitness: F

99. Philadelphia, PA
Health: F
Quality of Life: F
Fitness: D

100. Birmingham, AL
Health: F
Quality of Life: D-
Fitness: F

And make sure you check out these 13 Places to Visit in 2013.

Boise, ID: Win the rat race
Eighteen minutes. That's the average commute time for our boys in Boise. Now, given that new Brown University research finds that the less time you spend commuting, the more minutes you have for sleep, exercise, and making your own meals, it's no wonder Boise took the top spot overall. The secret? Pedal power. See, when you drive, your commute is susceptible to slowdowns from packed roadways, but travel time on a bike is the same every day, explains Boise State University professor George Knight, M.A., founder and director of the school's Bicycle Congress. And the city is definitely cycling-centric: More than 220 miles of on-street bike lanes and 46 miles of designated bike routes run through Ada County. You'll also notice a raft of road-widening projects and find bike racks outside most public buildings. If you're a first-time bike commuter, spend a Saturday morning practicing your route to work.

San Jose, CA: Give your heart a lift
Weight training isn't a "cardio" workout, but it can prevent a coronary. Just look at San Jose, a city of lifters that also has the lowest rate of heart disease deaths. "When your muscles are toned, they're more effective at extracting oxygen," says Theodore Chow, M.D., a cardiologist at the Regional Medical Center of San Jose. "That means your heart doesn't have to work as hard." What's more, moderate resistance training (60 to 80 percent of your 1-rep max) may lower your blood pressure enough to significantly reduce some of your risk factors for heart disease, according to a 2011 study review published in the journal Hypertension.

San Francisco, CA: Defuse a gut bomb
If you want to see fat mammals in San Fran, check out the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. You won't spot many heavy humans here, though—the city has the lowest obesity rate in our ranking. That may also help explain why prostate cancer is as rare as flat roads here. "Following a low-fat, limited-calorie diet and maintaining a healthy weight, along with exercising regularly, contribute to reducing the incidence of prostate cancer," says Peter Carroll, M.D., M.P.H., the chairman of the urology department at the University of California at San Francisco school of medicine.

Plano, TX: Survive your drive
Texas may have the highway with the fastest speed limit in the country (85 mph!), but Plano knows how to make drivers slow down. From 2005, the year before the city installed red-light cameras, to 2010, crashes at camera-monitored intersections decreased by almost 40 percent, according to the city's police department. The net effect: a motor vehicle accident death rate well below the national average. But even if your city is sans cameras, you can still reduce your own risk of being T-boned. "If you're the first car at a stop light, you have a duty to look for approaching traffic even when entering the intersection on green," says Jeff Agnew of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running.

Seattle, WA: Order venti protection
To fight the Big C, you need a Bigger C: coffee, the official beverage of Seattle. A new American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study found that drinking 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day reduces colorectal cancer risk by 15 percent. But it isn't just the java that's taming tumors in the city. "The above-average economy in Seattle may provide men here with better access to colon cancer screening," says Bruce Lin, M.D., a gastrointestinal oncologist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in the city. "And that's the number one way to prevent colon cancer." Worried about the colonoscopy prep? A 2012 study in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology found that a combo of Gatorade and the laxative polyethylene glycol (found in Miralax) was just as effective as a traditional colon cleanser and easier to tolerate. The net effect: Study participants were more likely to comply. Talk with your doctor about switching.

The Full List

1 Boise, ID
2 San Jose, CA
3 San Francisco, CA
4 Plano, TX
5 Seattle, WA
6 Burlington, VT
7 Austin, TX
8 Salt Lake City, UT
9 Madison, WI
10 Portland, OR

11 Minneapolis, MN
12 St. Paul, MN
13 Aurora, CO
14 Raleigh, NC
15 Anaheim, CA
16 San Diego, CA
17 Virginia Beach, VA
18 Colorado Springs, CO
19 Oakland, CA
20 Lincoln, NE

21 Manchester, NH
22 Portland, ME
23 Boston, MA
24 Honolulu, HI
25 Washington, DC
26 Fargo, ND
27 Sioux Falls, SD
28 Denver, CO
29 Omaha, NE
30 Dallas, TX

31 Billings, MT
32 Jersey City, NJ
33 Charlotte, NC
34 New York, NY
35 Atlanta, GA
36 Durham, NC
37 Phoenix, AZ
38 Fort Worth, TX
39 Chesapeake, VA
40 Bridgeport, CT

41 Miami, FL
42 Fort Wayne, IN
43 San Antonio, TX
44 Sacramento, CA
45 Tucson, AZ
46 Albuquerque, NM
47 Los Angeles, CA
48 Houston, TX
49 Anchorage, AK
50 Reno, NV

51 Fresno, CA
52 Orlando, FL
53 Cheyenne, WY
54 Lexington, KY
55 El Paso, TX
56 Des Moines, IA
57 Laredo, TX
58 Riverside, CA
59 Nashville, TN

60 Newark, NJ
61 Bakersfield, CA
62 Greensboro, NC
63 Columbus, OH
64 Stockton, CA
65 Corpus Christi, TX
66 Providence, RI
67 Pittsburgh, PA
68 Lubbock, TX
69 Winston-Salem, NC

70 Chicago, IL
71 San Bernardino, CA
72 Cincinnati, OH
73 Wilmington, DE
74 Wichita, KS
75 Milwaukee, WI
76 Las Vegas, NV
77 Norfolk, VA
78 Baton Rouge, LA
79 Little Rock, AR

80 Tampa, FL
81 St. Petersburg, FL
82 Buffalo, NY
83 New Orleans, LA
84 Baltimore, MD
85 Jacksonville, FL
86 Kansas City, MO
87 Oklahoma City, OK
88 Louisville, KY
89 Indianapolis, IN

90 Jackson, MS
91 Tulsa, OK
92 Detroit, MI
93 Columbia, SC
94 Cleveland, OH
95 Memphis, TN
96 St. Louis, MO
97 Toledo, OH
98 Charleston, WV
99 Philadelphia, PA
100 Birmingham, AL

Gen X Men Spend More Time in the Kitchen

Yay for the Gen X guys - we cook! Although, personally, watching food TV is right up there with watching paint dry. On the other hand, Gen X folk don't seem to know as much about GMO foods - and we should - but our educated peers keep abreast of information about healthy food.

Generation X Report: Men Spend More Time in the Kitchen

Gen Xers are a lot more conscious about their food than their parents were — especially the men, who are cooking and shopping more and watching food TV as much as women.

By Alexandra Sifferlin | April 30, 2012

For nearly 25 years, researchers from the University of Michigan have followed the lifestyle habits of a group of 3,000 Generation X adults — men and women born between the years 1961 and 1981. The latest report [PDF] based on the ongoing study focused on Gen Xers and food, and found that this generation is a lot more conscious about food — especially the men — than their predecessors were.

The data collected as part of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth found that Generation X adults spend more time shopping and cooking food, watching cooking shows on TV and talking to their friends about food or cooking.

“Generation X adults view life as a smorgasbord and have a little bit of everything in terms of food,” says study author Jon Miller, the director of the International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

(MORE: Working Moms Multitask More Than Dads — and Like It Less)

Gen X men are more involved in all aspects of meal preparation — from grocery shopping to cooking — than their fathers were. These men spend more time in the kitchen than their dads did, cooking about eight meals a week and buying groceries more than one a week.

“Men have fun in the kitchen,” says Miller. “I was surprised by how often they shop and cook. If men just happened to wander into the kitchen and make something, that makes more sense, but when you buy into the whole process, then you’re into it. Clearly they are into it.”

Gen X men also watch cooking shows and read magazine articles on cooking just as much as women do. “Males overall get something different out of watching cooking shows than women because I don’t think men have as many cooking skills acquired young at their parents arm. My guess is young men are still learning basic skills. They are still learning how to boil water,” says Miller.

(MORE: Why Families Who Eat Together Are Healthier)

The shifting roles in the kitchen is also likely a sign of modern household dynamics. In many Gen X couples, both partners have full-time jobs outside the home and share household responsibilities. “In previous generations, there was often a disparity, and the husband’s job brought in more money or was more time consuming. That’s not the case anymore,” says Miller. “Now there is much more parity between genders and in many cases, the woman makes more. That means there is a reallocation of time and duties for these people.”

Dr. John Ardizzone, the director of assessment services program at the Family Institute at Northwestern University who is unaffiliated with the study, says he also sees more professional men taking on domestic duties than he did in the past. “The men in this age group definitely do more work in the home, and more cooking for sure,” says Dr. Ardizzone. “They also help out more with their kids than you would stereotypically expect of men. They are putting their kids to bed and giving them baths. They share in chores and responsibilities.”

Again, their motivation has a lot to do with the fact that their partners and spouses are working full-time too, says Dr. Ardizzone, and the household tasks need to be divided. “These women are well-educated, are working more or also have more interests outside the house that take up time,” says Dr. Ardizzone.

“It’s ‘have to’ and ‘want to,’” says Ellen Galinsky, the president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York. The Institute released a national study of the changing workforce in 2008. “These men can have to do more cooking and want to at the same time. We find that women are changing too. Younger women are just as ambitious as men. Men are becoming more family involved and women are becoming more work and career involved.”

(MORE: Why Fathers Have Lower Levels of Testosterone)

The Gen X report revealed a few surprises: for instance, only 9% of the surveyed adults said they preferred to buy organic foods when available. About half said they buy organic “some of the time,” but the other half almost never purchase organic. ”There is this perception that Generation X people are passionate organic buyers and it is not necessarily true,” says Miller. “I think they also take into account price, availability and other factors and don’t feel the need to always buy organic. Those who are really devoted are a much smaller group than we would’ve guessed.”

Here are some other key eating habit findings in the study:

• On average, Generation Xers cook meals for guests about once a month and talk to friends about food or cooking about six times a month.
• Married women cook the most and prepare about 12 meals a week. Single women cook about 10 meals a week and both married and single men cook about eight meals weekly.
• Generation Xers have a low level of genetically modified food knowledge. “Generally speaking they know more about genes and biology than their parents did, but genetically modified food is not something they think about often,” says Miller. “Those who are scientifically literate still monitor food news about food safety.”

Poem - "Psalm of Home Redux" by David Lee

Psalm of Home Redux
by David Lee


after rereading Cormac McCarthy and taking
a 5 mile run through the River Ranch


Laughter is also a form of prayer
—Kierkegaard

Okay then, right here,
Lord, in Bandera,
tether me to my shadow
like a fat spavined mule
stuck sideways in Texas tank mud
bawling for eternity

At midnight's closing whine
of the 11th Street Bar's steel guitar,
when the stars slip their traces
and race the moon like wild horses
to their death in the darkness,
let my hoarse song twine with the night wind

May the bray of today's good laughter
fall like a brittle top branch
wind nudged from a sprawling live oak
straight down like early spring sleet
to the hill country's bent
and trembling bluebonnet covered knees

~ from The Porcine Canticles

Tags: poetry, home, nostalgia, Psalm of Home Redux, David Lee, poem, hill country, bluebonnets, The Porcine Canticles