OHIO — When it comes to health and wellness, officials said, Ohio is performing poorly.

Adrienne Raimo, integrative and functional dietitian nutritionist of OneBite WELLNESS, is one of the many experts in Columbus who’s trying to turn things around.

Raimo’s motivation came from a personal experience as she said she struggled with her health from early on.

“What we do is we inspire, educate and empower people to have better health, mainly through nutrition and lifestyle changes,” Raimo said. “Starting probably at nine, 18 months, I remember that being like on my first course of antibiotics and everything, I had surgeries so I would say digestive issues, urinary tract infections, chronic acne, low energy, all sorts of things really.”

Raimo also struggled with her weight, but she said there was an underlying condition that took time to figure out.

“As a teenager, I was sometimes thin, sometimes overweight,” Raimo said. “But you couldn’t see that I was having digestive issues.”

Over the past decade Ohio has seen increased numbers of obesity and diabetes, the Ohio Department of Health said the state is mirroring national trends.

A recent study from Benchmark Central Ohio showed Columbus has some of the poorest health outcomes. It ranks third when it comes to overdose deaths, fourth in diabetes and fifth on obesity.

In fact, Cincinnati followed Columbus in sixth place on obesity, and in Cleveland showed almost two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.

Obesity has increased almost a quarter over the last decade, according to the Ohio Department of Health, from about 29% in 2011 to a little over 36% in 2023.

“I’m surprised and not surprised at the same time because even experts have been predicting that we were going g to have 50% or more of the American population overweight or obese like years ago,” Raimo said.

There are some simple tips to kick-start health and wellness Raimo said, and the secret is to keep on going.

 “I would start with one thing that you know that you could be doing differently that would really impact your health. It can be as simple as drinking more water during the day,” Raimo said.

She said exercising is important, but people need to start from their own comfort zone.

“It does not have to be an hour at the gym. It can be five minutes. You can walk around the neighborhood,” Raimo said.

Her most important tip is to be persistent as there’s power in what people eat.

“You got to be consistent, and that is the hardest piece,” Raimo said. “[Food] actually changes our cells, our tissues, our organs. It influences our thoughts. It’s really a powerful tool.”