Experts say Mississippians need to skip the gravy, say no to the fried pickles and start taking brisk walks to battle an epidemic of obesity.

A new study says this Deep South state is the fattest in the nation. The Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention, says Mississippi is the first where more than 30 percent of adults are considered obese.

Aside from making Mississippi the inevitable and very wide butt of late-night talk show jokes, the obesity epidemic has serious implications for public policy over the next several decades.

If current trends hold, Mississippi could face enormous increases in the already significant costs of treating diabetes, heart disease and other ailments caused by the extra poundage.

“We’ve got a long way to go. We love fried chicken and fried anything and all the grease and fatback we can get in Mississippi,” said state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, who chairs the Public Health Committee and admits: “I’m a little obese myself.”

Poverty and obesity often go hand-in-hand, doctors say, because poor families stretch their budgets by buying cheaper, processed foods that have higher fat content and lower nutritional value.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a self-described “recovering foodaholic” who lost 110 pounds a few years ago, explained during a Southern Governors’ Association meeting in Biloxi this past weekend that there are historical reasons poor people often fry their foods: It’s an inexpensive way to increase the calories and feed a family.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation, and the Delta is the poorest region of Mississippi.

Dr. Marshall Bouldin, director of the diabetes and metabolism center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told the southern governors that if the Delta counties were excluded, “Mississippi would wind up being about 30th in diabetes problems in the United States.”

Mississippi’s public schools already are taking steps to battle the bulge.

A new state law enacted this year requires schools to provide at least 150 minutes of physical activity instruction and 45 minutes of health education instruction each week for students in kindergarten through 8th grade. Until now, gym class had been optional.

The state Department of Education also is phasing in restrictions on soft drinks and snacks.

For the academic year that just started, all public schools are banned from selling full-calorie soft drinks to students. Next academic year, elementary and middle schools will allow only water, juice and milk, while high schools will allow only water, juice, sports drinks and diet soft drinks.

The state Department of Education publishes lists of snacks that are approved or banned for sale in school vending machines. Last school year, at least 50 percent of the vending offerings had to be from the approved list. That jumped to 75 percent this year and will go to 100 percent next year.

Among the approved snacks are yogurt, sliced fruit and several types of granola bars. Among those denied are fried pork rinds and marshmallow treats. One middle school favorite — Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — are on the approved list if they’re baked, but banned if they’re not.

State Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds said he hopes students will take home the healthful habits they learn at school.

“We only have students 180 days out of the year for seven hours in a school day. The important thing is that we model what good behavior looks like,” Bounds said Monday after finishing a lunch of baked chicken.

Bounds ate at Two Sisters’ Kitchen, a downtown Jackson buffet that’s popular with state legislators. On Monday, the buffet included traditional, stick-to-your-ribs Southern fare: fried chicken, grits, fried okra, turnip greens.

Diann Irving Alford, who owns the restaurant, said she takes steps to reduce the fat content of the food — frying in oil with no trans fats, using skim milk for the bread pudding and using smoked turkey necks instead of the traditional ham hocks to flavor the greens.

Alford said her cholesterol numbers last year were “phenomenally low.”

“People at the doctor’s office couldn’t believe I eat fried chicken every day,” she said.

Dr. William Rowley, who worked 30 years as a vascular surgeon and now works at the Institute for Alternative Futures, said if current trends continue, more than 50 percent of adult Mississippians will be obese in 2015.

Holland, who helps set the state Medicaid budget, said he worries about the taxpayers’ cost of treating obesity.

“If we don’t change our ways,” he said, “we’re going to be in the funeral parlors … because we’re going to be all fat and dead.”

Which might not be entirely bad for Holland. He’s an undertaker.