San Antonio is ranking high for a not-so-special accolade. The greater metro area is ranked 19 in WalletHub's 2019 fattest cities in America.
"I think it has a lot to do with the amount of food we take in and the type of food we eat," Luke Schamberger, a San Antonian enjoying a burger on Wednesday afternoon, told KENS 5.
"It doesn't surprise me one bit," his buddy, Vincent Boyd added. "It's all in moderation. You can't eat breakfast tacos every day and have no activity. It's going to catch up with you."
It's catching up sooner than some would like. In 2018, San Antonio was ranked 46th in the same survey looking at the 100 largest metro areas in the country. So how did it jump to 19 in a year?
"Last year, we didn't have data on obesity when it comes to children specifically," Jill Gonzalez, an analyst from WalletHub, said in a phone interview. "We just had teen and adults, so unfortunately, the addition of that metric did not help San Antonio because there are a pretty high prevalence of obese or overweight children."
Obesity starting at a young age is something Chef Jose Benitez is trying to deter. "I am a personal private chef, I am a nutritionist and a sports nutritionist," the mastermind behind the food truck called Curb told KENS 5.
Curb specializes in the seafood dishes and Benitez said he works hard to not be a a contributing factor in this sad statistic. "Shop local, shop fresh and try to add as little fat as possible while adding a ton of flavor," he told KENS 5 while he cooked.
"Just because it's not the safest or best thing to do doesn't mean anything. You literally just have to eat in moderation."
San Antonio isn't the only Texas city that made the list: McAllen is ranked number one, while Dallas and El Paso made the top 30.