Why Are Southerners So Fat?

Time ^ | 7/9/2009 | Claire Suddath

[Still Thinking]

You kidding? We could probably just fall on the guy and he’d be a goner.

[Clemenza]

The ONLY decent food in the South (ex-Texas, which I don't consider a southern state, sorry!) is in Louisiana from Baton Rouge on south.

Face it, Anglo-Celts love bland, fried, fattening foods, and their African neighbors love the same in larger portions.

BTW: If you look at the obese minority here in the NYC area, you will see they are disproportionately concentrated among blacks and hispanics, with lower middle class whites also having "spare tires."

[crusty old prospector]

Here is the answer, especially the last part. The folks I know that are low income rarely eat a home-cooked meal and mostly dine at McDonald's off of the $1.00 Menu.

My guess is that higher obesity rates in both the nation as a whole and the South in particular are the result of a combination of a decline in manual labor due to automation on the job and at home, the effects of food additives, notably high fructose corn syrup, and a tendency of lower income people, irrespective of race or ethnicity, to purchase prepackaged and prepared foods with high starch and fat contents.

[Jemian]

The region famous for its biscuits, barbecue and pecan pies has been struggling with its weight for years

We're not struggling with it. We're doing just fine with it.

Stupid dang yankees trying to regulate our lives again, er, STILL.

[NucSubs]

Yes...yes I have.

[Chickensoup]

You have hit the nail on the head. Brown and black people tend to have a genetic propensity to obesity.

[mockingbyrd]

There are people here who drive their kids, house to house, to trick or treat. In a freakin’ neighborhood. Cuz apparently it’s too much to have the little angels walk to get their free candy.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Nothing ruins my appetite more than when I am sitting down to a big plate of fried gulf shrimp, fries, hushpuppies and sweet tea and hear some dumb-ass Yankee start trying to tell a joke and such with that loud obnoxious nasally assh*le voice of theirs, along with the cackling their wives...

Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it ;-)

I hope you're not including in that the beautiful, quaint, now almost (if not entirely extinct) traditional twanging drawl of rural New England (as exemplified by Parker "Titus Moody" Fennelly and Calvin Coolidge). And as for nasally, I live in the Upper South and we twang up here, we don't drawl. And the twang is by definition nasal (and was the distinguishing characteristic of Puritanism even in England).

[ejonesie22]

No, more that New York/Chicago/Philly big mouth with the gold chains and paisley fly collar shirt

[NellieMae]

Why are so many Northerners so RUDE??

[Zionist Conspirator]

Okay, I'm an Upper Southerner whose ancestors fought for the Union and have been Republican since Lincoln, and there are certain things in the Northern political tradition I identify with (hey, New England and the Upper South kept Al Smith out of the White House, didn't they?). So I s'pose my opinions on any North vs. South topic are gonna be a bit peculiar. A couple of observations:

Traditionally, anti-Southern Yankees completely exempt Blacks (once stereotyped as a Southern people) of any type of Southernness, interpreting their Fundamentalist religion, sub-standard English, and soul food as revolutionary, crypto-Leninist strikes for "freedom." Of course, the identical Fundamentalist religion, sub-standard English, and soul food (or "the Food of Fascism") when eaten by poor Southern whites are interpreted as reactionary and oppressive. And there are those white Southerners who mirror the Yankee hypocrites, attacking in Blacks what they celebrate in themselves.

Then you have the Yankee-hating Professional Confederates who blame everything from the Communist Manifesto to "gay rights" on New England Puritan "theocracy," Jonathan Edwards, the Mayflower, Oliver Cromwell, and probably ol' John Calvin hisse'f. They insist that a straight line connects Puritanism to Ted Kennedy (who is inconveniently Catholic); consider Prohibition to have been "Bolshevism" (while swilling their liquor); worship the freethinking, Bible-lacerating Thomas Jefferson as the only Founding Father who actually understood the Constitution (even though Jefferson was never a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and thus technically was not a Founding Father at all); and blame every facet of today's "big government" on George Washington (the FDR of his day!), Alexander Hamilton (the Original Communist!), the Federalists, and maybe even "old testament" regulation (we all know where those awful Puritans got all their ideas and their funny names from, right?). Then they turn around and boast of their "populist" politicians who were pushing socialism long before any "minority" had ever heard of it (the income tax didn't come from New England, chum).

So I guess I hate both of them, because I love this entire country! Does that make any sense?

[new cruelty]

I’ve yet to find a better pizza than one from NYC. Cheese steaks in NJ/Philly are ok. (Geno’s is overrated). Even so, the food in Texas is much better.

Other observations-

Folks in northern cities like Philly or NYC seem to walk more. Houstonians will drive everywhere, even just a few blocks.

There are plenty of restaurants in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, etc. And they serve large portions.

BBQ. You can’t find great BBQ in NJ. They have it, but it’s not like what you can get in Texas.

Fajitas. They don’t make a good fajita here in NJ.

Steak! Some restuarants in Texas keep the cattle out back so you can meet the meat before you eat.

Texan women have better complexions. That Houston humidity keeps the skin looking young, I guess.

[Pharmboy]

Indeed. In India, now that they have more food than than used to have and a more westernized diet, they have the highest rate of increase in the incidence of diabetes in the world (and this is directly related to obesity).

[Zionist Conspirator]

The traditional, northern New England country accent. (From New Hampshah, Obadiah!)

[mrsixpack36]

I depends where in the north. I have always found the Dakotas, Montana,Minnesota, and Wisconsin to be very friendly. Michigan, New York and most of the north east new England states, people are rude and self-absorbed. Just my experiences.

[FTJM]

Sugar, lard and fat.

[Jagdgewehr]

Agreed. That has been my experience also. I find Westerners some of the friendliest, most easy going people I have ever known. I have many relatives and friends from the South who are much the same way.

[Lexinom]

Ugh. Looks like my inlaws.

[Mount Athos]

do they drink lots of sweet tea?

[Lexinom]

The few that are still alive don’t eat well. Too much sugar, processed foods, donuts, junk food. Guess I’m a hateful bigot, but I really don’t find either one of those ladies in your picture very attractive.