Posted on 12/20/2005 8:01:19 AM PST by aculeus
Jefferson County is said to be the fattest part of the fattest state in the United States after a 2002 study found it had the highest proportion (26.1%) of obese residents in Mississippi.
The BBC News website went to find out why the area is a symbol of one of the country's fastest growing health problems.
It is lunchtime in Fayette, a tiny, sleepy town in the Mississippi Delta.
The patrons of Dude Burger - the only restaurant for miles - are buying hot dogs, dripping with chilli relish.
At the adjacent Supermarket and Deli, a customer walks through the car park, encumbered by two gallon tubs of ice cream.
Near a row of boarded-up shops, two men sit on the steps of the town courthouse, chewing jerky.
Apart from a few cars on Main Street, Fayette is broodingly silent. But it is a place that screams out poverty.
Average household incomes here are just $13,500 (£7,662) a year, and unemployment almost 20%.
Mayor Rogers King does not believe Jefferson County is the fattest place in Mississippi, but he knows there is a problem.
"It is not something we have realised is upon us for many years, but we are trying to do something about it," the mayor tells the BBC.
Home of the mud pie
Tiny Jefferson County Hospital sits on top of a hill on the outskirts of Fayette, opposite a school.
It has a nutrition clinic, but it is conspicuously empty.
A poster advertising a weight loss class is taped to a one wall, urging participants to "Drop them pounds like they hot".
But this is not a message many people want to hear, according to Dr Frank McCune, the county's only obesity expert.
Mississippi is the home of the mud pie, of cajun fried pecans, sweet potato crunch, of fried shrimp and catfish - and Dr McCune says overeating is ingrained into the culture of the area.
"Some deny the fact that obesity is a problem," he says. "Many don't know what it is. Some of them think that being 5'4" (1.64m) tall and 225 pounds (102kg) is a normal weight.
"They deny the fact that certain foods are not healthy, they deny the fact that there are choices. Exercise has been viewed with scepticism."
"Some women who have entered the weight loss programme have been asked to leave by their husbands who say that they like them the way they are."
Jefferson County - population 6,700 - is the kind of place where drivers wave to you on the long, isolated country roads that link small towns like Fayette. There simply aren't many places to stop and buy good food.
There are no fitness clubs at all in the county. At least a third of people here are said to take no exercise.
Yet poverty and inactivity are not the only explanations proffered for Jefferson's - and the Mississippi Delta's - problem with obesity.
Legacy of slavery
A few miles down the road is Rosswood Plantation, a historic cotton plantation mansion, now run as a guest house serving "full plantation breakfasts" on fine china, linen and silver.
Back in the 1850s more than 100 slaves worked the cotton fields on the 1,250-acre Rosswood farm, one of many such plantations along the Mississippi Delta.
Then the working day was long and arduous, the food basic but filling - gumbos, or stews thickened with okra, cornbread, beans and fish from the Mississippi.
Dr McCune's grandfather was born into slavery. His father saw mechanisation make redundant the harsh old jobs in the cotton fields.
But the doctor says the dietary legacy of those times persists.
"The taste of the individuals in this area comes from their experiences during slavery, the food that is eaten is of poor quality and rich in calories.
"The food that is eaten is highly satisfying, highly filling but the food... that they eat in general is not balanced.
"The slaves had to eat the poorest quality food - they were maintained cheaply, therefore through years of eating that type of food, the people not only in this area, but in areas up and down the Mississippi River and where people migrated from have the same taste in food."
Ticking time bomb
For Regina Ginn, head of the state Office for Healthy Schools, the problem is not of the past, but of the future.
Nationally the problem of childhood obesity is seen by some as a ticking time bomb that the US has been slow to address.
Again, problems are particularly acute in Mississippi.
"We are having to take baby steps," Ms Ginn told the BBC.
"We want our schools and our communities to buy into the idea that we must change our environment, but that will not happen overnight."
Dr McCune is finishing a three-year study on obesity in middle schools in Jefferson. He fears the rate will be higher than anyone anticipates.
"I see people I first met as children having health problems now because of their weight, and I am afraid that unless we change our attitudes then the situation will only be worse for their children."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/12/20 14:09:02 GMT
© BBC MMV
There is nothing funnier than the BBC commenting on America. Perhaps if the folks at the BBC had better teeth eating would be a more enjoyable experience and they would be fatter as well.
Yes, we're tubby and we should do something about it. No argument from anyone really.
The British have bad teeth and when viewed from behind, their heads look like a cab with the doors open.
At the adjacent Supermarket and Deli, a customer walks through the car park, encumbered by two gallon tubs of ice cream.
Does not compute.
"There is nothing funnier than the BBC commenting on America. Perhaps if the folks at the BBC had better teeth eating would be a more enjoyable experience and they would be fatter as well."
Beat me to it. Is it me or is the British Press obsessed with the U.S.? When was the last time we ran studies and reports on how fat, ugly, hairy-womened the brits are?
At the end of the day, the people in Alabama have far better teeth (and more too) than the Brits... So nyah!
Wow! Those rebel Americans sure do eat fattening foods! Maybe they should eat more like the Brits?
fried Breakfast
Yorkshire pudding
scotch eggs
scones and devonshire cream
bangers and mash
toad in the hole
fish & chips
black pudding
God forbid we should visit a British pub at lunchtime and take account of what's being eaten!
I agree, even Prince Charles has moldy looking, stained teeth and you would think he could afford some peroxide gel.
But don't get me started on Scotch Eggs. Why anyone would willingly eat something like that........
Fayette is not in the Delta. This is kind of a disturbing article, partly because I live a few miles from there. Easy to get fat on the government teat.
Balanced meals are obviously to be considered as part of a slave reparations package. There should also be a provision to provide counselling for the poor sharks that still habituate the old slave trading lanes in hopes of a tasty snack.
Weird that for the first time in human history there are idle, obese poor. The rest of us have to foot their doctor bills, of course.
Hey, it's slavery's fault, not theirs for not shutting big fat mouth and not getting off big fat butt.
Next, it will be Bush's fault, of course.
Ohio's not even in the top ten............
Bring me the Oreos!
And don't forget the `spotted dick'!
Say, a little off-topic but, any English person, pray, tell me, what's a `Henry'?
I was watching the English spoof of `Dawn of the Dead: 'Shaun of the Dead' and Shaun's worthless roommate and young co-worker both reluctantly stated,
"All I've got is a 'Henry'."
Your friend for life, td
"I think it was someone in the MidEast that said it best about America; "I wanna see a country where the poor people are FAT!!!!"
LOL. And rich are normally skinny.
What's a scotch egg?
one wonders why the people who are presumably descended from slave owners are eating like the slaves supposedly did?
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