Amen to that. I moved to Alabama from the Mid-Atlantic back in the late 90’s. I’ve never seen so many fat people. But my wife and sister-in-law can make a crock pot of chicken and dumplings so good, you won’t care if your arteries are clogging in real-time. Both native Baptist Alabamans, ‘natch.
I think a lot of this obese ‘chatter’ goes to breakfast tastes, and calorie counts.
Having grown up in Alabama...I can swear that a typical breakfast may run upwards to 1,200 calories easily. There are other areas around the US where your breakfast count might only be 600 calories (bowl of cereal and some toast, with a coffee). A couple of years ago, I visited for a couple of days, and found myself having near 1,800 calories between 7 AM and 11 AM.
If you went and took calorie counts from these black church-going guys....I’ll bet that 95-percent are hefty breakfast eaters.