Why Are Southerners So Fat?

Time ^ | 7/9/2009 | Claire Suddath

[freed0misntfree]

People from Mississippi are fat. With an adult obesity rate of 33%, Mississippi gobbled its way to the "chubbiest state" crown for the fifth year in a row, according to a new joint report by Trust For America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Alabama, West Virginia, and Tennessee aren't far behind, with obesity rates over 30%. In fact, eight out of the 10 fattest states are in the South. The region famous for its biscuits, barbecue and pecan pies has been struggling with its weight for years — but then again, so has the rest of the country. Wisconsin loves cheese, New Yorkers scarf pizza, and New Englanders have been known to enjoy a crab cake or two. So why is the South so portly?

[Born to Conserve]

Hmmm, could it be that the North crippled the South economically, causing a demographic shift with the harder working people moving to regions with jobs, leaving the South with a higher proportion of lazy fat people?

Nawwwww.

[Neoliberalnot]

Ya ever been to Wisconsin?””

I have traveled all 50 states and when I saw this article I immediately thought of people in Wisconsin.

[taxcontrol]

Born and raised in the south and I believe that the sweet tea is by far, the greatest reason for obesity down south. Often a glass of tea will have more carbs than a can of soda. Most of the people that I know from down south, when the want to lose weight, if they simply cut out the tea, lose a 10 to 20 percent of the body weight .... just by eliminating the sweat tea.

[mysterio]

The reason is that the foods many people eat are those that were designed for agricultural workers who typically burn 4,000 + calories per day. An office worker is lucky to burn 2,200 per day. In the past 50 years, sedentary jobs have replaced manual labor jobs. Hence, people have gotten fat.

[BeerLover NYC]

I could live off cajun food alone.

[napscoordinator]

Southerners tend to be lazy. Exercise is not in their makeup and they eat all they greasy food. Hopefully they will lose 200 pounds.

[tioga]

sweet tea packs on the pounds......I literally gag on the stuff.

[ejonesie22]

Could have though...

[rightly_dividing]

willing to give up food to lose weight, but not sweet tea. Some things are just TOO GOOD.

[TexasM1A]

Because our food is better than yours..

[Vendome]

Fried food.

[Julia H.]

I hope you don’t mind just ONE more Yankee coming down there if Ohio doesn’t come to its senses soon. Granted, I’m of Southern descent, so I shouldn’t smell too bad.

The Midwest used to have the highest concentration of real people in the entire North, but the northeast is slowly assimilating us into its evil empire...

[Disambiguator]

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

At least it's not called the "Peter Wood Johnson Foundation" - that would simply be too much.

[Disambiguator]

We probably have the highest percentage of fit people due to the weather but we still have a buttload of fat people. I've noticed when I go out in public that it looks like about one in three people is overweight.

Try staying out of Walmart, then it won't seem so bad.

:^)

[Pharmboy]

Gee whiz...TIME left this fact out: the south has, in general, a much larger percentage of African Americans than any other segment of the country. For example, while New York, Massachusetts, New Jesey and Pennsylvania have, respectively, 17%, 6.3%, 14.4% and 10.5% of their populations as African Americans, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina have 29.2%, 26.3%, 36.6% and 29.9% of their citizens as African Americans. For the source, click here.

This is primarily driven by African American women, as can be seen in this chart:

[freed0misntfree]

At least it's not called the "Peter Wood Johnson Foundation" - that would simply be too much.
lol!

[Onelifetogive]

Southern states have a different demographic than other states. Alabama and Mississippi are about 30% minority whereas Minnesota and Wisconsin are way down in the single digits. Any assessment of demographic statistics about various area of the country (Education, Weight, Crimes, etc) that does not consider this is worthless.

The government provides food for a much larger percentage of minorities than for whites. Does this come into play?

[TexasM1A]

Southerners are lazy?.
That is a stupid thing to say, we are no lazier than the rest of the country..And probably more industrious overall, ‘course I could be biased.

[sweet_diane]

Because we have the best food and down here, a meal is an event!

Because of the heat and humidity, not moving is a necessity!

Because everything tastes better deep fried :)

[Pharmboy]

See # 95