A glance at the Calorielab graphic from the actual article and your postulation is clear.
A glance at the Calorielab graphic from the actual article and your postulation is clear.
* Black Americans may be more overweight on average than other Americans, but the second most obese state, West Virginia, has a very low percentage of African Americans (3.5%, vs. a national average of 12.8%). Ditto for Oklahoma (8.3%) and Kentucky (7.8%), both top ten states
* The "Southernness" of all three states can be questioned for demographic and historical reasons. In any case, West Virginia and Kentucky were Border states during the Civil War, and Oklahoma was not in the Union, although several Indian tribes aligned with the Confederacy.
* The argument that the wide open spaces of the South contribute to a lack of walking is not valid, inasmuch as the "leanest" state (Colorado) and an additional two of the ten "leanest" states (Utah and Montana) are in the even wider open spaces of the West.
* The argument that the heat of the South discourages outdoor excercise can be countered by the observation that Floridians, who have perhaps the hottest, most humid climate in the South, have below average obesity rates. Florida also has black and Hispanic populations above the national average. Also, the four Southwestern desert states (NM, AZ, NV, CA), which have hot summers as well (higher temperatures, lower humidity) are in the lower levels, even though all four states have high minority populations (albeit Hispanic and not black).
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.