Still Too Fat in Dixie

I am a proud son of the South. I have a 1961 Chevrolet pickup truck. I know how to separate good barbecue from plain  roasted pork. I accept no green bean that has not been cooked for at least a day in bacon. I can make buttermilk biscuits from scratch. I know the difference between fudge pie and chocolate pie.

I am fortunate, however, that what I see as heritage too many others see as a daily diet. My beloved South is once again the fattest place in the country, which means it is undoubtedly the fattest region in the world. The annual survey by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found no real progress in America’s collective battle against the waist line, with obesity rates increasing in 23 states, and no states reporting a decrease. Even more troubling is that only Colorado had a percentage of obese adults less than 20%, with four states above 30%. So much for the national goal of all states being below 15% by next year. No amount of berating by Dr. Phil is going to get us to lose that much, that soon.

The overall survey is bad news from a nationwide perspective, but the regional picture for the South is especially troubling to me. Of the top 10 states with the highest rates of adult obesity, eight were in the South. Mississippi led the nation both in the rate of adult obesity and childhood obesity, where a heartbreaking 44% of children ages 10-17 are overweight or obese.

I grew up in the last vestiges of the genteel South, where ladies were not fat but “big boned.” But back then people still grew their own vegetables, did their own manual labor and mostly cooked their own meals. Now the same problems that afflict the nation are near fatal here. Cheap, easy fast food is on every corner. And if you ain’t drivin’ then you ain’t going to work.

For children, the lack of physical activity, especially at school, is a root cause. A 2007 report by the CDC found that in Tennessee, 61% of high school students did not attend physical education classes, while 58% did not get overall recommended levels of physical activity. (It must be said, that for most of the South, for five months of the year it is just too danged hot).

There is also the undeniable link between obesity rates and poverty. Despite the emergence of  Southern cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville as major metropolitan areas, much of the South still remains in poverty. Of the 10 states at the bottom of the obesity list, eight of them have the lowest income per capita.

The mere fact that this regional disparity is so stark necessitates that any solution should take consider cultural angles. While I suspect that the South’s ranking has less to do with traditional home cooking and more to do with processed food and fast food joints, there is work to be done in convincing my fellow Southerners that obesity is not the natural state of existence.