Statistical Analysis
Now, I know that, statistically, the southern states are the fattest states in the country*. I believe that Colorado, Washington (state), Oregon, Massachusetts and Vermont are considered the thinnest states. After living through the past few days of extreme heat and humidity I don’t understand how that can be. I mean, all I ate yeaterday was cereal, yogurt, some grapes, a granola bar, 1/2 a turkey burger and some crab meat. That’s it. I couldn’t even contemplate having dinner. Hell, I could barely eat 1/2 of my turkey burger at lunch because the thought of eating repulsed me so much.
My diet the day before was also similar: just add some broccoli, replace the crab meat with chicken hotdogs, and assume I managed to finish the entire turkey burger.
That’s normally the quantity of food I consume before midday…let alone in an entire day. I stepped on the scale last night and was 5 pounds lighter than I was on Monday. I’m sure most of it was just the loss of “water weight”…but I’m doing my best to stay hydrated (I had over 3.5 liters of water yesterday).
Anyway, if it’s like this almost daily in the south for 3 or 4 months of the year…how can people become obsese down there? I’d think instead it would be the most emaciated region of the world.
*After writing this post I did some research on a website called http://www.obesityinamerica.org/geographic.html. it appears that New England has surpassed the Mountain region (including Colorado) as the thinnest part of the country – though even the New England region has become fatter between 1991 and 2000.
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I’m with you . . . I’m not a big eater to begin with (in my humble opinion), but I could barely eat in the heat (even though I was in air conditioned spaces most of the time), because the heat caused me to have no appetite.
two words for the obesity thing “diet” and “exercise”. people in washington state or colorado or vermont have more access to outdoor sports, so wherever people can do those things in relative comfort they will. people live in these places because they can and will take advantage of the outdoors (people+outdoors+exercise=skinny people).
people in the south, theyre culturally (stereotypically) creatures of comfort and privacy. mind you, alabama or south carolina are plagued by this kind of withering heat and humidity almost year-round. if you had to deal with this weather year-round would YOU want to be outside for longer than you had to? no, and neither do they. add krispy kreme to the sedentary lifestyle, and you have the formula for obesity. florida is strangely the exception to this formula.
The mid-American formula: walk short distances from airconditioned house to airconditioned car to airconditioned mall, eat in places which serve portions bigger than one’s head, and seldom get outside, as there’s noplace one can walk too, anyway, and ’tis usually too hot (South almost all the time, middle of the country through the summers) or too cold (middle of the country rest of the time…) to do so. No sidewalks, vast suburban/exurban sprawl, and a cuisine heavily based on frying and corn syrup…yikes! I haven’t noted such an exception in Florida other than in places we gayfolk (and other stylish types) frequent – lots of fat people in the malls and suburban enclaves… Then again, I note the difference between youngish, fittish, walking-intellectual-city Boston and just going out to the southern ‘burbs to see the folks – one can add a minimum 20-lb. average to suburbanites over their urban counterparts….people just need to get out there and WALK to things (when it’s not 105 with the heat index, but of course). Skinniest I’ve ever been was after the six weeks I spent in England touring around right after college – ate vast greasy English breakfasts every day (all fried in the same pan, bread, black pudding & all…woo hoo!) in B&Bs, plus pub food, lots of good beer, etc. – but WALKED everywhere looking at stuff. One doesn’t see seriously obese, or really all that many fat, English people. Period. Ditto French people, etc..
Hmmm….
English breakfast – Yumm. Fried bread – the whitest of bread cooked in lard. Delish. Cheese scones covered in butter. Oh, I feel faint.
i feel my arteries clogging
Dammit Karl, it’s B-R-O-C-C-O-L-I not B-R-O-C-O-L-L-I.
Sorry. The heat getteth to me too.
What Chris said. Remember, I grew up in the South and I know what it’s like to have a diet of rich fried food (much of which is the ‘fast’ kind) coupled with a car culture. Many of my friends down there would drive two blocks given the heat, the ease of parking, and the complete lack of sidewalks in most neighborhoods. In addition, space is not a premium as it is here, so houses are much further apart and you *have* to have a car to get anywhere, including work and the grocery store (much less Wal-Mart).
I have stayed much leaner since moving to Boston and I attribute it to walking everywhere versus driving. Hell, I only put around 2,000 miles on my car last year whereas the nat’l average is almost 10K!