[RebelPhotog]

Maybe if the state stopped giving a family of four $700 a month in food stamps.....
I have to watch my budget and I feed four people, two of them teenagers, and I don't spend $700 on groceries. Keep in mind this is not paper goods, dog food, or shampoo, JUST FOOD ! It's irritating to be in the grocery line, watching my budget, only to see someone behind me buying steak with a state debit card and then buy two cases of beer and a carton of cigarettes with their cash. Those people don't look like they go home and run two miles. They looked to me as if they sat on their big fat unemployed butts watching tv, probably cable. But that's just my opinion.

Answer to obesity:
Eat less and exercise, cut out the fast food. And, yes, I practice what I preach. I run 5-6 days per week.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

If anecdotes regarding race=based genes were the only factor in play, then Idaho, Vermont, and West Virginia would be virtually identical.

I never said race was the only factor, it's only part of many. I won't deny that there are plenty of fat white people in Alabama.

[Sprightly]

I think there are more factors than we know of on the table. MSG is used in lab experiments to induce obesity in rats and many of our foods, particularly our fast/processed foods, contain MSG. Who buys organic and eats less processed food? Usually not the poor and uneducated. There are also genetics issues - some races are more susceptible to certain diseases than others so why not also be more susceptible to food additives? My grandparents grew their own vegetables and ate some meat but not a lot - neither ever had a weight problem at all. Connection?

[oscottscotto]

Originally Posted by RebelPhotog

Maybe if the state stopped giving a family of four $700 a month in food stamps.....
I have to watch my budget and I feed four people, two of them teenagers, and I don't spend $700 on groceries. Keep in mind this is not paper goods, dog food, or shampoo, JUST FOOD ! It's irritating to be in the grocery line, watching my budget, only to see someone behind me buying steak with a state debit card and then buy two cases of beer and a carton of cigarettes with their cash. Those people don't look like they go home and run two miles. They looked to me as if they sat on their big fat unemployed butts watching tv, probably cable. But that's just my opinion.

This brings back so many good memories of when I was a cashier at walmart in my late teens . People on food stamps eat like freaking kings and queens. They got the expensive steaks while I ate the ramen noodles for years. It's all good though. I did my time and now can afford the steak with no government help.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by Ynot

Being overweight or obese is an individual problem, but I fear the government will soon attempt to regulate that, too. Yes, you can argue the increase in health care and insurance, but it's still regulating.

REgulation is already underway in Japan. For those over 40, waists are measured every year by the Government. 33.5 inches for men, 35.5 for women. If you exceed those limits, you must go for counseling, year later and you haven't reduced, they levy fines.

In Corporations overe there, they start measuring waistlines at 30. Over the limit, you must go to one of their Corporate-sponsored training camps.

What started all this? For one, Crispy Creme Donut shops having sprung up all over Japan. Apparently, they just can't resist them. Now they have a diabetes problem as well, which was never an issue over there before.

President of Japan says, we're not going to have our people ending up looking like doughnuts!

Regulations? When the anti-smoking zealots get the last sinner to put out their last cigarette, they'll be bored stiff with nothing to do.

Fat people----LOOK OUT!

[Southlander]

It's just so nice of all these non-Alabama people coming here to tell us poor, ignorant, dumb Alabamians what to do.

We're just so grateful.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by Southlander

It's just so nice of all these non-Alabama people coming here to tell us poor, ignorant, dumb Alabamians what to do.

We're just so grateful.

I hope you didn't take my post the wrong way. I'm totally against regulations. I was making reference to the woman fearful of regulations coming into place and I mentioned Japan.

The invitation is always there for any Alabamian to respond to any post on the Nevada or Las Vegas forums as we have even more ignorant and dumb people living here than Alabama. And lots and lots of poor people as well!

And you don't need a visa or passport to visit us!

[Charles]

Why Are Southerners So Fat? - TIME

[Southlander]

The Time article says: "Southerners have little access to healthy food."
Kinda hard to believe because we have a tradition of farming, and still supply a lot of food to the country. My parents grew up on farms and had vegetable gardens many years. The year my dad died, at age 84, he had some tomato and cucumbers in the back yard.

I certainly don't see gardens much in my neighborhood.

Now that sidewalk thing, that's so true. Cities gave up sidewalks 20+ years ago because of the cost of maintaining them. Decatur has tried to require that developers have sidewalks in their neighborhoods, but we haven't had too many new developments here. And the developers that are here have about persuaded the City Council to dump that requirement.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by Southlander

The Time article says: "Southerners have little access to healthy food."
Kinda hard to believe because we have a tradition of farming, and still supply a lot of food to the country. My parents grew up on farms and had vegetable gardens many years. The year my dad died, at age 84, he had some tomato and cucumbers in the back yard.

I certainly don't see gardens much in my neighborhood.

Now that sidewalk thing, that's so true. Cities gave up sidewalks 20+ years ago because of the cost of maintaining them. Decatur has tried to require that developers have sidewalks in their neighborhoods, but we haven't had too many new developments here. And the developers that are here have about persuaded the City Council to dump that requirement.

TIME magazine is a joke, that rag isn't worth wiping your @ss with!

They make it sound like everyone here is dirt poor and we don't have grocery stores with a variety of food. Articles like that are why southern stereotypes keep going, people in other parts of the country read that mess and actually believe it.

As for sidewalks, my small town has had them for as long as I can remember, and in the last few years they have been rebuilding them for wheelchair access at the corners. We also have a park with a long track for walking or jogging. It's true during the summer months when it's hot people just don't feel like walking outside, I know I'm more physically active during the winter when the humidity is low, winter doesn't last long down here though.