How unbearable are the summers?

[DinsdalePirahna]

It has nothing to do with humidity. NY is very humid in the summer and at least in the Hudsdon Valley, NYC and Long Island Areas people are much healthier than they are here.

The no smoking laws do help. So does diet. You wont see too many Californians or even New Yorkers woofing down BBQ or eating pizza with Provel cheese (its not even real cheese, folks!).

Three reasons why the certain states seem healthier
1) The culture of fitness. Partly for living your life to the best. Partly to keep yourself above the competition for mates and jobs.
2) Education. Education usually brings a better incomes and therefore more choices in diet, fitness and time for physical activities. Education also gives you the tools to desiminate information and make better choices in what you eat and do (you won't see too many white collar professionals yelling out "Hey Jimbo, What this!").

3) this one is a bit more controversial: Genetics and Mobility
The populations in the healthier states is more flexible, and transient. These are people with adventure in their blood. They tend to move around and keep the gene pool active and mixed. I 'm not going to call it inbreeding, but with smaller, less transient populations, like you see in the the midwest, their does tend to be a stagnation of genes. Modcut- inflamatory

[Marksman84]

Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna

It has nothing to do with humidity. NY is very humid in the summer and at least in the Hudsdon Valley, NYC and Long Island Areas people are much healthier than they are here.

Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna

The no smoking laws do help. So does diet. You wont see too many Californians or even New Yorkers woofing down BBQ or eating pizza with Provel cheese (its not even real cheese, folks!).

Three reasons why the certain states seem healthier
1) The culture of fitness. Partly for living your life to the best. Partly to keep yourself above the competition for mates and jobs.
2) Education. Education usually brings a better incomes and therefore more choices in diet, fitness and time for physical activities. Education also gives you the tools to desiminate information and make better choices in what you eat and do (you won't see too many white collar professionals yelling out "Hey Jimbo, What this!").

3) this one is a bit more controversial: Genetics and Mobility
The populations in the healthier states is more flexible, and transient. These are people with adventure in their blood. They tend to move around and keep the gene pool active and mixed. I 'm not going to call it inbreeding, but with smaller, less transient populations, like you see in the the midwest, their does tend to be a stagnation of genes. You have to remember that for the longest time when the midwest was really the nations breadbasket, men would choose their wives as breeding stoclk like cattle. The stronger they appeared, the more desirable they were as mates.

Dude, you are going to get hammered on this one by some of the locals, but I must say that, as a healthy, active person, I agree with (1) and (2), as my wife and I are both natives and have Masters Degrees (and consequently, are both very active and people often think we are 10 years younger than our actual ages ).

I think you are off the mark a bit on (3). Many of us went "against the grain" or maintained our sense of individualism, even in St. Louis, where I'm sure you perceived an overwhelming element/presence of "that's the way we've always done it" reactionary thinking. I chose at a young age to not smoke or sit in the garage and get fat. St. Louis IS getting healthier, albeit at a slower pace than most, but at least it's positive.