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Are we all going to jump on the bandwagon and bash the south or should we point out how everywhere across the country obesity rates are rising???
Of course not! All it takes is a quick, simple observation that, apparently, the Union wasted a lot of time and effort fighting the Civil War. All they really needed to do was promote fat-laden foods in the South, and biology would have taken care of everything.
We now return to our regularly scheduled discussion about obesity by county.
It is also interesting to see the populated NE corrider easy to spot along with the Piedmont corrider of more populated and educated regions along the Eastern seaboard
Richer florida areas and counties are easy to spot. As are select college towns across the u.s. if you know where they are.
Are we all going to jump on the bandwagon and bash the south or should we point out how everywhere across the country obesity rates are rising???
Were people bashing the South much? In the map Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio look to have several highly obese counties with maybe most of their counties a bit high.
The link itself I think has the highest states as Southern, but they put Georgia's obesity rate as at least slightly below that of Kansas (about equal really), Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. While Virginia's looks to be below that of Alaska, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Going by Gallup's "obesities in metros" deal their "fattest cities" are majority Southern but include
Reading, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
San Antonio, Texas
Louisville, Kentucky
Rochester, New York
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport-News, Virginia
Columbus, Ohio
So majority Southern, but not all Southern. Large/Largish Southern cities they list as being below-average in obesity include
Austin-Round-Rock, Texas (I think it's the lowest they list in the South of large cities)
Atlanta-Sandy-Springs, Georgia
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, Louisiana (What the?)
Birmingham, Alabama
Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
Dallas-Ft.-Worth-Arlington, Texas
Going by all sizes of metro Durham, North Carolina looked to be their "least obese in the South." Asheville, North Carolina was a close second for the South. Both looked to have less obesity than NYC or San Diego. Knoxville, Tennessee also looked fairly low on obesity being placed as having a lower rate, by them, than Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington.
Good catch. You can also see Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. In contrast, look how well Colorado does!
In fact, while Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin are not perfect, note how much better they are than some of the surrounding states
For instance, you can actually see a difference between Wisconsin and the dark blue of the UP of Michigan. Can any one from that area explain the reason why?
Actually, Appalachia looks better then other parts of the South.
Yes, Appalachia, outside Kentucky and West Virginia, as well as the Piedmont.
There's several reasons for this.
1) Appalachia, by and large, is over ninety percent white. If you look at obesity by race, you'll see that whites, by and large, have the lowest obesity rates, in terms of groups that have large populations. Since Appalachia is over ninety percent white, the region will look less obese than regions where there are fewer whites as a percentage, such as the coastal plain areas of the south, which are only minimally more white than black.
Kentucky and West Virginia seem to be exceptions. This largely has to do with the high abject poverty in the area. Those in poverty tend to not be able to afford food as nutritious as those who are more fortunate. As a result, meals often have more fat. Keep in mind that people who are in poverty often have fewer ways to entertain themselves, and so food, which in some ways is a kind of entertainment (it tastes good), is seen as more of a social/stress release than it is for those who have more options. This lifestyle lends to more obese bodies.
2) The Piedmont, from North Carolina down to Georgia, has been home to rapid growth. With greater growth comes greater capital investment and higher salaries. With greater income one is able to eat better, have more free time (as opposed to working two minimum wage jobs and being exhausted), exercise more often, and enjoy life more often, not necessarily always being centering around food.
The only reason all of the Piedmont is not white (color of county) is because the Piedmont also tends to have more blacks than southern Appalachia (a group that has higher rates of obesity), and because pockets of poverty exists within the major cities.
For those of you who have called the south's obesity into question, note that amongst each racial group, there isn't as much a difference. In fact, some southern states and regions have lower rates of obesity, when viewed at the group level. However, since the south has higher numbers of blacks (numbers much higher than other regions; not even a contest), a group that has the highest rates of obesity, then the overall obesity rate per state will reflect these demographic realities.
I should also add that, sure, southern cooking, which is heavily based on the fried side does likely play a minimal role.
Wonder how well correlated this map is to rates of car usage and availability of public transportation.
The L.A. region (AKA: car city) seems to be doing fine.
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Nevada is overweight. Must be all of the inexpensive buffets at the casinos. 
