Why ARE Southerners so fat?
So I was browsing through this piece on Time’s site headlined “Why are Southerners so fat?”
Reading all about fried chicken and cornbread and gravy made me so hungry that I wandered down to the snack bar to grab myself a Snickers bar.
But hey, at least it wasn’t a deep-fried Snickers bar! Compared to that, a regular Snickers bar is like, eating tofu, right?
Except it tastes a lot better than tofu.
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304 comments Add your comment
Normal
July 14th, 2009
4:03 pm
Onje word! Fried food…no, wait that’s two…wait a minute, while I count my teeth…uh, two words! Fried food!
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:05 pm
Okay, Jay! I see you took my advice. This ought to be fun!
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:05 pm
Fat and sassy!
Normal
July 14th, 2009
4:11 pm
Napolean said that an army moves on its stomach…That ought to scare the hedouble toothpicks out of them yankees now…just sayin’
godless heathen
July 14th, 2009
4:11 pm
No snow to shovel?
Dogs Against Whiners
July 14th, 2009
4:13 pm
Manual’s wings.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 14th, 2009
4:15 pm
Ok, I actually like tofu. Especially when it’s fried.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 14th, 2009
4:18 pm
Obviously, it’s because the lazy-fare approach to development that tends to favor quick and cheap exurbian development with no walkability whatsoever so prevalent among Southren politicians, has left many in the ‘burbs with no way to get around save by car.
Mrs. Godzilla
July 14th, 2009
4:19 pm
Well, I can tell ya’ why.
The foods great. If it’s slow enough to catch, bread it and drop it in the hot grease! YUM!!
However, since taking on MiMi’s eldercare, we have cleaned up our act big time and fast. I’m not frying chicken and mashing taters and
rollin’ biscuits for Mr. G and then making a heart healthy meal for MiMi too. So it’s heart healthy for all of us now.
My little garden does not really produce enough, so the ‘Zillettes and I went down to the big farmers market last saturday. We spent the weekend blanching and freezing roughly a gazillion pounds of squash and beans and greens….It’s all wonderful.
I may however, sneak out under the dark of night to Bojangles or Cap’n D’s….am experiencing withdrawal…..must have fat….
Trust me
July 14th, 2009
4:21 pm
I hate to be the one to break this to y’all but it ain’t the southern cookin’ that done y’all in. I know for a fact that you can eat fried chicken and bacon and biscuits and gravy and grits and on and on without gettin’ fat. But, you go and modify yore chickens and pigs and cows with all sorts of bull to make ‘em fatter and then turn around and eat that stuff and drink that happy cow milk, well, you get fatter. It don’t take no rocket science to figure out why Monsanto had to finally quit sellin’ them bovine hormones that they said were all right without doing any testing (because part of their motto is to just sell as much as they can and make as much money as they can before anyone gets wiser and to let the FDA and EPA sort it all out after they done spent the profits and passed any left overs on to their step kids). All it takes is the ability to read. At least, that’s part of the story. The whole story would just take too long without turnin’ it into a book and we all know how Republicans and books get along. The only one they ever really took a likin’ to was that Ray Bradbury book. They was ready to torch all the libraries for a while there until someone reminded them that there just might be another Good Book in there on an obscure and dusty shelf and they wouldn’t want to go and burn it up.
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:22 pm
Mrs. G–Deacon Burton’s! Heart attack on a plate, but what a way to go!
Mrs. Godzilla
July 14th, 2009
4:26 pm
Trust me
I think you bring up a valid issue…..
We are careful to buy our food as “unadulterated” as possible….
but we never really know.
josef nix
when I get really steamed with Mr. G, I threaten to murder him by big southern breakfast…..fry 3 eggs and breakfast taters in the grease of one pound of bacon………
getalife
July 14th, 2009
4:28 pm
Steele on bringing minority voters into the GOP: “My plan is to say, ‘Ya’ll come!’ I got the fried chicken and potato salad!”
Steele’s fault.
Hillbilly Deluxe
July 14th, 2009
4:29 pm
For starters I’m, 5′ 11″ and weigh 170 so I don’t reckon I’m fat.
The answer to original question is a no-brainer. The food is so much better. Every time I ever went up North I liked to have died until I could get back into Kentucky or Tennessee and get something to eat.
And by the way, I eat the same greasy, fried stuff my grandparents did and they lived to between 85 and 92. I may die but I won’t die hungry.
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:31 pm
Ms G–one of my favorite lines from Cybill was when she said, “in Memphis we just invite you over to dinner and shave 10 years off your life!”
Mr. Snarky
July 14th, 2009
4:31 pm
We eat huge meals and drive everywhere. Simple enough?
Angry Black Man
July 14th, 2009
4:35 pm
Who are you calling fat?
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:35 pm
The Unmentionable is making fried pork chops, fried corn, butterbeans with salt pork, smashed taters (add more butter at the table), and nanner puddin as we speak! Mmm, ain’t love grand!
Mrs. Godzilla
July 14th, 2009
4:36 pm
mmmmmm…..nana pudding…..
Mrs. Godzilla
July 14th, 2009
4:37 pm
gotta double or triple coat those chops first….
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:38 pm
Angry Black Man
“Who are you calling fat?”
My Lirrle Bit says, “I’m zaftig with hips plainly built for child bearin’!”
Trust me
July 14th, 2009
4:38 pm
Besides, the menu at the Chinese restaurant — and, do I even need to ask if you have ever seen a fat Chinese person — even has fried ice cream on it. Everything on the menu is fried, even the rice. And it is so good. I have a hard time stickin’ to the traditional southern fried food selection and I am most certainly southern born and raised on fried chicken, fried okra, fried squash, fried ham, fried taters, fried fish… It’s the ‘fried’ analogue to the varieties of shrimp named off in that movie about them other southern boys that were forced to fight in the war of Asian aggression together. At least they didn’t have to fight on opposite sides but that is another story.
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:40 pm
Ms G–a friend of mine’s mama came back from visting a sister she didn’t care for and said, “the only thing she had to eat was a mean-ole-dried up-I-hate-you pork chop!”
Scooter
July 14th, 2009
4:41 pm
Ms G,
If you make biscuits with that “killer” breakfast please let me know when you have an empty seat. I’ll bring the fig preserves!
AmVet
July 14th, 2009
4:42 pm
When I was a lad we had JFK’s Council on Youth Fitness and the Council on Physical Fitness.
“But the achievement of the Council on Youth Fitness was as much political as educational. In a general political sense, the actions of the Kennedy Council can be seen as a minor triumph of liberal Democratic thinking. A nationwide problem was identified and a national response was developed through the resources of the federal government, producing, if not a solution, at least an improvement.”
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/The+Federal+Government+Takes+on+Physical+Fitness+Page+3.htm
Now the little darlings do absolutely nothing but sit around on their fatasses and play with their Wii’s or whatever.
If I were King, there would again be Phys Ed every semester through the twelfth grade.
getalife, I saw where he’s gonna speak at the NAACP’s annual meeting and wants to “bridge the gap.”
A suggestion Mr. Non-Steele, ditch the Old White Crackers that still predominate in your party and try again…
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:42 pm
Let’s see if this one gets moderated
In all seriousness, a population such as ours which has faced starvation in a burnt to the ground wasteland has a different approach to groceries. “As G-d as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”
Angry Black Man
July 14th, 2009
4:43 pm
Josef, by most measures of BMI I fall in the obese category. Most calculations do not take into account that muscle is more dense than fat. I am by no means Mr. Olympia, but I’m not humpty dumpty either.
To answer your question Jay, southerners are more fat because we don’t pay lip service to that whole thin as a rail image. We live our lives, period. No hollywood type diets. And, I think Trust Me hit a homerun with his post. It’s not how we eat or how we fix it, it’s what we’re eating.
Scooter
July 14th, 2009
4:44 pm
josef can I come to supper at your house? Ya”ll making me hungry!
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:44 pm
Am Vet–old white crackers are pretty good if you grind ‘em up real good and add ‘em to pork sausage, hamburger, make meatballs and then serve with a cream gravy sauce…
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:46 pm
Scooter–y’all come, now, y’heah and bring mommernem!
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:47 pm
Angry Black Man–eat what you want, just work it off! (Do as I say, not as I do!
getalife
July 14th, 2009
4:47 pm
After you get fat on Steele’s food:
House Health Care Plan Released, Will Boost Taxes On Rich.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090714/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul
Hillbilly Deluxe
July 14th, 2009
4:47 pm
Josef @ 4:42
On a serious note, I’ve heard Daddy (a child of the 20’s-30’s) say many times, “Go to bed hungry and you won’t ever forget it”.
Mrs. Godzilla
July 14th, 2009
4:50 pm
Scooter
As a transplanted yankee, I must admit my biscuits (and my backside)
are both a 6. But, I’m still working on both.
Trust me
July 14th, 2009
4:52 pm
Well, Mrs. G., another good thing to get in the habit of doing is to tend to the garden weeds yourself and to just pick off the unwanted bugs from the vegetables or let them eat a little bit too because you sure don’t want to put your trust in a company like Monsanto when they tell you all about how safe their Roundup is. It’s about like their dirty chemicals that went into Lysol that they don’t like to talk about or about all their now banned products or about their little messes at all of those superfund sites all over the country. It is truly amazing how one company could have so many toxic waste sites all over this one country that us taxpayers have to pay to clean up. It ain’t pretty but you would never know it to hear them talk. They’re more interested in changing the subject to genetically modified crops that are designed to resist the effects of their herbicide, Roundup. Then again, they have lots of money and money talks in a real sweet voice to those with a mind to listen to its lure.
DoggoneGA
July 14th, 2009
4:53 pm
The world’s easiest to remember diet: eat less and move more
Normal
July 14th, 2009
4:53 pm
I’m sorry I had to go pay my taxes for being bad at math, but now that I’m here…MIZ G. Waffle House; Three egges over easy, hash browns, bacon, and peacan waffle every morning for ten years…Don’t know how many years it took off my life, but if you gotta go, go happy, just sayin’
——-
JOSEF, I keep telling you, young, plump crackers are the best, especially if they’re from South Georghia…Must be that onion thing…
—————-
My trainer at the gym says I’m carrying 52 pounds of fat on my bod, but if I lost all of that I’d weigh less than Michael Jackson…Maybe my white buttkit could do the moonwalk, then…eewww.
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:54 pm
Hillbilly–talking about the Depression. Mama said that being in the country, they had plenty to eat but the consumer economy had vanished and cash to buy clothes and shoes was just not there. She said, “we were the fattest bunch of little raggedy-a** kids you ever saw!”
Normal
July 14th, 2009
4:56 pm
MIZ G, your 4:50…There’s your mistake, it’s not the biscuits that count, it’s the gravy, consentrate on the gravy, oh be still, my fluttering heart…
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:56 pm
NORMAL Lost 250 lbs of ugly fat, but she (he) found her (his) way back home.
Redneck Convert
July 14th, 2009
4:57 pm
Well, I sometimes read Bookman’s stuff to the missus but you can bet your life I won’t be reading this one to her. You don’t mess around with a hot-tempered woman that weighs 350 lbs. and has lots of heavy frying pans. She likes to say she’s big-boned and that’s the reason she weighs so much. I think it might could have something to do with the fact she eats just once a day but she eats for two hours when she does. If you’re ever around her table at Ryans just be sure to keep your fingers at least two feet from her plate.
That’s all I’m going to say. Have a good night everybody.
DoggoneGA
July 14th, 2009
4:57 pm
1
Trust me
July 14th, 2009
4:57 pm
Am Vet–old white crackers are pretty good if you grind ‘em up real good and add ‘em to pork sausage, hamburger, make meatballs and then serve with a cream gravy sauce…
They also make a good filler in a squash casserole. But, don’t grind them up. Just crumble them a little.
josef nix
July 14th, 2009
4:58 pm
Ms G–not to worry. My mama was a superb cook, but she couldn’t make biscuits worth a sh*t. We used to save ‘em a play Civil War. Granddaddy said if Lee had had Mama’s biscuits, we’d have won the war.
Normal
July 14th, 2009
4:59 pm
TRUST ME: One of the best pesticides is nicotine. If you or you have friends that smoke, get them to save their cig butts. Soak them in water, strain the water and spray. Even bugs know that cigarettes aren’t good for you and they go away. The fruit and veggies are easily washed clean and there you go.
Mr. Snarky
July 14th, 2009
4:59 pm
Redneck, that sounds like a whole lot of woman!
Brad Steel
July 14th, 2009
5:00 pm
Southerner: Chicken-fry it up real good!
Waiter: It’s a salad.
Southerner: Put some ranch dressing on it after it’s real good and chicken-fried.
Kamchak
July 14th, 2009
5:00 pm
josef
Went back to you Sat. pm post at 10:33. I can understand your frustration at having such a thoughtful post moderated for no apparent reason. Having said that, I don’t see that our “Southerness” has been educated away, as this thread clearly illustrates.
Fat-@ssed Redneck
July 14th, 2009
5:02 pm
Question and answer language efficiency: More gravy? More gravy!!!
Normal
July 14th, 2009
5:02 pm
JOSEF: My wife said she lost 25 pounds…I said don’t turn around, but I think I found it…15 stitches later….