Tweet
I am looking at a map. You’ve done that, I’m sure. In fact, I’ve looked at another recently.I was struck by a recent report about Huntington, WV. One of my old army buddies was from that city. So I paid attention.
Huntington’s economy has withered, its poverty rate is worse than the national average, and vagrants haunt a downtown riverfront park. But this city’s financial woes are not nearly as bad as its health.Nearly half the adults in Huntington’s five-county metropolitan area are obese — an astounding percentage, far bigger than the national average in a country with a well-known weight problem.Huntington leads in a half-dozen other illness measures, too, including heart disease and diabetes. It’s even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth (half of them have).
I dare to wonder, even though my egalitarian friends will be scandalized, if there is some common link among the overweight, the conservative voter, the ignorant and the stupid. If you find great gobs of any of those factors in one spot, might you not also identify the others? Yes, you may say, but that Palin lady is all of the above except for obesity. Yes, I say, but remember the common misunderstanding of the phrase: The exception proves the rule. So what if you can find one non-representative replica in any study, if there are tons and tons of proofs of way too much pudding?
Free discussion period.
8 Comments
Another perhaps relevant detail, this one out of Harper’s. Of the 13 southern states, 11 have an obesity rate of a quarter or more. Number of the other 37 states of which that is true: 5.
The link between obesity and its associated diseases is poverty, pure and simple. If you look at all the ‘obese’ states – you will find that the mean per capita income is in the lower half as well.
It seems counterintuitive that if you are poor you are also fat. But low quality, cheap foods tend to be those that contain very high amounts of fat, salt, and calories. And if you are poor, you are more likely not to exercise, be under a lot of stress, and live far away from a regular grocery store. So you pay more for what food you do get at the little liquor store down at the corner since you can’t get to a Krogers or a Winn Dixie or whatever brand is where you live.
As far as equating fat with stupid, that I resent. Poor people tend to have lower levels of education. That makes them ignorant, but not stupid. We are all ignorant of some things all the time because no one can know everything about everything. And lots of times, obesity is due to physical and/or emotional trauma (stuffing feelings down with food).
Care to correlate rates of child abuse, child sexual abuse, rape, spousal abuse, etc? It seems to me that I read recently these same states are higher in all these categories as well.
What you say is true. However it’s like the Zen monk watching the feline progress across his field of vision as restricted by a picket fence. If a tail follows the whisker, can we say the whisker caused the tail? “Poverty” is only another part of the cat moving behind the fence.
I had very bad, unhealthy habits once. That was when I lived in smalltown Texas, where such was the rule. Then, through no ability of my own, I was able to move away, to coastal California, where the opposite was the case. My health improved drastically.
They say there is no free lunch. There is little else. Our own minds and mettle have a narrow scope bound by our environments, and in impoverished, backward lands, you have overweight folk who are not very bright voting for the party which abuses ‘em. Ah, my old neighborhood!
So after you moved to a State on the Coast you magically became slim, liberal, and not stupid? Geographical intelligence was once limited to a topographical map, now you inform me it is a function of where one resides and can only be explained in the terminology of a Shao-Lin Monk.
I will refrain from making any further observations as to your patently ridiculous claims.
P J O’Rourke noted that most conservatives live in places nobody should want to, like in metal trailers in great heat or under fierce winds. It is an element of Blue voters that they are gathered on the coasts or around the lakes. In both places, it is necessary to void empirical evidence or inductive reasoning which would challenge existing patterns. The ones living down south are eternally right by god’s own will, and those on the Upper West Side hate any discussion which suggests we are not all one around the maypole.
I find on either side of town, if you say something that hasn’t been said many times before, you cause distress. This makes us all one, I reckon, if nothing else does.
I would be able to believe in your metamorphisis to a svelte, no longer stupid, Liberal wonderbeing if you had said you relocated to Eugene, Oregon or some place similiar. I might have even given you props if you said moved to the California beaches in the late Sixties. I consulted the Google and learned that my hopelessly landlocked city in Texas, land of all of us fat conservative dunces and discovered we are the 24th fittest city in the Country by Men’s Fitness, while Sperling’s had us at Number 10. According to the Wall Street Journal, Austin is the third most innovative city in the country. The city is the fifth most educated city in the United States, with more than 44% of the population holding a college degree. We are second greenest city according to Green Guide. Travel-Leisure magazine, America’s Favorite Cities rates Austin number nine for our Quality of Life.
The Short List:
1
Lokywoky made the salient point, the high cost of nutritious foodstuffs is the prime driver behind the obesity epidemic. Fresh fruits and vegetables are quite expensive, while high starch and processed food is cheap and readily available. You are correct in your point that many of these people are relatively uneducated-but that should never be confused with stupid nor should it be held against them. I grew up among these people and still count many of them as my friends. Quite often they will surprise with what they do know.
I am surprised that you take nothing of your childhood with you to California, other than your obvious derision of people living in Smalltown, TX and by extension, everyone in the South. I too grew up among small town people near Austin. Obviously our experiences were quite different, as I have traveled these United States and much of the World, yet I eventually returned to Central Texas.
There are a few reasons for obesity that I’ve discovered from living in Ohio. One is early (before age 6 months)infant feeding of cereal. I heard grandmas saying, “Feed him cereal in a bottle and he’ll sleep through the night.” Well, he will but it increases chances of childhood obesity and allergy to grains.
Another is traditional cooking of food in fat. When people grew up poor, they used lard to fry things and still do today. Also, there’s a heavy reliance on potatoes in everyday meals.
Another is poor dental care. Few teeth, the less fresh veggies and fruits you can eat.