In a nation that just seems to keep getting fatter, the South is claiming an ever-larger piece of the pie. And the reasons may be rooted as much in the attitudes Southerners have about being overweight as in their diets and exercise patterns.
A new poll conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that, although Southerners are significantly more likely than other Americans to acknowledge that they themselves are overweight, they are less likely to agree with national guidelines defining what being overweight means — and they certainly don’t listen to most government recommendations on eating healthfully and staying fit.
According to the poll:
Southerners are unlikely to exercise on most days.
They do not eat enough of the right kinds of foods to meet federal dietary standards.
They believe overweight people face discrimination in daily life.
They are significantly more likely than other Americans to blame their own bad habits for being overweight, rather than genetics or other factors they can’t control.
The poll responses help explain why, when it comes to weight and diet, the South is on the leading edge of a negative trend.
“We have found that there are regional patterns in the prevalence of obesity,” said Deborah Galuska, an epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of nutrition and physical activity. “And there is higher prevalence, in general, in the South and Midwest.”
Overweight is a national problem. In a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association published last October, the CDC reported that more than half of all Americans over 18 — 63 percent of men and 55 percent of women — could be considered overweight and, therefore, at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, gall bladder disease and arthritis.
The prevalence of obesity also was rising: In 1998, 18 percent of the population qualified as obese. In Georgia, the obesity rate doubled between 1991 and 1998.
Southerners are noticing their weight problem.
“I have really seen a difference since I moved [to Atlanta],” said Rashida Coleman, who is originally from California. “In fact, people tell me I should put on weight.” The 23-year-old, who participated in the survey, considers herself slightly underweight and works out only occasionally “for fun,” she said.
According to the poll, 46 percent of Southerners who were interviewed felt they were “slightly overweight” or “moderately to seriously overweight”; in other regions, only 39 percent of respondents felt the same. And those numbers may be under-reporting the problem because Southerners, in contrast to the rest of the country, have a looser definition of what overweight means.
The poll asked how much extra weight an average person would have to carry to be considered unhealthfully fat. Those outside the South put the upper limit at 33 pounds for women and 36 pounds for men; Southerners allowed 36 pounds for women and 40 pounds for men.
Where is the extra weight coming from?
Southerners who participated in the poll agree that eating well is a challenge. Jodi Lynn Cash, 33, of Dallas, Ga., owner of Dallas/Millennium Metal Inc., a construction company, watches his diet carefully to keep trim enough for work. On the road, that can be a challenge.
“We cover probably half the U.S., and when you go into some towns, you find they’ve rolled up the sidewalks at 8:30 p.m.,” he said. “Then you’re stuck with a Waffle House, or some late-night fast-food chain. When you have a chance to get a home-cooked meal, or some type of vegetable meal, on the road, you have to take it.”
Southerners may be heftier than other Americans, but they’re clear about why their weight is rising: Fifty-six percent of poll respondents in the South agreed that overweight comes from “bad diet and exercise habits,” compared with 49 percent of those elsewhere. And 80 percent of Southerners felt that fat people “should take responsibility for their own health and lose weight.”
But three out of every 10 Southerners polled said they never exercise; another two out of 10 exercise one to two days a week. All told, half the Southern poll respondents do not meet the minimum goal established by health authorities of 30 minutes of exercise at least three times a week.
And although the vegetable plate is a Southern icon, almost one-third of Southerners said they ate no fruit or vegetables on an average day or consumed one serving at best. In the rest of the country, only one of every five people eat one or fewer servings per day. At the other end of the spectrum, one of every four Southerners said they ate four or more vegetable servings on average, compared with one-third of other Americans. The national recommendation is five servings of fruit or vegetables.
Southerners and non-Southerners scored roughly the same in the amount of meat, fish or eggs they eat: Nine of 10 eat up to three servings of animal protein a day, one more than is called for in national dietary goals.
Southerners are much less likely to drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol. According to the poll, 63 percent of those in the South never drink at all, compared with 51 percent of those outside the South.
