In Reply to: Thing about obesity is it is food first and foremost. posted by hotspot on May 13, 2026 at 09:35:10
First, to anchor the discussion to what I said, I said that community provided climate controlled places for walking "might help. Maybe." I didn't say it was the most important thing or that it would necessarily change anything. I said it "might help. Maybe."
Mississippi food culture is very centered on fried food and otherwise fatty food (think gravy). Add to that, as you note, poverty and poor diet go hand in hand. See the discussion of Food Deserts and Food Swamps.
I looked up the most obese cities in the US. According to wallet hub, Baton Rouge is number 10.
My brother in law grew up cycling in Mississippi. Very into it. Ended up being VP of North American sales for a very well-known European bike company and a nationally ranked cyclist for his age group. People bike in Mississippi and they place some emphasis on building maintaining bike trails. There are bike clubs. But, obviously that's not the majority of the population. Municipal tennis leagues are popular. When I lived there a million years ago, you could always find a pick-up soccer game. But, the majority of people are inactive and eat crap food. Like Baton Rouge.
I'll repeat myself and say, if you have a low wage job (most of the jobs in Mississippi), work 8-5, and especially if you have kids, and espeeeeeecially if you're a single parent (I've done enough extraneous research today, but I think it's safe to say MS is one of the league leaders in single parents), then getting out and exercising after work in the dark, in the cold, often in the rain from mid October through mid March is going to be a challenge, and then from June through September, when there are often heat advisories, that's also going to be a challenge. So, I think climate controlled shared workout spaces (just a walking/running track) "might help. Maybe."
OT, in college I had a blind date weekend at LSU that was a ton of fun. One of the highlights was we went to a bar on a barge in the middle of the Tickfaw river. It was just a partially covered bar, in the middle of the river, powered by generators. The house specialty drink was the "worm bucket," served in a worm bucket.