Speaking as a lifelong Southerner, I can tell you that black, white, whatever ... way too many of us are heavy. There is plenty of porkiness to go around. Just take a trip to the mall in Charlotte, in Richmond, in Atlanta, in Jacksonville ... you'll get the picture.

The cliche is that it the food. But, really, that's not it. It is a number of things -- the culture, the drive-by lifestyle, and, yes, the humidity.

The nation as a whole has grown fatter, by no small margin. Take a look at Americans in the 1950s compared to folks today. Doesn't matter where -- North, South, East, West -- it is a shocking comparison, the difference in body size. Mom and Dad just weren't so big, were they?

Us modern Americans, we eat more, we eat carb-loaded foods, and we love comfort and convenience. That's a national phenomenon.

We're just fatter than the rest here in the South because exercise is not what we do, on the whole. It's hot, it's humid, the neighbors laugh (if you live in the rural South), the dogs bite ... and there ain't no stinkin' sidewalks!