Friday, February 11, 2011

Louisiana not among top 10 'Deadliest Eating'

Though Americans now rank #1 as the fattest people in the world, according to data from Lancet, a leading medical journal, Louisiana was fortunately not listed among the 10 most unhealthy states.

The list was led by Mississippi where the average resident drinks 82 gallons of soft drinks per year. Fewer than 9 percent of Mississippians, despite living in a part of the country where vegetables can be grown year-round, ate the recommended number of vegetables per day. (I can attest to this fact, having met a Mississippi native who claimed she'd never eaten a salad. "Lettuce - yuck!" and I quote verbatim.) Mississippi was followed by Alabama where 12 percent of the population is diabetic - the second worst diabetes rate in the nation.

Then, we have Missouri where a third of residents have a BMI (body mass index) exceeding 30 - not good. Kansas, Oklahoma, Nevada, South Dakota and Ohio might be able to place blame on weather. Arizona and New Mexico have transportation and irrigation issues relating to fresh veggies. Corn tortillas obviously figure into their equation.

A roux is definitely not the worst thing you could eat and tastes much better than fast food, even if you have to stir frequently. Everything tastes better fried, but we can also eat our shrimp boiled and oysters raw. We've got options here, as well as okra.

Creole tomatoes are big, literally and figuratively. They go into practically everything. Tomatoes are high in vitamin C and fight cancer.

Why drink soda when you can sip a sweet tea? Even if Mississippi River water is questionable, alcohol kills whatever bacteria is left in it.

And we've got sun and festivals that keep folks outdoors and dancing in the streets. That's an antidote for any illness.

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