A blog I’ve recently been amazed by is Strange Maps.  After perusing some of their recent posts, I came across two maps related to beverages and the South.  This theme of beverages also reminded me of an interesting map I saw on the CDC BRFSS maps.

The first Strange Map post of note is about a very Southern beverage: Sweet Tea.

The map above is from this site, where you can interactively play around with some research done on the prevalence of sweet tea at McDonald’s in Virginia.  I won’t spoil the punchline for you, but there is an interesting dividing line between places where sweet tea and non-sweet tea are served.

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The next notable map has to do with the terms that various parts of the country use to designate carbonated beverages.

For those of us from the South, you’re probably not shocked at the seemingly odd Southern trend for calling every carbonated beverage “Coke” no matter what brand the beverage may be (e.g. “Hey man, you want a coke?  We got Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper… any of these cokes sound good to you?”).  I was still a little bit surprised by the depth and breadth of this usage, even knowing the Southern trend to use the term “coke”.

Strange Maps reports an interesting take on this usage, by the way.  The use of “Coke” as a term for all carbonated beverages might be related to the fact that Coke started in Atlanta.  Hence the term spread out from Atlanta into the South, in much the same way that other brand names have been coopted to mean an entire category of products (e.g. BandAids, Xerox machine, Ziplock bag, Kleenex, to “Google” something, etc.).

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Here’s one more beverage related map, this time from the CDC.

Now, looking at this map maybe you won’t be shocked by the lack of alcohol consumption in the South.  But I certainly was.  Southerners invented most of this country’s indigenous liquors (whisky, bourbon, etc.) as well as many of its great cocktails (hurricanes, mint juleps, etc).  Furthermore, isn’t beer drinking a pretty Southern stereotype?  Anyway, it appears that the South’s relationship to alcohol is more schizophrenic than I knew.  Despite its great alcoholic heritage, its religious and politically conservative mores seem to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed in the region.  Probably has something to do with the number of dry counties as well.

The recent post on obesity in the South seems to have sparked an interest in exactly why Southerners are more obese.  In particular, the suggestive map showing that Southerners don’t exercise as much as the rest of the country caught people’s attention.

So digging deeper then, what might be some of the general causes for Southerners’ obesity?

Well, first lets start off by saying that Brian’s comment to the first post is correct: there has to be something explaining this beyond any over-simplified cultural argument.  It seems foolish to argue that Southerners have a peculiar cultural trait where they celebrate poor health and obesity.  Also, while the cultural love of fried foods has to be part of the story, this can’t be the end of the story.  Even with poor education, most people at least know that fried foods aren’t good for you.  So the answer to higher obesity can’t just simply be that Southerners choose to hurt themselves more than the rest of the country.

Looking beyond over-simplified theories, there are a number of other possible causes:

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The South is well known for its love of food.  Unfortunately it’s also well known for the consequence of this love affair: obesity.  While this is one of the South’s uglier stereotypes, it is also potentially one of the most serious issues facing the region.  For the curious sort, this begs the question: How bad is the problem?  And is there truth in this stereotype?

Well, first let’s confront the stereotype.  Now, I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, but when you put “barbeque logo” into Google Image, I can’t help but notice that the farther north a BBQ joint, the more “fatness” is integrated into their corporate logo.

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Like my brothers in blogging, I’ve gotten some gruff for leaving the south.  Thankfully, I was never really seen as a southerner by friends and family anyway, but for other southerners, leaving the south is a crime that borders on treason.

Because of my crime against my brethren, I am often dismissed or naysayed by other southerners when I talk about or go back to the south.  While I expect this to happen because of this blog, it has already happened on everyone’s favorite stalking instrument, facebook.com.

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There are a few things I miss about living in the Panhandle, but perhaps the hardest one to replicate in the Midwest is the food.

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