Nutrition

Aprapo of nothing,  I saw this car on the road in Lake Charles, 

Louisianna

Hazelhurst, Mississippi to San Antonio, Texas through Louisiana - 604 miles, three meals, and there's the rub. When I began this trip, I expected I would have to make compromises in my current diet. It's not a particularly exotic diet. I avoid processed foods and wheat. At first, I was encouraged that a healthy road diet would be fairly easy to maintain. My last night in Alexander City, my cousin Frances cooked a dinner of home made cornbread, vegetable soup with fresh, local corn, okra, and tomatoes, lavender hull peas, sliced home grown tomatoes with olive oil and basil. Home made potato salad. And for dessert another slice of cornbread with butter and tupelo honey. Except for the potatoes, which came from Idaho, all the ingredients wer grown locally.There was a little bit of wheat in the cornbread, but other than that, the meal was incredibly, unbelievably flavorful.

The next day, after a breakfast of leftovers from the night before, I drove to Tupelo. After paying homage to the King of Rock and Roll, I had an excellent lunch of pulled pork with cole slaw and fried green tomatoes at Romie's BBQ restaurant. A few more calories than I needed, but so far so good.

After trying to find a place to eat in Hazelhurst and surrounds, I thought I could understand why Mississippi has the highest obesity rate in the country. Every food option on the highway or in town was either a franchise fast food restaurant or a convenience store. Fat, salt, and sugar. Driving through Louisiana I was pleased and surprised at the variety of restaurants available right off the highway. Seafood, vegetables, real local food, good food. And fat people everywhere.

Today I am in San Antonio, Texas. There's a wide variety of wholesome and varied food choices. Yet even in the local Whole Foods, I was struck by the amount of junk food disguised with labels like natural and organic. I also continue to be struck by how fat people are everywhere. At every economic level. Driving through Mississippi, I was working on a tidy analogy about economic disparity, food choices, and obesity. As I write this, about the only thing I can say is that it is easy for people to make choices that will almost certainly guarantee weight gain. That includes me, and I'm the only one who is responsible for the outcome of the choices I make. I might wish it were easier to find healthy food on the road, but in the end, whether or not I end this trip the size of the Goodyear blimp is up to me.