Not that the Southern diet is exceptionally
healthy, but I'll give you my grandmother's case
in point.  She grew up on a farm

in north Florida.  Breakfast every day was fried
eggs, bacon, grits with butter, black coffee.  Good old farm food for lunch

and dinner, lots of meat. Not a lot of sweets,
since they were poor, and not a lot of preserved foods, because its Florida.

My grandmother had very good (not perfect) health
until just this past yar, when she decided to lose some weight -- using Slim

Fast.  Sudeenly she has heart problems, and has
been hospitalized twice and placed on a low-fat diet (which she rails

against).  Now she's eating Special K for
breakfast, slathering her veggies in low fat
margerine (this is the South; they have

to be slathered in SOMETHING) and is still
drinking Slim Fast.  Frankly I'm concerned about her.
  Theola Walden Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay Banks"

 >it would seem that
 > those in the South would be eating a higher meat diet and/or be *closer*
to
 > what some would consider a modern paleo/atkins-type of diet.

Atkins? Atkins who? This is the land of chicken fried steak, cream gravy,
and fried taters. And for dessert fried Twinkies or Fried Milky Way bars.
Alternate menu is beans w/ham, more fried taters, cornbread slathered
w/butter (and maybe honey or sorghum syrup), and an unidentifiable dessert
laden w/ CoolWhip. Maybe the low-fat kind. Gotta cut back somewhere.

In the local paper today, a FULL page bearing the headline "The Cookies are
Coming" announced the arrival of--are you ready for this?--Girl Scout
Cookies! A Baker's Dozen of 13 sublime recipes using said cookies
followed:

Original Shortbread Trefoils (Or, Oops, Foiled Again)
"Thin Mint" Ranier Pavlova (Or, You Won't Get Thin w/This)
Levitating Layers (Or, A Little Closer to Heaven/Lord, These are Good)
Cheesecake Canada (Or, Cheesecake Candida)
Baked Alaska (Or, Hell Frozen Over)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Parfait (Or, Tagalong Cookies w/Goop.
Tagalong--really great name, huh? Hitches a ride on you.)
Rich and Famous Brownies (Or, Plain Cheap Eats)
Strawberry Angel Surprise (Or, Heaven's Just a Bite Away!)
Crunchy Caramel Apples (Or, Apples w/Cosmetic Surgery)
Southern Peanut Butter Pie (Or, Tagalongs to Follow You All the Days of your
Short Life)
Walnut Brownie Surprise (Or, Walnuts? Where? ...Oh, Walnut-flavored
Brownie Mix and Tagalongs!)
Scavenger Delight (Or, H/G Seal of Disapproval)
Angelic Surprise (Or, Follow the Light...Follow the Light....You've Finally
Arrived!)

 > care to comment?

Seriously, things just haven't been the same since Reconstruction. In the
spirit of share and share alike to even out the risk of stroke, I'll be
happy to send recipes North upon request. :-)

Theola