A lot of people blame health problems in the US south on diet.
"It's not their fault. Their food is just very tasty"
Yeah. It's not just diet. It's also
-
The fact US Southern States refuse to expand Medicaid, even when the federal goverment offered to pay for it.
-
The fact they refuse to tax cigarettes. California, New York or Massachusetts tax the shit out of them. US southern states simply don't want to do it.
-
Several southern states have no state-wide smoking bans. New York City banned smoking indoors in 2003. Louisiana's capital city banned smoking indoors in 2018.
-
Strong opposition to road safety measures. New York is one of the safest state to drive in and one of the reasons is actually speed cameras (even though they are unpopular). Meanwhile, Mississsippi has the highest traffic fatalty rate in the US. Mississsippi decided to ban speed cameras and red-light cameras. Louisiana, another high fatalty state, also moved to ban them.
-
There is a religious exemption for vaccination.
-
The weakest gun laws in the US. There is no waiting period to purchase a weapon. Gun dealers aren't require to have a state licence. They aren't required to have safes and cameras. There is no ban on gun advertising. It's just a shit show.
Basically a lot of these problems have nothing to do with diet. It's political
I grew up in the south and spent many decades here: when I was a child there was still a different cuisine. But now I think the larger cities in the region has just generic North American culture, and one is far more likely to find Chinese, Indian or other influences now.
There is some southern cuisine barely surviving in the more rural areas, mostly by older people.
But yes, I think the so called southern food culture today is more of a non regional fad, like you mentioned