Why are Missouri citizens so fat?

New men's belt size

Missouri has the 12th highest rate of adult obesity at 26.3 percent.

Why?

One reason might be restaurants and restaurant reviewers who revel in the ridiculously rich, roly-poly, wrong-sized portions of fat and calories.

Take Betha Whitlow from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper. This is not some backwater village crier, but "what once was" a respected newspaper.

In her review of Billie's Fine Foods, she writes:

Dining: "My eating style typically leans toward small-portion grazing, but I got a thrill when my chicken fried steak with eggs, potatoes and a biscuit ($6.40) arrived on two large dinner plates, inspiring a 'She's a hungry one!' from our server. I forked into the steak, which was covered with velvety white gravy flecked with black pepper. The fried crust of the steak remained inexplicably light and crisp under its heavy gravy blanket, and the steak itself was piping hot and juicily tender. I also devoured my two perfectly cooked over-medium eggs, and fried potatoes that fell somewhere between hashed and cubed. While the larger potato pieces were a little soft, their mild flavor mingled beautifully with the smaller bits, which had a caramelized brown patina. The biscuit — a heavy slab sliced from a pan — was dense and buttery enough to make me forget about cholesterol for the moment."

First, it doesn't sound like Billie knows what fine food is. But why does the reviewer play up the most heart-attack-producing meal? Couldn't we have heard about something that approached fine foods?

I guess not. The reviewer concludes with:

... but we picked the plate clean as we reveled in our newfound gluttony.

Missouri is only the 12th fattest state. With restaurants and reviewers like that, look out Mississippi, they will be #1 in the nation soon.