🚀 go-pugleaf

To: SOS-DATA

        SOUTHERNERS STILL LOVE SOUTHERN FOOD, DESPITE HEALTH CONCERNS

"What do you think about Southern cooking?"

      Southern respondents to 1957 Gallup Poll
            94% "like it"
             2% "don't like it"
             4%  other, depends

      1992 Southern Focus Poll*
            81% "like it"
             4% "like it but it's bad for you"
             7%  it's OK, no different from elsewhere
             4% "it's bad for you"
             4% "don't like it"
             3%  other
             2%  don't know
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Dr. Beverly Wiggins, Associate Director, Institute for Research in Social
Science:  "Thirty-five years after Gallup first asked the question, we had
to
add categories for those who believe Southern cooking is bad for you, but
many
of those like it anyway."
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Sample comments:
"I think it's scrumptious."
"I love it to pieces."
"Can't beat it! I tell you what, people in Europe don't know good food."
"I like it, being that that is what I was raised on."
"It's good and fattening."
"Tastes good and unhealthy."
"Good and greasy."
"It's wonderful, and I have a pot belly to prove it."
"I've eaten it all my life and I'm not dead yet."
"It's bad for you and I'm getting ready to eat it right now."
"Good way to get a heart attack, but it's delicious."
"I'm getting used to it."
"It was better back in the old days.  Everything is too fast nowadays."
"It's too fattening.  A lot of things they cook I wouldn't put in my
mouth."
"Heavy, greasy, fried."
"I think it's sadly lacking."
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No difference between blacks and whites, men and women, old and young.
Taste developed early:  87% of those who lived in the South as teenagers
like
       it vs. 65% of those who did not.
Respondents from Deep South like Southern cooking more (92%) than those
from
       peripheral South (77%).
Respondents from non-metropolitan counties like it more (87%) than those
from
       metropolitan counties (78%).
College graduates like it less (76%) than those with less education (93% of
       those with less than 8th grade).
Political conservatives like it more (86%) than moderates (80%) or liberals
       (73%).
People who go to church every week like it better (83%) than people who go
       less often (81%) or never (70%).

New book by Courtney Parker, Heart and Soul: How to Eat Like a Southerner
and Live to Tell the Tale (Crown, $20.00) -- replaces fats, starches, and
excessive sugar with nonsaturated oils, low-fat stocks, and fresh herbs and
seasonings in traditional Southern recipes.

*Source:  Telephone interviews in March and April 1992 with 819 households
in 13 Southern states.  Margin of error is +3.5%.

For more information, contact Dr. Beverly Wiggins, (919) 966-2350.