Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, corn on the cob, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, family awkwardness — there are just so many reasons to gorge yourself on the fourth Thursday of each November.
In the words of portly comedian Kevin James, “Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.”
James isn’t alone. We are a nation of overeaters. According to World Health Organization surveys taken between 2000 and 2008, two-thirds of Americans are too fat, and the numbers on the scale keep going up. Inside one of the world’s fattest countries, South Carolina is one of the fattest states.
The Palmetto State ranks eighth nationally in terms of its percentage of obese adults (30.9 percent), according to a report recently released by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Those statistics suggest the turkey won’t be the only thing getting stuffed around here this Thanksgiving.