But that is not my South. It is also not the old South or the new South, it's the lazy and fat South. Sure, that South exists but it shouldn't represent the whole.

Back in the day, the South was truly farm to table, and today that is happening again. In fact, Atlanta is at the forefront of the farm to table movement in the U.S. and that movement is spreading throughout the Southeast and the country. Good food, sustainable food, not grossly unhealthy.

Sorry to pick on your post, I just reject this idea that Southern cuisine= butter and lard.

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Sometimes, food is just that. Food. Cooked for eating. For the taste. Who cares how we "define" "southern food"? If you want to add ham hocks and collards to littleneck clams and call it southern, have at it. Paula Deen makes her living cooking and selling good old-fashioned southern comfort food. The kind made with ingredients that were widely available or grown out back. The kind that were cheap and didn't require anything other than a memory of your grandmother to make. The kind people used to eat all the time and which many still do. Not all food is meant to be an exercise (pun intended) in nouveau culinary art cum health care delivery. Sometimes, it just tastes good. If you want to stay healthy - go exercise and mix up your comfort foods with the occasional beer, glass of wine or granny smith apple. You can debate the evolution of macaroni and cheese or call broken off rice kernels and bok choi grits, if you like. But it doesn't change mama's recipe and it don't make rice kernals grits. Now do me a favor and pass the salt.

I don't about "your" south. But I know a goodly amount about "the" south I live in right here and now and, I can tell you, the food that upsets you is the same food millions smack thier mamas over when it runs out.

*This post has been modified to meet the exigencies of the moment.