[iroh2727]

That’s a reasonable explanation for the spread across racial groups. But that spread has existed for a long time. There are other even more important phenomena to explain, like (1) why is it going up across all (or most) groups and (2) why are there geographic disparities?

[etchalon]

Wouldn't geographic disparities be easily the result of the accessibility of food and government assistance programs in that region?

[biomcgary]

It could also easily be the historic cultural dietary trends of that geographic region (e.g., I suspect moonshine is still predominantly consumed in Appalachia, although that is primarily due to past government policies, and cheese curds near the Great Lakes).