Is this true, Steven Draker?

[AdamSmith]

My impressions is that it isn't anywhere near the scale (*cough*) as it is in the US.

 

Some years ago a colleague from The Netherlands came to the U.S. to work with me on a consulting gig we had landed together. He was British by birth, and his mother was American, so he was more or less used to our ways. He brought with him his two sons, age 12 and 14, to make it a combined working trip and vacation, so they could see the U.S. for the first time.

 

At lunch the first day together, we sent the sons to a deli up the street to pick up four sandwiches we had ordered by phone. (This was in Cambridge, MA.)

 

They came back with the order in a big sack, and their eyes bulging a bit. "Do people really eat this much here?" They were of the opinion that those four sandwiches were big enough to feed their entire family for a week.

[+ ArVaGuy]

You guys forget that the OP was made in jest.

There are obese people in Europe too. No need to be defensive about it.

Personally I don't know a single European who would imagine that Americans are having breakfast as posted in the OP.

 

Hey Steven

 

I'm not meaning to be defensive on this issue. I just want to throw out a counter example to the stereotype.

 

But I recall an observation from a work colleague from Mumbai. He basically said " in my country, the rich people tend to be overweight. In yours it's the poorer people who are fat.

 

Interesting observation as this brings up the issue of income levels and attitudes on healthy diet. Not many can afford a fresh, local, organic diet.

[instudiocity]

shirt sizes up to XXXXL.

Biggest problem with those 4XL shirts is the manufacturers thinks the wearers are 8' tall, too. The wearers appear to be wearing Moo-Moos instead of t-shirts.

[instudiocity]

Some years ago a colleague from The Netherlands came to the U.S. to work with me on a consulting gig we had landed together. He was British by birth, and his mother was American, so he was more or less used to our ways. He brought with him his two sons, age 12 and 14, to make it a combined working trip and vacation, so they could see the U.S. for the first time.

 

At lunch the first day together, we sent the sons to a deli up the street to pick up four sandwiches we had ordered by phone. (This was in Cambridge, MA.)

 

They came back with the order in a big sack, and their eyes bulging a bit. "Do people really eat this much here?" They were of the opinion that those four sandwiches were big enough to feed their entire family for a week.

My endocrinologist tells me to never eat in restaurants. The meals are too calorie dense without enough variety. His rule is more veggies (without ham seasoning) more fruits and less meats. But the big deal is to spread 1,500 calories across an entire day.

 

I've found The Engine 2 diet works pretty good.

 

http://engine2diet.com

[bigvalboy]

Hey Steven

 

I'm not meaning to be defensive on this issue. I just want to throw out a counter example to the stereotype.

 

But I recall an observation from a work colleague from Mumbai. He basically said " in my country, the rich people tend to be overweight. In yours it's the poorer people who are fat.

 

Interesting observation as this brings up the issue of income levels and attitudes on healthy diet. Not many can afford a fresh, local, organic diet.

 

Nor do they understand or have been taught the ramifications of eating improperly...

[+ Funguy]

Interesting observation as this brings up the issue of income levels and attitudes on healthy diet. Not many can afford a fresh, local, organic diet.

 

ArVaGuy is right on this. If you go across the poorest areas of this country you will find some of the most obese of our citizens. They simply cannot afford healthy food nor do they know how to choose food, so they get they cheapest and usually most unhealthy food available.

[Guest]

Hey Steven

Interesting observation as this brings up the issue of income levels and attitudes on healthy diet. Not many can afford a fresh, local, organic diet.

 

It's not true that one can't eat healthful food on a low income. What is true is that in fast food joints, the healthful foods (i.e. salads) are far more expensive than what's on the dollar menu. Yes, organic foods are more expensive, but there are no good data to suggest that organic produce for the most part will lead to better health than regular produce. I think this unicorn will blow his brains out before he ends up like this...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/616.jpg

[Guest]

Hey, this Walmart lady (?) is picking up cheap produce at Walmart, and has the better figure...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/610.jpg

[Guest]

But if you go for the fast food, you'll end up looking like this...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/601.jpg

 

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/595.jpg

[Guest]

This looks like a patient having trouble controlling her diabetes...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/593.jpg

[Guest]

You know, the diet soda is just as cheap as the sugary stuff...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/568.jpg

[bigvalboy]

You know, the diet soda is just as cheap as the sugary stuff...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/568.jpg

 

And water is even cheaper yet.....

[Epigonos]

I’m convinced that much of the obesity problem is directly relatable to the change of live style we have undergone in the last fifty years. Those of you who are Europeans are deluding yourselves if you believe the same thing isn’t happening in Europe today. The only difference is that we in the U.S. we are future along the road to obesity than our European cousins but given time they are catching up.

 

I was born in 1940. My mother was a stay at home housewife/mother. She cooked a complete dinner for the family every night and we all sat down together at 6:00 p.m. It was always a complete meal with some type of salad, vegetable, starch and main dish. She prepared dessert only once or twice a week. My dad got paid every two week and we when out to dinner on payday to an inexpensive restaurant. That was it – there weren’t any fast food outlets – no pizza joints, no hamburger joints, and no taco joints.

 

Nowadays BOTH parents work. They come home tired and the last thing in the world either of them wants to do is prepare a home cooked meal. Kids have after school activities and arrive home at various times and thus during the week families seldom sit down to a meal together. We live in a fast food world not because it is necessarily good tasting or healthy but because it is convenient and fast. Many do-gooders love blaming the fast food industry for the growing obesity problem here in the states and that is pure bullshit. All the fast food industry does is provide the public with what it want. If you look around in a restaurant it is obvious that the only people who read the caloric item count on restaurant menus are the people who really don’t need to.

 

I know some (many) people around here are going to disagree with me regarding what I am about to say. Obesity is the product of individuals making a series of very bad CHOICES. They choose to each too much, they choose to each junk food, they choose to eat too often and they choose to sit on their fat asses and reframe from any form of physical activity. Until society makes the consequences of obesity greater than the benefits the problem will continue to grow.

[Frequentflier]

I’m convinced that much of the obesity problem is directly relatable to the change of live style we have undergone in the last fifty years. Those of you who are Europeans are deluding yourselves if you believe the same thing isn’t happening in Europe today. The only difference is that we in the U.S. we are future along the road to obesity than our European cousins but given time they are catching up.

 

I was born in 1940. My mother was a stay at home housewife/mother. She cooked a complete dinner for the family every night and we all sat down together at 6:00 p.m. It was always a complete meal with some type of salad, vegetable, starch and main dish. She prepared dessert only once or twice a week. My dad got paid every two week and we when out to dinner on payday to an inexpensive restaurant. That was it – there weren’t any fast food outlets – no pizza joints, no hamburger joints, and no taco joints.

 

Nowadays BOTH parents work. They come home tired and the last thing in the world either of them wants to do is prepare a home cooked meal. Kids have after school activities and arrive home at various times and thus during the week families seldom sit down to a meal together. We live in a fast food world not because it is necessarily good tasting or healthy but because it is convenient and fast. Many do-gooders love blaming the fast food industry for the growing obesity problem here in the states and that is pure bullshit. All the fast food industry does is provide the public with what it want. If you look around in a restaurant it is obvious that the only people who read the caloric item count on restaurant menus are the people who really don’t need to.

 

I know some (many) people around here are going to disagree with me regarding what I am about to say. Obesity is the product of individuals making a series of very bad CHOICES. They choose to each too much, they choose to each junk food, they choose to eat too often and they choose to sit on their fat asses and reframe from any form of physical activity. Until society makes the consequences of obesity greater than the benefits the problem will continue to grow.

 

I had a similar childhood. Very little eating between meals, as kids we had to be dragged into the house from playing some sport with other kids in the neighborhood and we all ate together. If for some reason you missed dinner, you went hungry (so missing a meal when called never happened). Wherever I travel to today, the restaurants seem full at all three meals. I have friends with gorgeous homes including outrageously expensive kitchens and they eat nearly every dinner out. As for fast food restaurants, a McDonald's triple cheeseburger value meal costs $4.93 (I looked on line because I haven't been in a McDonalds - not even for just coffee - in probably over 10 years) and I doubt your neighborhood thin friend eats there. There were no super sized meals at our table when I was a kid so you couldn't overeat.

 

The only farmers the government should be subsidizing are those that grow vegetables. If you watch the price of food in the market, you can feed more for less if you avoid vegetables and stock up on potatoes/macaroni & cheese/etc. Lastly, I think its habit. If people grow up with or hang out with people who eat more plant based diets, exercise, etc. they'll look better as a result.

[+ Charlie]

Hey, this Walmart lady (?) is picking up cheap produce at Walmart, and has the better figure...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/610.jpg

 

Hmmm....are you quite sure that is a lady?

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Hmmm....are you quite sure that is a lady?

 

[+ Robster]

[+ WilliamM]

To answer an early comment, I have been to the bullet riden streets of Sarajevo. The city is rebuilt, but there are many cemeteries from the 1990s.

 

More in keeping with this thread, Americans do notice that the pastry at Starbucks in Europe, especially in German spreaking countries and Prague is better than here.

[AdamSmith]

A few years ago I visited a Kia Motors design studio in Wixom, MI. In one room there was a big table covered with American fast-food drink cups of all sizes. A big part of that studio's job was redesigning the Korean interiors to accommodate the American compulsion never ever to be without food and drink in hand.

[+ quoththeraven]

Hate to say it, but but I agree, a lot of them aren't just fat but are morbidly obese. I just love to see a few of them walk all over the place with no complication, realize they are being observed and its suddenly, I need my rascal, I cant move oh the pain..etc etc.

 

As someone with chronic pain and invisible disabilities, I ask you to consider the following. I am overweight bordering on obese. Barring some unexpected developments, I will be the rest of my life because any amount of exercise often means I'll be too tired and in too much pain to do anything the following day. I have to walk a very fine line between getting some exercise (mostly stretching and strengthening) and aggravating my condition. I would probably have greater mobility using one of these carts, but I'm so klutzy that I'm likely to run into someone or something while using them. Much of my "exercise" is in the form of grocery and other forms of shopping, bringing items in from the car, and schlepping to the other side of the building and walking up and down a series of stairs to do laundry.

 

I would love to be able to be more active, but I can't. If I tried, I'd be non-functional for days if not weeks. There are plenty of other people in the same position. You can't tell who we are just by looking at us. Most of us are not malingerers.

 

The latest studies show that people tend to reach equilibrium at a weight that is consistent with their body type and metabolism (in other words, they're destined to be fat) and are hurt more by dieting (which usually behaviorally resembles an eating disorder) than by their weight. Plenty of overweight, even obese people, are as healthy as they would be if they were thinner. Plenty of thin people are not healthy. Stop judging us.

 

Also, there is evidence to suggest it's high carbohydrate diets (especially high glycemic acid), not high fat or protein, that are the bulk of the problem. At any rate, I find that I feel more satisfied if I keep the simple carbs low and emphasize protein (however that comes), vegetables, fruit, and higher glycemic index carbs, I don't eat a lot of sweets and avoid salty food as). That's probably also a healthier diet. I would rather be relatively happy and content than be miserable spending time I don't really have because I'm feeling to tired to do other things obsessively tracking calories, especially since without the ability to commit to exercising for 30 minutes a day most days I'm unlikely to be able to lose much weight on diet alone.

[Rudynate]

And what about those multiple chins and huge butts you see on participants in reality TV shows from the UK? It looks like they need to seriously cut back on the bubble and squeak.

 

I just spent five days in LA. My hotel was full of German tourists. In the morning, you heard nothing but German being spoken in the restaurant. They looked indistinguishable from Americans - guts, big butts, quivering double chins, all hoovering down plateloads of eggs, bacon, sausages, bacon and hashbrowns and chasing it with big glasses of OJ.

[tyro]

As someone with chronic pain and invisible disabilities, I ask you to consider the following. I am overweight bordering on obese. Barring some unexpected developments, I will be the rest of my life because any amount of exercise often means I'll be too tired and in too much pain to do anything the following day. I have to walk a very fine line between getting some exercise (mostly stretching and strengthening) and aggravating my condition. I would probably have greater mobility using one of these carts, but I'm so klutzy that I'm likely to run into someone or something while using them. Much of my "exercise" is in the form of grocery and other forms of shopping, bringing items in from the car, and schlepping to the other side of the building and walking up and down a series of stairs to do laundry.

 

I would love to be able to be more active, but I can't. If I tried, I'd be non-functional for days if not weeks. There are plenty of other people in the same position. You can't tell who we are just by looking at us. Most of us are not malingerers.

 

The latest studies show that people tend to reach equilibrium at a weight that is consistent with their body type and metabolism (in other words, they're destined to be fat) and are hurt more by dieting (which usually behaviorally resembles an eating disorder) than by their weight. Plenty of overweight, even obese people, are as healthy as they would be if they were thinner. Plenty of thin people are not healthy. Stop judging us.

 

Also, there is evidence to suggest it's high carbohydrate diets (especially high glycemic acid), not high fat or protein, that are the bulk of the problem. At any rate, I find that I feel more satisfied if I keep the simple carbs low and emphasize protein (however that comes), vegetables, fruit, and higher glycemic index carbs, I don't eat a lot of sweets and avoid salty food as). That's probably also a healthier diet. I would rather be relatively happy and content than be miserable spending time I don't really have because I'm feeling to tired to do other things obsessively tracking calories, especially since without the ability to commit to exercising for 30 minutes a day most days I'm unlikely to be able to lose much weight on diet alone.

 

Plenty of thin people are NOT healthy. You're certainly right about that!

 

And your eating habits sound pretty spot-on to me. You go, girl!!

T

[instudiocity]

As someone with chronic pain and invisible disabilities, I ask you to consider the following. I am overweight bordering on obese. Barring some unexpected developments, I will be the rest of my life because any amount of exercise often means I'll be too tired and in too much pain to do anything the following day. I have to walk a very fine line between getting some exercise (mostly stretching and strengthening) and aggravating my condition. I would probably have greater mobility using one of these carts, but I'm so klutzy that I'm likely to run into someone or something while using them. Much of my "exercise" is in the form of grocery and other forms of shopping, bringing items in from the car, and schlepping to the other side of the building and walking up and down a series of stairs to do laundry.

Please don't make the mistake of believing 'exercise' results in 'weight-loss'. Most exercise builds muscles, muscle tissue is 3 times more dense than fat tissue. If your body mass measurement is 30% body fat or higher you are considered obese. You are also in no shape to exercise 'heavily' because your body is already carrying around 50-100 pounds more weight (at 200 pounds, 30% body fat = 60 pounds) than the bone structure and musculature was meant to carry.

 

The primary method of weight loss is calorie reduction. There are 3600 calories in one pound. In order to lose one pound, you must eat 3,600 fewer calories than your body metabolizes. For example, your body metabolizes 2,000 calories per day. You could consider restricting your caloric intake to 1,600 calories, burning 400 more calories than you consumed. Then 3,600/400 means you will burn 1 pound of fat every 9 days. Everyone I know hates counting calories. But restricting calories to less than you're burning is the only way to lose weight.

 

Some people exercise, then over-consume calories. Body builders do this all the time because they want to build body mass. Most of us, over-indulged ourselves over the years, consuming 3,000 calories everyday, gaining 1-2 pounds per month until a few years later we weighed 20, 30, 40 pounds more. It is EASY in our society to over eat and very difficult to restrict calories.

 

Every hamburger joint in America makes a 1/4 pounder cheese burger. That's 510 calories before the sugar-water drink and the fries. That one meal is 1/2 the daily calorie burn of most sedentary Americans. But we'd eat three per day if McDonalds served them for breakfast. A 10" pepperoni pizza is 300+ calories per SLICE! so if you split a 10" pizza with a buddy, you're both consuming 1200 calories in one meal. Again, most people metabolize 1500-2000 calories per day.

 

Sorry to get wordy here, but, my main point is the cure for obesity is a calorie restricting diet. The cure for your chronic pain may also be in a calorie restricting diet. Your need for exercise is not to lose weight but to maintain your body's tone and conditioning, and maybe burn off that extra chocolate cookie you've rewarded yourself for successfully eating less over a long period of time.

[+ poolboy48220]

True - when I worked out with a trainer, I worked out like crazy, but I have to attribute my size loss (I used the term "volume loss", since instudiocity is right that 1) muscle weighs more than fat, and 2) most people are looking to technically lose inches/size, rather than actual weight) to the much better eating I did back then.

[+ deej]

But I recall an observation from a work colleague from Mumbai. He basically said " in my country, the rich people tend to be overweight. In yours it's the poorer people who are fat.

 

Interesting observation as this brings up the issue of income levels and attitudes on healthy diet. Not many can afford a fresh, local, organic diet.

 

It gets even worse in the inner cities, which are often food deserts. Even if they can afford -- or are interested in -- a healthy diet, in many neighborhoods in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc., there simply aren't stores that carry fresh produce or any semblance of healthy food.

 

It's a problem that has more than just one face.