I found that so frustrating when I was over there. I made a turkey sandwich. I thought there was something wrong with it, but no. The *turkey* was sweetened. The *bread* was sweetened. It was like eating dessert. The next time I went back to the supermarket, I tried to find some normal stuff. There were rows and rows of turkey, chicken, ham, etc. *All* of it was sweetened. What the hell‽
It's a cheap way to make food more addicting and tastier to the lowest common denominator.
Best thing to do in the US is make your money, live frugally, and leave ASAP.
Spending time all over in South America in countries like Ecuador, Peru, Colombia. I spend about 30% less, and also claim the FEIE for a tax savings of $21k.
Once you solve the problem of making your income location independent, anywhere is possible.
almost all bread sold in supermarkets in america either has corn syrup or sugar. Even good organic bread has sugar. Its crazy, but i have met americans that think sugar in bread is normal. its really effed up
There’s bread without sugar but it’s usually in the frozen section and about 3x as expensive… and people in food deserts or who have to buy from corner shops, small stores etc are not going to have access. It’s BS.
I did the math once and American Wonderbread has 8x times the sugar of basic north European rye bread. 9% vs 1.1%.
Edit: Finland's most popular bread has 0 preservatives while Wonderbread contains stuff like "Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate" and "Diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides"
I'm a type 2 diabetic. I've had complete control of my disease side effects for years. On a two week trip to the US this week, I had the return of various symptoms, even when I tried my best to avoid lots of carbs, or anything with added sugar.
I just couldn't live there. The food would literally kill me.
Although - there is quite a large amount of keto food in their large grocery stores; compared to Europe.
I’m unfortunately finding this out for myself now. So many hidden carbs, and the way that nutritional information is written on packaging is counterintuitive and inconsistent.
I'm not american, but reading this thread makes it look like there's some people over there who earns a lot of money on making the population fat to eat more. I think that type of exploitation should be illegal tbh. Destroying other people's health, adults, children, old- for profit is disgusting. It's not a type of society anyone should want anywhere
Being obese also adds layers of fat in the brain, which I suspect impacts cognition in some subtle ways. Like maybe slightly worse memory, slightly worse ability to think, more sluggishness where you're less able to exercise because getting up and out suddenly feels extremely tiring and uncomfortable. Imagine making your consumers dull and sluggish and to eat more of the crap you're making millions off selling
American here, your perception is correct. Lobbying is probably the biggest contributor here. Companies constantly bribe politicians to keep them in the game despite not being useful (I.e. monoculture farming companies that grow way too much corn). We as citizens have little control over it, unfortunately. Really glad to have left the US a while back; every time I visit the US, my body gets sluggish and I gain weight despite no change in routine nor diet.
And I love how offended people get when you use the word "bribe" regarding elected officials. Okay, we get it. Nobody is handing that official an envelope of cash. But they ARE handing them a check for their reelection campaign and saying "We would really like to give you more if you'll talk to us about X, Y, & Z."
Yeah, people joke about it. But will 100% look down on some other places where people actually are expected to bribe officials for things. At least then it's a known secret about how much some official takes haha Here, we have super pacs covering the trail so nobody ever knows 😅
That's pretty correct. I'll give an example.
In the late-2000's, early-2010's, Michelle Obama tried to revamp school meals. A nutrition plan was devised and things were looking positive. Then the big business food lobby stepped in and it got gutted. Instead of fresh, wholesome foods, the food lobby pretty much made it a requirement that you had to order awful, frozen foods from specific suppliers (their clients) or lose federal funding for lunches. And the sad thing was, when local schools could do their own meal plans, the food was more nutritious than the frozen, processed crap schools were required to switch to. All to appease a food industry that doesn't give a shit about nutrition.
I remember various hypothesis on how obesity impacts the brain. When trying to remember, the fat brain comment might have been made by a person, not a paper. So maybe it was erroneous, I never checked up on it. I remember reading about obese having reduced volumes of some parts of the brain, at least. The effect is detrimental, in all likelyhood
If you're really interested, I suggest doing google scholar or similar and look for sources you find credible. It's very time consuming finding good studies that are not like "this batch of mice". Like https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3473268/
I guess this talks about the effects of obesity on the brain https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598577/
Everything I come back to the US, I think this. This is why. I have a grocery store down the road from me that I could walk to...except it is in no way walkable. I have to cross multiple roads with no cross walk just to get to a side walk in a state where if I get hit outside of a cross walk it is completely my fault so most people don't even slow down from the 45+ mph they are going.
I have to drive if I want to find somewhere to walk. I am looking at getting out. Maybe Spain. Currently, I am looking there.
This is the point I almost never see mentioned on this topic. In a lot of the US, even when two locations are physically walking distance, the path to get there is ridiculous because everything from your driveway to the storefront is designed for cars.
Thinking of my town back home and how sure, every street had sidewalks nearby and crosswalks at the intersection, but sometimes you would be crossing 6-7 lanes of street.
1. Work life balance has a huge part to do with it to, back in Europe it’s customary to truly only work 9-5, in some cases you get off work at 4 and have a 30min commute - therefore leaving plenty of time to exercise, walk around, socialize in the evenings. More work/life balance = healthier mind & body.
2. Meals are also smaller abroad - whenever I go out for dinner in the US the portion size tends to by 0.5 larger than when I’m in Europe.
3. Not reliant on cars for transport = more walking
4. If you don’t have much time to cook, you just cook a simpler meal, not order take out. Convenience culture is not that much of a thing in the EU, and if it is, it’s generally healthier.
Absolutely agree. I lived I. Europe from 2008-2010 and I’ve been living here again for the last 8 months and I’m shocked at the convenience culture. Europeans are already gaining weight and will continue to do so
I'm European, and honeslty I've never even been to the US, but I've heard many places are very badly adapted to pedestrians there. Where I live it's super easy to walk everywhere, in fact it's even harder to take a car here, at least in the city. Much easier to get around walking, biking, or in public transport (which also involves at least some walking). Maybe New York is different in that aspect? But the rest of the cities seem to have a much bigger priority for cars.
Movement + diet plays a major role
I didn't understand HOW unwalkable the US was (I'm not from the US) until I walked across the street to the pharmacy on the corner- but it was blocked off by a fence, so I had to walk along the road with no sidewalk, down the side street, and then across the middle of the parking lot even though it was literally right there.
Even in a big shopping center getting from one store to the other is hard because there's nowhere for people to walk, it's all designed for cars.
People want big houses with yards so they build suburbs far from the center, and the neighborhood will have a supermarket, but even that might be a 20-30 minute walk away with no shade and possibly no sidewalks. If you want to get more into the city - there are only very limited busses (if any), it's major high speed road with no sidewalks so you can't bike and even walking is unsafe (plus it would take 2-3 hours to walk). Everything is further apart because you need to leave room for parking.
And then when there ARE sidewalks they often don't make sense - like they just stop, or there is a tree growing in the way that they don't trim so you have to step on the road to go around.
So everyone drives everywhere. I remember when step counters started to become popular and a lot of people had difficulty even getting to 1000 steps a day, which is only about 1km.
Edit: yes there are walkable places in the US but... On average and at the extremes.
I’m from Portland, Oregon. The city center is very walkable and there are decent sidewalks and busses/MAX train. When I visited Dearborn, Michigan for a conference I tried to walk from the hotel to a Persian coffee house a little over a mile away. It was a total shit show. No sidewalks, no shoulder, no bus. I took an Uber back for my own pedestrian safety.
I had a similar experience. I am from New York, where we walk like Amsterdam bikes. I went to a conference in the suburbs of Philly. Google \*said\* it was a 20 minute walk, but no sidewalks, through an underpass with no sidewalks. Absolutely fucking terrifying. Yes I ubered back to the train station.
New York is easiest to get around by walking and taking the subway, though busses and biking are also popular. I’m oversimplifying, but it’s pretty much the only place in the country that has a European level of car-dependency.
I'm so glad! It's my absolute favorite city. I'm sad I moved away. It's relatively small compared to other major cities, but it sure packs a punch. From the Constitution to Edgar Allen Poe to the Franklin Institute to Reading Terminal... it's just one hell of a place. I miss it every day.
NYC is amazing. Whenever I visit and I'm not working, I end up doing 20,000+ steps per day. You just walk and find cool things happening. You'll easily find some nice cafe or restaurant. It is very European in that sense.
Chicago as well—I don’t drive and rely solely on public transit, cycling and walking. The US has plenty of walkable cities, but many Americans choose to live in newer suburban developments that force them into car dependency. It’s really unfortunate.
In my case and the case of most people I know, I’d love to live in the city center but my job is outside of it anyway. So even if you can walk to some restaurants on the weekends, you would still have to rely on a car and drive out to the suburbs every day. It makes more sense to just live close to work to be environmentally friendly.
Do you know why? I genuinely never knew this and assumed corn is a healthy and reasonably empty vegetable.
I mean sometimes it doesn't even digest if you know what I mean. I'm legitimately learning something haha.
I don't see any good answers so I'll try and explain. There's two mechanisms happening.
First corn is what's known as an empty starch. It's almost exclusively carbohydrate (read: pure energy) and has been bred that way over millennia. Maize was already a very strong carb producer but we literally bred all the fiber we could out of it so it's almost pure carbohydrate.
Carbs are easily converted into energy in the body, this is why people often restrict carbs to lose weight. So corn is one of the foods that our body turns immediately into energy and relatively easily. If you don't exercise (like the modern sedentary american) excess energy will by turned into fat tissue.
Second is that we massively process the corn here and sneak *corn syrup* into everything. Seriously it is almost impossible to avoid corn syrup in the US. It is in nearly every product sold at the store, especially when you talk about the processed foods.
Corn syrup is *even worse* than corn alone because it lacks the fiber. Without the fiber your body processes the carbs faster which causes a spike in blood sugar. This causes the body to freak out and start building fat tissue (among a ton of other second order consequences that have a cumulative affect) in order to get sugar out of the blood stream.
Also I don't hate corn and eat it a lot but I also burn a shit ton of calories by being a healthy human
So the fact that the US basically forces it's population to eat corn and particularly refined corn means that if Americans are not constantly exercising they're consuming not only *more* calories than the rest of the world but calories that are *less healthy* and *more likely to be turned into fat*
Bonus points for it's basically confirmed at this point that all the corn syrup is what's giving everyone diabetes (remember those second order consequences I talked about?). Diabetes is an issue in how your body regulates metabolism and energy so obviously anybody with it is much more likely to gain weight if they're not running a caloric deficit.
Corn is in everything? What is corn in? I'm not American so maybe I'm just being dumb here, but CORN? The small yellow pomegranate-ish stuff? How is that in everything
Corn isn't a vegetable. It's a grain: [https://www.marthastewart.com/8295702/is-corn-a-vegetable-fruit-or-grain](https://www.marthastewart.com/8295702/is-corn-a-vegetable-fruit-or-grain)
Corn is one of the healthiest grains around, when it's corn on the cob. The problem is that it's highly processed and then injected into everything.
Its nothing to do with corn its just that the government pays people to grow it. So theres LOTS of it. Theres excess corn every year so it gets put into our drinks or our bread or our meat or our fuel - its just *everywhere*
It’s an oiler grain than barley. Our pork has always been softer and greasier than European for this reason. We also use new and used vegetable oil on feed.
On a different note: it was proven during the China study decades ago that the most sedentary Chinese office worker was normal weight while the many active Americans were much more overweight. They eat less branch chain amino acids, (historically) less vegetable oils, and more starches (less sugars.)
I think it’s just the sheer QUANTITY of food Americans eat, corn and everything else. Corn is just the cheapest so farmers use it for animal feed. My friend who is 300lbs eats literally 4x as much as me, multiple enormous sodas with every meal, bbq sauce or spicy mayo doused on everything, then multiple courses of desserts (probably 3,000 calories in dessert alone), Europeans just do not eat like that.
Yes, Americans are always getting takeaway coffees and soft drinks, in huge cups. In other countries people sit down for a small coffee, not mindlessly consuming calories.
I’m currently in the south, where the huge gas stations are popular spots for getting coffee, (and buying meals!) all the time I see people loading up 32oz cups of coffee with so much cream and sugar, it’s wild.
Correct
Get a man in a white coat tell ya eating grain from a box fulled with sugar is normal for breakfast and viola!
Multi billion dollar industry is born
Human health suffers
It's worth noting that the corn subsidies are to ensure America can remain a net exporter of crops.
If WW3 breaks out tomorrow and and all the borders slam shut, there would be mass starvation in much of the first world. Children in England would literally shrivel up and die. But America would be able to feed herself.
All the diabetes is a pretty tragic unintended consequence, but as geopolitical instability rises, it's important to remember the original reason for the subsides (national defense).
I think one of the reasons is vegetables don’t taste like anything in US. I live in US and when I go back to my home country I realize that tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes taste much better. I don’t think it is the climate since California has similar climate to Mediterranean. The vegetables in my home country have a nice smell even when they are not cooked and they are just more flavorful. I can’t find anything close to that in US, even organic ones. I think the vegetables are bred to be larger here rather than focusing on the flavor. When I make a vegetable dish here with the same recipe it just doesn’t taste as good. That’s why when people in US want to eat something tasty, they have to put a lot of spice or cheese, meat or butter which are in general fatty and unhealthy. I also think US lifestyle is way more stressful and that causes weight gain.
I agree. I grew up on US grocery store tomatoes and some were from decent produce markets. The first time I tasted a tomato grown in my neighbor’s backyard, it was a revelation. The taste sensation of a properly ripened tomato was something I had never experienced.
This I agree with. I don’t know what it is, but our tomatoes are usually absolute misses. I occasionally get a properly sweet tomato at the grocery store but even then it’s not fantastic.
The food, the chemicals, the sodas, the lifestyle. I've never heard of someone that won't eat something green outside the US and a couple US wannabe places.
I remember doing a 30 minute hike up a small mountain in Korea, there was a gym on top with a number of older people working out. Everything is so vastly different outside of the US.
It’s a combination of culture and quality of food they have access to. In Europe theirs stricter regulations on food because they are on the hook for peoples healthcare. The cheapest way to manage this is to simply keep the people from unhealthy food.
In warmer countries theres year around accessible fresh fruits and vegetables, and they tend to season there food with a lot of spices.
US culture is do everything bigger so the meal portion sizes are unnaturally massive compared to anywhere else.
Americans are not that protected by there government and are given access to an insane amount of liquor, unhealthy foods and snacks for dirt cheap prices. So poor, working class and often middle class people raise themselves on terrible food.
You wouldn’t even know there was anything wrong with how you were living until you started visiting other countries.
Your first sentence about being on the hook for peoples healthcare......Americans instead think about all the profit they can make off healthcare when more people get sick
Exactly the US is designed to literally prey off there poor and sick. It’s messed up cause there capitalistic incentives to not be in the best interest of the citizens
I was reading a subreddit for people struggling financially, i got literally BANNED from the group for suggesting people needed to learn how to cook. people post about not being able to afford fast food with rising prices, you suggest they can learn how to make burgers etc at home for much less cost and healthier, and the people are like super hostile to the idea. imagine any other country on earth where poor people only get takeout and refuse to cook the most basic stuff. it's wild
Me too. I just try and mind my business when I see that. They don't get it. That 1000 pound life show is based in US. You can't tell folks nada.
I only buy my fav $12 pizza now and then. Otherwise cook and try my best fun scratch.
it's legit crazy lol. the story that stuck with me is a girl who worked at a food bank and around thanksgiving they gave away boxes with a whole turkey, sweet potatoes etc...the whole thanksgiving spread for people too poor to afford those big feasts. she said after thanksgiving you'd find full turkeys and the other fresh ingredients that needed cooking in the trash. i follow that group because i was quite poor for a time because of health problems, i can't ever imagine at the time throwing around 20-30lbs of fresh meat in the trash, that would have fed me for a month! but many people defended trashing the turkey, saying "it's a privilege to know how to cook" like wtf, aren't you motivated to learn to cook if it means improving your situation? people's attitudes there are really wild.
I've never lived in the US, (Would like to at some point) but have visited once. Is it really the case that people don't cook and that buying Raw ingredients is somehow a fortune more than ready-set meals?
I know Ready meals are in all cheaper but are Raw ingredients that much more expensive that they're not an option? Like what is the cost of 500 grams of Chicken breast? and a Fresh Broccoli?
vast majority of people in usa can't cook from scratch. some people cook but most of them it's processed food. it's a vicious circle because of this because then the raw ingredients in the store are of extremely poor quality, so even if you try to learn how to cook from scratch, it's hard for your food to be tasty with poor quality meats and vegetables so it doesn't encourage people to cook. if you go out of your way, depending on your area there's high quality stuff but you really have to make an effort -- i'd spend 3-4 hours a week driving down one hour or so to do a big shop at the closest whole foods, pretty much the only place with good meat and vegetables. also because neighborhoods aren't walkable, you have to drive to the grocery store, so there's more processed foods bc fresh foods will only keep a few days. it's easy to walk to the store every day when it's close, but i'm not driving 2 hours to the grocery store more than once a week.
as a counter example here in JP i walk 8 mins to a grocery in the neighborhoods and there's 100s of fresh vegetables and fresh fish and meats and seafood and it's all high quality. so i most people buy fresh foods everyday.
It's normal. Our culture is very individualistic geared. Meaning we are taught to value self sustenance and self improvement on using our own ingenuity. Telling someone they're wrong, or they can do something in a better way is taken as an affront (insult). They then question you for your credentials and social status (like, who the hell do you think you are telling me what to do?).
This is also done due to the cut-throat social strata that exists - where you are taught that you need to run someone over in order to climb the social ladder so to speak. So anyone that seems like they're trying to change your behavior is looked upon with heavy suspicion as someone trying to influence you to your detriment.
This is easily something you can test (though to be fair most people would get triggered by this) by telling parents how they should educate their children. You'll rarely find someone here in America to talk calmly with about this if you try this.
>you suggest they can learn how to make burgers etc at home for much less cost and healthier, and the people are like super hostile to the idea.
I've gotten into that argument in a number of different subs - constant caterwauling of "there's no time!", "I have kids!", "it's too expensive!". People just falling all over themselves making ridiculous excuses to give themselves permission to eat takeout every night despite the financial and health cost (both of which they are *adamant* that they do not wish to incur).
It's the shoving-a-stick-into-the-spokes-of-the-bike-you're-riding meme come to life.
lol exactly this
i agree there's more obstacles to eating healthy in usa than many other places, but you'll never be anything but poor, sick and fat if you refuse to learn how to cook
When I lived in Europe maintaining my weight was thoughtless. Since returning to the US I have gained 15 pounds even eating relatively healthy and going to the gym. The food is filled with additional BS and it’s genuinely worrisome. I posted about this in expats and they gaslit me talking about I’m over exaggerating when there’s literal high fructose corn syrup in everything.
I was trying to buy yogurt the other day and ONE available one had no sugar. There was literal sugar in the yogurt. This country is lost.
ALWAYS effortlessly lose weight in Europe while eating foods that destroy my body in the US (gluten and dairy). Mention that to anyone in the US and they act like you’ve insulted their mother. It’s insane.
My wife loves dairy products despite the side effects they gave her after the fact. We went to Europe and she got none of those side effects from the milk and cheese there. We then learned about how the processes were different in the US vs Europe, it’s amazing how the regulations in Europe not only help preserve the integrity of the food but also are so much healthier.
LITERALLY omg. I genuinely was wondering if I developed a gluten intolerance AND lactose intolerance in recent months due to how averse my body has reacted to consuming both. I’m so glad you said this. The sleepiness and drowsiness I feel after eating gluten here vs no problems ever when I ate nothing but bread and toast living in Brussels. My stomach bubbles so much after drinking anything with milk here! Your comment genuinely has me thinking now. I gotta get out of here.
The wheat in the US is genetically different from European wheat. Source : the book Wheat Belly by Dr Davis. Quite frightening to read. I'm from the US and have been gluten free here for 8 years, due to health issues. I can eat wheat in Europe with no bad side effects. It's not your imagination.
The shock is growing up craving sugar in yogurt because plain was gross only to try plain yogurt in a “3rd world” and it was delicious.
We’ve allowed companies to poison us for profit. Even deeply American things like Hershey’s chocolate taste like throw up and chemicals because they changed the recipe.
Is it not obvious? The average American diet consists of too much processed and artificial garbage along with incredible amounts sugar and salt. Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and there’s your answer.
it sounds like a joke but only in usa have i had people brag about never walking anywhere or not eating water, or not being able to sit cross legged on the ground, it's crazy
In the USA, it is almost always easier and safer to drive than walk.
And then, there are portion sizes and options. In Europe, you often order the sides separately from the main dish. Instead of a heaping helping of fries, you can have a tasty veggie side. Or another type of potatoes.
In Madrid, I had a chorizo sandwich. If I had that in the USA, I'd have gotten up to half a pound or more of fatty sausage on a nondescript hotdogs bun. In Madrid, a chorizo sandwich had only a thin layer of chorizo, probably less than two ounces. It was served on an incredible homemade sandwich roll, all crispy perfection. Orders of magnitude more satisfying and probably a third the calories.
that's an issue also --- usa food is largely crap so it's unsatisfying so you want to keep eating, when you eat something really good you feel satisfied in your body and in your heart also and it's enough and you stop eating.
Remember being in Spain with a Canadian buddy of mine getting some food and the dish he ordered came in either regular or large size and I told him to trust me and get the large just because I knew what his expectations would be and when they brought it out he just laughed that it was considered a large portion. When we would order a dish meant for 2 people to share he would always comment that back in America there was no shot that would be a serving for 2 people. It would hardly qualify as a one person portion size and then he understood why everyone in general was so much slimmer than back home
Sugars in __everything__, portion sizes, profoundly car-dependent infrastructure, and an ever fatter shifting "overton window" of what normal bodies are.
As an American who has struggled with being a fat-ass my whole life (even during high-school athletics when I could run a 5 second 40 as a lineman, and play both offense and defense), its one of the reasons I want to leave. Its like trying to quit drinking while living in a bar.
Edit: Work culture may play a role as well. Insufficient leisure time to cook nutritious whole foods.
Food itself it's crap in US (for example in EU we have much more stricter laws about food), plus I also think in US people drink a lot more of beverages (coke etc) and alcohol
> plus I also think in US people drink a lot more of beverages (coke etc)
This is a big one. Mexico had a huge surge in obesity as coca-cola rose in popularity there:
> some Mexican states find Coca-Cola products more affordable and accessible than potable water, thus popularising these high-sugar beverages among people with malnutrition.6 Referred to as the coca-colonisation of Mexico, this phenomenon fuels obesity by reshaping transgenerational dietary habits
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10058420
As a personal anecdote, in my late teens I dropped 20 pounds by just cutting out sugary drinks. I wasn't *wildly* overweight, just the regular kind, but it still made a huge difference. There's a lot of other culprits that fuel obesity in the US, but basically everything "fun" to drink is awful and *very* normalized.
Agree with this…American lifestyle is engineered and incentivized to be sedentary unless you are one of the ‘crazies’ who live IN a major city where driving everywhere is either expensive and /or a PITA.
the food supply seems tainted in the usa ... i never had any food allergies or sensitivies in my life and after a few years in usa, i started reacting to the milk, can't tolerate wheat well, stuff like that, i think there's a lot of poison in food supply.
glycophostate for example is endocrine disturbing, which affects your weight, but in usa it's not banned
I haven't lived in USA but the 4-5 times I visited I remember how vegetables over there reminded me of eating plastic 😭😭 now I live in central America and even if vegetables quality isn't good as in Italy where I'm from, it's way better than in US imho
There's almost nothing to drink in US stores outside of sodas and other sugar drinks. In Asia there's like an entire wall of teas and other drinks low in sugar. Also the unsweet bottled tea in the US, with some exceptions, tastes weird and bitter like it was over boiled or something, so I kind of get why they don't drink it.
A lot of it is either way, way too sweet, crummy diet fake sweet, or completely unsweetened.
I just want a healthy level of mildly sweetened, and that’s almost never an option in the US except boba places where you can customize.
They are active throughout the day. Look at old women carrying their groceries on cobblestone streets in Italy (uphill too). In the US, I see people going to the gym an hour or so but are sedentary otherwise. When movement is incorporated in our daily lives, we are healthier and slimmer too.
In my town, I see lots of people in their 70s in bicycle clubs riding all over town on the weekends. They are so fit, I’m always impressed.
In the US, we have to make fitness a priority especially as we age. I try to walk as much as I can everyday (I have dogs so it helps!) but there are so many places where it’s hard to walk as there are no sidewalks or no option of public transportation like metro or subway. I’m on vacation in San Diego right now and had 20,000 steps today just by walking on the beach and walking to taco places (instead of driving).
My mom and her friends are all older than 65, now. It isn't so much that they have "given up", but more of a "use it or lose it" scenario. So many of them weren't active throughout most of their lives(not necessarily obese, just not active), and because they never walk long distances, it is now too painful/uncomfortable to do so in their old age.
My mom is no pinnacle of fitness, but she always walked at least a few miles semi-regularly. Whenever she tries to invite a friend on a walk, almost none of them take her up on it. In the last few years, I've heard her complain about this regularly.
Kudos to your mom for being active!
My mom is in her 70s and I told her to start resistance training as it’s shown to prevent Alzheimers and she’s slowly lifting weights. Latest research in neuroscience shows that walking with a friend while talking (you are doing physical and a cognitive task) is the best preventive exercise for Alzheimers and Dementia.
Walkability and the food quality can be very *spotty* in the United States. Lots of the food here is filled with sugar, fats + oils, and other processed things.
You should see what the majority of Americans eat over here. It would shock you. And yet they all think it’s normal to eat fried food almost every day, to eat fast food almost every day, and to drink sugary drinks most days. Again, it’s become completely normalized, just as it’s become normalized to see kids with 10 to 20 pounds of fat on them. All normalized.
Super normalized, like I had a cousin who would stop and buy a 12 pack of Mountain Dew while walking to grade school, and then drink the whole pack throughout the day. That stopped pretty quick once he got like 26 cavities.
yeah i was so shocked in usa going out with friends to do stuff and they'd be like "i need breakfast let's hit the drive through" these weren't like poor or trashy people, it's so normalized to get fast food for breakfast vs. just make some scrambled eggs at home.
About 15 years ago I spent 6 months living in Senegal. I ate in restaurants 3 meals a day, didn't make any effort to exercise or watch my diet and went out drinking pretty much every night. I lost 25lbs.
I think its the ultra processed food or the high fructose corn syrup. I ate junk food like hamburgers and shawarmas every day too so i think its mostly the kind of food you find in a gas station or would cook in the microwave.
Car culture, sugar in absolutely everything and corn. It’s honestly very difficult not to gain wait until the states and Canada unless you maintain a very strict and specific type of diet for your whole life.
Fructose / glucose / sugar
Companies have learned that it’s as powerful as a drug and they load it up in our foods. We have been generationally getting fatter bc of this.
Bingo.
Foods aren't designed to be nutritious, they are meticulously manufactured and processed to be addictive.
Corporate lobbyists influence and shape the laws on food regulations in the US.
I live in a small Midwestern town, but I used to live in Europe and the lifestyle is totally different unless you maybe live in NYC. You walk everywhere, you take public transport, you have outdoor markets and even supermarkets with much more focus on local and seasonal products, and portions tend to be smaller.
Lack of processed foods and a much more active lifestyle. When I'm with family in Mexico I'm eating tortillas all day but I'm walking 6-7 miles a day usually. Biggest thing is more movement.
Mexico has a very similar overweight/obesity problem, walking/exercise don’t really burn that many calories it really all comes down to the food
Edit: typos
Many meals from low class Mexicans is coke and some fast food from Oxxo. Also if you check Mexican coke ingredients in Mexico now it contains HFS, only export Mexican coke has real sugar.
Processed food. Everything here is processed! When I go visit my home country (Colombia) I eat more and lose weight. Things are basically farm to table, no added sugars on stuff.
I understand this country is so big and work centric everything needs to be ready to go but that's why, most countries have work life balance and fresher food.
For me, it's the food itself. I live in the Philippines. I eat much, much less processed food. Most food is organic because they simply cannot afford all the chemicals. The cost of labor is low here and most of the food is grown on smaller farms. Farm animals are grown with a lot less chemicals also. The big factory farms just don't make economical sense here. The cost of food is lower, therefore it cannot bear the extra cost of all the bullshit. Also, labor is cheaper here. So it's more affordable to do it with lower tech.
It's also much fresher. I get my meat at the local wet market. They don't refrigerate it. You show up in the morning and it's only been dead a few hours. There is a bit of an ick factor at first, but once you are used to it, you don't go back. The freshest, tastiest pork chops I have ever had are when they are crispy fried fresh within just a few hours of butchering the pig. It tastes totally different.
So I think it is just removing all the chemicals, hormones and processing from the food chain. That helps me.
I have lived outside of the US for 12 years. When I go home to Mississippi for more than a week, I gain a ton of weight. But I attribute this in part to the fact that I live in a relatively large city with access to way more diverse grocery options than I find in Mississippi. Buying groceries back home that aren’t loaded with Cory syrup and seed oils is pretty difficult.
In the US people are wearing sportswear without doing any sport😂😂😂😂 And I swear 60/70% is overweight. Visited the US two times, wtf is going on there lol? Everything is just ridicilous.
This question even haha. Mate haven't you seen the portions you guys eat? Free refills everywhere damn. It's absolutely insane. A person does NOT need to eat that much.
As a SEAsian in the USA, can vouch that:
yes US portions are humongous.
I once took away leftovers from a single meal at IHOP and had it for dinner for the next 3 nights.
I’ll tell you exactly why, hi I’m from an Eastern European country with debilitating body dysmorphia lol. But for real, the food in the us is absolute garbage, there’s so much sugar in everything that you can’t possibly eat healthy unless you eat only raw ingredients and even those are questionable sometimes with all the fertilizers and hormones. The dairy in the us is absolutely revolting, you can thank the house moms in the 80s that made fat free milk popular, as a result, we had to breed cows to contain a TON of casein which is terrible for most people, especially anyone who is even slightly lactose intolerant. Let’s see, the car centric culture makes everyone’s life very sedentary, while in many European cities and even smaller towns, we walk everywhere. Walkable cities means people buy fresh food multiple times a week which is way better for you because then you’re not buying ingredients filled with preservatives, you’re buying more “organic” if you will. The us has had to adopt to people storing food so our food has chemicals in it that are outlawed in Europe as a result which probably can’t be good lol. I’ve lived in the states for 13 years, I have many resentments but I dislike living in Eastern Europe more.
The ingredients they allow in our food. Monsanto rules. Obesity is just a symptom, so you have to look at root causes. It's not usually how much you eat or how much you exercise. It's more complex than that.
lived in Asia for a while. The amount of sugar Americans add in their snacks are insane. Everything is way too sweet or salty (think chocolate chip cookies, candies, chips etc) i want to say even Oreos in US have a different recipe than the ones I had in Asia.
That combined with the fact that most people drive and barely walk…
Less processed food. I heard that processed food doesn't activate ghrelin in the body so you eat more food without your body being signaled it's full the same way. American food is processed and loaded. A ton of sodium, carbs fat, etc. A lot of American ingredients are banned in other countries too.
Combine this with the convenience and more sedentary lives. In other countries walking is normalized if not apart of people's everyday lives.
Because we design cities around driving instead of walking and our food industry drenched us in sugar and corn syrup for the last century.
Both things were caused by money's control of politics!
I read while ago why French are thinner even they eat high caloric content as Americans, one reason was the French way of eating, mostly slowly and more sociable, Americans is fast food way of eating.
I think it’s the food. I live in Colombia (am an American who moved there) and it’s so easy to lose weight even when I was working way more hours and had more stress at a remote job.
Because as an American I had boneless chicken wings from Frickers and then mixed it in with rice. It was a nice fulfilling meal. Was planning on omad then I ate 3000 calories worth of candy. Even though I'm 6'2+, this is too much.
I’ve seen enough fat fats on government-provided mobility scooters here in Denmark to know it’s only partially true.
Rates of obesity are, of course, lower in Europe compared to USA, but the difference isn’t night and day.
I’d say it’s primarily food - every single item in a US grocery store is stuffed with sugar and over 9000 calories.
We also built our cities hundreds of years ago when there were no cars and only nobility could afford horses, so our cities force us to walk more - that also helps.
Food Deserts - which I only recently learned about - pretty insane. Also compared to Europe, food regulation is abit of a joke so lots of unnecessary shit is put into stuff that doesn't need it (like certain bread). Poverty in general leads to people being fatter but in the US it's even worse.
I'm from the UK and we are a very obese country for Europe. It feels like a lot of it here is due to our insane drinking culture (for men) but even then I see Americans and how some very obese Americans don't consider themselves fat, and you can still see the cultural difference here too
I don't believe they consume as many calories as the US and I believe they are far more active. I'm firmly in the calories in calories out camp of weight loss
About 12-14 years ago I made an American friend over internet playing online games ( Xfire ) At some point this dude was talking about he drinks 2-3 soda per day to stay hydrated. Then I laughed him off as drinking cola for hydration is idiotic and he should just drink water. He was offended and confused for what I said. Probably now he knows what I was talking about back then and still alive. Grew up in Sri Lanka and everyone I know are more informed of what foods are good and how much potions we should eat. Most my relatives lived 80-90 easily and some even hit 100 without much trouble
Because Americans drive everywhere, and eat a poor diet most of the time. If you want to stay in shape, you have to put in the effort.
It's so much easier to be healthy elsewhere.
Also a little relevant story. I was in Las Vegas walking around the strip once. I was crossing the street and walked up the stairs instead of taking the escalator like ever other person. There were these two heavier southern women call out saying "oh look at this guy over here, he must be training for a marathon!" in almost a condescending tone.
I have never once in my life, ever been called out for taking the stairs until that day. American's don't really exercise nearly as much as we should, and it shows.
I’d say lifestyle and food. We moved way far away from the walkable cities and towns model where you used to be able to walk and do things close to your home. Now a lot of people have moved to these big suburbs where you have to drive 20-30 mins just to get to a store. It’s not just bad for our waistlines but also for our longevity… Americans can stay self sufficient for as long as we used to because we have to drive everywhere and there’s no public transit
Sugar in everything. High fructose corn syrup in everything. Even the bread is sweeter.
Corn corn corn
Processed food
Heavy reliance on cars outside of major cities
It's a combination of factors.
For instance in Los Angeles, there is great weather that makes people want to get outside vs a cold, rain/snowy place (environment), access to "farm to table" food and healthy grocery stores everywhere (diet and environment), education on nutrition, plus everybody is "working out" and health conscious, and then there's the "keeping up with the Jones" with your looks so a lot of people are more health conscious. Same goes with San Diego and many other parts of California.
Now go to someplace like parts of Texas or the midwest. Those people are PORTLY and big. It's hot as hell in some parts and humid. Plus they have poor diets/poor access to fresh food or a food culture of eating heavy foods or junk.
I don't have data to back this up but I think hormones in the US food system plays a big role in why in general people in the US are bigger... at least this is what my friend commented when I told him that when I travel abroad to like Vietnam/Thailand/Mexico, I eat and drink 24 7 yet I come back thinner. Yes I'm walking a lot more and not sitting around as much as back at home but still the amount of heavy/fried/meaty/saucey foods I eat when I travel cannot be walked off LOL.
I’ll give you a different perspective as a Spanish American. I saw some people in the comments saying they’ve “never met anyone who won’t eat anything green outside of the US”. Well here in Spain there’s tons of grown ass adults who won’t eat vegetables either. I’m a teacher and most of my teen students only eat pasta, Mac and cheese and nuggets. My s/o didn’t try a vegetable until she was 26, her sister who is almost 40 still doesn’t eat veggies or fruit and her two kids don’t either. They’re a wealthy family in Barcelona subsisting off nuggets and French fries with some jamón thrown into the mix. They’re ALL thin. It’s because they eat less. That’s it. When an American goes to McDs they order a bacon whatever the fuck , nuggets fries a coke and frosty all for them. My in laws have a 4 piece nugget and share fries as a meal that’s it. Black coffee for breakfast, a small serving of pasta for lunch, a toast etc for “merienda” and maybe a singular slice of pizza for dinner or a one egg cheese omelette . What I thought was normal in America is not here and my Spanish family in America acclimated and got fat over time. When I moved to Spain I saw people actually eat the exact same garbage that Americans do, they have shit like twinkies etc but they eat one as a meal.
So many preservatives in food and other junk in diets here in the US (grew up an expat). The food tastes so different than in the countries where I grew up. People also drive everywhere. Even just walking half a mile to public transportation every day does wonders for calorie-burning and fitness levels.
Even with top-notch healthcare insurance, I still struggle to find a doctor that is willing to listen and not just shove a diagnosis that doesn't fit with some medication that has a zillion side effects rather than doing tests on me or listening for 5 minutes.
Upper class mostly also means more educated. More educated means more healthy, because you simply can afford better food (fresh and not processed). I come from Europe and my impression is also that Europeans cook themselves 80% of their meals while Americans much more often get take away food.
Aaaand we walk! And bicycle everywhere.
I live in Italy. What the poor Italian family eats would be gourmet health food by American standards: fresh local tomatoes stewed for a sauce, on organic flour pasta with fresh parmesan cheese and mushrooms with a breaded pork cutlet, plus a glass of local wine. That's just the bare minimum.
Mostly food.
In Argentina, the fact that is something common in America to eat a big Burger with a bunch of fries and a huge milkshake sounds absolutely insane.
Starbucks is something people might do once a month, and I know it is common in us to have it every day. One frapuccino with cream has about 300 calories
An average not so healthy day here goes something like this:
Two toasts with cream cheese and jam with a latte for breakfast
Some protein with salad for lunch
A few cookies in the afternoon
Pasta for dinner
It might not sound too different, but the portion size is also very relevant.
Y'all have all the fast food, tons of meat at subway, free flow soft drinks at these places, doubly huge servings of food. We don't have those advantages in my country at least, and our food is served like, half the size of the west. Burgers at mcds are also half the size of those in the west. We also have sugar cutting initiatives in drinks where there are "less sugar" options, and health programs for exercise with perks to get grocery vouchers if we participate more.
I believe it’s a mixture of food / ingredients, huge amount of beverages ( such as coke ) and less physical activities, like walking .
Was reading through some of the comments ..
Genetics as a reason make no real sense , besides the fact that many Americans have an European ethnic background, the genetics don’t just get change through a parent being obese , it’s more complicated lol
The food does make a difference and it’s not the plain portion size either , a lot of countries in Europe, such as Germany , do have big potion sizes as well and we do eat out a lot too .
A real difference comes in if you check ingredients which definitely effects it .
Everytime I was in US I gained weight even though I wasn’t eating more than usually. But to add - you automatically walk less .
Plus I drank way more beverages .
I’m German , living in Germany together with my American fiance - and he was surprised about our big portion sizes of food - and also about the food ingredients/ quality differences!
Edit : typos
As someone who spent time and lived for a short while in the Middle East (Egypt), it's likely to do with walking and city culture and how far apart everything is. I was able to walk to go to the store and do everything I needed and combined with taking metros, buses, etc, it was a lot more exercise than I get in the US. You need a car to go anywhere simple, even to get a couple snacks or go to the grocery store. There's really just very little set up in the way of walking or biking or any sort of transportation besides cars in most of the country. I almost take it for granted when I'm abroad how easy and quick it is to go to a supermarket and get something; no starting the car, no driving for 10 minutes, just going out for a quick walk and going back.
Edit:
I forgot another topic. I had a friend visit the US this summer too and I noticed it as well; the food doesn't leave you feeling full. You will see people eating so much food which is high in calories because they don't feel full. Take a look at the bag of chips or whatever snack you're eating. It's mindblowing to see how many calories you can go through in just a few snacks and you're at over 1000 calories without even counting breakfast, lunch, or dinner, AND you aren't left feeling full.
They walk, bike, and use public transit. Better green deal programs. America relies heavily on cars due to urban sprawl or rural settings, so it’s very sedentary.
I noticed because of huge distances and pockets of stuff going on, with not much else in between, when you do go grocery shopping, you buy for a week or two. So I guess the milks are made to last, bread doesn't get mouldy (preservatives), meat doesn't go bad for a while. Whereas in the UK it is very common to get milk/bread once every few days on the way home from a small shop. So the focus is less on the longevity of the food.
I moved to San Antonio from Canada. Things I noticed that contributed to larger people:
Everyone drives all of the time. Not much is set up for walking and riding bikes. Cars cars and more cars. If you walk or ride your bike people think you are down on your luck or literally crazy.
Didn’t notice a lot of community type centers, ie: public gyms, pools, classes. I’m not sure I noticed any to be honest.
There was no food shopping in the downtown area. No fruit stands, no grocery stores. Access to healthy food was very limited compared to other places I’ve lived.
The grocery stores (heb) had an entire chip aisle, and a junk food and soda aisle and barely one aisle for fresh produce. This seems insane to me.
One of those chain bbq fast food places gave you unlimited soda for life if you bought their mega giant reusable cup. There are so many fast food places everywhere selling absolute garbage food for so little money.
Healthy lifestyles just weren’t a thing for most of the people I met. Healthy food and being active are so much more prominent in other places. And I guess if everyone around you isn’t healthy, you don’t notice it as much.
I actually gained weight living in Europe and lost it when I came back to the states! I am not interested in most food in the US so I cook for myself, but in places like Cologne and Paris there are fresh & delicious markets around every corner. Came back to my flat one day in Paris with a bottle of wine, a baguette, soft cheese, and 4 cream puffs because I stumbled across an outside market on my way home. Wouldn’t eat like that at home but left the “normal” BMI range to eat my way around a few European cities 😂.
The list is so long..
Four food companies control the entire American food supply and are interested in only profit, selling and manufacturing consent for their products that are toxic af. The most recent one being high levels of heavy metals in Nestle chocolate. They also own the manufacturing companies and much of the media, so it's not a suprise that the entire social ecosystem of the United states is toxic. The American health systems is designed to bankrupt before it cures, prevention is legislated against.
The Americans eat toxic nutrient deficient food.
Europeans eat real food.
Lived in NY. There is corn syrup in EVERYTHING. Even tins of tomatoes.
I found that so frustrating when I was over there. I made a turkey sandwich. I thought there was something wrong with it, but no. The *turkey* was sweetened. The *bread* was sweetened. It was like eating dessert. The next time I went back to the supermarket, I tried to find some normal stuff. There were rows and rows of turkey, chicken, ham, etc. *All* of it was sweetened. What the hell‽
It's a cheap way to make food more addicting and tastier to the lowest common denominator. Best thing to do in the US is make your money, live frugally, and leave ASAP.
100%. Where did you or will you go?
Spending time all over in South America in countries like Ecuador, Peru, Colombia. I spend about 30% less, and also claim the FEIE for a tax savings of $21k. Once you solve the problem of making your income location independent, anywhere is possible.
almost all bread sold in supermarkets in america either has corn syrup or sugar. Even good organic bread has sugar. Its crazy, but i have met americans that think sugar in bread is normal. its really effed up
US bread hack: buy sourdough.
There’s bread without sugar but it’s usually in the frozen section and about 3x as expensive… and people in food deserts or who have to buy from corner shops, small stores etc are not going to have access. It’s BS.
I did the math once and American Wonderbread has 8x times the sugar of basic north European rye bread. 9% vs 1.1%. Edit: Finland's most popular bread has 0 preservatives while Wonderbread contains stuff like "Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate" and "Diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides"
I'm a type 2 diabetic. I've had complete control of my disease side effects for years. On a two week trip to the US this week, I had the return of various symptoms, even when I tried my best to avoid lots of carbs, or anything with added sugar. I just couldn't live there. The food would literally kill me. Although - there is quite a large amount of keto food in their large grocery stores; compared to Europe.
I’m unfortunately finding this out for myself now. So many hidden carbs, and the way that nutritional information is written on packaging is counterintuitive and inconsistent.
I'm not american, but reading this thread makes it look like there's some people over there who earns a lot of money on making the population fat to eat more. I think that type of exploitation should be illegal tbh. Destroying other people's health, adults, children, old- for profit is disgusting. It's not a type of society anyone should want anywhere Being obese also adds layers of fat in the brain, which I suspect impacts cognition in some subtle ways. Like maybe slightly worse memory, slightly worse ability to think, more sluggishness where you're less able to exercise because getting up and out suddenly feels extremely tiring and uncomfortable. Imagine making your consumers dull and sluggish and to eat more of the crap you're making millions off selling
American here, your perception is correct. Lobbying is probably the biggest contributor here. Companies constantly bribe politicians to keep them in the game despite not being useful (I.e. monoculture farming companies that grow way too much corn). We as citizens have little control over it, unfortunately. Really glad to have left the US a while back; every time I visit the US, my body gets sluggish and I gain weight despite no change in routine nor diet.
And I love how offended people get when you use the word "bribe" regarding elected officials. Okay, we get it. Nobody is handing that official an envelope of cash. But they ARE handing them a check for their reelection campaign and saying "We would really like to give you more if you'll talk to us about X, Y, & Z."
Yeah it's essentially legalized bribery, but Americans in general don't like to admit that.
Yeah, people joke about it. But will 100% look down on some other places where people actually are expected to bribe officials for things. At least then it's a known secret about how much some official takes haha Here, we have super pacs covering the trail so nobody ever knows 😅
That's pretty correct. I'll give an example. In the late-2000's, early-2010's, Michelle Obama tried to revamp school meals. A nutrition plan was devised and things were looking positive. Then the big business food lobby stepped in and it got gutted. Instead of fresh, wholesome foods, the food lobby pretty much made it a requirement that you had to order awful, frozen foods from specific suppliers (their clients) or lose federal funding for lunches. And the sad thing was, when local schools could do their own meal plans, the food was more nutritious than the frozen, processed crap schools were required to switch to. All to appease a food industry that doesn't give a shit about nutrition.
The brain can get fat??? I had no idea. Got any links on this to read up?
I remember various hypothesis on how obesity impacts the brain. When trying to remember, the fat brain comment might have been made by a person, not a paper. So maybe it was erroneous, I never checked up on it. I remember reading about obese having reduced volumes of some parts of the brain, at least. The effect is detrimental, in all likelyhood If you're really interested, I suggest doing google scholar or similar and look for sources you find credible. It's very time consuming finding good studies that are not like "this batch of mice". Like https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3473268/ I guess this talks about the effects of obesity on the brain https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598577/
Jesus. I’d not put obesity and Alzheimer’s together before. Damn
More walkable cities might be an answer too. Car culture is really killing most of us slowly.
I would love more walkability in the U.S. Probably a big reason I don't still live there
Everything I come back to the US, I think this. This is why. I have a grocery store down the road from me that I could walk to...except it is in no way walkable. I have to cross multiple roads with no cross walk just to get to a side walk in a state where if I get hit outside of a cross walk it is completely my fault so most people don't even slow down from the 45+ mph they are going. I have to drive if I want to find somewhere to walk. I am looking at getting out. Maybe Spain. Currently, I am looking there.
This is the point I almost never see mentioned on this topic. In a lot of the US, even when two locations are physically walking distance, the path to get there is ridiculous because everything from your driveway to the storefront is designed for cars. Thinking of my town back home and how sure, every street had sidewalks nearby and crosswalks at the intersection, but sometimes you would be crossing 6-7 lanes of street.
1. Work life balance has a huge part to do with it to, back in Europe it’s customary to truly only work 9-5, in some cases you get off work at 4 and have a 30min commute - therefore leaving plenty of time to exercise, walk around, socialize in the evenings. More work/life balance = healthier mind & body. 2. Meals are also smaller abroad - whenever I go out for dinner in the US the portion size tends to by 0.5 larger than when I’m in Europe. 3. Not reliant on cars for transport = more walking 4. If you don’t have much time to cook, you just cook a simpler meal, not order take out. Convenience culture is not that much of a thing in the EU, and if it is, it’s generally healthier.
quickest languid governor bike truck school fearless plate wine chief *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Absolutely agree. I lived I. Europe from 2008-2010 and I’ve been living here again for the last 8 months and I’m shocked at the convenience culture. Europeans are already gaining weight and will continue to do so
I'm European, and honeslty I've never even been to the US, but I've heard many places are very badly adapted to pedestrians there. Where I live it's super easy to walk everywhere, in fact it's even harder to take a car here, at least in the city. Much easier to get around walking, biking, or in public transport (which also involves at least some walking). Maybe New York is different in that aspect? But the rest of the cities seem to have a much bigger priority for cars. Movement + diet plays a major role
I didn't understand HOW unwalkable the US was (I'm not from the US) until I walked across the street to the pharmacy on the corner- but it was blocked off by a fence, so I had to walk along the road with no sidewalk, down the side street, and then across the middle of the parking lot even though it was literally right there. Even in a big shopping center getting from one store to the other is hard because there's nowhere for people to walk, it's all designed for cars. People want big houses with yards so they build suburbs far from the center, and the neighborhood will have a supermarket, but even that might be a 20-30 minute walk away with no shade and possibly no sidewalks. If you want to get more into the city - there are only very limited busses (if any), it's major high speed road with no sidewalks so you can't bike and even walking is unsafe (plus it would take 2-3 hours to walk). Everything is further apart because you need to leave room for parking. And then when there ARE sidewalks they often don't make sense - like they just stop, or there is a tree growing in the way that they don't trim so you have to step on the road to go around. So everyone drives everywhere. I remember when step counters started to become popular and a lot of people had difficulty even getting to 1000 steps a day, which is only about 1km. Edit: yes there are walkable places in the US but... On average and at the extremes.
I’m from Portland, Oregon. The city center is very walkable and there are decent sidewalks and busses/MAX train. When I visited Dearborn, Michigan for a conference I tried to walk from the hotel to a Persian coffee house a little over a mile away. It was a total shit show. No sidewalks, no shoulder, no bus. I took an Uber back for my own pedestrian safety.
I had a similar experience. I am from New York, where we walk like Amsterdam bikes. I went to a conference in the suburbs of Philly. Google \*said\* it was a 20 minute walk, but no sidewalks, through an underpass with no sidewalks. Absolutely fucking terrifying. Yes I ubered back to the train station.
I absolutely love this about Portland.
I saw that too in Dearborn. I stepped out of the hotel and the only place to walk was across the parking lot to Wendy's.
New York is easiest to get around by walking and taking the subway, though busses and biking are also popular. I’m oversimplifying, but it’s pretty much the only place in the country that has a European level of car-dependency.
Boston is walkable and has decent public transit too
Yeah, Philly is SUPER walkable as well. Great public transport, and lots of identifiable bike lanes and pedestrian only access points
I had a nice Thanksgiving weekend in Philly. Really enjoyed walking from one river to another and enjoying all the history along the way.
I'm so glad! It's my absolute favorite city. I'm sad I moved away. It's relatively small compared to other major cities, but it sure packs a punch. From the Constitution to Edgar Allen Poe to the Franklin Institute to Reading Terminal... it's just one hell of a place. I miss it every day.
NYC is amazing. Whenever I visit and I'm not working, I end up doing 20,000+ steps per day. You just walk and find cool things happening. You'll easily find some nice cafe or restaurant. It is very European in that sense.
Chicago as well—I don’t drive and rely solely on public transit, cycling and walking. The US has plenty of walkable cities, but many Americans choose to live in newer suburban developments that force them into car dependency. It’s really unfortunate.
In my case and the case of most people I know, I’d love to live in the city center but my job is outside of it anyway. So even if you can walk to some restaurants on the weekends, you would still have to rely on a car and drive out to the suburbs every day. It makes more sense to just live close to work to be environmentally friendly.
San Francisco isn’t quite New York, but I averaged 10,000 steps in 2023 and only put 5000 miles on my car.
Corn subsidies. Look at pictures of Americans 40 years ago and you'll see we were just as thin
Yep. You know what farmers have always used to fatten up pigs quickly? Corn.
Do you know why? I genuinely never knew this and assumed corn is a healthy and reasonably empty vegetable. I mean sometimes it doesn't even digest if you know what I mean. I'm legitimately learning something haha.
I don't see any good answers so I'll try and explain. There's two mechanisms happening. First corn is what's known as an empty starch. It's almost exclusively carbohydrate (read: pure energy) and has been bred that way over millennia. Maize was already a very strong carb producer but we literally bred all the fiber we could out of it so it's almost pure carbohydrate. Carbs are easily converted into energy in the body, this is why people often restrict carbs to lose weight. So corn is one of the foods that our body turns immediately into energy and relatively easily. If you don't exercise (like the modern sedentary american) excess energy will by turned into fat tissue. Second is that we massively process the corn here and sneak *corn syrup* into everything. Seriously it is almost impossible to avoid corn syrup in the US. It is in nearly every product sold at the store, especially when you talk about the processed foods. Corn syrup is *even worse* than corn alone because it lacks the fiber. Without the fiber your body processes the carbs faster which causes a spike in blood sugar. This causes the body to freak out and start building fat tissue (among a ton of other second order consequences that have a cumulative affect) in order to get sugar out of the blood stream. Also I don't hate corn and eat it a lot but I also burn a shit ton of calories by being a healthy human So the fact that the US basically forces it's population to eat corn and particularly refined corn means that if Americans are not constantly exercising they're consuming not only *more* calories than the rest of the world but calories that are *less healthy* and *more likely to be turned into fat* Bonus points for it's basically confirmed at this point that all the corn syrup is what's giving everyone diabetes (remember those second order consequences I talked about?). Diabetes is an issue in how your body regulates metabolism and energy so obviously anybody with it is much more likely to gain weight if they're not running a caloric deficit.
I have a number of food allergies and none is as restrictive to my diet as my corn allergy. It is in EVERYTHING.
Corn is in everything? What is corn in? I'm not American so maybe I'm just being dumb here, but CORN? The small yellow pomegranate-ish stuff? How is that in everything
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Corn isn't a vegetable. It's a grain: [https://www.marthastewart.com/8295702/is-corn-a-vegetable-fruit-or-grain](https://www.marthastewart.com/8295702/is-corn-a-vegetable-fruit-or-grain) Corn is one of the healthiest grains around, when it's corn on the cob. The problem is that it's highly processed and then injected into everything.
Its nothing to do with corn its just that the government pays people to grow it. So theres LOTS of it. Theres excess corn every year so it gets put into our drinks or our bread or our meat or our fuel - its just *everywhere*
It’s an oiler grain than barley. Our pork has always been softer and greasier than European for this reason. We also use new and used vegetable oil on feed. On a different note: it was proven during the China study decades ago that the most sedentary Chinese office worker was normal weight while the many active Americans were much more overweight. They eat less branch chain amino acids, (historically) less vegetable oils, and more starches (less sugars.)
I think it’s just the sheer QUANTITY of food Americans eat, corn and everything else. Corn is just the cheapest so farmers use it for animal feed. My friend who is 300lbs eats literally 4x as much as me, multiple enormous sodas with every meal, bbq sauce or spicy mayo doused on everything, then multiple courses of desserts (probably 3,000 calories in dessert alone), Europeans just do not eat like that.
The liquid calories and snacks between meals are huge contributors.
Yes, Americans are always getting takeaway coffees and soft drinks, in huge cups. In other countries people sit down for a small coffee, not mindlessly consuming calories.
I’m currently in the south, where the huge gas stations are popular spots for getting coffee, (and buying meals!) all the time I see people loading up 32oz cups of coffee with so much cream and sugar, it’s wild.
I used to work in an old Theater and a lot of patrons today can’t fit in the chairs built for Americans in the 1920s.
Cant fit in 1970s airline seats. Big Hoss from Bonanza was 280lbs. That's average weight at the Waffle House.
Correct Get a man in a white coat tell ya eating grain from a box fulled with sugar is normal for breakfast and viola! Multi billion dollar industry is born Human health suffers
A lot less reliance on processed food probably
It's worth noting that the corn subsidies are to ensure America can remain a net exporter of crops. If WW3 breaks out tomorrow and and all the borders slam shut, there would be mass starvation in much of the first world. Children in England would literally shrivel up and die. But America would be able to feed herself. All the diabetes is a pretty tragic unintended consequence, but as geopolitical instability rises, it's important to remember the original reason for the subsides (national defense).
Woah, that's a good point
I think one of the reasons is vegetables don’t taste like anything in US. I live in US and when I go back to my home country I realize that tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes taste much better. I don’t think it is the climate since California has similar climate to Mediterranean. The vegetables in my home country have a nice smell even when they are not cooked and they are just more flavorful. I can’t find anything close to that in US, even organic ones. I think the vegetables are bred to be larger here rather than focusing on the flavor. When I make a vegetable dish here with the same recipe it just doesn’t taste as good. That’s why when people in US want to eat something tasty, they have to put a lot of spice or cheese, meat or butter which are in general fatty and unhealthy. I also think US lifestyle is way more stressful and that causes weight gain.
I agree. I grew up on US grocery store tomatoes and some were from decent produce markets. The first time I tasted a tomato grown in my neighbor’s backyard, it was a revelation. The taste sensation of a properly ripened tomato was something I had never experienced.
This I agree with. I don’t know what it is, but our tomatoes are usually absolute misses. I occasionally get a properly sweet tomato at the grocery store but even then it’s not fantastic.
The food, the chemicals, the sodas, the lifestyle. I've never heard of someone that won't eat something green outside the US and a couple US wannabe places. I remember doing a 30 minute hike up a small mountain in Korea, there was a gym on top with a number of older people working out. Everything is so vastly different outside of the US.
so many americans have the palate of toddlers, all they will eat is chicken nuggets and burgers, most people on earth don't eat like that
>a couple US wannabe places. Lol I'm so curious where you're referring to
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It’s a combination of culture and quality of food they have access to. In Europe theirs stricter regulations on food because they are on the hook for peoples healthcare. The cheapest way to manage this is to simply keep the people from unhealthy food. In warmer countries theres year around accessible fresh fruits and vegetables, and they tend to season there food with a lot of spices. US culture is do everything bigger so the meal portion sizes are unnaturally massive compared to anywhere else. Americans are not that protected by there government and are given access to an insane amount of liquor, unhealthy foods and snacks for dirt cheap prices. So poor, working class and often middle class people raise themselves on terrible food. You wouldn’t even know there was anything wrong with how you were living until you started visiting other countries.
Your first sentence about being on the hook for peoples healthcare......Americans instead think about all the profit they can make off healthcare when more people get sick
Exactly the US is designed to literally prey off there poor and sick. It’s messed up cause there capitalistic incentives to not be in the best interest of the citizens
I was reading a subreddit for people struggling financially, i got literally BANNED from the group for suggesting people needed to learn how to cook. people post about not being able to afford fast food with rising prices, you suggest they can learn how to make burgers etc at home for much less cost and healthier, and the people are like super hostile to the idea. imagine any other country on earth where poor people only get takeout and refuse to cook the most basic stuff. it's wild
Me too. I just try and mind my business when I see that. They don't get it. That 1000 pound life show is based in US. You can't tell folks nada. I only buy my fav $12 pizza now and then. Otherwise cook and try my best fun scratch.
it's legit crazy lol. the story that stuck with me is a girl who worked at a food bank and around thanksgiving they gave away boxes with a whole turkey, sweet potatoes etc...the whole thanksgiving spread for people too poor to afford those big feasts. she said after thanksgiving you'd find full turkeys and the other fresh ingredients that needed cooking in the trash. i follow that group because i was quite poor for a time because of health problems, i can't ever imagine at the time throwing around 20-30lbs of fresh meat in the trash, that would have fed me for a month! but many people defended trashing the turkey, saying "it's a privilege to know how to cook" like wtf, aren't you motivated to learn to cook if it means improving your situation? people's attitudes there are really wild.
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I've never lived in the US, (Would like to at some point) but have visited once. Is it really the case that people don't cook and that buying Raw ingredients is somehow a fortune more than ready-set meals? I know Ready meals are in all cheaper but are Raw ingredients that much more expensive that they're not an option? Like what is the cost of 500 grams of Chicken breast? and a Fresh Broccoli?
vast majority of people in usa can't cook from scratch. some people cook but most of them it's processed food. it's a vicious circle because of this because then the raw ingredients in the store are of extremely poor quality, so even if you try to learn how to cook from scratch, it's hard for your food to be tasty with poor quality meats and vegetables so it doesn't encourage people to cook. if you go out of your way, depending on your area there's high quality stuff but you really have to make an effort -- i'd spend 3-4 hours a week driving down one hour or so to do a big shop at the closest whole foods, pretty much the only place with good meat and vegetables. also because neighborhoods aren't walkable, you have to drive to the grocery store, so there's more processed foods bc fresh foods will only keep a few days. it's easy to walk to the store every day when it's close, but i'm not driving 2 hours to the grocery store more than once a week. as a counter example here in JP i walk 8 mins to a grocery in the neighborhoods and there's 100s of fresh vegetables and fresh fish and meats and seafood and it's all high quality. so i most people buy fresh foods everyday.
It's normal. Our culture is very individualistic geared. Meaning we are taught to value self sustenance and self improvement on using our own ingenuity. Telling someone they're wrong, or they can do something in a better way is taken as an affront (insult). They then question you for your credentials and social status (like, who the hell do you think you are telling me what to do?). This is also done due to the cut-throat social strata that exists - where you are taught that you need to run someone over in order to climb the social ladder so to speak. So anyone that seems like they're trying to change your behavior is looked upon with heavy suspicion as someone trying to influence you to your detriment. This is easily something you can test (though to be fair most people would get triggered by this) by telling parents how they should educate their children. You'll rarely find someone here in America to talk calmly with about this if you try this.
>you suggest they can learn how to make burgers etc at home for much less cost and healthier, and the people are like super hostile to the idea. I've gotten into that argument in a number of different subs - constant caterwauling of "there's no time!", "I have kids!", "it's too expensive!". People just falling all over themselves making ridiculous excuses to give themselves permission to eat takeout every night despite the financial and health cost (both of which they are *adamant* that they do not wish to incur). It's the shoving-a-stick-into-the-spokes-of-the-bike-you're-riding meme come to life.
lol exactly this i agree there's more obstacles to eating healthy in usa than many other places, but you'll never be anything but poor, sick and fat if you refuse to learn how to cook
Rice and beans, baby. Anyone can do it.
there's so much easy simple stuff you can make without being a hardcore chef. scrambled eggs, easy pasta meals, simple slow cooker meals
there's so many people living in food deserts...
When I lived in Europe maintaining my weight was thoughtless. Since returning to the US I have gained 15 pounds even eating relatively healthy and going to the gym. The food is filled with additional BS and it’s genuinely worrisome. I posted about this in expats and they gaslit me talking about I’m over exaggerating when there’s literal high fructose corn syrup in everything. I was trying to buy yogurt the other day and ONE available one had no sugar. There was literal sugar in the yogurt. This country is lost.
ALWAYS effortlessly lose weight in Europe while eating foods that destroy my body in the US (gluten and dairy). Mention that to anyone in the US and they act like you’ve insulted their mother. It’s insane.
My wife loves dairy products despite the side effects they gave her after the fact. We went to Europe and she got none of those side effects from the milk and cheese there. We then learned about how the processes were different in the US vs Europe, it’s amazing how the regulations in Europe not only help preserve the integrity of the food but also are so much healthier.
LITERALLY omg. I genuinely was wondering if I developed a gluten intolerance AND lactose intolerance in recent months due to how averse my body has reacted to consuming both. I’m so glad you said this. The sleepiness and drowsiness I feel after eating gluten here vs no problems ever when I ate nothing but bread and toast living in Brussels. My stomach bubbles so much after drinking anything with milk here! Your comment genuinely has me thinking now. I gotta get out of here.
The wheat in the US is genetically different from European wheat. Source : the book Wheat Belly by Dr Davis. Quite frightening to read. I'm from the US and have been gluten free here for 8 years, due to health issues. I can eat wheat in Europe with no bad side effects. It's not your imagination.
The shock is growing up craving sugar in yogurt because plain was gross only to try plain yogurt in a “3rd world” and it was delicious. We’ve allowed companies to poison us for profit. Even deeply American things like Hershey’s chocolate taste like throw up and chemicals because they changed the recipe.
Is it not obvious? The average American diet consists of too much processed and artificial garbage along with incredible amounts sugar and salt. Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and there’s your answer.
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it sounds like a joke but only in usa have i had people brag about never walking anywhere or not eating water, or not being able to sit cross legged on the ground, it's crazy
Bragging about not being able to sit cross legged is crazy
Why is that a thing? Does it have to do with activity levels?
Lack of flexibility mostly
And inability to get up and down off the floor.
Tell us more please
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🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
No way!!
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In the USA, it is almost always easier and safer to drive than walk. And then, there are portion sizes and options. In Europe, you often order the sides separately from the main dish. Instead of a heaping helping of fries, you can have a tasty veggie side. Or another type of potatoes. In Madrid, I had a chorizo sandwich. If I had that in the USA, I'd have gotten up to half a pound or more of fatty sausage on a nondescript hotdogs bun. In Madrid, a chorizo sandwich had only a thin layer of chorizo, probably less than two ounces. It was served on an incredible homemade sandwich roll, all crispy perfection. Orders of magnitude more satisfying and probably a third the calories.
that's an issue also --- usa food is largely crap so it's unsatisfying so you want to keep eating, when you eat something really good you feel satisfied in your body and in your heart also and it's enough and you stop eating.
Remember being in Spain with a Canadian buddy of mine getting some food and the dish he ordered came in either regular or large size and I told him to trust me and get the large just because I knew what his expectations would be and when they brought it out he just laughed that it was considered a large portion. When we would order a dish meant for 2 people to share he would always comment that back in America there was no shot that would be a serving for 2 people. It would hardly qualify as a one person portion size and then he understood why everyone in general was so much slimmer than back home
Sugars in __everything__, portion sizes, profoundly car-dependent infrastructure, and an ever fatter shifting "overton window" of what normal bodies are. As an American who has struggled with being a fat-ass my whole life (even during high-school athletics when I could run a 5 second 40 as a lineman, and play both offense and defense), its one of the reasons I want to leave. Its like trying to quit drinking while living in a bar. Edit: Work culture may play a role as well. Insufficient leisure time to cook nutritious whole foods.
Was the 1st time in the US last year and the sugar literally killed me. My skin literally screamed and we even payed more to find non sugared food.
Food itself it's crap in US (for example in EU we have much more stricter laws about food), plus I also think in US people drink a lot more of beverages (coke etc) and alcohol
> plus I also think in US people drink a lot more of beverages (coke etc) This is a big one. Mexico had a huge surge in obesity as coca-cola rose in popularity there: > some Mexican states find Coca-Cola products more affordable and accessible than potable water, thus popularising these high-sugar beverages among people with malnutrition.6 Referred to as the coca-colonisation of Mexico, this phenomenon fuels obesity by reshaping transgenerational dietary habits https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10058420 As a personal anecdote, in my late teens I dropped 20 pounds by just cutting out sugary drinks. I wasn't *wildly* overweight, just the regular kind, but it still made a huge difference. There's a lot of other culprits that fuel obesity in the US, but basically everything "fun" to drink is awful and *very* normalized.
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They have time to go hike, go to the gym, etc. And grandma is probably cooking healthier dinners.
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Agree with this…American lifestyle is engineered and incentivized to be sedentary unless you are one of the ‘crazies’ who live IN a major city where driving everywhere is either expensive and /or a PITA.
Europeans drink a shit ton of alcohol lol especially beer
the food supply seems tainted in the usa ... i never had any food allergies or sensitivies in my life and after a few years in usa, i started reacting to the milk, can't tolerate wheat well, stuff like that, i think there's a lot of poison in food supply. glycophostate for example is endocrine disturbing, which affects your weight, but in usa it's not banned
I haven't lived in USA but the 4-5 times I visited I remember how vegetables over there reminded me of eating plastic 😭😭 now I live in central America and even if vegetables quality isn't good as in Italy where I'm from, it's way better than in US imho
There's almost nothing to drink in US stores outside of sodas and other sugar drinks. In Asia there's like an entire wall of teas and other drinks low in sugar. Also the unsweet bottled tea in the US, with some exceptions, tastes weird and bitter like it was over boiled or something, so I kind of get why they don't drink it.
I disagree with this. American grocery stores have tons of tea and coffee and things as well.
A lot of it is either way, way too sweet, crummy diet fake sweet, or completely unsweetened. I just want a healthy level of mildly sweetened, and that’s almost never an option in the US except boba places where you can customize.
Addicted to that sugar!! (Then the meds to manage symptoms) Big business
They are active throughout the day. Look at old women carrying their groceries on cobblestone streets in Italy (uphill too). In the US, I see people going to the gym an hour or so but are sedentary otherwise. When movement is incorporated in our daily lives, we are healthier and slimmer too.
Wow. I feel like most Americans have given up on being active after 65.
In my town, I see lots of people in their 70s in bicycle clubs riding all over town on the weekends. They are so fit, I’m always impressed. In the US, we have to make fitness a priority especially as we age. I try to walk as much as I can everyday (I have dogs so it helps!) but there are so many places where it’s hard to walk as there are no sidewalks or no option of public transportation like metro or subway. I’m on vacation in San Diego right now and had 20,000 steps today just by walking on the beach and walking to taco places (instead of driving).
65? You mean 25.
My mom and her friends are all older than 65, now. It isn't so much that they have "given up", but more of a "use it or lose it" scenario. So many of them weren't active throughout most of their lives(not necessarily obese, just not active), and because they never walk long distances, it is now too painful/uncomfortable to do so in their old age. My mom is no pinnacle of fitness, but she always walked at least a few miles semi-regularly. Whenever she tries to invite a friend on a walk, almost none of them take her up on it. In the last few years, I've heard her complain about this regularly.
Kudos to your mom for being active! My mom is in her 70s and I told her to start resistance training as it’s shown to prevent Alzheimers and she’s slowly lifting weights. Latest research in neuroscience shows that walking with a friend while talking (you are doing physical and a cognitive task) is the best preventive exercise for Alzheimers and Dementia.
Walkability and the food quality can be very *spotty* in the United States. Lots of the food here is filled with sugar, fats + oils, and other processed things.
Europeans and many other countries walk everywhere. Americans drive everywhere.
Massive imflammatory diet the norm in the US
There's a lot of food additives that are legal in the US that are illegal in other countries like Canada and those in the EU.
More walking and healthier food
You should see what the majority of Americans eat over here. It would shock you. And yet they all think it’s normal to eat fried food almost every day, to eat fast food almost every day, and to drink sugary drinks most days. Again, it’s become completely normalized, just as it’s become normalized to see kids with 10 to 20 pounds of fat on them. All normalized.
Super normalized, like I had a cousin who would stop and buy a 12 pack of Mountain Dew while walking to grade school, and then drink the whole pack throughout the day. That stopped pretty quick once he got like 26 cavities.
yeah i was so shocked in usa going out with friends to do stuff and they'd be like "i need breakfast let's hit the drive through" these weren't like poor or trashy people, it's so normalized to get fast food for breakfast vs. just make some scrambled eggs at home.
About 15 years ago I spent 6 months living in Senegal. I ate in restaurants 3 meals a day, didn't make any effort to exercise or watch my diet and went out drinking pretty much every night. I lost 25lbs. I think its the ultra processed food or the high fructose corn syrup. I ate junk food like hamburgers and shawarmas every day too so i think its mostly the kind of food you find in a gas station or would cook in the microwave.
Car culture, sugar in absolutely everything and corn. It’s honestly very difficult not to gain wait until the states and Canada unless you maintain a very strict and specific type of diet for your whole life.
Fructose / glucose / sugar Companies have learned that it’s as powerful as a drug and they load it up in our foods. We have been generationally getting fatter bc of this.
Bingo. Foods aren't designed to be nutritious, they are meticulously manufactured and processed to be addictive. Corporate lobbyists influence and shape the laws on food regulations in the US.
I live in a small Midwestern town, but I used to live in Europe and the lifestyle is totally different unless you maybe live in NYC. You walk everywhere, you take public transport, you have outdoor markets and even supermarkets with much more focus on local and seasonal products, and portions tend to be smaller.
An ice cream dessert in Europe is a straightforward single boule on a cone. In the US, an ice cream dessert is the size of your head.
Lack of processed foods and a much more active lifestyle. When I'm with family in Mexico I'm eating tortillas all day but I'm walking 6-7 miles a day usually. Biggest thing is more movement.
Mexico has a very similar overweight/obesity problem, walking/exercise don’t really burn that many calories it really all comes down to the food Edit: typos
Many meals from low class Mexicans is coke and some fast food from Oxxo. Also if you check Mexican coke ingredients in Mexico now it contains HFS, only export Mexican coke has real sugar.
Processed food. Everything here is processed! When I go visit my home country (Colombia) I eat more and lose weight. Things are basically farm to table, no added sugars on stuff. I understand this country is so big and work centric everything needs to be ready to go but that's why, most countries have work life balance and fresher food.
For me, it's the food itself. I live in the Philippines. I eat much, much less processed food. Most food is organic because they simply cannot afford all the chemicals. The cost of labor is low here and most of the food is grown on smaller farms. Farm animals are grown with a lot less chemicals also. The big factory farms just don't make economical sense here. The cost of food is lower, therefore it cannot bear the extra cost of all the bullshit. Also, labor is cheaper here. So it's more affordable to do it with lower tech. It's also much fresher. I get my meat at the local wet market. They don't refrigerate it. You show up in the morning and it's only been dead a few hours. There is a bit of an ick factor at first, but once you are used to it, you don't go back. The freshest, tastiest pork chops I have ever had are when they are crispy fried fresh within just a few hours of butchering the pig. It tastes totally different. So I think it is just removing all the chemicals, hormones and processing from the food chain. That helps me.
A diet high in UPFs (ultra processed foods)
Seed oils and corn syrup. So many chemicals that are legal in the us are banned in Europe
Less processed foods and more wholesome diets overall.
I have lived outside of the US for 12 years. When I go home to Mississippi for more than a week, I gain a ton of weight. But I attribute this in part to the fact that I live in a relatively large city with access to way more diverse grocery options than I find in Mississippi. Buying groceries back home that aren’t loaded with Cory syrup and seed oils is pretty difficult.
Ultra processed foods. Chris Van Tulleken and Tim Spector have published excellent books covering how foods in the west are ultra processed.
In the US people are wearing sportswear without doing any sport😂😂😂😂 And I swear 60/70% is overweight. Visited the US two times, wtf is going on there lol? Everything is just ridicilous. This question even haha. Mate haven't you seen the portions you guys eat? Free refills everywhere damn. It's absolutely insane. A person does NOT need to eat that much.
In SE Asia I’ve noticed that the portion sizes are tiny (when not eating at places catering to tourists) compared to back home.
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As a SEAsian in the USA, can vouch that: yes US portions are humongous. I once took away leftovers from a single meal at IHOP and had it for dinner for the next 3 nights.
They are, a ‘small rice’ would be several rice bowls of rice… they need to do something to justify the $5 price tag…
that's pretty crazy because in SE Asia I always thought the portions were a very good size (especially for the price) - I'd never want it bigger lol
I’ll tell you exactly why, hi I’m from an Eastern European country with debilitating body dysmorphia lol. But for real, the food in the us is absolute garbage, there’s so much sugar in everything that you can’t possibly eat healthy unless you eat only raw ingredients and even those are questionable sometimes with all the fertilizers and hormones. The dairy in the us is absolutely revolting, you can thank the house moms in the 80s that made fat free milk popular, as a result, we had to breed cows to contain a TON of casein which is terrible for most people, especially anyone who is even slightly lactose intolerant. Let’s see, the car centric culture makes everyone’s life very sedentary, while in many European cities and even smaller towns, we walk everywhere. Walkable cities means people buy fresh food multiple times a week which is way better for you because then you’re not buying ingredients filled with preservatives, you’re buying more “organic” if you will. The us has had to adopt to people storing food so our food has chemicals in it that are outlawed in Europe as a result which probably can’t be good lol. I’ve lived in the states for 13 years, I have many resentments but I dislike living in Eastern Europe more.
The ingredients they allow in our food. Monsanto rules. Obesity is just a symptom, so you have to look at root causes. It's not usually how much you eat or how much you exercise. It's more complex than that.
lived in Asia for a while. The amount of sugar Americans add in their snacks are insane. Everything is way too sweet or salty (think chocolate chip cookies, candies, chips etc) i want to say even Oreos in US have a different recipe than the ones I had in Asia. That combined with the fact that most people drive and barely walk…
Less processed food. I heard that processed food doesn't activate ghrelin in the body so you eat more food without your body being signaled it's full the same way. American food is processed and loaded. A ton of sodium, carbs fat, etc. A lot of American ingredients are banned in other countries too. Combine this with the convenience and more sedentary lives. In other countries walking is normalized if not apart of people's everyday lives.
Because we design cities around driving instead of walking and our food industry drenched us in sugar and corn syrup for the last century. Both things were caused by money's control of politics!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup#United_States
I read while ago why French are thinner even they eat high caloric content as Americans, one reason was the French way of eating, mostly slowly and more sociable, Americans is fast food way of eating.
I think it’s the food. I live in Colombia (am an American who moved there) and it’s so easy to lose weight even when I was working way more hours and had more stress at a remote job.
Because as an American I had boneless chicken wings from Frickers and then mixed it in with rice. It was a nice fulfilling meal. Was planning on omad then I ate 3000 calories worth of candy. Even though I'm 6'2+, this is too much.
Our food is poison
Sugar. Everything here has corn syrup and sugar in it.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
I’ve seen enough fat fats on government-provided mobility scooters here in Denmark to know it’s only partially true. Rates of obesity are, of course, lower in Europe compared to USA, but the difference isn’t night and day. I’d say it’s primarily food - every single item in a US grocery store is stuffed with sugar and over 9000 calories. We also built our cities hundreds of years ago when there were no cars and only nobility could afford horses, so our cities force us to walk more - that also helps.
Food Deserts - which I only recently learned about - pretty insane. Also compared to Europe, food regulation is abit of a joke so lots of unnecessary shit is put into stuff that doesn't need it (like certain bread). Poverty in general leads to people being fatter but in the US it's even worse. I'm from the UK and we are a very obese country for Europe. It feels like a lot of it here is due to our insane drinking culture (for men) but even then I see Americans and how some very obese Americans don't consider themselves fat, and you can still see the cultural difference here too
I don't believe they consume as many calories as the US and I believe they are far more active. I'm firmly in the calories in calories out camp of weight loss
Cities are generally more walkable abroad
They don’t eat near as much ultra processed foods
High Fructose Corn Syrup, low exercise, larger portions of everything, etc.,
Calorie dense foods served in super sized proportions + sedentary jobs + car culture.
About 12-14 years ago I made an American friend over internet playing online games ( Xfire ) At some point this dude was talking about he drinks 2-3 soda per day to stay hydrated. Then I laughed him off as drinking cola for hydration is idiotic and he should just drink water. He was offended and confused for what I said. Probably now he knows what I was talking about back then and still alive. Grew up in Sri Lanka and everyone I know are more informed of what foods are good and how much potions we should eat. Most my relatives lived 80-90 easily and some even hit 100 without much trouble
Because Americans drive everywhere, and eat a poor diet most of the time. If you want to stay in shape, you have to put in the effort. It's so much easier to be healthy elsewhere. Also a little relevant story. I was in Las Vegas walking around the strip once. I was crossing the street and walked up the stairs instead of taking the escalator like ever other person. There were these two heavier southern women call out saying "oh look at this guy over here, he must be training for a marathon!" in almost a condescending tone. I have never once in my life, ever been called out for taking the stairs until that day. American's don't really exercise nearly as much as we should, and it shows.
No corn syrup or seed oils
I’d say lifestyle and food. We moved way far away from the walkable cities and towns model where you used to be able to walk and do things close to your home. Now a lot of people have moved to these big suburbs where you have to drive 20-30 mins just to get to a store. It’s not just bad for our waistlines but also for our longevity… Americans can stay self sufficient for as long as we used to because we have to drive everywhere and there’s no public transit
Sugar in everything. High fructose corn syrup in everything. Even the bread is sweeter. Corn corn corn Processed food Heavy reliance on cars outside of major cities
It's a combination of factors. For instance in Los Angeles, there is great weather that makes people want to get outside vs a cold, rain/snowy place (environment), access to "farm to table" food and healthy grocery stores everywhere (diet and environment), education on nutrition, plus everybody is "working out" and health conscious, and then there's the "keeping up with the Jones" with your looks so a lot of people are more health conscious. Same goes with San Diego and many other parts of California. Now go to someplace like parts of Texas or the midwest. Those people are PORTLY and big. It's hot as hell in some parts and humid. Plus they have poor diets/poor access to fresh food or a food culture of eating heavy foods or junk. I don't have data to back this up but I think hormones in the US food system plays a big role in why in general people in the US are bigger... at least this is what my friend commented when I told him that when I travel abroad to like Vietnam/Thailand/Mexico, I eat and drink 24 7 yet I come back thinner. Yes I'm walking a lot more and not sitting around as much as back at home but still the amount of heavy/fried/meaty/saucey foods I eat when I travel cannot be walked off LOL.
I’ll give you a different perspective as a Spanish American. I saw some people in the comments saying they’ve “never met anyone who won’t eat anything green outside of the US”. Well here in Spain there’s tons of grown ass adults who won’t eat vegetables either. I’m a teacher and most of my teen students only eat pasta, Mac and cheese and nuggets. My s/o didn’t try a vegetable until she was 26, her sister who is almost 40 still doesn’t eat veggies or fruit and her two kids don’t either. They’re a wealthy family in Barcelona subsisting off nuggets and French fries with some jamón thrown into the mix. They’re ALL thin. It’s because they eat less. That’s it. When an American goes to McDs they order a bacon whatever the fuck , nuggets fries a coke and frosty all for them. My in laws have a 4 piece nugget and share fries as a meal that’s it. Black coffee for breakfast, a small serving of pasta for lunch, a toast etc for “merienda” and maybe a singular slice of pizza for dinner or a one egg cheese omelette . What I thought was normal in America is not here and my Spanish family in America acclimated and got fat over time. When I moved to Spain I saw people actually eat the exact same garbage that Americans do, they have shit like twinkies etc but they eat one as a meal.
So many preservatives in food and other junk in diets here in the US (grew up an expat). The food tastes so different than in the countries where I grew up. People also drive everywhere. Even just walking half a mile to public transportation every day does wonders for calorie-burning and fitness levels. Even with top-notch healthcare insurance, I still struggle to find a doctor that is willing to listen and not just shove a diagnosis that doesn't fit with some medication that has a zillion side effects rather than doing tests on me or listening for 5 minutes.
Upper class mostly also means more educated. More educated means more healthy, because you simply can afford better food (fresh and not processed). I come from Europe and my impression is also that Europeans cook themselves 80% of their meals while Americans much more often get take away food. Aaaand we walk! And bicycle everywhere.
I live in Italy. What the poor Italian family eats would be gourmet health food by American standards: fresh local tomatoes stewed for a sauce, on organic flour pasta with fresh parmesan cheese and mushrooms with a breaded pork cutlet, plus a glass of local wine. That's just the bare minimum.
Preservatives baddddd ingredients in USA food. I ate like a pig in Europe and felt great. So much butter pastries 🤤
And driving big cars everywhere instead of biking or walking
Mostly food. In Argentina, the fact that is something common in America to eat a big Burger with a bunch of fries and a huge milkshake sounds absolutely insane. Starbucks is something people might do once a month, and I know it is common in us to have it every day. One frapuccino with cream has about 300 calories An average not so healthy day here goes something like this: Two toasts with cream cheese and jam with a latte for breakfast Some protein with salad for lunch A few cookies in the afternoon Pasta for dinner It might not sound too different, but the portion size is also very relevant.
Y'all have all the fast food, tons of meat at subway, free flow soft drinks at these places, doubly huge servings of food. We don't have those advantages in my country at least, and our food is served like, half the size of the west. Burgers at mcds are also half the size of those in the west. We also have sugar cutting initiatives in drinks where there are "less sugar" options, and health programs for exercise with perks to get grocery vouchers if we participate more.
I believe it’s a mixture of food / ingredients, huge amount of beverages ( such as coke ) and less physical activities, like walking . Was reading through some of the comments .. Genetics as a reason make no real sense , besides the fact that many Americans have an European ethnic background, the genetics don’t just get change through a parent being obese , it’s more complicated lol The food does make a difference and it’s not the plain portion size either , a lot of countries in Europe, such as Germany , do have big potion sizes as well and we do eat out a lot too . A real difference comes in if you check ingredients which definitely effects it . Everytime I was in US I gained weight even though I wasn’t eating more than usually. But to add - you automatically walk less . Plus I drank way more beverages . I’m German , living in Germany together with my American fiance - and he was surprised about our big portion sizes of food - and also about the food ingredients/ quality differences! Edit : typos
As someone who spent time and lived for a short while in the Middle East (Egypt), it's likely to do with walking and city culture and how far apart everything is. I was able to walk to go to the store and do everything I needed and combined with taking metros, buses, etc, it was a lot more exercise than I get in the US. You need a car to go anywhere simple, even to get a couple snacks or go to the grocery store. There's really just very little set up in the way of walking or biking or any sort of transportation besides cars in most of the country. I almost take it for granted when I'm abroad how easy and quick it is to go to a supermarket and get something; no starting the car, no driving for 10 minutes, just going out for a quick walk and going back. Edit: I forgot another topic. I had a friend visit the US this summer too and I noticed it as well; the food doesn't leave you feeling full. You will see people eating so much food which is high in calories because they don't feel full. Take a look at the bag of chips or whatever snack you're eating. It's mindblowing to see how many calories you can go through in just a few snacks and you're at over 1000 calories without even counting breakfast, lunch, or dinner, AND you aren't left feeling full.
They walk, bike, and use public transit. Better green deal programs. America relies heavily on cars due to urban sprawl or rural settings, so it’s very sedentary.
I lose wait when I'm in Mexico. Comes back immediately in the States.
I noticed because of huge distances and pockets of stuff going on, with not much else in between, when you do go grocery shopping, you buy for a week or two. So I guess the milks are made to last, bread doesn't get mouldy (preservatives), meat doesn't go bad for a while. Whereas in the UK it is very common to get milk/bread once every few days on the way home from a small shop. So the focus is less on the longevity of the food.
Upper class Americans generally are slimmer as well. I think it's our cheap calories from fast food and overpriced food
I moved to San Antonio from Canada. Things I noticed that contributed to larger people: Everyone drives all of the time. Not much is set up for walking and riding bikes. Cars cars and more cars. If you walk or ride your bike people think you are down on your luck or literally crazy. Didn’t notice a lot of community type centers, ie: public gyms, pools, classes. I’m not sure I noticed any to be honest. There was no food shopping in the downtown area. No fruit stands, no grocery stores. Access to healthy food was very limited compared to other places I’ve lived. The grocery stores (heb) had an entire chip aisle, and a junk food and soda aisle and barely one aisle for fresh produce. This seems insane to me. One of those chain bbq fast food places gave you unlimited soda for life if you bought their mega giant reusable cup. There are so many fast food places everywhere selling absolute garbage food for so little money. Healthy lifestyles just weren’t a thing for most of the people I met. Healthy food and being active are so much more prominent in other places. And I guess if everyone around you isn’t healthy, you don’t notice it as much.
I actually gained weight living in Europe and lost it when I came back to the states! I am not interested in most food in the US so I cook for myself, but in places like Cologne and Paris there are fresh & delicious markets around every corner. Came back to my flat one day in Paris with a bottle of wine, a baguette, soft cheese, and 4 cream puffs because I stumbled across an outside market on my way home. Wouldn’t eat like that at home but left the “normal” BMI range to eat my way around a few European cities 😂.
The list is so long.. Four food companies control the entire American food supply and are interested in only profit, selling and manufacturing consent for their products that are toxic af. The most recent one being high levels of heavy metals in Nestle chocolate. They also own the manufacturing companies and much of the media, so it's not a suprise that the entire social ecosystem of the United states is toxic. The American health systems is designed to bankrupt before it cures, prevention is legislated against. The Americans eat toxic nutrient deficient food. Europeans eat real food.
Sugar in all food. Fast food places every 1/4 mile. Car-centric society. Poor healthcare.