Why do Europeans make fun of Americans for our obesity epidemic when they themselves also have an obesity epidemic?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The problem with obesity is (1) lifestyle (often tied to education) (2) genetics.
For some people (2) trumps (1). I know a few people who exercise daily and watch what they eat and are still pretty rotund. I think having some German or African ancestry doesn't help much.
Then there's people who just eat like pigs. We probably have more of them. This is heavily tied to culture / lack of education.
Then there's the lack of natural daily exercise. A lot of people in Europe walk way more than we do. Here it's car-work-car-home-car-store-car-home. There it's often walk-bus-walk-work-walk-bus-walk-home-walk-store.
BTW Mexico is slowly overtaking the US as #1 fat capital of the world. A combination of extremely heavy traditional diet and less physical work.
Still, there's also plenty of people in their 50s who are very fit.
Not really. The countries with 25+% obesity make up around 60% of Europe's population.
If we break this down by states vs countries, a lot of US states are no more obese than European countries. For example, California (pop 40M) is no more obese than Spain (pop 46M).
The south has very high rates of obesity, but also the highest black population. Blacks have an obesity rate around 50%. I'll go out on a limb and say the US also has a higher Mexican population...and Mexican Americans have an obesity rate over 40%.
Could it be that white Americans actually have lower obesity rates than many of their European counterparts?
If the US were 90%+ white like many Europrean countries what would the obesity rate be? Maybe around 20% like it is in Montana, Utah, Vermont, Massachusetts?
Great point! When Europeans often brag about how they have better this or that, if you only compared Americans of European descent, they wouldn't have an advantage in many categories in my opinion. Our large black and to some degree Hispanic population lower our statistical averages in so many categories (people don't like to mention or acknowledge these facts but that are what they are).
From my own observations on visits to America. You folks are morbidly obese.......... we're merely obese. But we're catching up with ya!.........
Yes, English Dave we are fat and loud, unapologetic about it, too. However I am happy we are not fat from haggis or kidney pie.
BUT we Americans have a love affair with portion size and hamburgers.
I would take Europe's work week and care for it's citizens over America ANY day.
Perhaps, because I am American, I am astounded by the average American citizen's lack of compassion and ignorance, but, again, I am not a world traveler.
I am a stone throw from The Canadian boarder, though.
I'm so sick of the word epidemic being used here for obesity. An epidemic is a contagious disease. While there are some medical reasons for obesity, it's still not something you catch from someone else so it's not an epidemic.
In the country where i live (Denmark) were only at 10%. However, I'm an American and when I compare my beach trips in Southern Europe to those in the USA, you can't tell the elephant seals from the people in the US, unless you are at Malibu.
I think it's actually worse for the European countries.
At least the food in the US tastes amazing. Anybody ever traveled through Europe? Most countries have dreadful food. Even countries that are marketed as having good food (like Italy) don't hold a candle to the US in that regard.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
