Why do Europeans make fun of Americans for our obesity epidemic when they themselves also have an obesity epidemic?
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From my own observations on visits to America. You folks are morbidly obese.......... we're merely obese. But we're catching up with ya!.........
Come on. I don't know who put together these numbers, maybe it was Hostess, the maker of cup cakes, Twinkie and Ho Ho's. But American's are much fatter than Europeans. Just the facts, Ma'am. Have you been to Europe? On any Sunday, go to your neighborhood Walmart, which doubles a meeting place for Weight Watcher/Jenny Craig dropouts. Walmart is chockfull of morbidly obese people of all different shapes and colors. Fat in America, seems to be somehow directly correlated between the level of education one receives, to the level of obesity that they reach.
In Europe there is less of a culture of fat. There is not the prevalence of processed food compared to that in the US. There are no GMO's. It is a different state of mind. I am not saying that there are not fat people in Europe, just I have not seen as many. If you have been to Europe, check out Tesco, the British equivalent of Walmart, pretty much. Way less fat people.
From your own map it appears that Europe is still way behind the US.
Italy and France are well half under the US threshold: why? Because culinary traditions, decent food and restrictive laws are a reality, unlike the US or the UK.
I have seen things that American kids eat in canteens that in Italy wouldn't even be accepted as a meal for a dog.
It's also true that obesity is a global problem connected with the constantly decreasing quality and "naturalness" of food, something about which the US are not the only representatives.
Most people are unaware that the increase in obesity is in fact a global problem.
Oh, yeah. We're the home of LuLu Lemon peach bums.
They list Saudi Arabia? and Mexico but not Canada.
We're always the brides maid, never the bride. Skinny or not.
Europeans who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
They shouldn't, but they do anyway. About lots of things. Europeans are taught about as many lies about America and Europe as Americans are about Europe AND America, on a wide variety of subjects. But Europeans have always been snobs. And they LOVE to pretend that all the white people in America just grew up out of the ground here like potatoes. They hate to get any credit for all the bad stuff that happened here. They want to pretend like their hands are clean.
From your own map it appears that Europe is still way behind the US.
Italy and France are well half under the US threshold: why? Because culinary traditions, decent food and restrictive laws are a reality, unlike the US or the UK.
I have seen things that American kids eat in canteens that in Italy wouldn't even be accepted as a meal for a dog.
It's also true that obesity is a global problem connected with the constantly decreasing quality and "naturalness" of food, something about which the US are not the only representatives.
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?
We do have an obesity epidemic that we need to address regardless of what Europeans say or think. I think the 2 areas of difference between us and Europe is our car centric culture and allowing GMO foods....Not sure which is the biggest contributor. I think that many Americans are tackling this issue so I think we may turn the tide a bit in the future...I hope so.
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