Does just immigrating to the USA lead to weight gain?

ninerbuff

My opinion on that is YES.
Anectodally, I've have several friends and relatives from the Philippines immigrate to the US and are excited for the opportunities with work. When they arrive (based on pictures I've have with them) they are fairly normal in weight. 5-10 years later many of them have easily gained 30-80lbs in excess weight. When I compare them with other family members (their brothers, sisters, cousins, etc.) at home in the Philippines who are still normal in weight, I'm of the opinion that immigrating to the USA from just about any country, will more than likely result in significant weight gain.
As to why, I believe it's access to abundance of food and affordability where they didn't have it before.
Also the institution of American lifestyle in the workforce (long hours, long commutes, high stress, super competitiveness, etc.) are probable contributors to it too.
Initially I thought it was just more processed foods, but the same foods are available in the Philippines too.

Feel free to chime in on this especially if you have friends or relatives that immigrated here in the last 10 years.

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jgnatca

Yup I call it the New Canadian paunch. It happens here in Canada, too. My son in law was rail thin when he arrived here seventeen years ago but he's a big man today.

I'd say prosperity and easy availability is part of it.

yarwell

Title made me laugh. Portion sizes are a shock when visiting USA and I strongly associate the smell of cinnamon with US airports.

Sabine_Stroehm

I'd say yes. I've seen it time and again. Portion sizes, heavily processed calorie dense foods, along with calorie dense, nutrient poor drinks. And more sedentary lifestyles.

suziecue20

jgnatca wrote: »

Yup I call it the New Canadian paunch. It happens here in Canada, too. My son in law was rail thin when he arrived here seventeen years ago but he's a big man today.

I'd say prosperity and easy availability is part of it.

I stayed with people in Ottawa a few years ago and was absolutely astounded at the size of the restaurant portions. Also when we had steaks at their home they were a pound each in weight - why?

queenliz99

Or immigrants are not eating their native foods.

zoeysasha37

My second cousins and their young children have slowly trickled in , in the past 5 years.

Several have gained weight since immigrating. IMO, its more about prosperity like mentioned above.

Where they come from in Argentina, they where used to living together with 12-15 people in one home. There wasn't enough food just laying around where every person could over consume whenever they felt like it. They ate when meals where cooked ,not just eating because they felt like snacking.

Here its very different. Each family has their own home , good paying jobs , child care programs . there's much more opportunity.

So now that they have more money that can be spent , they have much more food in the kitchen . instead of having to wait for dinner , they can open a cabinet and snack whenever they want . instead of being forced to eat a small serving of rice and chicken every single night , they can go eat out at restaurants now.

They have more money so they are able to buy more food. They ate more food , and gained weight. ( yes because it comes down to calories)

ninerbuff

queenliz99 wrote: »

Or immigrants are not eating their native foods.

Nah. My relatives and friends still cook and make their native foods. It's very apparent when we have pot lucks too. My grandmother and mom cooked for us as kids and my mom worked full time as a nurse. What I did notice is that our portions weren't at dinner. I may have eaten seconds, but even then I was rail thin till I was 19 and INTENDING to put on weight.

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Kalikel

Plenty of people come here and don't gain weight. So, No, being in the US doesn't mean you are fated to fatness.

A friend of mine from India plumped up on Burger King. He fell in love with Whoppers, which is a big no-no in India. It's a religious thing, no beef. His family - including his wife, to whom he's been married for fifteen years - does not know he eats beef. They cannot figure out why he's plump and think it's an American thing, lol.

He will eat BK at work and then go home and eat again, to cover up the fact that he ate.

I thought that when his parents died, he'd fess up about the Whoppers, but no. His son also eats beef and he doesn't know this. The son doesn't know Dad is doing it and Dad doesn't know the son is doing it. They both take great pains to hide it from each other. I don't *think* the wife is doing it, but I don't know her that well.

I'm patiently waiting for them all to find out. When either the son or the dad get outted, surely the other will admit it. I think. I've been waiting for many years for all of this beef eating to come to a head.

But everyone blames America for his fatness when BK and crazy lies are the true culprits. Maybe that is America being to blame, though.

scyian

I'm UK and visit the USA on occasion for work so typically I'm only eating meals out for the majority but I was amazed at the portion sizes.

ninerbuff

Kalikel wrote: »

Plenty of people come here and don't gain weight. So, No, being in the US doesn't mean you are fated to fatness.

A friend of mine from India plumped up on Burger King. He fell in love with Whoppers, which is a big no-no in India. It's a religious thing, no beef. His family - including his wife, to whom he's been married for fifteen years - does not know he eats beef. They cannot figure out why he's plump and think it's an American thing, lol.

He will eat BK at work and then go home and eat again, to cover up the fact that he ate.

I thought that when his parents died, he'd fess up about the Whoppers, but no. His son also eats beef and he doesn't know this. The son doesn't know Dad is doing it and Dad doesn't know the son is doing it. They both take great pains to hide it from each other. I don't *think* the wife is doing it, but I don't know her that well.

I'm patiently waiting for them all to find out. When either the son or the dad get outted, surely the other will admit it. I think. I've been waiting for many years for all of this beef eating to come to a head.

But everyone blames America for his fatness when BK and crazy lies are the true culprits. Maybe that is America being to blame, though.

I don't believe it's just the fast food. They have versions of fast food in the Philippines (and just about every industrialized country in the world) where people have total access to it, but affordability wise, not many can do it often.
Also there's no national law in India banning the slaughter of cows and selling and eating meat. It's harder to obtain and do in some states, but states like Goa eat meat regularly.

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pteryndactyl

I think a lot of it also stems from the fact that we rely so heavily on cars in the USA. I work with foreign students studying abroad here, and it feels like their #1 complaint is that they need a car to go anywhere. Keep in mind, we're in a relatively small city and they're mostly from big cities (i.e. Tokyo, Beijing, etc.), so they expect a certain amount of entertainment to be available - malls, karaoke, restaurants...but in our town, the only places you can really walk to are the bars downtown or the grocery store. You can walk other places but it'll take a lot of time, sidewalks aren't always great or available, etc. In their countries, they can easily walk to these places, or hop on a metro and walk the rest of the way. We have buses, but the routes are not very extensive. Here, they have to drive sometimes an hour or more to reach a mall big enough to satisfy them. So, not only are they sitting more to get places...I think sometimes they just decide not to go anywhere, that they'd rather hang out on campus in their dorm, because it's easier.

When I studied in Germany, I rode public transportation a LOT...but it was always to the closest tram stop to my destination, and I often had to walk 10-15 minutes the rest of the way. I lost a few lbs there because I didn't have my car and had to walk more, which was easy because European cities are generally more walkable than mine, at least.

Packerjohn

Imo eating too much and moving too little cause weight gain. I don't think anyone is tying immigrants down and force feeding them.

bhanvi

I gained 25 pounds in one year after moving to usa from India...rven when I tried to eat healthy.The food here is just messed up I think..gmo and what not.

tomatoey

I've seen this happen, for sure (but Canada, same diff)

Bonny132

Having been to the US several times (and various states), it is the only country I visit where I loose weight without even trying. Why? The portion sizes are not large they are humongous! You can feed a whole family on one portion I asked for a caesar salad, and what I got what a salad swimming in dressing with half a chicken and a massive slab of parmesan cheese. My low calorie rotisserie chicken came with my veg swimming in butter on the side, and a massive portion of fries on top of my jacket potato which had more butter than I use in a month the on it (and yes the food was delicious)

Everything is so calorie laden and in so big portions it puts me off eating so yes, I guess once you get used to American food and plate sizes you will, if not careful, risk putting on weight.

tomatoey

jgnatca wrote: »

Yup I call it the New Canadian paunch. It happens here in Canada, too. My son in law was rail thin when he arrived here seventeen years ago but he's a big man today.

I'd say prosperity and easy availability is part of it.

Also the fact that few cities are designed to be walkable (as @pteryndactyl said). Some don't even have a downtown you'd call a downtown.

ninerbuff

pteryndactyl wrote: »

I think a lot of it also stems from the fact that we rely so heavily on cars in the USA. I work with foreign students studying abroad here, and it feels like their #1 complaint is that they need a car to go anywhere. Keep in mind, we're in a relatively small city and they're mostly from big cities (i.e. Tokyo, Beijing, etc.), so they expect a certain amount of entertainment to be available - malls, karaoke, restaurants...but in our town, the only places you can really walk to are the bars downtown or the grocery store. You can walk other places but it'll take a lot of time, sidewalks aren't always great or available, etc. In their countries, they can easily walk to these places, or hop on a metro and walk the rest of the way. We have buses, but the routes are not very extensive. Here, they have to drive sometimes an hour or more to reach a mall big enough to satisfy them. So, not only are they sitting more to get places...I think sometimes they just decide not to go anywhere, that they'd rather hang out on campus in their dorm, because it's easier.

When I studied in Germany, I rode public transportation a LOT...but it was always to the closest tram stop to my destination, and I often had to walk 10-15 minutes the rest of the way. I lost a few lbs there because I didn't have my car and had to walk more, which was easy because European cities are generally more walkable than mine, at least.

No doubt physical activity helps. But it still boils down to how much people consume in the USA. We're not a fat nation because we're just not walking or moving enough. It's much more because the average citizen consumes 300-1000 calories or more than they need to eat in a day.

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suziecue20

UK citizens are the fattest in Europe and 2nd to USA. I blame the fast pace of life these days. Everyone is so busy working they are too tired to cook from scratch when they get home and opt for getting a takeaway delivered several times a week. Even the cafes in hospitals serve heavily fat laden food with full fat chips always available and not much else to choose from. Our NHS needs less patients, not more so you'd think they would want to feed the nursing staff and visitors properly.

Children aren't taught how to cook by their parents or in schools (over here) like they used to be, so pre-prepared ready meals laden with God knows what are their only option when they leave home.

There's also more money so spending £2 or £3 a day on chocolate and sweets is just the norm, not a treat.

Bonny132

tomatoey wrote: »

jgnatca wrote: »

Yup I call it the New Canadian paunch. It happens here in Canada, too. My son in law was rail thin when he arrived here seventeen years ago but he's a big man today.

I'd say prosperity and easy availability is part of it.

Also the fact that few cities are designed to be walkable. Some don't even have a downtown you'd call a downtown.

+1 I remember asking for directions in Ohio (I believe) and people were shocked we wanted to walk and not drive, as the place we wanted to go to was at least a 10min drive away. Coming from Europe, I guess I take being able to walk most places if I choose to, for granted.

eatgoodeat

Interesting thread @ninerbuff . My brother and I came over here with my parents when we were just 6 and 3 from Laos and I'd have to say "yes". We have cousins who are close in age to us over there and they are tiny compared to us. Really my whole family over there is tiny both in height and weight.

With easy accessibility to food and convenient transportation our first few months in state, my family became healthy and then over indulgent as time went on. Both my brother and I struggled with being overweight until we became athletes when we were younger.

My parents grew up as village people so they grew and raised everything they ate. Lived a harder laborious life with just enough food to just sustain, sometimes even less. Today, my mom is a diabetic and overweight. My dad on the other hand always seems to slip into the underweight side from year to year as he gets older but he wasn't ever overweight just healthy range.

This thread kind of cracks me up because just yesterday, my mom laughed and commented on the quantity of food I was weighing just for myself and made the comment "u know der fewt u take feed der whole family" referencing the homeland.