Americans

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  • jasmineconley
    jasmineconley Posts: 438 Member
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    Some observations, by no means comprehensive:

    -- Portion sizes are large for a few reasons:
    (a) The United States produces a ton of food--of any nation, we have the most number of acres of land under agricultural production. So there's plenty of food to go around. And it's relatively cheap. Just take a look at our supermarkets--you can get anything. Aisles and aisles of it. People who have come here from other countries are stunned by the enormity of selection. The problem is, in a land of limitless choices, it is easy to choose wrong.

    (b) Except for World War II, we haven't had near the history of surviving on little during wartime as the nations of Europe have; nor have we had any kind of experience with famine as in the Middle East or Africa. (Egypt, for instance, has bread riots to this day--such a luxury it is to have to go on a low-carb diet). So we're used to eating very well.

    (c) We're also quite a large nation which believes generally in the principle that more is better (from Manifest Destiny to SUVs and Hummers, etc.)

    (d) Marketing. In an effort to sell more, we get the Big Gulp, Super Big Gulp, Big Mac, Whopper, Double Whopper--the bigger the better!)

    2. In an irony, while we produce a wide variety of fresh vegetables and produce, chain restaurants that pervade the landscape usually don't serve it. A burger with fries is the norm, or a sandwich w/ potato chips--it's hard to find say a turkey sandwich w/ a side salad, as fresh produce spoils and decreases profit margin. Even the lettuce in salads at most chain restaurants is iceberg (which is of poor nutritional value comparatively to say spinach).

    3. We're an efficient nation. Fast-food was designed so people could devote more of their time to working and less to meal preparation.

    4. The average Joe, working such long hours, goes home and tunes out by watching TV or the Internet, both of which reinforce the vicious notion that the route to happiness is to buy more and consume more. And if you start feeling bad...well there's a pill for that now.

    Love this!
  • jasmineconley
    jasmineconley Posts: 438 Member
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    Not much of a history or tradition be it beans around a campfire and herding cows,buildings or anything so when fast food came a long i guess you guys just lapped it up and have bigger portions as standard...

    Fast food is your enemy within !!

    No joke! Someone was very sneaky adding that s in the middle of fat describing our typical restaurant setting ;)
  • SerenaFisher
    SerenaFisher Posts: 2,170 Member
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    From my experience there are plenty of thin and healthy people, as well as fat people, and other countries have this same "epidemic". Perhaps we are in the "30%" and therefore over all and generally the most "fat", but I am sure that if you did numbers in the right locations with the right people you could bend the "fat scale" to any desired level and make any country less fat, or more fat than we are. Technology has made us lazy, pills are the answer to your problems, and letting your kids be kids? Well there's medication for that too.

    Also there's a lack of responsibility in our country, and I am sure we are not the only country suffering from the ability to say "I did it" instead we like to say "I am fat because..." or "The SUV jumped over the jersey barrier and took out the old lady." Get my drift?

    I myself have never been fat, unless you want to count pregnancy, my family is not overly fat (my parents are, but they don't blame society they admit they couldn't put the fork down) my brothers are both almost UNDER weight, and most of my friends are in healthy range. Perhaps we are the skinny Americans, and this is the skinny town, or maybe it's because this is a farm community and we work for a living, grow our own veggies, and slaughter our own cattle? I may never know.

    I do know as a kid while I was working with horses, hauling hay bales and five gallon buckets of water on each arm, while being active and outside a lot of my friends were in front of video games. I guess I should call my parents and thank them for being responsible enough to know hard labor and chores never killed anybody. :D Then now the government would accuse them of child abuse, so...
  • jasmineconley
    jasmineconley Posts: 438 Member
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    From my experience there are plenty of thin and healthy people, as well as fat people, and other countries have this same "epidemic". Perhaps we are in the "30%" and therefore over all and generally the most "fat", but I am sure that if you did numbers in the right locations with the right people you could bend the "fat scale" to any desired level and make any country less fat, or more fat than we are. Technology has made us lazy, pills are the answer to your problems, and letting your kids be kids? Well there's medication for that too.

    Also there's a lack of responsibility in our country, and I am sure we are not the only country suffering from the ability to say "I did it" instead we like to say "I am fat because..." or "The SUV jumped over the jersey barrier and took out the old lady." Get my drift?

    I myself have never been fat, unless you want to count pregnancy, my family is not overly fat (my parents are, but they don't blame society they admit they couldn't put the fork down) my brothers are both almost UNDER weight, and most of my friends are in healthy range. Perhaps we are the skinny Americans, and this is the skinny town, or maybe it's because this is a farm community and we work for a living, grow our own veggies, and slaughter our own cattle? I may never know.

    I do know as a kid while I was working with horses, hauling hay bales and five gallon buckets of water on each arm, while being active and outside a lot of my friends were in front of video games. I guess I should call my parents and thank them for being responsible enough to know hard labor and chores never killed anybody. :D Then now the government would accuse them of child abuse, so...

    I understand this entirely. Unfortunately this wasn't just referencing visually large people. I live in a rural community and we share plenty on both sides of the fence. I actually know more “ skinny" people that are pre-diabetic and couldn't do a push up if their life depended on it. We may lead in morbidly obese people but it's the general slothness and unhealthy attitudes we have that brought this up. I feel you on child labor too but that's another thread ;)

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