Does just immigrating to the USA lead to weight gain?
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It's funny, but growing up, we didn't have snacks required to bring to school. I just ate lunch and then ate if I was hungry when I got home. My DD essentially does this now. She doesn't care to snack during free time, but would rather socialize or play. Like me at that age, my daughter is consider thin compared to her peers.The thing is, if you're cooking at home a lot and move to the US, you won't see much of a difference, except probably in your every day activity level as you can't really walk everywhere.
It's for people who tend to eat out a lot that it's an issue. Sure, we don't have to finish our plates, but most people do, it's a fact.AlabasterVerve wrote: »I think it's because eating habits and customs have changed so dramatically more than increased food availability or a lack of exercise. I think those things play a part, of course, but its become not only normal to eat all hours of the day and night we're encouraged to and told it's healthy.
Here are some of the differences I see from when I grew up (and obese children with adult diseases were rare):- Snacking between meals was rare and frowned upon lest you "spoil your appetite"
- Sending a child to bed without dinner was a perfectly acceptable punishment
- Telling a child to eat now or you'll be hungry later and actually letting a child be hungry if they didn't eat their meal
- Bringing "emergency food" -- snacks and drinks -- with you outside of the house wasn't a thing. You waited until you got home to eat or drink.
- Taking a walk after dinner "to help your food digest" was a thing
- You didn't eat after dinner or dessert
- Eating out was a special occasion
- Eating some fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, starches etc. was good enough. No one had it in their head in order to be healthy you had to consume so much of everything or a particular number servings .
It was just a completely different attitude towards eating that has been completely eroded by government food recommendations and food industry marketing.
Lot of it is true but will really not affect people who move here that much. It's kinda funny though, I'm French, and even moving here, I almost never brought snacks for my kids anywhere (or it's a cereal bar and a water bottle or something). All the other moms I've met don't go anywhere without snacks (bags of goldfish and random other things, juice boxes etc). My French mom friends giving their kids snack when going out = 1 or 2 cookies, 1 scoop of ice cream etc. Here even the smaller sizes of ice cream are 2 or 3x the same size.
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Yes, another US weight gain casualty here. Moved from Africa 15 yrs ago and gained 40 lbs in a few years (from 120 to 160). The main cause was drastically reduced activity. Went from walking A LOT to driving everywhere. Diet also changed to more meat and fat and also junk food. I don't mind large US portion sizes because I get to eat half and get the rest packed for later.
My sister gained even more (60-70 lbs) mainly because she Americanizes everything. Instead of making mashed potatoes plain (or mashing it with beans and greens) like we used to, she puts loads of butter, cream etc. Completely unnecessary.
None of us were ever fat until we moved here. And then of course to try and fix it, we fell for fad diets like paleo, low carb etc, Tried it for the last few years and it's really hard to sustain because is the complete opposite of our traditional East African diet and you miss the foods you love. Now, just this year, I've gone back to eating the exact same way I did back home - a diet that's plant-based with lots of starches like potatoes, whole grains, lentils, beans as well as fruits and veggies. It's also low in fat and meat (cut back on animal products 2 months ago).
My mum and brother gained weight when they came here and lost it pretty fast when they went back home. My mum's blood pressure is now normal and her doctor told her she can get off meds. They went back to traditional food, less junk/processed food and being more active, driving less. People in urban areas in Africa are also getting fat and diabetic from living more western lifestyles and departing from traditional diets.
I'm down to 128 (10 more to go) by being more active. I live in the suburbs but now making more of an effort to ride my bike or walk to the grocery store or park which are all within 5 miles. A small 0.3 mile section on my route has no sidewalk, so the other day I got on the street (instead of walking my bike on the grass), nearly got run over by some dumbass. I bet they were overweight and rushing to the nearest McDonalds...
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My German co-workers have gained weight since moving the the U.S. a few years ago. In their case it has nothing to do with prosperity (certainly equally prosperous in Germany). All to do with the types and quantity of food here.0
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Where I work is like the U.N., I would call it the exception, not the rule.0
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I teach ESL, so I am around lots of new immigrants and foreign students. I am also from an immigrant family--three of my four grandparents were born outside the US.
I think that it is a combination of issues. Fast food and junk food are convenient and cheap. It's an easy trap to fall into for people who are busy and overwhelmed. People who are stressed tend to eat comfort food from their home culture too, instead of eating a well-rounded diet of foods from their home country. A lot of men come here without good cooking skills since they are used to having women in their family who will do the work for them.
I know lots of Mexicans who live on American junk food, tortillas and things like fried pork skins. Traditional Mexican food has a pretty healthy balance, but that doesn't generally carry over to how people eat here.
It's also a question of education and knowledge about food, nutrition and science. My family members from Argentina tend not to gain weight when they move here...but then, most of them are doctors, engineers or scientists. They are not working at minimum-wage jobs and they have time to spend on cooking.
People who are from cultures where there is a big value on local/slow food also tend to do better and to gain less. My Spanish/Basque relatives still grow a lot of their own food, focus on high-quality ingredients and love to spend entire days cooking complex, healthy meals. It's a major part of how they socialize and they have maintained those traditions to a great degree.0 -
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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Yea!!
I was there for 3 months and put on 2.5 stone!!! I am still struggling to loose this!!0 -
No. Poor choices lead to unwanted weight gain. Stop blaming other people or the lifestyle and be accountable for your own decisions.1
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Lol, it's "lifestyle" as to why Americans are in the 65% overweight/obese category. It's not a "blame" it's an observation. Much like when someone who falls into a lot of money, but had no experience or knowledge in financing or saving. They tend to just roll with what they know and if someone hasn't been exposed to food in high quantities and at their beck and call, it's not unusual to indulge and have that become habitual behavior.No. Poor choices lead to unwanted weight gain. Stop blaming other people or the lifestyle and be accountable for your own decisions.
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IMO yes
but lets say this first excess calories make you gain weight
Now for immigration...i am an immigrant
And the food culture in the US was quit a shock. And not only the fast food.
Eating yogurt about (7 ounce) here 106 calories
In Holland about the same weight (200ml) 76 calories
Same amount fat free yogurt 30 calories more. And more sugar in it btw...plain yogurt.
Bread the same and it doesn't look much but i really had to get used to the fact that a lot of food that i ate in Holland had more calories here. My diet was easily 400 calories more suddenly on a daily base...regular lol
Than the portion sizes are much bigger,
In Holland no refills btw. And a glass of coke is about 7 oz. that's it!
than the salt almost killed me
So much salt in everything!!!!
Mayonnaise unbelievable there is salt in mayonnaise...
but however you look at it..it comes down to calorie intake...you only have to make a huge step back in the amount you eat...because here ( the US) i had to eat less food ( smaller portions) than in Holland
I had to adjust my portions and how much i ate of something.
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So to make it clear people ( before anybody understood me wrong)
Eating too much calories make you fat.
But US portions are bigger
And even US food has more calories for the same foods!!!!!! And that was my biggest failure and down fall.
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My friends (and their children) from Iran manage their weight after being here a few decades because they cook food to similar to how they were raised. Also, they are careful about the amount and, if they eat out, they eat less the next few days or increase their exercise.0
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I moved to the US 13 years ago and gained 45 pounds or so in 5 years. The main change in my lifestyle was going from walking 2 hours a day to being sedentary (need the car to go anywhere here). And I ate out a lot too, and with US portion sizes and the difference in food quality (all the fried food), well, there you go.
I agree on all of this. As I assessed my fitness over the past two years, I was shocked by the fact that some days I got in the car, went to work, got in the car again, and went home. I barely was outside and barely walked at all. My home actually has sidewalks near it, whereas many places in the US don't, but there's nothing but homes around me so nothing I want to go to is walkable distance - or else I have to cross giant freeways/motorways to get places.
Also, food culture in America is interesting. In the morning, everyone has those sugary milky iced coffees that must be like 200 calories each. People I see at work eat constantly and balk at the idea of not snacking for 30 minutes, like it's so cruel that they have to go an hour without eating (obviously this excludes people with diabetes/other medical needs). Just today I want out for a large meal with friends, and after we were done they wanted to talk more so they went to a bakery and had cake! I was so full and had blown most of my calories on the first meal, so I had no appetite for cake or sweets!
Overall, when it comes to social activities, it seems like so many things just revolve around food - go to a restaurant, have a potluck meal at someone's house, have a barbecue. I invite people to go shopping at the mall and they say they have no money to buy a bunch of clothes, but I'm like, "I don't mean we have to spend money, I mean we can just like walk around the mall, try stuff on." Nobody wants to do that! My social circle isn't very interested in stuff that's not food-centered.
To me it also feels like being physically active is almost a fringe culture. Either you have your cross-fitters, bikers, etc., or you have most of the population who don't do any physical activity or assess their nutrition at all (other than fasts/brief fad diets that last a week). I guess that depends on where you live, though, because I've heard some cities are more focused on health than others.0 -
thorsmom01 wrote: »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.
Nope. Its always gonna come down to calories consumed . if you eat at a surplus , you'll gain weight. Even if its healthy foods.
Yes I know that.But I ate a lot of junk in India as compared to USA.So I am guessing the junk in other countries has less calories then that of USA or it has to do with portion sizes here.Plus,I can't ignore the chemicals used in the food.
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Lol, it's "lifestyle" as to why Americans are in the 65% overweight/obese category. It's not a "blame" it's an observation. Much like when someone who falls into a lot of money, but had no experience or knowledge in financing or saving. They tend to just roll with what they know and if someone hasn't been exposed to food in high quantities and at their beck and call, it's not unusual to indulge and have that become habitual behavior.No. Poor choices lead to unwanted weight gain. Stop blaming other people or the lifestyle and be accountable for your own decisions.
Yes, environment shapes behavior. I took a class on this in college called Environmental Psychology. We don't make decisions in a vacuum. Obviously if your work and other stuff of interest are an easy 15 minutes' walk away, you will behave differently than if your work is 30 minutes' drive away and everything else is driving distance and nothing is walking distance. It's impossible for you to behave the same in those two scenarios. Even when I lived in an American city that's very walkable and has no parking, people just didn't have cars so we walked to the subway/to places of interest and that was how our friends designed our social plans. Now I live in the suburbs, we all just drive to each others' houses.0 -
No. Poor choices lead to unwanted weight gain. Stop blaming other people or the lifestyle and be accountable for your own decisions.
I agree.
I don't think the op of this thread wrote it to blame anyone or anything I think he intended on having an open dialogue as to why people tend to gain weight here.
But... Some of the people responding decided that blaming american foods is easier then owning up to over eating . so I'm not saying the post was created with the intent to play the blame game , but as usual, that's where some people take it.
Again, its up to the individual as to what they eat and how much they eat. Its a free country, you can grow your own carrots or buy McDonald's cheeseburgers for dinner. But the food itself didn't make anyone gain weight , its how much of it they ate.
It will always come down to calories . if someone gains , its because they ate at a surplus. And again, their reasons will vary greatly.
Some people order a large portioned meal at a restaurant and take half home for the next day. Some will eat it all then order dessert and then cry that america made them fat.
Nobody held anyone down and forced McDonald's into your throat , they decided to eat it and not use moderation or portion control.
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Talking about portion sizes here in the U.S being bigger. you should have seen food in the 70s,80s and 90s,compared to then our portion sizes on a lot of things have decreased but the price has increased, and there are a lot of ingredients in foods now that didnt exist/or were used back then.so as for portion sizes being bigger maybe compared to other countries they are smaller but US portions sizes have become a lot smaller in the last few decades0
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Lol, it's "lifestyle" as to why Americans are in the 65% overweight/obese category. It's not a "blame" it's an observation. Much like when someone who falls into a lot of money, but had no experience or knowledge in financing or saving. They tend to just roll with what they know and if someone hasn't been exposed to food in high quantities and at their beck and call, it's not unusual to indulge and have that become habitual behavior.
The answer to the original question in the title is still no. Just winning the lottery doesn't make you irresponsible with money just like just immigrating to the US doesn't make you irresponsible with your diet. Its up to the person to make the right choices. Is it easier to gain weight? Absolutely, but its avoidable.
Also, when I said "stop blaming..." I wasn't directing that at you, but people in general. Poorly worded.0 -
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