Does just immigrating to the USA lead to weight gain?

portion sizes, processed foods,… if we go back to just eating fruits and vegetables and cut out processed foods, we'd be good. it's hard tho'. fresh produce is more costly than processed foods and the government doesn't help by subsidizing the corn (corn syrup, fructose….) industry… and a lot of the fast foods use the processed corn products to make their foods tasty and made cheaply cause the government subsidizes it.

Also, is it true that places like New York have hotdog, pretzel and peanut stands everywhere on the sidewalks?

But staying in a country and visiting a country are two different things. Whenever I vacation(I'm a foodie) I have to try the local fair. I do draw the line with organ meats, however.

When I went to Italy and Greece on vacation I lost weight. Perhaps I should go back to Italy

I moved to the U.S. from Nigeria 17 years ago. Although I don't remember much in between meal snacking, im going with the activity on this one. I remember thick slices of bread with yummy butter spread, heaping plates of rice. But... In the small town I grew up in, you had to walk like a half mile to catch a cab, and you'd do that walk and back a couple times a day if you wanted to go anywhere. Even the little shack for buying sweets was like a quarter mile away and your parents were sure as hell not buying that crap for you all the time, so. And if you're male, it seemed everybody played freakin soccer. I'm also randomly remembering that we had a washing machine for a while, but then it broke. All that stuff is done by hand by most people. Yay

Young teenagers having cars was really quite shocking to me. At the time, you had to be the son of a king to just randomly have your own car. Matter of fact, I don't remember anybody that did

The good news is most people I can think of my age are quite thin, but I've heard enough snippets of what they do to get more activity to know that it's no accident

Coming to think of it, though, there was maybe one fast food restaurant that I'd heard of just before leaving (by then I'd moved to a huge city for school). But I sure as hell wasn't going to get run over by those crazy buses just trying to get there. And it was probably -really- expensive

LOL. Will PM you

christinev297 wrote: »

Also, is it true that places like New York have hotdog, pretzel and peanut stands everywhere on the sidewalks?

New Yorker and native Brooklynite: no, not on every corner, though there's a generous smattering, and also Halal and other types of food stands. Nice fresh fruit stands, too. We also have restaurants of all types, so there's no shortage of food around this way!

But the great thing about NYC is that it's extremely walkable, and there's always someplace to walk to: every Tuesday after work, I walk from midtown to the West Village, around 2.25 miles, for a class; and morning and evening, I walk different routes for the bus or train. Also, the typical New Yorker walks at a nice, fast clip, which gets your heart going - especially when internally cursing everyone else on the street who isn't walking at a nice, fast NY clip....

Orphia wrote: »

http://www.bodyforwife.com/what-is-the-solution-to-obesity/

"Fast food used to be rare, now it’s not just everywhere; it’s been super sized.

"But there’s more to the situation than abundance and inactivity. The truth is, there’s no one cause for people being overweight. Some shout, “It’s all carbs’ fault!” but sorry, that ain’t why we’re fat. The root causes of overweight and obesity are as diverse as the people carrying those extra pounds. It’s only the charlatans who will point out a universal cause and say, “This is why you’re fat.”

"Long work hours spent in a chair,
high stress levels,
overuse of screen-based entertainment,
lack of cooking skills,
lack of desire to cook after a long day,
the ability to hit a drive-through or dial for delivery at any time of day,
emotional trauma,
misinformation promoted by the weight loss industry,
gigantic portions,
government subsidies to fattening foods,
food marketing run amok (much of which specifically targets children),
ever tastier concoctions created by brain scientists working for food corporations that makes their treat foods ever more compelling,
a society that places emphasis on eating for pleasure instead of fuelling your body
… all these things just scratch the surface."

(Read the article for an equally impressive list of solutions to the problems. I love this guy.)

My favourite line..."the weight loss industry is so full of crap its eyes are brown".

BWBTrish wrote: »

DaughterOfTheMostHighKing wrote: »

portion sizes, processed foods,… if we go back to just eating fruits and vegetables and cut out processed foods, we'd be good. it's hard tho'. fresh produce is more costly than processed foods and the government doesn't help by subsidizing the corn (corn syrup, fructose….) industry… and a lot of the fast foods use the processed corn products to make their foods tasty and made cheaply cause the government subsidizes it.

Again it is all about calories in versus calories out
Not good or bad foods

I always ate pretty "healthy" i like to call it balanced

But like pointed out before...normal diary here in the US has MORE calories than in Europe/Holland
A glass of milk a bowl with yogurt etc...same amount but more calories... So easy to step into that mistake. It is not only the junk food!

And after all you always have to stay counting. I also agree that there is a big difference of being on a holiday ( when you are more active) and living in the US.

Yogurts! I remember yogurt/pudding cups in France. They're typically tiny compared to what we have here.

rabbitjb wrote: »

The weird thing when you visit the USA is the portion sizes

You start off by laughing at them, stunned almost at the amount of food someone has put in front of you on a single plate

Then you understand why you guys do doggy bags which just aren't the norm in other countries

But then after a few days you start to adjust, and by about a week in you're easily finishing your plate

And you have so many high fat foods, everything comes with fries it seems

THIS. And the fries, it makes it so frustrating to eat out sometimes (when you're lucky you can substitute a side salad, but often you have to pay extra). In France when I ordered a sandwich, it didn't come with anything else. Sure, you don't have to eat the fries, but it's free, and it's in front of you... so people eat them. I mean in Paris I ate out all the time and I had fries maybe once or twice a month...

The biggest shocker for me was when I went to seafood restaurants here. Everything fried. I just couldn't get over it. We never fry seafood in France. I still can't do fried seafood. Heck even at Chinese places, my go-to in France was sweet and sour chicken, which was pieces of chicken, onions, peppers, and pineapple with some sauce... Imagine my surprise when I ordered it here and it was big pieces of battered/fried chickens with a dip. Ugh.

Obviously though people in cities are less likely to be overweight because of all the walking anyway.