Europe vs US
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Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I can't say a lot about obesity in Europe vs America; I've spent far more time in America (5+ years) vs. holidays in Europe. It's also been over 5 years since I've been to Europe. But from my recollection of the places I did visit (Greece, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, some of them 6 years ago, some of them 20+ years ago), obesity was less of a thing there.
In my more recent visit, I've noticed a few differences: Europe has smaller portion sizes, an emphasis on less "junk food", more emphasis on walking and cycling (particularly in the Netherlands), and a huge emphasis on taking your time to eat. The last one really blows my mind; last Thanksgiving, people slaved for hours over the food, and it was eaten in 15 minutes. Americans seem to eat so fast, it's insane to me. I'm from Asia, and we eat so much slower (as well as have much smaller portion sizes; I still rarely finish a meal).2 -
Maybe it's all the smoking instead of eating? Spent a week in Sevilla and man a lot of smoking!
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Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.1 -
davedoubleu wrote: »There's lots of obesity in the UK. It will get worse due to kids staying in their bedrooms and playing on their consoles and not excercising. Type 2 diabetes is going to be the biggest drain on our Health service in the coming years. Kids don't drink water it's all fizzy drinks and they never wean themselves off it. Fast foods are the norm for a lot too. Take a walk down any high street and it's mainly food stores or fast food chains. We'll soon catch up to the US
Agree with this ^^
I'd also add that, it seems to me at least, that in the UK, obesity is more common in lower income families and areas and so someone visiting the tourist areas of cities are likely to see other (relatively high-income) tourists and the affluent locals who populate the tourist areas.1 -
For a lot of Americans it's normal to eat out a couple of times a week. For Europeans (or at least Dutchies like me) it's more a rare treat. You go out and have a nice evening spending a few hours at the restaurant rather than going out to grab a quick bite. The portion sizes are also a lot smaller and fast food is less of a thing. I know when I lived in the US for a few years everyone in my class looked at me weird that my parents cooked dinner almost every night.
Also, for us Dutchies, bikes are everything. We don't have school busses, we bike to school growing up. Afterwards, if we work close-ish to home we bike to work too.3 -
When I moved the UK nearly 15 years ago, I would have agreed with you. People walked more, ate better. But since I've been here, I've seen the US (fast food) diet and (lack of) exercise program take root here too, and obesity is surging. I don't think it's my fault, but there is a strong correlation in the timing. Oops.
ETA: When I'm back in the US, I'm astounded by the portion sizes when I go out to dinner, or go to someone's house for dinner. When I'm out for a meal in Europe, it is a much more reasonably sized meal.1 -
Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.0 -
Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.
All things considered, perhaps it would be better to be slightly "wasteful", than excessively "waistful".
Plus, parents should then soon learn to put out a smaller serving, and prevent the waste at the subsequent meals.4 -
Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.
I got brought up having to finish my plate too in The Netherlands, as did everyone else my age. I don't see the problem with that because the point was to get us to eat enough of everything: veggies, lean proteins and carbs. My parents never made us eat too much food, but in turn made sure we didn't whine for dessert or candy 1 hour after dinner because we didn't want to eat the healthy veggies.
I do however see a problem with this same tactic when you're eating out, because those portions (specially in the States) are way to big, even the kids meals.3 -
Ok so let's keep in mind it's been 4 years since I went back to France but I grew up there...AmeliaElena wrote: »The food is different. So many carbs on store shelves in the US. Never seen as much space for candy anywhere else but the US. I'll be in the US six months, will try to remind myself to go into the stores as little as possible.
Not really. The main differences with supermarkets in the US vs France is much bigger selections of cereal and chips/snacks here. Much bigger selection of puddings, yogurts, and cheese over there... but a LOT more packaged sweet bread things too (croissants, brioche etc) and cookies. Lots of candy too...I can't say a lot about obesity in Europe vs America; I've spent far more time in America (5+ years) vs. holidays in Europe. It's also been over 5 years since I've been to Europe. But from my recollection of the places I did visit (Greece, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, some of them 6 years ago, some of them 20+ years ago), obesity was less of a thing there.
In my more recent visit, I've noticed a few differences: Europe has smaller portion sizes, an emphasis on less "junk food", more emphasis on walking and cycling (particularly in the Netherlands), and a huge emphasis on taking your time to eat. The last one really blows my mind; last Thanksgiving, people slaved for hours over the food, and it was eaten in 15 minutes. Americans seem to eat so fast, it's insane to me. I'm from Asia, and we eat so much slower (as well as have much smaller portion sizes; I still rarely finish a meal).
Much less 'eating on the go' there. My mom's still outraged that we don't all eat together for lunch during the week end - over there every meal is a big affair with at least 3 courses. The difference really is that there are a lot of mom and pop places where you can grab lunch (in normal portions) for the same cost as McDonald's. There are bakeries everywhere and they typically have sandwiches ready too, and as I said above, they don't come with fries. But more walking for sure because towns are smaller and more pedestrian friendly.Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
I had to finish my plate when I was a kid too. I think that's really parents-specific.For a lot of Americans it's normal to eat out a couple of times a week. For Europeans (or at least Dutchies like me) it's more a rare treat. You go out and have a nice evening spending a few hours at the restaurant rather than going out to grab a quick bite. The portion sizes are also a lot smaller and fast food is less of a thing. I know when I lived in the US for a few years everyone in my class looked at me weird that my parents cooked dinner almost every night.
Also, for us Dutchies, bikes are everything. We don't have school busses, we bike to school growing up. Afterwards, if we work close-ish to home we bike to work too.
In France actually we ate lunch out every day during the week. Never ever met someone who packed their lunch. Companies typically have a cafeteria (but it's more balanced than here overall) or give you coupons to buy your own food at restaurants in the area. I ate out all the time there. But yeah we typically had dinner at home and never ordered take out (maybe a pizza once in a while).
But yeah, no school buses in the city either - you took public transportation or walked. It does help that there are sidewalks everywhere and no crazy dangerous intersections like here. But it's less spread out too per school district (max I had to walk was 20 minutes).
About portion size though - here you can pack your leftovers. Can't do that in France. So that's actually a pretty good incentive not to overeat in the US, and to overeat there.0 -
Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.
All things considered, perhaps it would be better to be slightly "wasteful", than excessively "waistful".
Plus, parents should then soon learn to put out a smaller serving, and prevent the waste at the subsequent meals.
Doesn't work like that in our house.
Week 1 - Child wolfs down entire meal and proclaims it to be their "favourite meal ever"
Week 2 - After a battle of will child eats one quarter of same meal as week 1 meal.
Week 3 - Parent supplies smaller meal - Child eats hardly any and proclaims it to be their "most hated food" and "I've never liked it" (45 mins later is asking what else they can have to eat.)
Week 4 - Child complains that "we never have xxxx anymore - when you going to make it again"
Week 5 - Goto Week 1.
For us, the issues are that my youngest seems to dislike most protein rich foods and many green vegetables, getting her to eat a balanced diet is tricky. Our eldest, would, if left to her own devices, skip meals but stock up on snacks and it is much harder for us to mitigate this because, at school, she can choose to spend her lunch money on snacks (we get a report of what she buys at school but it's a report of the previous week, so difficult to do much about).
Having said all that, I doubt that US and UK parenting and child behaviors are very different in these respects.2 -
StealthHealth wrote: »Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.
All things considered, perhaps it would be better to be slightly "wasteful", than excessively "waistful".
Plus, parents should then soon learn to put out a smaller serving, and prevent the waste at the subsequent meals.
Doesn't work like that in our house.
Week 1 - Child wolfs down entire meal and proclaims it to be their "favourite meal ever"
Week 2 - After a battle of will child eats one quarter of same meal as week 1 meal.
Week 3 - Parent supplies smaller meal - Child eats hardly any and proclaims it to be their "most hated food" and "I've never liked it" (45 mins later is asking what else they can have to eat.)
Week 4 - Child complains that "we never have xxxx anymore - when you going to make it again"
Week 5 - Goto Week 1.
For us, the issues are that my youngest seems to dislike most protein rich foods and many green vegetables, getting her to eat a balanced diet is tricky. Our eldest, would, if left to her own devices, skip meals but stock up on snacks and it is much harder for us to mitigate this because, at school, she can choose to spend her lunch money on snacks (we get a report of what she buys at school but it's a report of the previous week, so difficult to do much about).
Having said all that, I doubt that US and UK parenting and child behaviors are very different in these respects.
Agreed. I give my kids very small portions, and yes they have to finish their plate (I don't give them things they consistently don't like though but might insist that they eat a bite). Seriously feeding kids is a major PITA and I'd eat boring, bland meals all the time if I had to make something that we all eat. Very aggravating. So sometimes I'll make stew and they can just have the noodles with cheese or I'll make us something nice and they can have a cheese taco or something because I'm just not fighting yet another battle (but all their friends are the same way so it's pretty much a common thing, lol).
My son would be the same way though - fill up on snacks (probably pretzels or goldfish) and skip dinner. I pack lunch though so they at least get some fruit.
The only thing that I can think of that would make a difference really is the overall quality of meals in some countries. Once again, I only know about France and that was decades ago, but we had balanced meals served at school (nobody packed lunch, but you could go home for lunch). Meat, veggies, a starch. Had to learn pretty early to eat what's served or be hungry (and no snack until 4.30pm after school). Then balanced meals at dinner too... no take out, no chicken nuggets, no fried stuff, I think the extent of the processed non snack food stuff I ate growing up was box mashed potatoes, pasta and tomato sauce, and canned veggies (never again). Still hated my mom's cooking though.
I have to admit that ALL the kids I know here are picky, yet I didn't know any that was when I was growing up, but I'm quite sure it's more a generation thing than a country thing (my French sister's ex boyfriend's kids are very picky too apparently).0 -
Plates here are 13" for 1 person. A 13" plate in Europe would be for 2-3 people. Our biggest issue in the US is that EVERYTHING has to be big. Big houses, big yards, big cars, so of course big portions. And it definitely shows.
It only takes eating 100 calories over one's TDEE a day to gain 10lbs a year. And LOTS OF PEOPLE in the US surpass that easily.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
This... and also, I've heard you guys teach your kids to "finish" their meal and eat everything that's on the plate.. You should never force kids to eat everything that's on their plate. It'll teach them to overeat.
We teach that because unless you're going to put the leftovers from your plate in the fridge, it's wasteful. Plus a lot of kids take a few bites and say they're done, so it's more wanting your kid to get enough calories so they're not coming up to you 10 minutes after dinner saying they're hungry.
I got brought up having to finish my plate too in The Netherlands, as did everyone else my age. I don't see the problem with that because the point was to get us to eat enough of everything: veggies, lean proteins and carbs. My parents never made us eat too much food, but in turn made sure we didn't whine for dessert or candy 1 hour after dinner because we didn't want to eat the healthy veggies.
I do however see a problem with this same tactic when you're eating out, because those portions (specially in the States) are way to big, even the kids meals.
Oh there's no way. Always have leftovers after going out.1 -
Another factor: It's much harder for overweight people to fit into small places in countries (and cities) whose showers, restaurants, toilets, public transportation, etc. aren't designed for large people. I think this has an impact. Not every place is designed to accommodate overweight people and monster trucks.3
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peppermintpudgy wrote: »Another factor: It's much harder for overweight people to fit into small places in countries (and cities) whose showers, restaurants, toilets, public transportation, etc. aren't designed for large people. I think this has an impact. Not every place is designed to accommodate overweight people and monster trucks.
And good luck finding plus size clothing in Asia too.. Heck I'm not even sure that most European countries have them. My mom's boyfriend (who's obese and French, by the way) had to buy a belt in the US.
Although to be fair, I don't remember public places being that much smaller over there... or public transportation for that matter.0 -
peppermintpudgy wrote: »Another factor: It's much harder for overweight people to fit into small places in countries (and cities) whose showers, restaurants, toilets, public transportation, etc. aren't designed for large people. I think this has an impact. Not every place is designed to accommodate overweight people and monster trucks.
And good luck finding plus size clothing in Asia too.. Heck I'm not even sure that most European countries have them. My mom's boyfriend (who's obese and French, by the way) had to buy a belt in the US.
Although to be fair, I don't remember public places being that much smaller over there... or public transportation for that matter.
Just some impressions from Rome, Florence, Venice, Istanbul, Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona. No
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The sizes of clothing are smaller....Very smaller.0
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paleolithique wrote: »The sizes of clothing are smaller....Very smaller.
Even at my smallest I was a large there. Here I'm small.
They don't have XSmall either.1 -
As many said portion size is a big point. When I was with my father in New York we ordered a normal pizza for the two of us and still left some over. My father is a tall guy but that pizza was enormous. That kind of pizza equates more to a family sized pizza here which you eat with two adults and 1-2 children.
Another thing I noticed is the amount of sugar in many things. Most of the sugary things I bought in the US or of imported stuff were almost unbearable sweet to me.0
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