Moved back to America &gained 15lbs in a month?!

elisa123gal wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

elisa123gal wrote: »

American processed hidden sugar laden food Welcome to the U.S.A.

I've traveled fairly extensively...there's tons of processed food everywhere. Hell, when I was in Colombia, SA and I went grocery shopping, whole foods were very limited...processed foods were abundant.

There is no hidden sugar either...it's right there on the nutritional label.

Having traveled quite a bit, I'd say the availability of fresh, whole foods in the US is more abundant, cheaper, and of greater variety than almost anywhere I've ever been.

you are being argumentative... and food companies were foreced to put ingredients on lables due to this crisis, and putting an ingredient on a label doesn't make it right..
also..i have traveled quite a bit myself. ..mostly to Europe - where if you keep your eyes open as you pass all the pastry shops - all you see are thin people... a fat person is an oddity. Their food is not as processed, it is regulated on how it is made, not after the fact by putting chemicals and hidden sugars on a label..as if that makes it okay.
on a personal note; my daughter got back from living in Germany for two years last Christmas and has packed on 15 pounds ..doing nothing different than eating here, her work load and routine are the same.

But if it's on the label it isn't "hidden". Plenty of overweight people in Europe. UK is not all thin people. Not even close.

It's not the food chemicals, etc. If you accurately log food and exercise for a while, it becomes pretty *kitten* clear that the problem is that we have become sedentary AF (drive everywhere, TV/computer as entertainment) and eat ginormous portions of calorie dense food (much of the latter coming about due to cheapness and availability of food and people eating out a lot more) and snack all the time. For instance, A typical burger + fry plate at a restaurant is ~1500 calories - it's not uncommon for your average American to have that multiple times per week.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

elisa123gal wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

elisa123gal wrote: »

American processed hidden sugar laden food Welcome to the U.S.A.

I've traveled fairly extensively...there's tons of processed food everywhere. Hell, when I was in Colombia, SA and I went grocery shopping, whole foods were very limited...processed foods were abundant.

There is no hidden sugar either...it's right there on the nutritional label.

Having traveled quite a bit, I'd say the availability of fresh, whole foods in the US is more abundant, cheaper, and of greater variety than almost anywhere I've ever been.

you are being argumentative... and food companies were foreced to put ingredients on lables due to this crisis, and putting an ingredient on a label doesn't make it right..
also..i have traveled quite a bit myself. ..mostly to Europe - where if you keep your eyes open as you pass all the pastry shops - all you see are thin people... a fat person is an oddity. Their food is not as processed, it is regulated on how it is made, not after the fact by putting chemicals and hidden sugars on a label..as if that makes it okay.
on a personal note; my daughter got back from living in Germany for two years last Christmas and has packed on 15 pounds ..doing nothing different than eating here, her work load and routine are the same.

They don't have processed food? I call *kitten*...I've been...they have processed food goods...plenty of them...with added sugar and whatnot.

Yes, there are certain things that are used in the US that aren't used elsewhere...but you can also get processed goods in the states without those things. Processed foods in Europe also have various additives and chemicals...just different ones.

And like I said...the US has a huge variety as well as substantial availability of whole foods. People choose what they eat.

Seconding. I've stayed in a few countries in Europe, one in South Am, and lived in the Caribbean for a year (and visited some neighboring islands). So much processed food. I taught while in the Caribbean, and I can tell you that at the middle and post-high school level, there were many people (I had ~200 students in total) who were overweight. Even on a small island there's fast food (some local chains in addition to MacDo) and they have several traditional foods that are deep-fried. Plus the booze. I drank my weight in rhum, and came home a few pounds heavier for it - and there were lots of youngish folks with beer bellies.
The Caribbean had the sweetest yogurt I've ever eaten. Why? The same yogurt (but with European formulation) can't compete with the local produce, naturally sweetened by the sun, and market research revealed people thought it tasted bitter in parfaits, etc. So the island formulation had more sugar added to make it palatable if you eat fruit & yogurt for breakfast.

And speaking of meals - Belvita crackers were a staple for almost everyone I knew, the grocery stores had the same aisles of processed foods we have here, and they had THE BEST flavors of Special K and potato chips.

(edited to correct double quote)

sgtx81 wrote: »

There are a lot of GMO's and chemicals fed to us here in the US that are either not used or completely illegal in other nations. Also if you're stressed your cortisol is up, and that can be a part of your weight gain.

So? What does this mean? What does it matter whether it is used outside the US?

Dnarules wrote: »

sgtx81 wrote: »

There are a lot of GMO's and chemicals fed to us here in the US that are either not used or completely illegal in other nations. Also if you're stressed your cortisol is up, and that can be a part of your weight gain.

So? What does this mean? What does it matter whether it is used outside the US?

Well, the point is that the OP was trying to figure out why they gained 15 lbs. since they returned to the USA!! All kinds of suggestions are being put forth, and of course there
needs to be a comparison of what they ate as well as behavior where they were before and now in the USA.

sgtx81 wrote: »

Dnarules wrote: »

sgtx81 wrote: »

There are a lot of GMO's and chemicals fed to us here in the US that are either not used or completely illegal in other nations. Also if you're stressed your cortisol is up, and that can be a part of your weight gain.

So? What does this mean? What does it matter whether it is used outside the US?

If you can't figure out what I'm saying here, I'm not going to try and explain it to you. It's pretty simple and straightforward. Besides, I don't believe you to lack the understanding, you're just being argumentative. Regardless of which is true, life is too short to follow through beyond this one short reply. Have fun with that.

GMOs don't cause weight gain though