First Trip To The States..................................

Arrived home on saturday night from my first trip to the US.................Im Irish just so you know!!! I had a fantastic time but there was one thing that caught me off guard the level of obesity it really shocked me and what shocked me even more was the fact that it seemed to be accepted????

Now dont get me wrong, obesity levels in europe are at an all time high and its not like im saying there are no extremely over weight people in Ireland the Uk etc

But what shocked me was number one the all you can eat buffets, free refills of fizzy drinks (but not water), Giant pretzels, HUGE portions as in enough for two people in one main course, everything including the people seemed to be bigger??(like all the same how wud be it possible to be thin with all these options??)

We visited theme parks and we donned comfy shoes and walked.......as in used out legs......I hate to be cheeky but the amount of people using like motorised scooters was crazy, now again dont get me wrong if you had a broken leg etc.. or had a serious condition etc I can understand the use of these scooters but most of the people we saw wer just extremely over weight and the gentle walk around the parks would have burned some calories but yet they sat there in the scooters beeping at anyone walking to get out of there way and eating giant pretzels etc.........

Yet no one else seemed to be the least bit shocked at some one driving a scooter onto a bus and parking it in the disabled zone yet then proceeding to get up and walk to find a seat unaided????? Like to me the reason for disabled areas is to try and make life easier for those with wat I would call genuine disabilities and who would need assistance to stand up from there wheelchair if they could stand up at all.......Not for in my opinion some lazy ass person who just doesnt want to walk and who instead opts for the easy route out by travelling on a motorised scooter...........hummmm I dunno???

Now im no skinny minny myself, at 5'6 and 152lbs im by no means the perfect weight but my gosh........Im just shocked at the american lifestyle i really am, like over here when you get to sort of a size 16uk(not sure what that is in us sizes) but it starts to become tough to find clothes to fit you need to shop in larger chain stores in like bigger cities......but in the US to me the bigger sizes were so very available and also were so accepted I dunno I dont mean to offend anyone but im sure I will but I just cant understand it........

Ok ending my rant now really sorry if I have offended anyone but If you could maybe try help me to understand it I would be thankful.

I think the fact that you went to theme parks also skews the percentage of obese people you saw giving you an inaccurate representative of the American whole.  It seems as if tourist attractions all seem to have bigger everything.

As for why so many people were on motorized scooters instead of walking around when they seem perfectly capable of doing it; yes, they could be just really lazy, but at the same time, theme parks are often huge and can be taxing on people who are larger and have to carry more body weight around.  Although, I do admit, that a little exercise wouldn't do them any harm.

I used to get to spend the summer in Italy and it was always a shock to return... you knew you were in the US the second you stepped into the airport. And then everything seemed so big- the plates, glasses even forks.

And as far as the scooters- I have seen too many people use them in the grocery store- people who probably need them now b/c they have become dependant on them... it is sad really

where exactly in the states were you? obesity is definitely more rampant in some areas than others. i know that in my area, at least, while it is still a problem, it's not the norm and definitely nowhere near accepted.

Yea, I recall hearing we have the highest rate of obesity. I remember reading somewhere that 60% of the population is overweight. 

I've only been out of the country once, and it was to Montreal. To be honest, I didn't really notice a difference. My friends that have gone to Italy always come back saying how skinny everyone is though.

Original Post by bee86:

But what shocked me was number one the all you can eat buffets, free refills of fizzy drinks (but not water), Giant pretzels, HUGE portions as in enough for two people in one main course, everything including the people seemed to be bigger

Yeah - most people in the US have a skewed sense of portion size.  Part of it is business too, though.  One of the ways a restaurant or vendor tries to sell themselves is by creating "value" - that is, you get more food for your money.  Americans have been convinced that if they don't get the "most" (in volume) for their money, they're getting cheated (and nobody likes to think they were cheated).  It's too bad that people can't see the "value" in getting a reasonable portion size so they can eat healthier (although that is happening in a few places).

However, I do agree with the above poster that the population at a theme park isn't going to give an accurate representative sample of the US.  

As for the scooters - I guess it depends on where you are.  They offer those at local supermarkets in my town, but the only people I've seen using them are people in casts or with crutches, or elderly people. 

High fructose corn syrup:  It's not a recommended additive, but it's not the devil either.  The sugar in a HFCS breaks down the exact same way as cane sugar does.  However, the prevalance of it in US food is mainly due to economics and politics - it's plentiful, subsidized, and most importantly, cheaper due to the artificially jacked up price of sugar cane through quotas and price restrictions. 

i remember going to a restaurant and ordering a child-size pizza thinking it wouldnt be too big...and the pizza that came was so big that my dad and i couldnt finish it together.

Different regions of the country have varying ratios of thin:fat.  I was very overweight after my son was born here in Tucson and then moved to Indianapolis where I was "normal".  Many women were overweight and haggard looking there, it was weird.  Northern CA was the same, lots of fat hippies in my hometown.  Back in Tucson 8 years later, most people here are "healthy" weight.  But yes, I have seen very young obese people using scooters. 

What you're saying is totally true. Especially about the portion size thing. Anytime my fiance and I go out to dinner, we only eat about half of what we order. I don't mind too much, though, cause then you don't have to cook the next night either, but I can imagine how it really could inhibit weight loss for some people. Also, the fat content. I find it harder and harder to order something healthy at a resturant. Alot of places have "low fat" or "low calorie" sections on the menu with only a few items, while the remainder of the menu is all deep fried or smothered in something or other. It really can make cutting calories hard.

My husband almost fell over dead during his first trip to an American restaurant. I think we were at a Friday's or somewhere like that. For some reason known only to God and him he wanted to try a typical American chain restaurant

WELL let me tell you, he was SHOCKED. He immediately whipped out his camera and took pictures of the food to send home. Apparently in Australia you don't get 6 lbs of food for $8. He took pictures of food for an entire week before the shock wore off

Part of the problem has to do with our farm subsidies.  It's much cheaper to make/sell foods that are high in carbs but are less likely to fill you up.  Eating healthy can get expensive in both time and money.  A lot of people don't even know some of the basics on how to cook.  

Plus what people have been saying here about how the primary measure of value is quantity, not quality.  There are ways to compensate for the value problem.  In almost every restaurant here you can get a "doggy bag" if you can't finish your meal.  When I was in Europe several years ago, I confused wait staff a bit when I asked for a box for my food. 

Ok so people might be offended that you have made these comments but most are true. I work in health care in the midwest and I am shocked by the obesity in our area. There are small children that are obese. I think it is a difference in culture. Everything is so hurried. Plus with the economy in the mess that it is it is cheaper to eat at a fast food resturant 7 days a week then buy the grocerys to support a healthy lifestyle.

I for one get very aggitated with the use of moterized scoters. There are a lot of people that have let there weight get so out of control that they now have pain everywhere and it hurts for them to walk. Think about having an additional 200 pounds on your body and trying to walk. The biggest problem is that like I said economicly it is cheaper to eat the junk food. Our economy is a problem. There is a struggle for making ends meet and many poorer familys have to eat what they can afford on there bugett, ie processed foods and fatty meats.  I know in other countries cities are set up so that you can walk everywhere you go. In the states everything is so spread out that you can't realisticly walk everywhere.
I deffinetly agree that we have a problem. Especially in my area. If I go out to eat I have box up half of it because portion sizes are crazy.

In the States it is quite regional.  I moved from Los Angeles to Indiana.  When our neighbors noticed my odd eating habits (healthy) the finally said 'If its green, throw it out, if it's fried, have three helpings.'!! 

Sad, but they were very serious!  My sister in law's first meal she cooked for myself and my husband contained a meat, corn, mashed potatoes w/ gravy and biscuits-3 starches-I still don't know what the 'meat' was, and lard laden gravy.  She is from the deep south and still cooks this way....heart attack on a plate.

Luckily these days with so many more options, you can find a healthy meal in most any restaurant or have it modified to your specifications.  As for the OP's first impressions of our country, I have those same thoughts walking through an amusement park as well!  Not a great place to do an overall survey of US society.

"a meat, corn, mashed potatoes w/ gravy and biscuits-3 starches-"

Sadly, a lot of people don't realize that they should count fresh corn in the carb column instead of veggie.  

The culture thing can run very deep and be hard to shake, even if you know intellectually that you should eat differently.  My mom is from a small town in WA, lives in WI, and is 65+.  I try to get her to eat my healthy foods.  She indulges me when we eat out somewhere and usually enjoys it, even if she calls it "yuppie" food.  But it doesn't feel homey to her.  She actually gets weepy sometimes when we talk about menus because what I want - lots of veggies with herbs & brown rice or pasta - couldn't possibly satisfy a person and she feels like a bad mother if she cooks it for me.  Fortunately what's homey to her is still fairly healthy, even if it contains a bit more meat, gravy and/or cream sauces than I would prefer. 

Original Post by spirochete:

My husband almost fell over dead during his first trip to an American restaurant. I think we were at a Friday's or somewhere like that. For some reason known only to God and him he wanted to try a typical American chain restaurant

WELL let me tell you, he was SHOCKED. He immediately whipped out his camera and took pictures of the food to send home. Apparently in Australia you don't get 6 lbs of food for $8. He took pictures of food for an entire week before the shock wore off

 Haha! My girlfriend did the exact same thing the first time she visited an Applebee's (she's from Australia).

I have a lot of international friends and they all say the same thing about America.  On the other hand, it annoys me to no end that whenever I travel to other countries I have to pay for water to drink with dinner and that soda is so expensive with no refills!

I think it all comes down to tradition. In the past, there were good reasons why Americans ate the way they did, but at times changed out eating traditions didn't.

I think the "value" obsession probably started in the '50s - America was making so many advances in "convenience" and advertising popped up and convinced everyone that the needed the newest convenience and the best value. Television began telling us to want what our neighbors had and to get everything "bigger and better." This is also shortly after the Great Depression so a generation of people were trained to get as much as they could while they can get it. I know that one of the main reason I've always been overweight is due to this "value" mentality. We're taught that it's bad form to leave food behind - you either eat everything on your plate or you have leftovers. And we're taught to get the most we can for our money - this means buying the value meal, buying 2 for 1, buying the largest value size of anything that we can. Also, in the last 50 years our social traditions have changed so that our entertainment has become more sedentary, most people have cars, walking or riding a bike somewhere is just not popular - except in large, metropolitan cities.

Thankfully I think the consequences of our actions are finally catching up to us and Americans are beginning to realize what we're really getting for all our "value."

And as far as food choices go (as opposed to portion sizes), the midwest, or middle America or whatever you want to call it, is also influenced by tradition. It goes back to the days of the settlers and early farmers. The mainstay of the diet was carbs: biscuits, breads, potatoes and fats: pork, beef, chicken because everything was based on the season and food storage. Eating huge meals, fried foods, etc was common for farmers because they worked all day and were famished at each meal - and eating traditions get passed down. The same way cooking traditions get passed down in southern "soul food" cooking or certain regions of Mexican cooking.

We keep eating these traditional unhealthy foods because our parents and grandparents did, because that's what was locally available for them. Even though we have the convenience of grocery stores stocked with food brought in from around the country and around the world, most of us continue to eat what is familar to us.

And let's face, in better climates like California and Florida you have more fruit and more veggies year round, so families have probably been eating healthier in certain areas of the U.S. for generations. There are always cultural, socio-economic, and political reasons for the way we eat, but Americans are getting more educated about food and becoming more enlightened as to what our food traditions are doing to our health and our bodies.

Unhealthy, full of fat and sodium, free soda refills, loads of bread, cake, potatoes, meat, deep fried, massive portions enough for 2 people... I know I shouldn't say this but here I go: NOW I REALLY CAN'T WAIT TO VISIT THE STATES!!!!!!

hmmm well I'm wondering what part of the states you visited now. I'm from Southern California and I get depressed about myself even though I'm 5'6 and 135, which isn't fat, everyone still seems thinner than me. I'm in Oregon for the summer and here I'm a bit more "normal" than heavy. I do admit they give big portions in the restaurants like Fridays or whatever and I love it because then my friends and I all split one platter and split the cost, haha. Unfortunately most people just eat it themselves....whoa there.

Not everyone likes fast food though...my friends and I hate it. Actually the only friends of mine who eat fast food are super skinny. It's weird. And if you go to a tourist attraction where you don't want to see fat people go to the grand canyon! I went there in May and I can guarantee there would be no one willing to try that hike being overweight.

You also tend to see that in warmer climates people are thinner...which kind of makes sense since you're wearing less clothing, so you can't hide yourself.

I wonder how thin people are in south america? I want to study abroad in the spring there but I'm scared that I will be seen as another "fat american".

Wow first post - as i just got back from america (was my first trip anywhere ever) i honestly didn't notice a mass amount of people any bigger than the usual aussies i see here in australia.

however! I try to eat healthy but i found this near impossible while i was in houston. I was surrounded in take away places (which were great btw) and the healthiest thing i could find (short of a grocery store) was a subway - which i'm sick of.

Even when i went to a restaurant with people, the meals were huge! (but nice and cheap) I could have lived off it for an entire day. I also went for a long walk to some shops and at the end of the day when my friend picked me up - she didnt understand how i could have walked that far and it was the talk of the group for the next week! pretty funny.. i only walked 8miles.

So in my eyes, it is a great great place to visit / live but it isn't hard to see why alot of the population may be over weight.