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.

Here's something of interest.  Obesity statistics by country

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-hea lth-obesity

the United States is first, then Mexico, then Great Britain.

Original Post by clairelaine:

Here's something of interest.  Obesity statistics by country

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-hea lth-obesity

the United States is first, then Mexico, then Great Britain.

wow.  lotta big people.  it would be interesting to know which direction the trend is going in each country. 

canada pretty much right on average.  i guess it could be worse.

one of the surprises for me in that list was italy at 8.5% and greece at 21.9(?)%.  same region, same produce, very similar lifestyle, probably a lot of shared genetic heritage, but a huge difference.  i wonder what that's about.