the real biggest country and other useless stuff

Ok so it is common believe that the US is the biggest country. Then it was said Australia made it to the top - well forbes say that's not true. According to the BMI of people over 15 years of age, Nauru (a tiny island close to micronesia) is the biggest country. The USA ranking #9, Australia #21, the UK #28.

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/2007/02/07/w orlds-fattest-countries-forbeslife-cx_ls_0208 worldfat_2.html

I thought that was interesting, they also say it increases worldwide by 40% per year. 40! Damn.

I, myself am german and we rank #43. Sounds nice somehow but when I look outside, I kinda get shocked that we are so far down. I was thinking why - even though we have a damn high beer consume and eat fatty meats and LOTS of potatoes, we still rank lower than the USA. And I came to some simple conclusions:

A) We are much smaller. You can basially walk to the next grocery store and (I'm in Berlin right now) only have to drive 45 minutes to poland. When I lived in the more west, I needed an hour to go to the netherlands, belgium and france. Of course no sane person would use the car IN those countries, since you wanna see something of them, right?

B) Portions. When you order a "maxi menü" what is a "supersize" portion at Maccas here, you get what americans eat as their kids-size.

C) Eating not out. Cooking shows are HUGE in Germany, we love them, people like to cook and they do it all the damn time. Young people too. Eating out isn't that common, we have the "homecooked is best" tradition, we believe only Mama really knows - what makes eating in a restaurant more a thing of bigger events. Even with fastfood places.

D) Junk Food acceptance. What the common german teenager thinks about fastfood? "american fastfood is crap and expensive" - our teenies rather get turkish fastfood. Or chinese fastfood. We love our "Döner" (pita bread filled with thinly sliced lamb, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and garlic or herbal sauce) and we also love our "Chinapfanne" (a bowl of chinese noodles cooked on a hot plate with chicken and some funny asian veg and a very hot sauce). University students are a bit different though. Some are rich and lazy and buy a burger sometimes but alot are very "hippie" and go for organic stuff. Fast Food is just not considered a "real meal" here.

E) Snacks. I found that in Australia, that obviously is seen as pretty overweight too, they have aisle of cookies/biscuits/candy and a crazy amount of chips and crackers. We don't have that. We have about 6 main chips brands were about 3 get really advertised and some few cookie/candybrands. Crackers arn't big at all.

F) Comercial. If Maccas is advertised here then usually in a healthy context. You see Heidi Klum eating a new salad or Germany's Next Topmodel winner having a wrap with lettuce and salsa. Burger King tries it the other way - and it doesn't work. There are MUCH more Maccas than BK here. (and I live in a damn big city)

G) Clothing sizes. I realized that a Small in the US isn't the same as a Small here. I'm a S to XS in german clothing and I got that cool jeans from the US just to find out that "size 0" is a bit of cheating. It was like a Medium here. Could be the brand though.

H) The famous scooters. We don't have them. Seriously. Not in the normal, daily life. People with a broken leg maybe but obesed people? Can't remember that I ever saw! Especially not in grocery stores (WalMart flopped big time in Germany).

I) Overcomfort. I came to the realization that countries bigger than my own (and it is big already!) have the whole "customer service" thing really worked out...too much. Your grocery get packed in bags from the cashlady in your supermarket? Not here. You have escalators in almost every store? Not here. Almost everybody has a car even when they are quite young? Not here.

Ok I could go on and on but that were the main points that I realized. I hope nobody feels offended or anything, I just try to compare and to understand because we are really getting big in Germany but obviously not as big as I thought - yet. And I was just wondering why. And I wanted to share my thoughts :)

 

PS: all grammar/language mistakes were intended...*coughs*

Well, of course. There are definitely reasons for why America is such a fat country. I think a big difference between European countries and the States is transportation. Everyone drives in the States (except for the random few people who live in a big city like NYC, Boston, Chicago that have good public transport). Also, a European country is about the same size as one state in the US.... Everything is much more spread out here and as stated in another thread, while it would be great to have public transport almost everywhere in the States, it's not going to happen anytime soon. The country is too big and it would cost too much money. Portion sizes are out of control as well.
As for the sizes of clothes being different... I think they're different in many places. I know the sizing in Korea is different than Europe and North America.

I think one of  the biggest problems is educating children about healthy nutrition. I don't ever really remember studying about healthy eating as a child. Once I got to high school, we'd have one unit in health class devoted to nutrition.

There's a lot of contributing factors as to why Americans are so fat. This could just be my perception (and it may be wrong-- someone correct me if I am), but I read somewhere about how much more Americans work than Europeans. I know personally, in my family, after we finished school, parents got home from work, we got back from soccer practice/music performances/etc, it would be late and mom would be too tired to cook and fast food became a fall back for sure. We didn't eat fast food a lot but even if mom had to just throw something together real quick, it probably wasn't the healthiest thing (looking back). And I know that this rings true for my friends growing up as well.

*shrug* My thoughts are a bit all over the map. I'll tidy this post up in a bit.

I'll agree with portion sizes, compared to the UK they are at least double the size you would get here.

And I agree with ali, I think America eats out so much because of the hours they work, and therefore it is not a good comparison to Europe.......

France is the Laziest with the average of only 1,480hrs worked per year & 27 days annual leave.

Germany is second with 1,611hrs & 29 days A/L followed by Norway, Denmark, Austria etc

The UK is the hardest working European country with 1,782hrs & 20 days A/L

America works on average 1,957hrs & only 11 days A/L

The hardest working country in the world is South Korea 2,317 hrs & 10 days A/L.

Then as ali says you have sheer size of America! ( I don't mean people size).

I don't think stats like these are accurate, they should only compare a country within it's self, where people live by the same standards of living e.g. America should only be compared State to State, UK should only be compared to Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales and some European countries can be compared to each other like Greece and Spain, but they must have very similar life styles for it to be truly fair

If you take obesity state by state the % are a lot lower.

statebystate

Edited: for rambling

 

 

 

 

The hardest working country in the world is South Korea 2,317 hrs & 10 days A/L.

I want to comment on this South Korea thing because I'd read this before.

Here in the ROK, people waste soooo much time at work. If they used better time management, the work hours wouldn't be so high. Of course the people working manual labor jobs, retail jobs are not included in my comments. But people who have white color jobs waste so much time. My Korean co-workers waste time and then complain they don't have enough time to prepare for their classes. The other foreign teacher and I made 64 speaking tests and 64 writing tests in two days. It took the Korean teachers 3 weeks to make 6 writing tests. Why? Because they screw around at work.

I have friends here who work in bigger companies and they said the Koreans they work with take 2 hour lunch breaks many days, screw around talking to everyone in the office and taking naps at work.

So yeah. The annual leave is about right though. Many people only take vacations when they have long national holiday breaks (Chuseok, Lunar New Year and a summer break everyone gets-- next week! Wooo).

It's an over all average, we have our slack asses here, as I'm sure America and every other place does too.  I'm quite sure not everyone in the States works those hours, nor does everyone here.

Oh, I know it's an average. haha But I'm just saying that while the Koreans work more hours... they're just AT work longer. haha

I worked 70+ hours a week when I was back in the States. Glad I can contribute. haha

I love Germany. I used to live there as a kid at ilesheim (sp?) army base. My father was a helicopter pilot involved in the war in bosnia. I went to German Kindergarten. I wore galoshes. It snowed. We gathered chesnuts in the winter and strung them up. We left our boots out for Saint Klaus.

We got fresh brochen and milk everyday.

Not to mention Kinder eggs.

I love germany.

Yeah Ireland is number 103! Yet, the percentage of overweight people is 46.6%! That is almost half!!! I think that the lifestyle here is quite unhealthy. The average diet contains a LOT of saturated fat and cholesterol. Take my dad for instance, who would be a typical Irish eater. For breakfast this morning, he had 5 sausages, 3 fried eggs, 4 rashers, 3 slices of white bread and 4 black puddings. Well over 1000 calories - for breakfast! I recently read that in 10 years, Ireland will have experienced a huge obesity epidemic, worse than that in America at the moment. And don't even get me started on the potatoes! Our national food, they seem to be eaten by the bucket load in every house!

Another thing that contributes to the growing rate of obesity here (and in many other countries), is the fact that kids have replaced playing soccer and GAA with computer and playstation games. There is a huge field by my house. My dad, who grew up around here, said that 30 years ago, when he was younger, this field was packed to the brim with kids playing. According to him, you would not go home to have your dinner until you had finished playing for the day, otherwise your 'space' would be taken over. Now, this field is virtually deserted. It's sad! Sometimes I wish I lived in the 'old days.'

 

I guess it's "good" the US is not "number 1"...but look at the nation's that are ahead of us...they have such small populations that it would take that much obesity to be topping that list....the US on the other hand has a HUGE population (numerically-no pun intended) and the amount of obese citizens is truely alarming....

not surprised at all to not see the other country I have citizenship (Italy) not listed on there hahahaha

whoops didn't see the rest of the list there hahaha...I should say then I am not surprised to see that my nation is not HIGH on the list, although at 111 it's up there

Original Post by gurlywurly:

 And don't even get me started on the potatoes! Our national food, they seem to be eaten by the bucket load in every house!

Another thing that contributes to the growing rate of obesity here (and in many other countries), is the fact that kids have replaced playing soccer and GAA with computer and playstation games. There is a huge field by my house. My dad, who grew up around here, said that 30 years ago, when he was younger, this field was packed to the brim with kids playing. According to him, you would not go home to have your dinner until you had finished playing for the day, otherwise your 'space' would be taken over. Now, this field is virtually deserted. It's sad! Sometimes I wish I lived in the 'old days.'

The potatoe thing we totally have in common... (I mean Ireland & Germany) I just realized by my Irelandtrip (btw GREAT COUNTRY! I just didn't understand the accents :P) that you guys don't drown you potatoes in gravvy. We tend to do that...

And I t5hink the videogame thing is a good point. When I think about how much I played outside as a kid (and I'm only 23) and how damn less my nephew (6yrs) plays outside...a serious difference and my parents already told me that I "hardly went out" as a kid, compared to them.

Original Post by dietcoke92:

I love Germany. I used to live there as a kid at ilesheim (sp?) army base. My father was a helicopter pilot involved in the war in bosnia. I went to German Kindergarten. I wore galoshes. It snowed. We gathered chesnuts in the winter and strung them up. We left our boots out for Saint Klaus.

We got fresh brochen and milk everyday.

Not to mention Kinder eggs.

I love germany.

That was quite OT ;) But good to hear you like Germany :> And not Saint Klaus came, Staint Nicolaus did! On December 6 ^_^

(I just "invented" that very german tradition at my boyfriends house in Australia)

Just on the subject of the top 7 countries, I don't think it's fair to use BMI on Pacific Islanders; I see them as the other end equivalent of using BMI on Asian people. Where the Japanese BMI cut off for overweight has been shifted to 23.5, it is my opinion that Pacific Islander "healthy BMI" should have a higher cut off than white folk. Pacific Islanders are big people. Like, really big.

One of my good friends is Nuiean, 6'4" tall, 300lbs and is not what I would consider fat. My high school was over 50% Pacific Islanders and they were bigger than the rest of us, not necessarily taller, but just bigger. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of overweight Pacific Islanders, but they also have bigger bones and greater bone density than Pakehas, so they are naturally heavier people. Also the top 7 countries represent less than 500,000 people combined (Nuie has a population of less than 1,500).

Just my 2c.

Original Post by p0nda:

Just on the subject of the top 7 countries, I don't think it's fair to use BMI on Pacific Islanders; I see them as the other end equivalent of using BMI on Asian people. Where the Japanese BMI cut off for overweight has been shifted to 23.5, it is my opinion that Pacific Islander "healthy BMI" should have a higher cut off than white folk. Pacific Islanders are big people. Like, really big.

One of my good friends is Nuiean, 6'4" tall, 300lbs and is not what I would consider fat. My high school was over 50% Pacific Islanders and they were bigger than the rest of us, not necessarily taller, but just bigger. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of overweight Pacific Islanders, but they also have bigger bones and greater bone density than Pakehas, so they are naturally heavier people. Also the top 7 countries represent less than 500,000 people combined (Nuie has a population of less than 1,500).

Just my 2c.

It might be true that they have bigger bones but it is very very true that the new generation of pacifics are unable to eat well since coca cola and such invaded their diet. When 94% of them have a BMI over 30 (!) it can't be just because of their big bones.

It is because obesity stand for wealth in those countries. Every second (in younger years every thrid) citizien of Nauru has diabetes. That isn't because of their big bones, that is because they eat very big portions and very very fatty.

The reason for this high diabetes rate is the fact that alot of hunger was present throughout its history and the genetic code of the people changed to "alarmed for the next hunger period". So their genes make them become fat easily.

But the people don't suffer hunger anymore and still eat alot and very fatty so they gain very easiely and constantly. Nauru is the country with the highest diabetes percentage in the world. Closely followed by the pacific countries on the list.

Bones arn't the explaination for everything.

The list you offered is overweight (BMI > 25) not obese, so my argument still stands. I'm not saying they don't often have shockingly bad diets, but bone density and bone size does play into their BMI. If my bones weigh more than yours my BMI is going to be higher than yours even if we have the same body fat percentage.

Wow...interesting that we Canadians are at 35, while USA sits at 9.

yeah, i'm a little surprised that we're not higher on the list.  but i was thinking this morning about my dad's family.  two of my dad's siblings emigrated to the US (in the 50s and 60s), so the last three generations are split equally between the two countries.  two of my six american cousins were born in canada, but they've been in the US since they were little.  of the canadians, none are overweight.  of the americans, half are: 1 out of 2 of my dad's siblings (and the one who isn't didn't move south until she was in her late 20s), 5/6 of my cousins, and 2/8 of the cousins' kids.  of that last generation, it's the two oldest (26 and 19) who are overweight; who knows what's going to happen with the younger ones.

Was I the only one that thought, wait, Russia's the biggest country! (oh, wait, the fattest country, not the same thing).

Canadians, being #2, are obsessed with size.... :)

nope, you're not the only one, trust ;)

and thanks for the arrogant worms - they always make me happy (and i kind-of needed that tonight).

No trust, initially that's what I thought

Lol, can I excuse with "I'm not a native spaker!" or "I just wanted to be polite" :P

 

PS: Am I cool or what? I know the Arrogant Worms! I am cow here me moo, I weigh twice as much as you... *sings*