America and food portion sizes

[entropie]

In my experience (and this is in Canada too, to be fair - where there is also a massive obesity problem) there are LOADS of people who will say that.

Haha never heard of it actually .

My country does follow the trend to oversized portions as well and I suspect we have a similiar amount of thick people around like in the States. I myself am a good eater and cant free myself from guilt.

but with the present environmental conciencse emerging stronger in my country, I have asked myself a lot of questions and am daily faced in the news with a lot of facts. For example huge cow herds, who eat half of the countries plant production to provide meal for monster burgers, which are only eaten half and then thrown away, while in others places on the world people die from starvation. I cant stand that with a rational mind that makes me feel bad.

my gf and me are trieing to live a bit more ecologically and we try to buy food in rational sizes. So far it has played out very well for us, I am not hungry in the evenings and I pay a lot less for food. We have cut our food spendings per month for almost 200 Euro.

 

[SilkRoad]

Haha never heard of it actually .

My country does follow the trend to oversized portions as well and I suspect we have a similiar amount of thick people around like in the States. I myself am a good eater and cant free myself from guilt.

but with the present environmental conciencse emerging stronger in my country, I have asked myself a lot of questions and am daily faced in the news with a lot of facts. For example huge cow herds, who eat half of the countries plant production to provide meal for monster burgers, which are only eaten half and then thrown away, while in others places on the world people die from starvation. I cant stand that with a rational mind that makes me feel bad.

my gf and me are trieing to live a bit more ecologically and we try to buy food in rational sizes. So far it has played out very well for us, I am not hungry in the evenings and I pay a lot less for food. We have cut our food spendings per month for almost 200 Euro.

German food and Germans are pretty solid too in general. Although I like German food a lot (I think the best breakfasts of my life have been in Germany) I think it is a bit more bland than Scandinavian food.

Although I still eat a bit more rubbish than I should, my new thing is ordering a weekly organic fruit and veg box. One of the best decisions I've made in a while. I was not eating nearly enough fruit and veg and though I have no weight problems (except I tend to be slightly underweight, but I know as a woman I shouldn't complain about that) I know it affects my health, energy levels etc. The box is quite a generous size (if anything it is a little too much for me) and it's £12.99 a week. I've been doing it for a couple of months and I'm already cooking more and trying more recipes, so things are more interesting too. And I think I am saving money because I'm less likely to think "oh I have nothing to eat at home, I'll grab a takeaway" or eat out or whatever. It's also environmentally good and a benefit for the local economy as it is all local produce.

Sadly, there is more than enough (healthy) food in the world to feed everyone, but due to politics and inequality the distribution is ridiculously unequal.

 

[Glycerine]

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight and over 1/3 are obese. If you are at a healthy weight, you are seen as "skinny" and need to eat more.

 

[MacGuffin]

I grew up in Canada and I'm half Scandinavian (Finnish). I now live in the UK.

There is a lot of unhealthy bland food in the UK too and the obesity rates are high here (though I have a distorted view of that because I live in London and people are on the skinny side). But I don't think the portions are generally as massive as in America. (Canada has a lot of similar problems but to a slightly lesser extent than America, I think).

But yeah, American food is bland, salty and fatty - and I don't think Scandinavian food is bland. It's not spicy, no, but it's tasty. Veeeerrrry tasty. If you compare good Scandinavian rye bread and bland white American bread...well, there is no comparison.

I think North Americans (both Canadians and Americans) have a distorted view as well based on too much emphasis on self-esteem and political correctness. People in North America will go on about how they're massively overweight because it's "glandular". Yes, you can have more of a tendency to become overweight than another person might. But saying it's all "glandular" and you have no control over your weight, although you're eating enormous amounts of rubbish and not nearly enough fruit, veg, etc is delusional. Europeans are more realistic about this sort of thing, in my experience. They don't tiptoe around health issues for the sake of political correctness, or not so much.


EDIT: I have had good, well-prepared food in the States too. And I quite enjoy the large portions, but I don't put on weight easily. But overall - too much bland salty fatty food and just way TOO MUCH of it.

Oh bread? Everyone pwns American grocery store bread.

I'll give you blood pudding too.

 

[Qlip]

Yep, food portions are too big. I never eat at a resteraunt without assuming that I'll only eat half, or count it for two meals. Maybe people shouldn't eat at resteraunts so much?

The greatest thing about America is that we have so much available to us. Where as most people buy that nasty bread at the supermarkets, you can easily go to a bakery and get something much better. I can get fatty cartoonized Mexican food at a chain resteraunt, or I can get lean tasty Mexican food at a family run place. Choose your own Adventure. We just need to foster a culture where people take advantage of that and make better choices.

 

[Rasofy]

In Brazil the fast food go to strategy is ''make the portions as small as possible, so people buy combos'' . I guess it helps with obesity.
Btw these foods make me go . So messy.

 

[Lark]

Oh bread? Everyone pwns American grocery store bread.

I'll give you blood pudding too.

Its only black pudding. Calling it that is only to try and dress it up interesting.

You probably wont have any soda bread or potato bread.

 

[Aquarelle]

Mmmm, Gino's pizza is delicious. But yeah, eating a whole one of their pizzas is disgusting. American portion sizes are way too big. If you can exercise some self control, it's nice because you can take half of it home and make another meal out of it, which is what I usually do.

 

[Aquarelle]

Its only black pudding. Calling it that is only to try and dress it up interesting.

You probably wont have any soda bread or potato bread.

We have potato bread, but probably not how you mean it. It is good though, mmmm.

 

[Lark]

We have potato bread, but probably not how you mean it. It is good though, mmmm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_bread

I read about that stuff in the wiki, the wiki calls what I understand to be potato bread potato farls, although they dont just get served in fries, you can toast them, eat them as is, fry them or grill them, I've known people who eat them with brown sugar or cream or jam but I think that'd be yuck, mind you there's some people who eat egg bread with those things and call it a sweet dish called french toast.

 

[kyuuei]

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight and over 1/3 are obese. If you are at a healthy weight, you are seen as "skinny" and need to eat more.

I tend to do this as well... see potentially normal-sized people as tiny/skinny..

 

[Aquarelle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_bread

I read about that stuff in the wiki, the wiki calls what I understand to be potato bread potato farls, although they dont just get served in fries, you can toast them, eat them as is, fry them or grill them, I've known people who eat them with brown sugar or cream or jam but I think that'd be yuck, mind you there's some people who eat egg bread with those things and call it a sweet dish called french toast.

Ahh, yes. I'm thinking potato bread like shows in the picture. I make potato farls! They are so yummy! I eat them either with jam or just plain. Yum.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

The greatest thing about America is that we have so much available to us. Where as most people buy that nasty bread at the supermarkets, you can easily go to a bakery and get something much better. I can get fatty cartoonized Mexican food at a chain resteraunt, or I can get lean tasty Mexican food at a family run place. Choose your own Adventure. We just need to foster a culture where people take advantage of that and make better choices.

This really rings true to me. We can get anything we want here. When people think of fatty, salty, bland American food, that is only part of the story. We have fantastic food as well. The problem is that eating better food is more expensive and requires more effort. The way we have to work here makes it so that effort is extremely difficult to maintain. It's harder than it should be, because the bad food is cheap, readily available, and goes down easy. So to assuage guilt over not being able to make that effort, fat people say it's "glandular" or make a virtue of being fat as an exercise in self-esteem. I'm fat, and this is bullshit.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Portions are often very large here, especially in middle/lower class targeted, chain restaurants; but I don't necessarily see most people finishing all their food in restaurants. Take home containers are often offered & are an expected part of eating out for many people.

I have a small appetite & usually only eat a fraction of the food served. I've complained that I'd prefer less food, but better quality (or lower prices), and I DO seek that out as much as possible.

I was never taught to "clean my plate" as a kid, so I have no problem not eating all of my food (or NOT taking it home). My grandma is the only one who has ever tried to guilt me about wastefulness, but my mom always defended me saying it's also a waste to eat food you don't need. I think too large servings is mainly a problem when people eat more than they need because they've been conditioned to eat all their food.

The "bigger is better" mentality in the US is very real though (from cars to houses to boobs to food servings). I know people who just expect to get that much food, even if they would never eat it all. They feel gypped otherwise. Occasionally, some will eat it all, but you'll find such people are often "one meal a day" types.

Of course, I have to laugh when it's UKers making these observations - as if their country is not very close behind the US with its obesity rates....

 

[miss fortune]

do people actually order dessert in restaurants?!?

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

do people actually order dessert in restaurants?!?

Well, yeah. If they didn't, dessert wouldn't be on the menu.

 

[miss fortune]

Well, yeah. If they didn't, dessert wouldn't be on the menu.

I totally thought that it was a conspiracy to make the menu look more impressive...

 

[OrangeAppled]

do people actually order dessert in restaurants?!?

I did last night...but that's all I had, along with a drink.

 

[miss fortune]

I did last night...but that's all I had, along with a drink.

THAT makes sense at least!

appetizer, entree and dessert sounds like DEATH or something :horor:

 

[SilkRoad]

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight and over 1/3 are obese. If you are at a healthy weight, you are seen as "skinny" and need to eat more.

That's so crazy...