On 6/28/2026 at 4:01 AM, dave2013 said:

That's certainly one reason, that is, food being abundant and cheap. However, food in Europe isn't overall more expensive than food in America, so that doesn't fully explain why so many more Americans are obese.

The quality of the food is another part of the reason. European food isn't loaded with sugar, salt, and mystery chemicals to the degree that American food is, and all that word not allowed the big companies put in our food is designed to make you want to eat more of it. European fruits and vegetables also taste better than those in America; why, I don't know, but most of ours are just bland.

Lastly, Americans don't walk as much as Europeans do, and that extra bit of exercise makes a difference.

Dave

I went on the Paleo diet and have not only never felt better, but have increased all my positive health stats remarkably.

An interesting side effect is that my desire for all the junk food, candy, soda, and carbs have declined to extremely low levels, so all the temptations that used to rule my food choices have become easy to control.

Edited Friday at 08:22 PM1 day by UrgentSiesta

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I went on the Paleo diet and have not only never felt better, but have increased all my positive health stats remarkably.

I've looked into that and it does sound like a good diet. It seems that the human digestive system is actually well-adapted to meat and protein in general, and less well-adapted to carbs, especially the bad carbs prevalent in the American diet.

The main problem for me is that meat and vegetables are so expensive now that my grocery bill would skyrocket. We eat mainly pasta(a "good" carb in moderation), rice, cheese, frozen fish, small amounts of bread, and vegetables. We'll eat a frozen pizza every 10 days or so. We rarely eat fast food, like once every 2 months, as it's the absolute worst "food".

I failed to mention that fast food is another reason Americans are so obese and overweight. Every time I go out, at any hour of the day, the fast food restaurant parking lots are full and there is a long line of cars at the drive-thru.

Dave