There are fast food restaurants in other countries, so why is everyone obese here?

Answer 1

It has not so much to do with what we eat or how much, but Americans are far less active. Excercise has a much greater effect on a persons weight as it not only burns calories, but it also affects our appettite. Americans are more sedentary, mostly because of how much we use our automobiles. Despite complaints about the rising costs of fuel in the US, fuel is still much cheaper here than in most other countries which means cars are used in the US way more than in other countries. Furthermore, many other industrial countries have shorter work hours(30-35 a week in Germany), which means many Americans spend more time sitting around at work, except for those whose work requires physical exertion. It can't really be blamed on increasing use of computers, TV, and video games, because these, like fast food are found in other countries just as much as here. Video games are much more popular in Japan than in the US, the Japanese also consume enormous quantities of fast food, but they don't have cheap fuel(all fo Japan's oil is imported) and they don't have an obesity problem.

Answer 2

Because you don't have to be 100% perfect with your nutrition. If one is following balanced and healthy eating habits at least 85% of the time and spends some time exercising, occasional cheat meal is not going to make that person overweight.

In Europe there are plenty of fast food restaurants. In France, Spain, Germany, Italy and other countries McDonalds is very visible in any major city. Europeans eat late as well. In Spain in particular the restaurants open for dinner only at 8 p.m. and often later.

However, Europeans don't seem to have a culture of fast food. They eat real meals and they take their time too. It is normal to have 2 hour launch and 3 hour dinner. They also tend to move more then Americans do. It has to do with the way their cities are structured. Most of the big cities don't have a clearly defined downtown (business) part of the city like you find in major American cities. So people tend to walk more, because they could be working a reasonably short distance from where they live and it is easier to walk then to deal with parking.

Answer 3

People just cant stop eating. Who knows there might be obesity in other places but not to the extreme in America. Personally I think alot of stress has something to do with peoples eating habits and in Europe people are less stressed than the American culture. Internet and TV doesnt help us either. Whatever happen to the good old days when everyone used to hang outside and play all day.

Besides, fast food in Europe is not as good as it is here. My friends out got parasites for eating at a McDonalds out in Spain. Plus maybe the foreigners have better metabolism than most Americans.

Answer 4

Believe it or not, but most of the obesity in the United States is caused from processed food and soda pop, we consume more food in a box and coke/pepsi/sprite/etc. than any other country in the world.
Plus most fast food places in other countries have only been there for about 10-15 years, we are the inventors and leaders of fast food, give the other countries a little time they will be as fat as Americans in no time.

Answer 5

Our national fast food industry is only at the starting gate for obese-ifying the rest of the world too, by changing their native culture healthier foods to things like the Bic Mac. Give them time. They'll catch up. Then we can sell the rest of the world our diet and cholesterol reducing products.

Answer 6

1) Because the meals/portions served in the US are larger than in other countries.
2)In other countries, people don't eat fast food all the time. They usually manage to strike a balance between fast food and healthy food.

Answer 7

Here we have computers, television, video games and other dormant activities. Here we push our children into after-school activities and there are times we don't take time to sit down as a family to enjoy a meal together. Instead we converge on fast food restaurants late at night, after church and other social activities, and then sleep on it. Our food portions are bigger, we probably exercise less and if our mailbox is too far away, we drive our car to it. Instead of using a push mower, we ride a riding lawn mower to cut our grass. We have drive-through windows in a number of our businesses, instead of walking inside. We never take out time for ourselves and our overall health.

Answer 8

because in america there is one on every main street... Some times and even most of the times there is more than one fast food place on the same street. But in other areas in the world there isnt that many fast food places in there countrie.. The amount of fast food places in one state in american is about the same amount in one continent.....

Answer 9

Because people in the USA eat fast food more than 2 times a week and we are lazy. We drive everywhere and sit our fat lazy butts in front of the tv or computer all day.

Answer 10

Because we let fat people sit on welfare because they are "disabled" Fat people can get handicapped parking spaces because they are fat!!!! These are the same fat people who go into shopping centers like walmart and instead of walking their fat off they ride around in carts that were meant to be available for the truly handicapped!!!! Maybe they wouldn't be so fat if they had to walk a little farther in the parking lot or had to actually walk in the store.........In answer to your question people are fat because we cater to them.......we treat them like it is an illness, its not their fault.............BULL other countries treat the obese like the lazy self mutilating freaks that they are. I don't mean to be mean but when I see someone who truly is handicapped that has to park in the back of the lot because all the spaces are taken up by people who are fat..........I get a little annoyed. Wow that got me worked up!!!! Sorry if anyone gets offended but thats how I feel. And dont try the thyroid gland thing on me.....its cuz you eat too much and dont exercise