Florida notes part 3: obesity and America

There's no easy way to say this: but good grief, America is full of fat people. It has been some years since my last visit to America but I forgot how bad America's obesity problem is. Even as I stood in line at the Kennedy Space Center to enter an exhibit, I realized that practically every person in the queue was obese. The exception seems to be children and teenager - well, younger people tend to be more active and don't really have to worry about what they eat, but it seems like that vast majority of adults I encountered in Florida were obese. Of course, there was a wide range of different kinds of obesity - from those who are somewhat bigger than average to those who were so incredibly huge they cannot walk and have to use mobility scooters to get around. And it seems the older they get, the bigger they become. I'm sure I'm not talking about anything new, saying that America has an obesity problem is like me saying, "hey did you know that the sun is really hot?" or "did you know that the sea is full of saltwater?" Yes of course, this is common knowledge - about two-thirds of American adults are considered overweight and the figure is rising, but what are the factors contributing to this obesity problem? My recent trip to Florida has given me the following insight:

Why are so many Americans obese?

1. Sugar vs Fat

The food in America is just too sweet, it is hideously sweet - Americans are have grown accustomed to expect their food to taste very sweet. I love drinking coffee but in the UK, when I get a coffee at a cafe or a convenience store, it usually comes without sugar and it is up to the customer to decide if he wants to add any sugar and how much to add. In America, the coffee is often already hideously sweet - I once tried a "fat-free French vanilla latte", thinking that it sounded both healthy and tasty. I was wrong on both accounts, I couldn't taste the coffee nor the vanilla, it was just a painfully sweet hot concoction that wasn't drinkable. I shudder to think just how many grams of sugar that drink contained - it may well be fat free, but it is still loaded with calories from the sugar. I bought a Danish pastry at the same shop - once again, it was barely edible because it was so hideously sweet. But then again, it's a question of supply and demand: the shop ultimately wants to make money and if Americans didn't like their coffee and pastries this hideously sweet, they wouldn't be able to sell any. But if you are brought up in an environment where everything is so sweet, then you develop quite a sweet tooth from an early age and in the meantime, you continue to deceive yourself that your "fat-free French vanilla latte" is a healthy choice when it really isn't. Sugar is the real enemy here, yet the sugar industry in America makes sure that Americans think that sugar is their friend and that fat is their enemy. 

2. Larger than normal portion sizes

Well, it is a double edged sword here. On one hand, I was pleased that portion sizes in America are generally so big that you don't need to order a starter and you get good value for money (well we all love a good bargain, don't we?) - on the other hand, I found myself generally eating a lot more simply because I had the mentality of "I paid for this food, so I may as well eat it - let's not waste it." If I was at home, at least I would have had the option of saying stop and putting the leftovers in the fridge, but when dining out, if there was just about 10-20% of the food left on your plate, the urge is to try to finish it rather than to leave it. I suppose such larger portion sizes are the norms - a restaurant that offers smaller portions would gain a poor reputation as being stingy and cutting corners and since waiters work for tips in America, they would gladly make sure the customer is always happy with the meal, even if it means slipping on a handful of extra french fries onto your plate. And it is not just with your typical American meal - even when I did go for Japanese food near Jacksonville, the meal came with a complimentary portion of of fried rice that was as big as the main course itself. Well, the food at that restaurant may be Japanese but their customers are ultimately American.

Your quintessential all American meal?

3. Obesity as the new norm

So if more than two-thirds of American adults are obese, then obesity is the norm: thin people are in the minority. I remember when I was a child in the 1980s in Singapore and obesity was a lot more rare in those days - there was a fat boy in my class and of course, he got bullied. He got all the usual (and not very imaginative) name-calling you would expect of course, but imagine if that boy was in a class where two-thirds of the students were just as obese. Well, that's what I encountered in America - where the majority of the adults were indeed obese - obesity has become the new norm, it isn't unusual at all to be overweight in America and people are no longer given grief for simply being fat. Whilst I do not condone the way that fat boy was bullied in my primary school, I also find it hard to accept the way fat people in America get away with fooling themselves that it is normal to be overweight, that there's absolutely nothing wrong with obesity since most people around them are fat. Indeed, America has plenty of fat celebrities: from Val Kilmer to Alec Baldwin to Steven Segal to John Travolta (have you seen how huge Travolta has become of late?) - being overweight hasn't affected their popularity adversely. After all, in a society where the majority of the adults are fat, America is actually quite forgiving to their celebrities should they put on weight too. Thus there is far less of a stigma today in America for being overweight - it has become acceptable, even normal to be fat. So if their celebrities, role models and even possible future president are all fat, it makes it so much easier for fat Americans to ignore their obesity - especially if they are surrounded by much fatter people. "Well, I know I am no stick insect and I should exercise more, but look at Val Kilmer - he's younger than me but much bigger than me, I'm pretty okay in comparison."

4. The driving culture and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle

Another reason why American adults are so fat is their driving culture - the moment you're old enough to drive, you get your license. Petrol is cheap and cars are affordable: couple that with the fact that the country is huge, that means that many Americans spend long hours driving. Their cars practically become their second homes as they spend so many hours on the road. Having rented a car to explore central and north Florida, let me tell you one thing about driving: it is exhausting. Whilst you're not actually using a lot of energy or burning at lot of calories, driving is mentally draining because you have to focus on so many things around you in order to drive safely. One lapse of concentration would lead to deadly consequences: so imagine if you had to drive an hour to get home from work, you would just want to collapse on the sofa and watch some TV after that commute - compared to say, someone who took the train home and could relax whilst sitting comfortably for an hour on the train. Our commuter who took the train would be far more likely to have the energy to do some sports when he gets home, whilst our driver would be a lot more tired - thus drivers tend to have far more sedentary lifestyles as a result. Driving around in your own car may seem very convenient of course, but driving can be exhausting and as a consequence, it can make drivers more prone to obesity.

Driving causes fatigue!

5. Very, very long working hours

Americans work much longer hours than their European counterparts - typically Americans have a working week as long as their counterparts in East Asia whilst their European counterparts work up to ten hours less a week. If you are a waiter or a plumber, then working longer hours means running around, being on your feet for much longer, using more energy and staying thin. But for the Americans who are in desk-bound jobs, spending more time in the office means spending less time exercising and doing other healthier activities. If they are exhausted from all that working, many would resort to eating high-calorie snacks to keep them going late in the afternoon. It also means having less time to prepare healthy-home cooked meals, so they turn to fast food which is hideously fattening in America. I had a chicken taco salad at Hardee's Red Burrito and was surprised that most of it was meat, taco pastry, sour cream and cheese - it barely contained anything like lettuce, cucumber, tomato or any other kind of green vegetables that one would conventionally consider a 'salad'. It must have been the only salad that has ever given me heartburn.

6. The culture of 'it is not my fault'

What struck me when I traveled around Florida was the sheer number of ads by lawyers who wanted to fight for people who had been in any kind of accident to win them some form of compensation. It was not subtle at all, they ranged from the kind of "You hurt? We fight!" billboard signs to "Dan won me $900,000 in compensation and he can help you too!" Hence even if Americans do acknowledge that there is certainly a problem with obesity and something needs to change, they have the tendency to see themselves as victims. "Oh the food industry needs to change. Government needs to do something when it comes to regulating the food that is sold in the US. Supermarkets need to change the way they market healthier choices to us. The fast food industry need to help us make better choices when it comes to our meals there." You get the idea, they expect someone else to change or someone else to help them do something about the situation rather than take responsibility, "I know I am rather fat and I need to lose some weight. Thus I'll stop eating so much and exercise at least once a day." Now that last statement may seem like basic common sense (it is not rocket science is it?), but you'll be amazed how many Americans dance around the issue by blaming others whilst refusing to take any personal responsibility for their bad lifestyle choices which has led to their obesity.

7. The using of religion to justify anything.

Oh here's the one factor that few people dare to talk about - religion. America is actually far more religious than Europe and the Christian church dominates everyday life in a way that is unimaginable in Europe or the Far East. It then leads to a situation where many people start attributing everything to 'God's will' - "if God had intended for me to be thin, then I would already be thin. I am the way I am because God made me so." Bringing 'God' into the equation then removes any notion of personal responsibility when it comes to making healthy choices when eating and taking the time to exercise regularly. Ironically, these American Christians do rather conveniently ignore everything the Bible has to say about obesity, excess and gluttony because clearly, the Bible discourages any form of gluttony and sloth as sinful behaviour and when you look at these obese American Christians, they are certainly given to gluttony and sloth. I don't want to get into a discussion here about free choice and Christians - temptation to sin is everywhere, but it is up to the Christian to exercise choice and judgement when it comes to avoiding sin. There is certainly an element of double standards here - these same American Christians will vehemently protest if there was a sex shop or brothel opening up on the same street as their church, but they would gladly welcome a fast food restaurant next to their church and binge eat there. Go figure. #blindspot #doublestandards #7deadlysins

8. Fat parents are not going to bring up thin kids

When I was at Denny's, I saw this fat family sit down next to me - the parents were obese and their son was fat too. He was about ten years or so and he was not as fat as his parents yet, but on his way there. Now his parents are part of the two-thirds of American adults who are overweight and it is far more likely for them to bring up a child who will turn out to be overweight because of their lifestyle choices. If his parents are constantly going to eat unhealthy food and rarely exercise, what are the chances of that kid turning out thin? If his parents are too tired from working and driving to take their child to go swimming at the beach or mountain climbing, how is he going to start getting into an exercise regime? Of course, you could argue that the American schools could step in and ensure that they try to keep overweight kids active by getting them enrolled in various sporting activities, to try to get them to burn the excess calories they consume, but you are fighting an uphill battle if his parents are already setting such a very bad example.

Are fat parents going to bring up fat kids? 

So that's it from me on this issue, what do you think is behind the American obesity epidemic? Have I been too harsh on Americans (given that they're not the only country with this problem) or is there something else I have missed in this article? Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. Many thanks for reading. Oh and for those of you who are not regular readers, I thought I'd leave you with a recent photo of me on the beach to judge my body since I've been judging fat Americans in this article, I thought it was only fair for you to do the same to me too.

St Augustine beach, FL. September 2016