The real surprise is that this is from Fox News.

Because European food isn't 40% added sugar by weight?

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Which, at this point is basically The Onion. Without the humor.

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I'd bet the biggest factor is that they're more active, walking to train stations, seeing sights.

Haven’t you heard, being fit is now republican and being overweight is now liberal. There’s no body positivity movement on the right, and the left is has taken personal responsibility out of the equation.

Less sugar, less driving. That's pretty much it yeah.

For me (and my family) it's because as Americans we walk around a lot in Europe when we find out something is just a 2 mile journey instead of a 20 mile journey. In addition we're there to see stuff and walk through streets in cities that aren't at all like ours. Every time I go to Europe I end up walking over a hundred miles a week.

A lot more walking and bicycling in Europe too. American food is poison though, which is odd because they have access to a lot of ingredients. When it comes to food I think Americans accept a lower standard for convenience sake, it’s the convenience that lets the whole run crooked.

Not true. Most Colombians get fat when they move to Europe.

I love the idyllic cobblestone and backstreets full of rich cultural history. I've been to England, Finland (visited fam lots in my childhood), Estonia. I love the pedestrian friendly cityscapes and efficient public transportation when sight seeing.

Restaurant meals tend to be smaller than in the US and more expensive.

Except in Italy. I gained weight in Italy from all the eating I was doing lol

Poe's Law strikes again.

I find the same thing happens when I travel to Europe. It isn’t all about how the food is made or the ingredients used (though that is part of it), it’s also because portion sizes are reasonable compared to the platter-sized dishes used by most American restaurants.

We lost in March. Lots of walking. Portions were more reasonable. Not much for breakfast.

Meals we ate out were generally about the right size to kill the hunger but not leave stuffed or have leftovers to eat again in 2 hours.

Close, but the real reason is that subsidies have made unhealthy food so incredibly cheap for the consumer that we can't afford healthy food.

We did a lot of walking too haha. My best friend said if we didn’t gain a little bit of weight then we did Italy wrong and I have no regrets. That was some of the best food I’ve eaten in my entire life.

Many Americans have to accept it because either a) they can’t afford anything healthier or b) they live in a food desert and literally cannot get anything better.

WTF is this reasonably well written fact based article making references to positive contributions governments can make doing on Fox News?

Not so much. It's portion size. Walking a mile might burn a hundred calories. Ordering Breakfast in America you're going to get a thousand to 1500.

The original article is from the AP.

Because they walk a lot in Europe and their diets are healthier.

The healthy part is only half the story. Portion size is at least equally as important.

For me (Dutch) , it was the same when I visited China. No fast food, lots of activities, and weightloss was enormous in just 3 weeks.

Well their idea of breakfast is deli meats. So yeah skipping meals tends to cut some calories.

You'ed eat less too if you saw the food.

Huh?

Where are you eating deli meat for breakfast in the USA?

It's even more than that. I have two meals today and still constantly feel full.

Every food item isn’t enriched with high fructose corn syrup probably

That is increasingly the case for Europe, too.

During the pandemic, a huge number of people left the hospitality industry - and they ain’t coming back.

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A few villages away, people have decided to run the school lunchroom themselves.

I can’t imagine how you can hate your kids so much as to expose them to the kind of food they often get there.

I spent a week each in Key West and New Orleans a few years ago, ate and drank like a king, still lost weight due to the amount of walking. Although New Orleans was full of the fattest people I have seen, all wearing incredibly tight clothes. Didn't see a single lardarse in Key West.

I was hungry AF in Europe. The portions were so small and the options were much more limited than the US.

Noticed that immediately. A few places did alright but generally speaking I remember being hungry.

I am fit with a decent appetite. Have never been overweight.

Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s due to activity and good. The FDA grandfathered in so much toxic items, some we put in our food or on our crops. Europe is super strict about what is allowed. Like how America’s eggs are frozen because they’re sprayed with stuff to keep them fresh longer but in Europe they’re not refrigerated.

Portion size becomes irrelevant when you start eating proper food, the appetite returns to normal and it becomes increasingly unpleasant to overeat after a while. All you have to do is stop adding artificial crap, salt, sugar and high-glycaemic index fillings. It does wonders, you actually start feeling proper nausea when you eat too much.

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This is just a wire story from AP, but still a bit surprising that someone at Fox posted it

You see that a lot in cheap UK pubs, people associate 'good value' with 'Huge portions of chips (fries)

It’s our food additives. I lived in Europe for 10 years, and when we returned, a lot of the foods we “craved” just didn’t taste good anymore. We could taste the chemicals used to process our foods. Also most meals you order in Europe come with a salad, giving you a balanced meal where here in the states you get meat and potatoes, and twice the amount you should be eating in the first place.

Smaller food portions and more walking/activity. It has nothing to do with food additives.

I think they are referring to Europe not the US. In Germany it's not uncommon for breakfast to consist of meat and cheeses on different kinds of rolls. Edit: rereading, it's clear they're referring to the US.

You're right that "people can't afford healthy food," but not in the way you think. The less that is done to a food, the cheaper it is. That's why boneless chicken thighs are more expensive than bone-in legs, and the fried version even more so. Grains, veggies, whole fruits, etc, are much cheaper than sugared cereals, fruit juices, and prepackaged meals. The New York Times did a comparison several years ago that came to this point.

However, because less has been done to the food, you have to spend more time cooking it. And time is exactly what most low-income people don't have enough of. Time is the most costly ingredient in making healthy meals, and paradoxically, the more money you have the more time you can buy. You also have to buy smaller quantities of fresh food more frequently, rather than a large quantity of packaged or processed food that will keep for longer. Given that American cities are designed such that you can't just walk to the store to pick up what you need, but must instead drive and spend time in traffic just to go get groceries, people (especially those struggling with their finances) are incentivized to make fewer grocery trips, and thus to seek out the packaged and processed foods that allow them to do so.

the left is coming to take your treadmills 😡😡😡

>Like how America’s eggs are frozen because they’re sprayed with stuff to keep them fresh longer but in Europe they’re not refrigerated.

Sorry, but this is just wrong. American eggs are refrigerated because they're washed after coming out of the chicken (yay factory farming!), and washing removes the protective cuticle that keeps out bacteria from the egg. In Europe, where they don't wash the egg after it comes out of the chicken, the egg can be stored at room temperature with no problems.

Moved to Germany at 18, started drinking beer. Still lost 10 kg.

The US is the only place I've been outside of Europe and it was the best food I ever had in my entire life. Everything except the milk (which tasted like melted butter and ice cream blended together) and the desserts (which tasted like warm solidified pepsi or sprite or fanta... but sweeter

TLDR: A trip to Europe typically involves a lot of walking.

The no personal responsibility thing is so funny to me, because articles like this show demonstrably that societal changes can create massive differences in outcomes.

Differences in food culture, walkability, having more free time where you are interacting with the world, they all make significant differences in the outcome of healthy weight.

Sure, personal responsibility does matter, I lost 50 pounds when I needed to, but on a population level, forcing systemic change is far easier than just wishing people would be better. In Europe, people get exercise through the gym of life, here, we take our car from garage to parking lot because there aren't safe and comfortable sidewalks and bike paths. That difference matters.

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