What’s with the Europe thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that, like in the US, obesity rates in Europe are lower in cities. US travelers spend time in larger cities, particularly walkable tourist friendly cities and so see thinner people walking around. If you just visited larger US cities you wouldn't see obesity as much either.

I’m in Milano right now - eating my morning corneto — there is zero chance dc is not as thin as Milano even adjusted for race ethnicity and ses

It’s not city vs city

This still holds true comparing like for like areas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that, like in the US, obesity rates in Europe are lower in cities. US travelers spend time in larger cities, particularly walkable tourist friendly cities and so see thinner people walking around. If you just visited larger US cities you wouldn't see obesity as much either.

I’m in Milano right now - eating my morning corneto — there is zero chance dc is not as thin as Milano even adjusted for race ethnicity and ses

It’s not city vs city

This still holds true comparing like for like areas

*as thin as Milano

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An American Londoner here, have done many road trips to “off the beaten path” UK/EU. I disagree that people are “just as overweight” than Americans.

It’s true that people outside top tier cities are more overweight, similar to the US. Especially in the U.K. and Germany. But, as the overall lifestyle here is more dense and compact it’s not as common to see grossly overweight people as it is in America.

I also think there stricter EU rules and in general more pride in local regional foods also contributes a keeping populations smaller than Americans.

You may disagree, but the stats are pretty clear - 28% of people in the UK are obese. That’s more than 1 out of every 4 people. It’s lower than the US (36%), but not that much lower.

Europe is much bigger than the UK.

Yes, anglos are more fat and more fat friendly than non anglos

5 eyes (Intelligence community term) should be renamed to “fat eyes”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also I think it’s because the term “obese” covers a lot of variation. What I don’t see often in Europe are those absolutely enormous, two plane seats needed people. They may be fat, technically obese (my Scottish FIL is one of them!) but even he looks tiny next to the sort of Americans I’ve seen at Disneyworld who need the mobility scooters because they are so huge.

+1 yes, it's this. Morbidly obese versus just tipping into the category of obese

Agree with this. I'm an American living in Europe right now and I do see plenty of overweight people, but not the morbidly obese people I see in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also I think it’s because the term “obese” covers a lot of variation. What I don’t see often in Europe are those absolutely enormous, two plane seats needed people. They may be fat, technically obese (my Scottish FIL is one of them!) but even he looks tiny next to the sort of Americans I’ve seen at Disneyworld who need the mobility scooters because they are so huge.

+1 yes, it's this. Morbidly obese versus just tipping into the category of obese

Agree with this. I'm an American living in Europe right now and I do see plenty of overweight people, but not the morbidly obese people I see in the US.

Agree. My mom is technically BMI over 30, but she is not what you picture when you think obese. I bet we have way more people in the morbidly obese range.

My friends from grad school were from Europe, and they brought size 3X t shirts home as souvenirs.

[Anonymous]

My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

Do your in-laws have strong opinions about bread? When they visit, do they bring their own solid brick-like sunflower loaf, or do they prefer to trash talk das brotchen von safeway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP is correct- I move to a different international location every three years and let me assure you, outside of Asia, everyone is just as overweight as Americans, especially once you leave the more cosmopolitan cities. What is interesting is that many stores in international malls haven’t caught on to this fact so they are still trying to sell smaller clothes to a larger population. American stores are much better about being inclusive and catering to the reality of the situation.

I have family in India. Let me assure you that there are plenty of fat people in India. We live our sugar and carbs (roti, naan, rice) and butter and sweets. Diabetes is rampant in India.

So, for the record, not all of Asia is thin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

Southern Germans are not representative of the whole of Europe, or even Northern Germany. Hamburg and Berlin are very sophisticated cities with mostly normal weight people. When you get south of Munich, that changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

Do your in-laws have strong opinions about bread? When they visit, do they bring their own solid brick-like sunflower loaf, or do they prefer to trash talk das brotchen von safeway?

Lol! They do both!

[Anonymous]

So they somehow measured all of the Europeans' weights? Are you counting Eastern Europe, or is that still not "Europe" in bigoted/Othering Western rhetoric?
I assure you that people in my home country (which most of you would not consider "Europe" are not even close to the overweight rates in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

Southern Germans are not representative of the whole of Europe, or even Northern Germany. Hamburg and Berlin are very sophisticated cities with mostly normal weight people. When you get south of Munich, that changes.

Bavaria is the second richest state in Germany.

Having a bunch of nightclubs and Marxists doesn't make you sophisticated.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the OP. The difference in the obesity rates is marginal. It's just a fantasy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws are European and they are all bigger than us. Germans tend to be overweight. I teeter toward underweight and they lecture me about American diets. It's insane, they eat way, way worse than the average UMC+ american.

Southern Germans are not representative of the whole of Europe, or even Northern Germany. Hamburg and Berlin are very sophisticated cities with mostly normal weight people. When you get south of Munich, that changes.

Bavaria is the second richest state in Germany.

Having a bunch of nightclubs and Marxists doesn't make you sophisticated.

Having liver in Berlin before the Wall came down, this made me laugh. I concur.

[Anonymous]

I think the real debate should be, who is healthier: an overweight person in america, or an overweight person in europe?