RE: Corn, overproduction, alcoholism, obesity (a must read!)

[David Quarter <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ quoted text clipped ]


Although I'm sure marketing and the over availability of the fatty
foods has contributed to the obesity epidemic in the U.S. -- which
seems unparalleled in the western world ? I think this is not entire
issue. What it also comes down to are the values that reinforce
consuming fatty foods in America. Based on my experiences of traveling
throughout the states, Americans seem to celebrate the consumption of
fast foods and junk food in general. When I was in Wiscousin this
summer, for example, I had ordered a bagel in this little shop. It
took me about ten minutes of repeating "I want it plain" for the bagel
to leave the employee's hand. It was almost as if I speaking a foreign
language when trying convey this point. I have spoken to other health
conscious Canucks who have traveled to the U.S. and all have told me
of similar experiences when purchasing food. Yet even people I know
who have gone to Europe have said that, despite its on surge in fast
food and bulk food availability not to mention a weight problem,
Europeans? particularly, teenagers ?are much slimmer than Americans.

Yet, if you want a more scientific explanation, one need to simply to
compare U.S. with Canada: almost identical marketing schemes and
bulk-food packaging in superpermarkets, yet there is a comparably
smaller weight problem in Canada. For example, I just took a quick
glance at study conducted on obesity in Canada in 1997
(http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/201/300/cdn_medical_association/cmaj/vol-160/issue-4/0483.htm)
which -- if you take the figures cited in article posted by Louis --
suggests that Americans are twice as likely as Canadians to be
overweight.

I think the question is one of "excess" as opposed to "access". In the
U.S., fast food chains such as McDonalds and Diary Cream are
essentially cultural icons, whereas in other parts of the world they
are for the most part seen as symbols of U.S. cultural hegemony.

DOQ



~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.