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Comparing Canada vs USA obesity rates shows that YES indeed eating habits seem to be very different: http://eaves.ca/2008/07/08/fatness-index-canada-vs-united-

by ankeshk 17y ago

Comparing Canada vs USA obesity rates shows that YES indeed eating habits seem to be very different: http://eaves.ca/2008/07/08/fatness-index-canada-vs-united-states/ http://eaves.ca/2008/07/08/fatness-index-canada-vs-united-st...

hughprime 17y ago
If you look at the comments below the post, though, the comparison doesn't seem to be valid, due to different measurement methodologies.
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
WOW. That's just astonishing - thanks for the link! I think it's definitely worth studying how two very similar societies can have such radically different obesity indicators.
potatolicious 17y ago
As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less. Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad habit of finishing everything on my plate. I've since fixed this and my weight is rapidly decreasing. Yay. Serving sizes in the USA are simply ludicrous and completely out of step with reality. Before talking about high-fiber, low-fat diets, Americans need to do one simple (but difficult) thing: eat less. Eat way less. A friend and I (both Canadian) paid a visit to the Cheesecake Factory this last weekend - when our plates landed on our table our eyes bugged out. There was enough food to feed 4 people in a standard Canadian restaurant. I'm not even exaggerating :S The table next to ours polished their food single-handedly and then ordered dessert. We were shocked. How any single person can consume that much food in one sitting is unimaginable, and somewhat disgusting.
- hughprime 17y ago
  Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case -- those portions are ridiculous even by American standards. But as an Australian living in the US I agree with you -- I find it hard just to get a normally-sized meal for breakfast or lunch. In Australia, if you order a ham and cheese sandwich, you get ham and cheese. In America if you order a ham and cheese sandwich you get a huge stack of ham, a bit of cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles (!?), maybe some sprouts, mayo and a bright yellow mustard-like substance. If I tell them I just want ham and cheese they look at me like I'm crazy (and I am, cuz I'll be paying about six bucks for this sandwich anyway). On the other hand, last I heard Australian rates of obesity have overtaken US rates. On the other other hand, Australia probably has more of the slightly-fat people (ordinary folks with big beer guts) and fewer of the ridiculously-fat people (acres of waddling flesh or too-fat-to-walk electric wheelchair folks).
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    I've also found that Americans like to lather sauce over everything, which begs the question of if they'd realize if we replaced all their meat with soy protein. This may be part of the diet problem. In Canada we have ranch sauce, we have mayo, but it wasn't until I got to the US that I started seeing these things going on everything under the sun, in gigantic quantities. Why have the ham sandwich if all you'll be tasting is the mayo?
  - callmeed 17y ago
    "Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case ..." I'm not sure about that. Cheesecake Factory, Claim Jumper, you name it. Even the fast casual restaurants like Chipotle. They tout the "freshness" of their ingredients–despite the fact their burritos weight as much as my laptop. Of course, every restaurant now is on the "hamburger slider" craze ... even though the slider is probably the size a normal hamburger should be. Don't even get me started on the Midwest. When I first started visiting Oklahoma regularly, I was a little shocked. You'd almost think there was a state law that every restaurant had to be a buffet.
    - 17y ago

by ankeshk 17y ago

hughprime 17y ago

If you look at the comments below the post, though, the comparison doesn't seem to be valid, due to different measurement methodologies.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

WOW. That's just astonishing - thanks for the link! I think it's definitely worth studying how two very similar societies can have such radically different obesity indicators.

potatolicious 17y ago

As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less. Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad habit of finishing everything on my plate. I've since fixed this and my weight is rapidly decreasing. Yay. Serving sizes in the USA are simply ludicrous and completely out of step with reality. Before talking about high-fiber, low-fat diets, Americans need to do one simple (but difficult) thing: eat less. Eat way less. A friend and I (both Canadian) paid a visit to the Cheesecake Factory this last weekend - when our plates landed on our table our eyes bugged out. There was enough food to feed 4 people in a standard Canadian restaurant. I'm not even exaggerating :S The table next to ours polished their food single-handedly and then ordered dessert. We were shocked. How any single person can consume that much food in one sitting is unimaginable, and somewhat disgusting.

hughprime 17y ago
Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case -- those portions are ridiculous even by American standards. But as an Australian living in the US I agree with you -- I find it hard just to get a normally-sized meal for breakfast or lunch. In Australia, if you order a ham and cheese sandwich, you get ham and cheese. In America if you order a ham and cheese sandwich you get a huge stack of ham, a bit of cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles (!?), maybe some sprouts, mayo and a bright yellow mustard-like substance. If I tell them I just want ham and cheese they look at me like I'm crazy (and I am, cuz I'll be paying about six bucks for this sandwich anyway). On the other hand, last I heard Australian rates of obesity have overtaken US rates. On the other other hand, Australia probably has more of the slightly-fat people (ordinary folks with big beer guts) and fewer of the ridiculously-fat people (acres of waddling flesh or too-fat-to-walk electric wheelchair folks).
- potatolicious 17y ago
  I've also found that Americans like to lather sauce over everything, which begs the question of if they'd realize if we replaced all their meat with soy protein. This may be part of the diet problem. In Canada we have ranch sauce, we have mayo, but it wasn't until I got to the US that I started seeing these things going on everything under the sun, in gigantic quantities. Why have the ham sandwich if all you'll be tasting is the mayo?
- callmeed 17y ago
  "Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case ..." I'm not sure about that. Cheesecake Factory, Claim Jumper, you name it. Even the fast casual restaurants like Chipotle. They tout the "freshness" of their ingredients–despite the fact their burritos weight as much as my laptop. Of course, every restaurant now is on the "hamburger slider" craze ... even though the slider is probably the size a normal hamburger should be. Don't even get me started on the Midwest. When I first started visiting Oklahoma regularly, I was a little shocked. You'd almost think there was a state law that every restaurant had to be a buffet.
  - 17y ago