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> it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there The US isn't really all different. There's a veneer of acceptance, but it's just that.
Have you seen the Deep South? At some point the majority literally "outweighs" and forces it into acceptability despite it's abhorrence. Similar to how accepted circumcision is despite how fucked it is when one thinks about it.
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This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there. Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization…
> it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there The US isn't really all different. There's a veneer of acceptance, but it's just that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you seen the Deep South? At some point the majority literally "outweighs" and forces it into acceptability despite it's abhorrence. Similar to how accepted circumcision is despite how fucked it is when one thinks about it.
How many obese people do you see on Fox News?
They are happy to admit that they only want to see young blond types to deliver the news about how the democrats are the antichrist.
The answer can't just be "well, their cuisine is X, Y, Z" or "they shame fat people more." Those things were also true in 1990. Something during these 30 years had to have actually changed to counteract an otherwise globally consistent trend seen across all cuisines and cultures. I don't feel remotely qualified or informed enough to judge the reality of it, but the article has hypotheses. Specifically, German food culture has changed, with younger generations favoring less calorie dense foods than traditional German food, and in France, government campaigns to get people to eat less and move more seem to have actually worked in spite of failing just about everywhere else they've been tried.
And, for what it's worth, I have plenty of personal experience with fat shaming culture. I served in the active duty US Army in my 20s, and there is tremendous pressure to stay lean and fit. It's a literal job requirement. The military is the only employer I'm aware of that legally can and will fire you for being fat even when you have a non-public facing office job. You'll be brutally mocked by peers, often with the encouragement of command, no one will have any respect for you, and your chances of advancing are nil. Nonetheless, even in the active duty military, all data I can find indicate that rates of overweight and obesity have at least doubled during this same period. This, in spite of being forced to exercise and having all the healthy food in the world available at a low price. A whole lot of people simply choose fast food and beer anyway, even with every economic incentive pointing in the other direction.
I have a lot of family in france, I have citizenship and lived there for about a decade earlier in my life. Not really as a french person but not quite as an expat either. The thing that struck me wasn't so much about the quality of the food per se but just how much weight of ritual there was around it. I would see average working class families sit down for an hour+ dinner with appetizer, salad, cheese course every…
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As someone living in France, there's something which doesn't get enough attention. Everyone in France (okay, almost everyone) "does sport". It's drilled into kids that they need to have some sort of physical activity, and it's one of the things people getting to know each other ask one another - what sort of sport do you take a part in. There are "hype" sports like wall climbing, quite popular in some of the big citi…
One of the advantage of regular exercise not talked about enough is how it makes your metabolism faster, thus increasing your baseline calory expanse, but still from an ex-obese: the quantity matters.
Which is helped with eating slowly, and taking time between dishes (and we do this, a lot).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there. Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization…
>....why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. I would say: ....why much of SE/east asia is super thin because of a heavily rice based diet.
As someone living in France, there's something which doesn't get enough attention. Everyone in France (okay, almost everyone) "does sport". It's drilled into kids that they need to have some sort of physical activity, and it's one of the things people getting to know each other ask one another - what sort of sport do you take a part in. There are "hype" sports like wall climbing, quite popular in some of the big citi…
French moms really force you to exercise and my immigrant dad always felt weird about it.
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I think you should work through these thoughts with a trusted confidant in private! Your sense of embarrassment needs some fine tuning before you continue doing this in a public forum.