Are we all 'skinny challenged' compared to the world?

[TheIncredibles!]

Again quoting the OP and the questions asked.

American has a more car dependent culture and society and has very different food regulation's. This combination answers the specific question asked

Strange that you think being car dependent is part of a culture vs necessity.

 

[Moliphino]

If there was a choice, I would absolutely walk but nothing is within walking distance from where I live and no sidewalks. The high school is about 25 minutes walk from where I am so kids in my neighborhood have to walk on the side of the road to get there and back.

I walked everywhere in college (campus in midtown Atlanta) and it was so nice. Now my house is 2 miles from the nearest restaurant and 4 miles from the nearest grocery store (which is a small IGA store), so it's just not feasible.
When we go to Europe we walk just about everywhere. Haven't rented a car over there since we went to Ireland in 2015. All walking, trains, and public transportation. I love it.

 

[jo-jo]

I've thought back to growing up in the 60s and 70s. Everyone's mamas and daddys were thin. Mama stayed home and did house chores. She didn't exercise, nor did Grandmama. They sewed and cooked and cleaned. No aerobics and pilates. But they were skinny. We ate honey buns and pound cake and ate well portioned home cooked meals. It wasn't kale and salads. It was actually not healthy by today's standards, but yet we were thin.

So curious what is going on...

I did not read the thread, but If you think how much we don't have to do now. Little things. To change channel on tv, press a button vs walking across the room. Same with music. Answer phone,,,,it's in our pocket, not on wall, Hung clothes out to dry, now throw them in the dryer. Shovel snow, now snowblower. Bunch of stuff like that.

ETA, Just now I used a power scrubber on my kitchen floor. In my younger days, I scrubbed on hands and knees.

 

[Moliphino]

I think there are a large number of overweight people that go to Disney. I see way more overweight folks in WDW than I ever do in my day to day life and around home, and even in other vacation destinations.

Some parts of the US have more of an obesity problem than others.

 

[skyp4WDW]

Bad food choices + too little exercise = Fat.

 

[BrianL]

Strange that you think being car dependent is part of a culture vs necessity.

Yeah, but our culture sort of created the necessity. We sprawl because we can. We have the room and we have a desire for space. Walkable cities are more compact by nature, but Americans like to live further from busy areas and not live on top of their neighbors. In bigger cities, you see it less, but it is definitely at least partially driven by culture.

 

[john7994]

Yeah, but our culture sort of created the necessity. We sprawl because we can. We have the room and we have a desire for space. Walkable cities are more compact by nature, but Americans like to live further from busy areas and not live on top of their neighbors. In bigger cities, you see it less, but it is definitely at least partially driven by culture.

Our cars are bigger too … we don’t have just the little Viking roads to travel down …

 

[Smugpugmug]

I walked everywhere in college (campus in midtown Atlanta) and it was so nice. Now my house is 2 miles from the nearest restaurant and 4 miles from the nearest grocery store (which is a small IGA store), so it's just not feasible.
When we go to Europe we walk just about everywhere. Haven't rented a car over there since we went to Ireland in 2015. All walking, trains, and public transportation. I love it.

Yeah, a college campus is the only sliver I had of a walkable city in the US and loved it. Honestly I'd probably be more inclined to go out for a drink or two if I could walk there. Bars are like 20 minutes minimum away by car so it's only possible if you have a rideshare which isn't cheap.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That is true but it was significantly easier in Germany to walk to every place I needed to go vs. the US. If I wanted to walk to the Walmart near me, it would be an hour walk and a 5 minute drive.

Absolutely but Germany is a big country so while it's easier to walk in places you still have to get to those places which is similar IMO to how places are set up here swap a car with a train or a plane is that really any different? And you and I have talked about how unreliable the train service is in Germany lol. Def. finding out about how that is the case each thing I watch so it's putting me on watch because we have multiple destinations in Germany come spring. Plus rail strikes are legally allowed depending on the country (even though some countries have restrictions on when it still can happen) so are airline strikes both of which are incredibly hard to have happen here in the U.S. I mean people missed our cruise simply because of the Italy airport strikes and we barely missed issues with Heathrow strikes.

On our Europe trip there are places that we could see (for example towns around the Moselle River) that really are drive by car only as transit isn't there. There's a lot that we're missing in Europe by not having a car. Not any different than here in the U.S.

I agree there's quite a lot of either walkability or transit options however they are very concentrated too and it leaves other areas not accessible at the same time. Pure observation and thinking out loud but we're more sprawled out here in the US. I mean the SW part of the U.S. is inhabited largely due to air conditioning. But does that mean that Europe couldn't be that way if they chose to? (meaning sprawled out).

I was watching the Amazing Race and they were talking about going from X to Y and the distance was a few hundred miles less than the distance from where I live to WDW but in their case they were stretching from most of one side of Europe to another. I think that line of thought gets missed too.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Some parts of the US have more of an obesity problem than others.

This is a good point. The few times that I have reason to travel to the south, I notice a stunningly larger number of big people than back here in the northeast or any of the places I've been in Europe. I believe the last study had Mississippi as the fattest state in the country (they also have the worst public school system in the country too, so maybe there's a correlation there...)

 

[Wendy31]

I think a lot of stereotypes are made of Americans, &, for whatever reason, it’s hip to poke fun of the fat, ugly Americans in ways that would not be cool to make fun of people from other countries.

Along those same lines, our family (the 5 of us) were once in line for a tour at Kennedy Space Center.

As we were getting onto the tour bus, the employee who was directing people asked my husband where we were from.

When my husband named our state, the employee laughed & said, “Oh, I meant what country! I thought y’all were from another country - not the United States.”

So, being curious, I asked him what made him think we were from another country.

He said the way we were dressed & that we were being quiet.

It was summer, so we were dressed for hot summer weather in Florida - shorts w/ coordinating tops. But I guess we weren’t wearing athletic shorts & t-shirts & didn’t look sloppy-casual… I don’t know.

And we tend to be a more quiet family - and we’re not loud & rambunctious, most of the time.

 

[soccerdad72]

I think there are a large number of overweight people that go to Disney. I see way more overweight folks in WDW than I ever do in my day to day life and around home, and even in other vacation destinations.

I almost wonder if that's a theme park thing in general and not just WDW. Walking around a place like Cedar Point in the summer, I notice a lot more overweight people than in daily life as well.

 

[disneyseniors]

My town has no sidewalks. Also not one single stop light. I live about an hour outside of New York City! People just do not understand the sheer size of America, how rural most of our country really is, and how you just CANNOT walk most of our country regardless if we all suddenly had sidewalks.

Tourists visiting tourists areas in America need to remind themselves that they are surrounded by...other tourists. Not necessarily by Americans going about their daily lives.

I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about the sheer size of the US. We live by a small town, but are 7 miles out of town in the country. No way to walk to town. I am amazed at the small size of some European countries compared to ours. More than one of them is smaller than our state!
So, it's just not so easy as to walk instead of using a car here in the USA,

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I almost wonder if that's a theme park thing in general and not just WDW. Walking around a place like Cedar Point in the summer, I notice a lot more overweight people than in daily life as well.

I think it's more of a 'numbers' thing, and a bit of a generalization. During a week at WDW, we're exposed to thousands of people we've never seen before from all over the country - sure, some are going to be/seem overweight or bigger to us. How many people do we cross paths with at home in a regular week? Probably not thousands. I doubt the percentage of overweight folks at Disney or any theme park on a given day is any higher than you would see in most town grocery stores and restaurants......

 

[soccerdad72]

I think it's more of a 'numbers' thing, and a bit of a generalization. During a week at WDW, we're exposed to thousands of people we've never seen before from all over the country - sure, some are going to be/seem overweight or bigger to us. How many people do we cross paths with at home in a regular week? Probably not thousands. I doubt the percentage of overweight folks at Disney or any theme park on a given day is any higher than you would see in most town grocery stores and restaurants......

Good point We probably do a lot more people watching (since we're often standing in line with not much else to do) than in normal life as well. I probably don't pay much attention to people around me at a grocery store.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Maybe this thread should be on the new board!

Hot topic. Sure to go over 100 replies on its first day.

 

[Wendy31]

This is a good point. The few times that I have reason to travel to the south, I notice a stunningly larger number of big people than back here in the northeast or any of the places I've been in Europe. I believe the last study had Mississippi as the fattest state in the country (they also have the worst public school system in the country too, so maybe there's a correlation there...)

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I’ll defend the South until my dying day, but I agree - I think education is a large part of it.

But education - and the quality of the education - is just a piece of a multi-layered self-perpetuating puzzle.

It’s the education & lower incomes & lack of easy & inexpensive access to proper nutrition (& lack knowledge of proper nutrition) & inadequate healthcare... and it’s hard to fix one of those things if the other elements aren’t fixed too, so it just becomes a cycle that reverberates through families & communities.

 

[disneychick0412]

This reminds me of a recent episode of 90 Day Fiance (we all have our trash TV, okay?) where a guy from South Korea is moving to Arkansas for his fiance and the fiance's mother asks him what he thinks about the US. With a straight face, he says "Everyone here is really fat."

Jokes aside, the US does have an obesity problem for sure. I'm a shirt size S/M depending on the brand but in European countries I'm a M/L and in Japan I have shirts that are XL. One shirt I have from Tokyo Disneyland is a XXL.

That's my trash TV show too!! I can't believe he calls her "Piggy"! She's not really that big that I noticed.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I took this photo in Japan of a billboard advertising some weight loss product. The man and woman to the left of their respective pictures are what’s considered fat by Japanese standards.

 

[kdonnel]

I took this photo in Japan of a billboard advertising some weight loss product. The man and woman to the left of their respective pictures are what’s considered fat by Japanese standards.

And by medical standards.

We as Americans are more inclined to think someone who is a healthy weight probably has cancer because they look so much thinner than everyone else.