Surveys, polls and publications continually point to the same facts: America has an obesity crisis and other countries across the world look set to join them, as global obesity-related disease rates rise. According to Eric Schlosser's 2001 book Fast Food Nation, the U.S spends more on fast food snacks than it does on higher education or new cars. In a 2006 Pew Research poll asking Americans why the nation consumed so much junk food, "convenience" was the most popular answer. The same poll revealed that more children can identify Ronald McDonald than Santa Claus. But statistics alone do not resolve problems; below are some of the factors influencing American obesity rates.
Unclear Healthy Eating Message
The government is remarkably slow to punch home a healthy eating message. Fast food companies have even escaped blame for causing obesity by claiming consumers are responsible for their eating choices. The evidence that burgers can be addictive does exist, but published information is scant compared to the links between addictiveness and other drugs, like alcohol. Compared to smoking or alcohol consumption, over-eating has had little preventative action taken against it. There are good reasons why large corporations are keen to pass the buck but in the face of food industry exposé documentaries like “Supersize Me”, blaming individuals won’t wash any more.
Junk Food the Norm
Americans are making too many of the wrong food choices and junk food, the classic quantity over quality snack, is most responsible. In large areas of the U.S, fast food has crept into every facet of society and is perceived as the normal way of consuming. With chains like McDonald’s expanding rapidly in the U.S, this perception does not look likely to change any time soon. Schlosser's book offers another telling insight: fast food is responsible for 90 per cent of new jobs in America. Therefore Americans are not only faced with a fast food restaurant monopoly for eating-out options but also, often, for the only employment options.
Not Knowing What is Healthy
The vastness of the U.S also means that the U.S is less exposed to outside influences than Europeans: Americans have little idea of what healthy eating involves. Fourteen per cent of those in the Pew Research poll had no idea of what healthy foods might be. American food is fast food: the cuisine of other nations changed to the demands of a hard-working, car-reliant nation where spare time is more limited and the need for a quick, filling food fix is higher. In American supermarkets, the quick-cook, processed foods are always most accessible, with genetically modified foods not even always clearly marked. Identifying healthy foods can thus be problematic and often, American taste buds are too used to highly sugared, salty foods to be able to.
Corn Control
Then there is the latest demon in America’s obesity crisis: corn. Subsidised by the government for years, there’s now a surplus of this cheap, versatile foodstuff. The fast food industry has pounced upon it. The average can of soda in the U.S is now sweetened by corn-based fructose syrup rather than sugar. As the 2007 documentary King Corn revealed, corn is used in everything in America, even in making apples shinier. Because it’s cheap, more low-quality food can be sold for less.
Portion Size
It’s not just what Americans are eating: U.S portion size is much bigger than elsewhere. Many studies have investigated the weight gained by people moving long-term to the U.S. Research conducted by Florida University calculated the average weight gain of people newly arrived in the country was five pounds within the first three months of arrival. The AICR (American Institute for Cancer Research) cites that American croissants contain an average of 100 more calories than their French equivalents whilst U.S pasta helpings are five times the standard in other countries.
Land of Plenty
In a world of big buildings and big cars, restaurants serving big food portions to big people have become part of society. America has long been regarded as the land of plenty. With over 60 percent of Americans now considered overweight and obesity responsible for some 400,000 annual U.S deaths according to Schlosser, the government needs to accept America is now a land of too much, and act on the somewhat damning statistics. Otherwise, American obesity will become the epidemic no one made an effort to prevent.
UK in Firing Line
The culture of over-eating is not an atrocity being played out just on one side of the Atlantic. This past year, we have seen an inundation of UK TV documentaries on American obesity, courtesy of Channel 4’s “Half Ton Dad” and “Half Ton Man”. The rate of American obesity, it seems, has not risen as rapidly as the fear that, as Europe’s most obese country, the UK will be where the epidemic takes hold next.
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