Once, in England, my rather large friend was asked by an old lady, “How do you Americans get so big?” His answer was “Cheap food.”
I think he’s right but I don’t know how food prices are officially quantified relative to each other at international levels. Is there a “cost per 1,000 calories” or some other scientific measure for how expensive it is to get one’s RDA of calories?
The closest thing I know is the Big Mac index.
Bad food is so cheap. Food companys are constantly pushing products made with flour, oil, salt, and sugar/corn syrup. These commodities are cheap so they do their best to make as much as they can out of them. The typical suburban grocery store has an entire isle devoted to soda pop, an isle for crackers, an isle for cookies, and isle for bread, an isle for chips. More than half of “new” food products introduced each year are these commodites rearranged with new flavors.
One of the contributing factors may be the prevalence of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the United States. Processed foods made in the US are packed with this sweetener because American policies make it cheap to use. It may be linked to increased obesity, see here for arguments for and against. I’m not sure how you could quantify it, but the use of HFCS does separate the US from most of the rest of the world.
On that same trip to England, my friend made sure to bring back a six-pack of Coke because it’s made with cane sugar over there. He loves that so much more than HFCS.
And yeah, we sure know how to pack a lot of calories into our food in the US. Economies of scale sure make it easy to increase the calories but not the desirability of our diet. It seems perverse that the crappier the quality of one’s diet, the more calories one consumes.
Note also that people always “complain” about the relatively huge portions you get in U.S. restaurants. This is largely because food (i.e. the ingredients) is so cheap (relative to the other costs of running a restaurant).
Caloric input is only half the equation. Don’t forget that food is nothing but fuel, and the human body is a machine that will store unused fuel as fat. No answer to “How do you Americans get so big?” is complete* without taking into account our relatively sedentary lifestyles.
Wow. A whole supermarket archipelago! 
I prefer the fried-food fjords, myself.
Oh he’s FAT. But since he was the one answering, it was all about the cheap food, not the laziness.
As an aside, when we told that lady that we were from Florida, she asked, “There are a lot darkies there, aren’t there?” So, we didn’t really take her too seriously.
But I’m still wondering if there’s a way to show that some countries pay less *per calorie * on food.
And Qadgop, “Archipelago” sounds like a good name for a Gap-type clothes store. “Like my new top? Got it at Archipelago!”
Oooohhh mmmmyyyyyyy.
Qadgop, that’s the little-known Piggly Wiggly Islands chain off the coast of South Carolina.
That was our reaction too. To further illustrate the non sequiter quality of this comment, we were in the cafe of the Artillery Museum at Woolwich Arsenal. Why this woman (who was a classic “Pepperpot” lady of the Monty Python style) was there, alone, is an utter mystery.
Makes sense to me—I’ve seen people come back from Florida with a nice dark tan.
What you want is Kosher for Passover Coke!
If you live in a big enough town here in the Colonies, and if it’s around Passover (that’s around Easter for you non-Jews), you can often find Coke that is marked “Kosher for Passover”. The “for Passover” part is significant! KfP Coke is made from cane sugar rather than corn sweetener, to meet with the special dietary restrictions for Passover. Check the ingredient lists, your mileage may vary, etc.
I don’t remember the last time I had it. I am not an observant Jew, and I gave up sugared sodas a long time ago to help keep my weight in check. Or merely a little out of control.
Can anyone shed light on this: Do we have more disposable income in the U.S. for food vs. other countries?
You’d think we’d burn more calories with all that swimming…
I love the UK, but I didn’t notice everyone there being the picture of health or ready for the cover of Fitness Magazine.
But they were definitely a much slimmer group of people. Two of the three guys who were with me were around 400 pounds and were the object of a lot of covert staring wherever we went. Not too many people over here even bat an eye at them.
I did find this article which is what prompted my question in the first place:Link
I’ve noticed being a poor college student that fatty food that is no good for you is cheap.
At ours stores even whole milk is always on sale for $1.99 a gallon while the skim milk is $3.99. I rarely see a sale on fat free mayonaise or fat free (or low calorie) Miracle Whip. But the mayo brands or (Miracle Whip and generic versions) are always on sale at 2/$2.00 (the brands usually trade off weeks on which they are on sale.)
Our tuna in oil is cheaper than tuna in water. And the list goes on. I guess it’s about supply and demand. But in reality food IS pretty cheap. I can live on $10.00 a week. Largely peanut butter and stuff, when my cash runs low.