# What is the most unusual thing about the American diet to people of other nationalities? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980 "2012-02-15T23:44:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/21 "2012-02-16T01:11:49Z")
Grits are completely foreign to me. This is a regional thing, I think, but the prevalence of apple sauce with meals was also very strange. I’d have apple sauce with a nice pork loin, but I wouldn’t just have a dish of it to eat with dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/22 "2012-02-16T01:26:12Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Grits are completely foreign to me. This is a regional thing, I think, but the prevalence of apple sauce with meals was also very strange. I’d have apple sauce with a nice pork loin, but I wouldn’t just have a dish of it to eat with dinner. Grits are pretty alien to me, too. In fact, I think they _make em_ out of ground-up Alien Greys! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/23 "2012-02-16T01:26:51Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > I’m in Canada. > > Deep frying and the eating of raw/rare hamburger would top my list. I do eat deep fried food, but maybe once every couple of weeks, no daily, like they seem to in the south. And the raw/rare hamburger thing just makes my stomach turn. If even .5% of Americans eat raw hamburger regularly, I’d be shocked. It’s hardly a part of our normal diet. > [@GreedySmurf](#): > > Seriously how long does it normally take you to go through 100 antacid tablets? On average, just 2-3 months. I’m considered calm under pressure (it was even recently added to my updated job description!) but that’s only the exterior: _all_ stress goes to my stomach. I think that for my age I consume a lot more antacids than the norm. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/24 "2012-02-16T01:31:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > On average, just 2-3 months. I’m considered calm under pressure (it was even recently added to my updated job description!) but that’s only the exterior: _all_ stress goes to my stomach. I think that for my age I consume a lot more antacids than the norm. The other thing is that some folks, especially some middle-aged women, treat antacids as calcium supplements, and so they may take 1-2 a day for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/25 "2012-02-16T01:34:58Z")
Size, and the bath loads of cheese, mainly. Otherwise it’s fairly normal to me. I’ve had starters and sides there so large that I couldn’t eat the following meal. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/26 "2012-02-16T01:36:27Z")
**Sampiro** > [@](#): > > flour/skillet frying of pork chops or sidemeat with vegetables I’m from the UK and I’m not even sure what this is. Do you mean you are flouring vegetables and frying along with the chops, or just frying them unfloured? or serving the fried chops with vegetables? The latter would be pretty normal but what is sidemeat? As to the question in the OP, the strangest things I’ve heard about are the sweet jellied salads served in irrc the Midwest and the construction of meals by mixing raw ingredients with tins of cooked stuff like soup and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/27 "2012-02-16T01:50:57Z")
Peanut Butter ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/28 "2012-02-16T01:57:45Z")
When my folks immigrated here in the 1950s, corn on the cob befuddled them. I’ve seen similar reactions by Europeans at conferences I’ve been at. To them, though it’s a sweeter variety, it’s still animal feed. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/29 "2012-02-16T03:01:08Z")
> [@yams](#): > > Prions aren’t destroyed by heat, so if you’re afraid of mad cow, you either need to start bleaching your beef or avoid hamburgers all together. A prion is just as bad whether it’s raw or well-done. > > love > yams!! Bleach doesn’t destroy prions either. They’re damn near indestructable. > [@Frodo](#): > > Peanut Butter The last lab I worked in had people from, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the UK, China, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Portugal, and Northern Africa. They universally did not understand the concept of or reason for peanut butter. Other than that, they didn’t understand the portion sizes and why americans seem more interested in having a greater quantity of lower quality food. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/30 "2012-02-16T03:07:59Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > From Australia, I don’t know about weird specific foodstuffs, (apart from ‘biscuits’ as a savoury item :eek:) but there must be some interesting additives in a lot of foods, because in both my trips to the US I had indigestion at least once a day for at least the first week or so. Luckily I was able to locate industrial quantities\* of antacids at local chemists (drugstores?) > > Seriously how long does it normally take you to go through 100 antacid tablets? That sounds like regular travel indigestion that can happen to people from anywhere, going anywhere, caused by unfamiliar flora or who knows what. I had horrible cramps and more after every meal in Germany and Denmark, for example. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/31 "2012-02-16T03:08:13Z")
Bread sticks with pizza. It seems most of the chain pizza places serve these together, I just can’t figure out why. It’s very popular but sounds awful. American cheese and velveeta Koolaid Frozen dinners ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/32 "2012-02-16T03:20:19Z")
How sweet everything is. How big the restaurant portions are. How far removed from the source most supermarket food seem to be. Like factories produce stuff that other factories turn into other stuff that other factories turn into something that eventually gets sold as food. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/33 "2012-02-16T03:27:06Z")
I think the amount of dairy Americans consume (as a group) is much higher than normal. Cheese on everything, milk with dinner and cookies/brownies, ice cream for dessert. You know the way Indians typically smell to Americans? Like curry? I’ve heard it described that Americans tend to smell like spoiled milk. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/34 "2012-02-16T03:27:06Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#): > > The last lab I worked in had people from, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the UK, China, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Portugal, and Northern Africa. They universally did not understand the concept of or reason for peanut butter. I can’t vouch for the other countries on your list but peanut butter is widely available in the UK (and Ireland). There seems to be a myth that it doesn’t exist here. Main thing I noticed was that Americans have a vast array of restaurants to eat out at and seem to eat out more than people do here, however they also have much bigger fridges than almost any I’ve seen here. I would have thought eating out more regularly would have led to smaller fridges being prevalent. I know that eating out regularly isn’t a universal trait but still. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/35 "2012-02-16T03:27:30Z")
Another vote for peanut butter. Indonesians put peanut sauce on vegetables, but for reasons I don’t entirely fathom, find the idea of a jar of peanut butter to be weird. It’s not the extra sugar and oil; peanut sauce can be plenty sweet and oily. I think it’s the idea of grinding the peanuts in advance and storing them, instead of starting with whole peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/36 "2012-02-16T03:33:13Z")
A lot of Indian people don’t get these – 1. Raw vegetables 2. Gelatin dessert with embedded 3. Meat with sweet sauces 4. Large portions of meat with small or non-existent portions of fibrous legumes and vegetables 5. Flavorless fruits 6. Early dinners. Indians – at least the ones I associate with – eat right before going to bed. Come to think of it, they also lunch late and then nap immediately thereafter. 7. The small number of dishes served with a meal. Indians tend to serve a large number of items at lunch and dinner, but they partake of small quantities of each. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/37 "2012-02-16T03:43:50Z")
1. Prices for food in the USA are low, sometimes amazingly low. 2.Portions are gigantic, this can raise eyebrows. 3.Drinks are gigantic, for whatever reason a lot of places have tiny beverages compared to the USA. ---
**Author:** ![yams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/848f3c/32.png) [@yams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yams)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/38 "2012-02-16T03:46:33Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#): > > Bleach doesn’t destroy prions either. They’re damn near indestructable. According to “Inactivation of prions in daily medical practice,” (PMID 10221166), the Merck Manual Home Health Handbook ([http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain\_spinal\_cord\_and\_nerve\_disorders/prion\_diseases/creutzfeldt-jakob\_disease\_cjd.html](http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain_spinal_cord_and_nerve_disorders/prion_diseases/creutzfeldt-jakob_disease_cjd.html)), and Wikipedia, bleach does inactivate prions. Who is going to eat a hamburger made from bleach-soaked beef, however, is another matter, and it is probably a sterilization method better kept in the lab than in the kitchen. love yams!! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/39 "2012-02-16T03:55:33Z")
Yes, Indians don’t get the high prices and large portions at restaurants. I have ti explain that they couldn’t cover their costs if they charged less and the way they make up for it is to increase portion sizes because it costs them the least. It blows them away that food is the cheapest input at a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980/40 "2012-02-16T03:57:23Z")
Oh, and eating raw hamburger is not a common thing in the United States. Not at all. In fact vast swathes of the country will not touch anything less than burnt to a crisp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-unusual-thing-about-the-american-diet-to-people-of-other-nationalities/612980.md?page=3)