In a GD thread I started, “Canadopers: Are you satisfied with your single-payer health care system?” – http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=314534 – Eva Luna posted the following:
Why is that? We Yanks have an obesity problem because we have an abundant supply of cheap food, we use automobiles for most of our transportation needs, and relatively few of us work at jobs that involve a lot of physical exertion. Is it any different in Canada?
The main difference I have noticed in my travels is portion size. American restaurants have huge portions. Canada also seems to have a dearth of “all you can eat buffets” as well. Cheaper beer in the U.S. is probably another factor.
I second **deevee’s ** view. When I ordered meals in Canada I got “normal” portions, rather than the obscenely huge servings that one gets in the USA.
Jesus. I thought it would be a minor difference but all the info I am finding says Canadians only have half the obesity rates we do. Their rates of overweightness and obesity are 30 and 15% compared to our 65 and 30%.
I have no idea why though, but its interesting. The Geography of Canada or Australia is similiar to the US and unlike places like Germany or France (compact countries).
American food tends to be filled with high-fructose corn syrup. Is that the case in Canada?
Funny; I’ve travelled extensively in Ontario, and I’ve never noticed a difference in portion sizes. We’re talking about restaurants, right? Not some fast-food crap where our extra value meals are bigger than your extra value meals, right?
Yes, to my eyes, even in *restaurants * the servings are considerably bigger in the USA than in Canada, Australia, the UK etc.
Atkin’s diet.
Back Bacon.
You know. 
The colder weather requires people to burn more calories to stay warm?
I’ve travelled extensively throughout both countries, eaten literally hundreds of restaurant meals. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever what American restaurants, on average, serve larger portions.
This is not true of every single place I go to, but a lot of American restaurants serve absolutely ridiculous portions. I was in one place in Chicago and ordered an appetizer Caesar salad and meatloaf as my entree. I was presented with a Casesar salad that was at least as wide as a medium sized pizza - it had to be ten to twelve inches across - and was piled four to five inches in the air with salad. It was comical; nobody could possible want that much salad. And it was the APPETIZER size.
I’ve had to actually change the way I order meals in U.S. restaurants, or I end up ordering more than twice as much food as I can eat. And I’m a big guy, I can eat a lot. Some restaurants in the USA take it to extremes that I can only assume are deliberately meant to satisfy the most absurdly obese overeaters. Ever ordered in a Cheesecake Factory? It’s ridiculous.
On a humorous note, I went into a Tim Horton’s in Buffalo. Tim’s is a very popular Canadian donuts-and-coffee joint. I ordered a large coffee and was presented with a cup that would have been extra large in Canada. Amazed, I looked to see what the extra large was like; it looked like some kind of a joke gift, a barrel of coffee. After this experience I looked up a few articles on the Net; Tim Horton’s had to increase the sizes of coffees in the USA because Americans just demanded a huge amount of coffee.
Now, I don’t see how this fact alone could explain why Canadians are thinner. People don’t eat out that much. But it might reflect a love of enormous, gluttonous portions.
I am noticing more and more obesity here in Canada, however.
This is not a scientific cite, just a general observation.
Well, I posted this in the GD thread and I’ll post it here:
On average Canadians work less than Americans (more vacation, less unpaid overtime etc.)
This leaves more time for a) cooking at home and b) exercising (even if it’s just more activities as opposed to actual “exercise”).
I second (fifth, ninth…) the oversized portions reason. I came from Canada and I’ve been here for seven years, and not once have I ever been able to finish my restaurant meal and have room for dessert. Nine times out of ten we have to take about half of our meals home in a box.
We went for Italian dinner last week. As an appetizer, we asked for some garlic bread. What came was a medium pizza-sized thing, with melted mozzarella on top, just like a pizza. When my wife’s chicken salad came, it was on a 14" wide plate, piled up at least four inches. It came with a side of garlic bread the size of a small pizza. Eight strips, about an inch thick. Who on earth needs to eat that much food?
Portions portions portions.
“Supersized” in a Canadian McDonald’s = “large” in a U.S. McDonald’s.
Even Canuck SS portions are off-putting, but seeing “Supersized” portions in Washington State is freaking surreal. “I’ll have a Big Mac, a bushel of deep-fried potatoes, and a wastebucket full of Coke, please.” :eek:
That’s a good theory but people in the UK and Australia are just as fat as Americans (cites below) despite serving sizes being smaller in both the UK and Australia.
This implies that smaller serving sizes are not necessarily the reason Canadians are relatively slim.
I think the serving size thing is more of a symptom of the problem in the culture and in Canada we just have a slightly different culture. Our culture, it’s true, is a lot of reaction to the US. Like, for example, our media often prides itself on being a voice of reason and moderation beside the US media. I think that’s part of our mentality: that Americans are overboard so we should take their culture with a grain of salt, and whenever possible do the opposite.
Sometimes, looking at the US from the outside, it looks like sheer luncacy. I think that in Canada there’s a ton of skepticism about what kinds of ideas are implicit in media messages. It’s something they actually teach us in school and we all enjoy it. It makes us feel insightful and wise.
In the US culture, those little things in life that keep you healthy are always marketed with a heavy value spin. Like eatting an apple is “wholesome.” So the idea is you should feel good about eating an apple. Meanwhile, that means that if you go out and eat an apple and then you don’t feel good, you totally wasted your time. In Canada, we still just eat the apple because you have to eat something and apples are pretty good. We have less baggage and image attached to every single thing. Americans more seem like they will feel slightly ripped off if eating that apple doesn’t make a single difference to their lives. They are swimming in the culture where someone is blaring misleading information at you 2000 times a day.
I think all in all it’s just the sheer overload of everything affecting Americans’ weight is eased up for Canadians. If it’s blared at Americans 2000 times a day, we only get it 500 times or something.
This is so true. I’m incredibly proud to be Canadian at this particular psychological moment.
(If anyone needs me, I’ll be over t’Horton’s, indulging my nationalistic passions, and drinking maple syrup directly from the bottle.)
Apparently Australia is second in the world in terms of rates of overweight and obesity.
Which implies that Canadians are thinner than Australians, on average. And possibly thinner than the Brits, since I think they come right behind Australia in the obesity rankings.
Totally untested theory:
Could it be the French cultural influence that is keeping the Canadians thinner? Smaller portions , better quality cheeses, meats, fruits, more likely to drink wine in moderation than beer in excess?
I’ve never been to Canada so this could well be an unviable theory. ;j
Everything I’ve read indicates that the U.S. is just at the leading edge of a trend towards obesity, closely followed by the U.K., Australia and Canada. Give it another ten years and Canadian kids will probably be just as fat as American kids are now.
Presumably by this point, American kids will be deflecting satellites from orbit due to their gravitational effects.