People watch TV more these days which isn’t very active and it warps your mental map (how you think the world is as opposed to how it really is ) - you see all these fit actors never exercising and eating lots of take-away products ‘placed’ there as adverts.
Also…
Bad food tastes nicer than healthy food so you need a stronger willpower to eat healthy and it can be more difficult to find - mcsalad ?
I broke the pattern, i exercise regularly and eat healthy ( most of the time ), its ace, you feel so much younger and alive when fit, exercise for that - not to lose weight.
There is a lot of money in brain washing people into eating too much and then trying to sell them a ‘quick’ fix diet or exercise product, the media are out to get you, turn off the tv and stop reading those stupid magazines !
Then again, it could all be part of a government conspiracy to make us fat and easy to control ( its all TRUE !!! )
Americans are no different than everywhere else, some people are fat and some are not.
The ones that are (in general, i know some people have medical conditions ) do less exercise and eat ( usually very cheap ! ) crap from the supermarket - check out the basket of the fat guy at the till.
Europeans drive around in cars, watch tv and eat crap as well. Modern french people are generally fat, the traditional ones are not - different diet and they NEVER snack between meals.
Your average american does eat more than your average european BUT this is usually because they are a lot taller !
In addition to the easy availability of McDonalds-style fast food, there’s another ingredient that’s been added to the American dietary mix over the last couple of decades:
Pizza delivery.
Pizza is not really “fast food.” You can’t just go up to the counter in Pizza Hut and pick up a pizza from under one of the heating lamps (unless you use their all-you-can-eat lunch buffet). However, you do have the option of ordering a pizza to be delivered, afterwhich you just sit around and wait for the pizza – during which time you’re probably watching TV and munching on Doritos. Had you not ordered the pizza, you’d be preparing dinner yourself, which acts as a very very mild form of exercise compared to TV watching, and (more importantly) tends to keep you away from the Doritos.
So Domino’s Pizza may be as much to blame for the modern “American obesity epidemic” as McDonalds.