One of the most impressionable things about my last month roaming Europe was that it seems Europeans are getting fatter - i've been traveling Europe for five decades and just don't remember seeing as many overweight folks as this year.

Do others have a similar impression or not. I do know statistics seem to say Europeans getting heftier or think they do but wonder if other travelers have the same impression.

Could it be that they were mostly tourists looking at each other and wondering the same thing?

I think its a culture thing, with fast food and multichannel TV comes fat.

So how do the Koreans stay so thin. They don't eat fatty fast food

'nuff said

My grandmother ( French) and her mother were both fat and short.
My grandmothers comment on seeing all the fat people in the States( when my grandmother came here to visit we took her to San Fransico, Las Vegas and Los Angelas) was how many fat people there were. I said, grandmother how can you say that ,, you yourself are fat, she agreed but said the difference was how many fat YOUNG people she saw in North America. In her younger days she had a decent figure, it wasn't until she was past 60 that she plumped up.. she never understood a young women allowing herself to get so fat.
In France anyways, it is STILL not socially ok to let yourself get fat, and when I look on tv now there is alot of "I'm ok your ok" stuff going on about being fat, and cute names for fat parts, like having a booty seems to mean having a big round bum?? And I just don't see that happening in France yet.
Now, I still would not say all french women on thin, that is riduculus , I am just saying that here in NA we have let it become ok, whereas in Europe it is still considered not so good.
You know, I'll tell you guys something( I 'll never see any of you in real life, LOL ) .
I am 5'6' and weigh about 145 pounds right now. I am way too embarrassed to arrive in France this July looking like this, no, it is not the tourists I care about, it is my French family and friends, I will look chunky to them, they would never say so, but I know. I can't fit a 40 , and the picking get slim after 42, so I am trying to ramp up my excercise to lose at least 15 pounds before I go. I don't feel fat here folks, but back in the " old country" I know they will think " I've let myself go" .

There are places in North America where I'd look right trim.

Welcome back PalenQ!

Definitely. The Swiss government would like to require more physical fitness lessons at schools because of the alarming amount of overweight children.

McDonald's is the meeting place for Swiss youth. Adults don't take time to prepare nutritious food and soon those kilos pile on. We're eating too much in the evening and not walking (or doing sports) enough.

For most folks, it's so easy to gain weight.

Sure. Dontcha read the news? Europeans, or at least a lot of them, are adopting our horrible habits of eating junk food and snacking between meals, and they are consequently getting fatter.

Really bad way to emulate our culture, IMO. It's one thing for the French to try rap music, another entirely to mess with their health.

Sadly, I have read that Italian children are now the fattest in Europe.
I was in the US in the 60s and fat people were still quite rare in those days.
I also can't remember seeing many fast-food outlets either.

"Europeans, or at least a lot of them, are adopting our horrible habits of eating junk food and snacking between meals, and they are consequently getting fatter.
Really bad way to emulate our culture"


Don't blame this on Americans! If Europeans are getting fat, its their choice!

I am one of the fat Europeans. I admit it. I am really fat, not a bit podgy, no, I am FAT. I never eat fast food, never. I walk for a couple of hours a day with the dogs, I cycle, and until a recently I went to the gym three times a week. Financial considerations, and a persistant Achilles injury, made me give up my membership - but I have now found a cheaper gym so I may try that, and I am finally getting some help with th Achilles too.
Still I am fat.
But heck you know what - I don't care any more.

I don't like seeing fat children, and they are on the increase here just as they are elswhere in Europe, but on the whole the Dutch seem to be fairly fit and thin still, in spite of all the beer and patat they seem to consume.
Children are increasingly overprotected, and not allowed to play outside or go off and explore their world on their own. They are plonked in front of the TV from a young age, given computers to play with and have a seemingly neverending supply of snacks available to them, so it is no wonder they are getting fatter.

Stats suggest that the UK is fast catching up with the US on the fat scales. So no surprise that people would notice this.

I was still in impressed in Paris last month how slim the general populous looked. Struggle to remeber ssing any overweight Frenh under 50.

I'm a fan of Coronation Street - the long-running UK soap

and in retrospect many characters on there have been plump for a long long time

Vera, now departed and hubby Jack not the least

I think the big difference is that while Europeans are getting fatter we haven't yet reached the stages of the human Hindenburgs yopu have in he states.

CW - On a diet. Sadly a diet of chips and fizzy pop.

Actually what struck me that i had not seen as much before was the more ultra obese like is more common in the States

" Don't blame this on Americans! If Europeans are getting fat, its their choice! "

Where is anyone blaming Americans? Europeans are getting fatter because of Americanized McD diets, fizzy drinks, snacking between meals, etc, which was unheard of 30 years ago. Is IT American culture seeping in. Same with Japan. Those who are obese eat American style fast food and chips instead of the traditional Japanese diet.

I don't think you can blame it on the Americans. It's all a matter of choice.

Cigarettes are bad for your heath so I don't smoke them.
Too much alcohol is bad for health so I moderate my drinking.
Junk food is bad for you so I try to avoid buying it.
Obsessive computer use is bad for you. My downfall.

"I think the big difference is that while Europeans are getting fatter we haven't yet reached the stages of the human Hindenburgs yopu have in he states."

Oh, yes, we have. Get out of the centre of London into the suburbs or provinces and walk around a supermarket -- there are lots of human blimps, including young men and girls. Of course, there are people who are genetically inclined to be fat -- but not in these numbers (unless there's been a massive genetic mutation over the last 15 years).

I don't understand why Americans are taking this so personally. The American style diet has really caught on through much of Europe. Europeans are getting fatter. Is this a coincidence?

Obviously nobody is blaming individual Americans. Of course people make their own choices about where to eat. But that doesn't change the fact that the American style fast food restaurants, huge tubs of ice cream, snacking between meals, are making people fat.

People in northern climates put on weight in the winter, just like hibernating bears. Don't worry, it will all come off in the summer.

And climate change will soon make us all thin permanently. Eat what you want.

MMMMmmmmmmm--ice cream tubs!

The answer is Yes.