>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.

Another example of US cultural imperialism.

((I))

I think the "way of life" today has something to do too. Here in Spain, during many years, women didn't work and were at home cooking good and healthy meals for the family who had time to go home at midday to have lunch.
Nowadays, due to heavy traffic, more strict schedules..no one eats at home (in many cases, not even kids, who eat at school) and women also work. So there are a lot more of fast food (american ones and also local ones), instead of a home-made sandwich that kids had in the afternoon while playing on the streets (when I was a kid !) now they have something prepacked bought at the supermarket which they eat in front of TV...it's all so different !!
Anyway, it's not only food quality...but quantity and , as a general rule, I think people in Europe eats less than Americans. Though I know a few people that maybe could win that contest !

The reality is that humans in general are getting fat. All those studies about the Mediterranean diet, the Japanese diet, the Central Russian diet...etc, etc.. had one thing in common. Those people did manual labor and lots of it. The human body, by design, wants to expend the least amount of energy. And in todays society, that is a very easy thing to do. And as long as food is easily accessible to trend will only get worse.

Like me sitting on my A$$, typing out this message instead of splitting wood.

I'm not so sure about this diet business. We brits have always eaten fairly fatty and stodgy food (as do most Northern Europeans). Ours is very much a meat and potatoes cuisine at heart. We also invented fish and chips and we a re famous/notorious for the amount of beer that we drink.

However it's only recently that we seem to have got properly fat. When I was a puppy there were only a few fat kids - I mean real bloaters - about. Now it seems quite common.

I don't know that it's our diets. I think we're doing less.

How can you explain the low rates of obesity in countries like Japan and Korea then?

Some doctors say that in 10 or 20 years, obesity and related diseases will cause more deaths in the Western world than cancer or heart attacks.

"How can you explain the low rates of obesity in countries like Japan and Korea then?"

Because they still smoke like chimneys?

Seriously, those days are over and they have adopted a westernized diet and China is a growing dietary time bomb. Pardon the pun. :)

hi Pal -

I just knew this thread had to be you.

over milenia, our bodies have been used to a high activity, high input "life-style". hunter-gathering, manual labour and farming are hard work. we have continued with the high input, but get far less exercise and our calories are much easier to get.

unfortunately, I no more have the answer to this than anyone else.

I'm on a "seafood" diet.

:S-

regards, ann

Yes, China. I recently saw a TV piece on fat Chinese kids. Because of the (supposed) one-child rule, the singleton is spoiled, doted on and stuffed with food. I think there was mention that in China rotundity is a sign of prosperity and wealth, so it's "good" to be fat.

The traditional diets in Japan and Korea are much different than China, and they have a quite different attitude, I think, about food in general. My husband's family is Japanese, and his grandparents ate mostly vegetables.

Chumley

When I were a lad, most schools would have a fat boy, but usually no more than one.
I think that it's grazing and eating between meals that's the answer.
It's half-term at the moment.
When you're walking around, just look at all the ankle-biters and I bet that 90% of them will be eating something.
Even little dots in push-chairs will have a packet of crisps or sweets in their hands.

Here's a BBC story:
http://tinyurl.com/2khwmu

EU report using average Body Mass Index (though I don't know the age ranges used in the study).
A BMI of between 18.5 and 25 is considered healthy, between 25 and 30 overweight and above 30 obese.

Worst:
Malta - 26.6
Greece - 25.9
Finland - 25.8 (which I find surprising)

Best:
Italy - 24.3
France - 24.5
Austria - 24.8

A US CDC report on American adults came out at 28.
I have no idea if the two methodologies or sample populations are comparable.

I've also seen studies of children, where the real concern is, showing increasing BMI in China, Japan, Europe and the US. Those studies also find various patterns that are hard to determine what is cause-effect, genetic-environment, etc. In Japan, the urban girls had lower BMI than rural girls. Young Japanese women were actually showing a decrease in BMI over time. In the US, the average BMI varied by ethnicity.

France, though relatively low on the weight to body index above is now considering the following laws i heard on French TV to combat youthful pudginess:

Illegal to advertise sweets, etc on kid's TV programs

Not allow to have candy, etc in supermarkets by the cashier lanes

and better school cafeteria food in terms on low fat

why fatter? more leisure time, more money, breakdown of family meal times, more video/computer use rather than outside activity, and even lowing smoking rate as those who quit often gain weight

I went to a school reunion and saw photographs of my form, that's from the late 50s.
We were all slim as greyhounds.
One of my friends explained it thus:
cycling to school, compulsory games and horrible school food.
There was also a school rule against eating in the street.
It was considered extremely vulgar and I must say that I never do it even now.
If I so much as put a peppermint in my mouth, I glance round guiltily in case Miss X has spotted me,

PalenQ :
Vending machines (soft drinks, candy, sweets, etc) are forbidden in French schools since 2005.

Sorry folks - it's in the genes.I come from Dutch & Scottish ancestors.
My Dutch ones are the "Fatties" and although I have seen tall and 'big-boned' Dutch people, most of my family are short and stubby. I being 5'3" but my younger sister is 5'10"!
We have the same gene pool as Africans, Portugese, Italians, must be some French?, but all in all - we are programmed to get fat in our latter years. Especially around the midriff!

PalenQ :
Vending machines (soft drinks, candy, sweets, etc) are forbidden in French schools since 2005.

Yes i know that but this was mentioning the cafeteria meals served - making them less fatty and healthier eating - perhaps like in U.S. they often serve things like pizza or fat-filled tasting food and not enough veggies, etc.

BTW I spent several days in Orleans a typical French town and noticed that most younger folk here were not overweight at all. Older folks more perhaps but kids seem not and anyway perhaps its the parents that should control those things and not the state.

>>>Finland - 25.8 (which I find surprising)<<<

Maybe because there was a mistake in those calculations. That particular "research" that BBC is quoting in the article was not conducted right, and its mistakes came out soon after it was made public.

BUT Finland is not slim, it is Europe´s 10th fattest, although not third. Fattest three are Greece (now THAT is a surprise, I have never seen fat Greeks), Malta and UK. The latter two are not a surprise, after having been to both. maltese seem to love sweet things, pastries were everywhere.

More than food I blame immobility. People are lazy, and are starting to forget walking or biking to places even when the distance would be only 2 or 3 kilometres.

Thanks for correcting the data.
Always a problem when reading news stories without reading the actual research.

I was reading a critique of some of these studies emphasizing how the results are simplified so much for and by the media that the underlying science is often lost and the research methodology not analyzed.

One study that I haven't followed up on yet warned of comparing ethnically homogeneous versus heterogeneous populations, especially if the mix has been changing. These researchers were showing that with the data used to draw the conclusion that the average inhabitant in a nation was growing fatter, that if one controlled for ethnicity that in some countries the rate of obesity in each ethnic group was changing only slightly while the proportion of the heftier ethnic groups was growing, raising the average.

Again, no attempt at proving causality--genes, differences in traditional diets, etc., but just warning about simple conclusions from the data.

The decline in average physical activity is the major culprit for the general trends in my inexpert opinion.

In all those statistics when they say "overwheight" they mean between 5 to 20 kilos (at least, that was the statistic here in Spain) more than the people should have. I mean, Greek can be the first one of the overwheighted people..but if they are for the most part overweighted for only 5 kilos..chances are they don't look fat ! It's difficult to actually see that looking at people in the street :)

"BTW I spent several days in Orleans a typical French town and noticed that most younger folk here were not overweight at all. Older folks more perhaps but kids seem not and anyway perhaps its the parents that should control those things and not the state".

I have never heard of parents able to control what teenagers eat in between meals when they are on their own! :-).

It is not so much school meals that are fattening (menus are controlled by a dietetician) : it is nibbling, drinking sodas, etc.
There is nothing wrong with having a pizza as long as you don't eat it with fries, wash it down with a maxi soda and add a giant ice-cream for good measure.

In my home town, the local paper publishes each Monday the week menu of primary school cafeterias.

But it is a fact that there are many more fat French teenagers now than 10 or 15 years ago.