I’m commenting on what I’ve actually seen in the US. The portions served when eating out were bigger on average than in most of Europe, and the bread you’re supposed to make savory sandwiches of is somehow sweet in taste.
This has nothing to do with being nationalistic or not. It’s a statement of fact.
It just looks like at least in the US, if you go to the nearest grocery store to buy food or you eat out, and your goal is to decrease caloric intake, you’re playing against a stacked deck, is all I’m saying. You either need to spend extra time, effort, and money to find better places, or overcompensate by exercising extra time.
It becomes nationalistic, in the HN moderation sense of the word, when a comment talks about a country in a pejorative way using snark internet rhetoric.
> Americans could probably start with putting less sugar into bloody everything and reducing portion sizes
It's not just America.
"Obesity in India has reached epidemic proportions in the 21st century, with morbid obesity affecting 5% of the country's population" [1]. (It's about 7% in America [2].) Meanwhile in China, "the incidence of overweight and obesity among school-age children...was 15.5% in 2010, rising to 24.2% in 2019 and soaring to 29.4% in 2022" [2]. Same story in Vietnam: "The prevalence of overweight among children aged under 5 years increased from 5.6% in 2010 to 7.4% in 2019. For overweight and obesity among children aged 5 to 19 years, prevalence rose from 8.5% and 2.5% in 2010 to 19% and 8.1% in 2020, respectively" [3].
Which says that — if you choose to interpret things charitably and leave cost-cutting and profiteering out of it — the culinary tradition lags behind lifestyle changes severely. Urban populations largely don't have physically demanding, very manual jobs from dawn till dusk anymore, yet traditional portion sizes and composition of the dishes stay the same as they would be for heavy duty workers (I'm not speaking of abused workers or slaves here, mind you).
While you may interject that privileged classes used to have larger portions and better quality food without having to work so much at all times, it somehow coincides with fatty bellies being a status symbol in many locales. Being obese used to be a sort of privileged class mark.
as an american who avoids sugar and processed foods (like seed oils) its virtually impossible to eat out or buy anything beyond whole foods. Everything is contaminated.
Combine that with forever chemical use in packaging, pesticides in non-organic produce, our food supply chain is killing us.
I buy eggs from reputable regenerative free range, non-vegetarian fed chickens. I order my poultry and beef from regenerative farms across the country who are verified organic + grass fed + grass finished.
I bake my own bread and cook 95% of the meals I eat at home.
It costs an arm and a leg and isnt convenient but I feel much better.
So what you say means that I’m going the US only for a short visit, I’m basically fucked, because none of your options are easily available when living in a hotel for a week or two.
Huh, apparently this originates with Joe Rogan [1].
In any case, I'm happy you found something that works for you. But you can find the quality you're looking for in restaurants in any Tier 1 city and most wealthy suburbs. (We absolutely have an issue with poorer communities having a choice between canned and fast food, in essence.)
