In regards to corn syrup, it isn't used in Australia, they use cane sugar. And they are the second fattest country on the planet. So I don't think corn syrup really affects the countries weight issues.

High fructose corn syrup is added to so many of our processed foods; it messes with metabolism. There is simply too much added sugar in all of its forms.....definitely a contributor.

Some great comments here. Obviously it's not impossible to be within the BMI definition of a healthy weight, or no one would be. Availability of junk food and restaurant portion sizes are contributing factors. The move away from cities where people walk everywhere to suburbs where we drive everywhere has been huge. I live in the suburbs and drive to work..there are days I've worn a pedometer and if I didn't add jogging, the gym, and lunchtime stairclimbing into my routine, I could get through my days walking fewer than 2000 steps. And I'm a healthy woman in my 40's.

There are people in my office who get their lunch out every day and I'm sure have no idea how many calories they consume. There are also those like me who bring lunch and measure how much milk we put in our coffee. It's definitely more socially acceptable not to show any concern with healthy food or calories in my office..then again, there are a lot of obese people working there.

Some days it's easier to just give in and obviously, considering my weight struggles, some days I do. But I have no excuses..my choices are my own.

I agree that all sugar is bad. HFCS is just one of them. But I know many people who won't eat HFCS but will eat cane sugar. There is no difference.

I thought that Cecil Adams had an interesting response to the HCFS theory
"I won't say HFCS has nothing to do with obesity. But to focus on the stuff when there are so many other plausible explanations for American rotundity seems perverse. For one thing, we're eating more in general. One study says our average daily food intake increased from about 1,800 calories in 1989-91 to 2,000 in 1994-96. Much of that is surely due to fizzy beverages. Per capita soft drink consumption has doubled since 1970; the typical American currently consumes 56 gallons per year.
Is that increase due strictly to the allure of HFCS? Not likely. Sales of diet pop have increased at an even faster rate than that of the sugared kind, suggesting that we're not just overdoing HFCS-sweetened foods, we're consuming too much sweetened everything. Supersized portions and changes in eating habits no doubt partly explain why--the percentage of food kids get from restaurants and fast-food outlets increased almost 300 percent between 1977 and 1996. Critser's book includes a graphic showing that the rise in U.S. obesity roughly paralleled the rate at which junk-food products were introduced. Lack of exercise is a factor too. Obesity is lowest among kids who watch an hour or less of TV daily, highest among those who watch four hours or more. "
Maybe it is a factor, but it could be one of many factors.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...ise-in-obesity

SAME. I work in NYC and sure I notice that there are more health-conscious people where I am than in my hometown, but still, I get "the looks" when I don't go for cake, comments that I am "too restrictive". Bah! I leave your plate alone, please leave my plate alone!

Does anyone else battle family members over "healthy" food practices? I fight with my husband who likes to berate my 3 year old for not finishing his food, even if he got an adult size serving. I am doing my darnedest to set my kids up with healthy habits but I feel like it will be for nought when they get to school and other kids have handisnacks, candy, and sweet snacks to their carrot sticks and yogurt. Peer pressure is pervasive when it comes to food in the US. I know I grit my teeth and take that too big slice of cake when we celebrate a birthday at work. I hear my coworkers talk poorly about one staff member that practices restrictive eating. She is really tiny and frail looking but not sick. It's one thing to improve your mindset, it is a complete other monster to change those around you.

Example goes SOOOO far with kids. When they go out into the world, they will take what you've taught them. I have an 8 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. They were young enough when I turned things around, that it's all they know. My daughter thinks that people have fruit for their birthday instead of cake. Neither of them have a taste for processed food. If given the option of a bag of chips, or an apple... they will both take an apple. It's just what they're used to. I've had people tell me that being so "restrictive" at home means that they'll go crazy out in the world. That has not been the case at all! They have access to whole, good, nutritious foods at home... and they expect the same when they're at school. They're not even tempted by junk foods. My daughter can't even stand sugary processed stuff. She says sugar makes her mouth sting. Her tastebuds tell her that stuff is too sweet.

It might change as they get older, I don't know... but right now, they are both very happy to eat with their health in mind .

Yeah totally, the amount of people I've heard saying that their kids only eat rubbish, only drink coke etc is ridiculous. My neighbours grow lots of vegetables and the kids eat raw veg all the time as a snack. I look after them sometimes and they prefer to come to my house than somebody else who helps out sometimes because the other woman only gives them unhealthy food. They literally complained that she's always making cakes! I mean they like some chocolate sometimes but they're just as likely to pick up a pepper and start eating it.

I'm sure there are 100's of factors, but the most basic seems to be portion control issues. People's idea of normal portions in the states (in general) is different from other places. The #1 complaints from American customers here is that portion sizes are tiny for the price (and this is just Canada which has larger portions than say, Europe). I think the portions are huge, but yes, compared to American portions they are still small.

Here in Quebec, people eat high fat/high carb foods/lots of alcohol. However, having a tiny piece of high fat brie, some raclette (melted cheese on meat slices) and a few slices of white bread is considered enough of a meal at a party. Food is not the centre of the event, the wine and talking is. In the US, I found that food was the centre of the event, and the booze/talking was a side-note.

Food and grocery is quite cheap in the US, compared to here. We used to drive across the border every weekend to shop for groceries because of the vast difference (even rural Sumas, Washington state was cheaper than urban Vancouver, Canada, despite most things being trucked 2 hours from Seattle). In France, you'd be shocked to find a soup with piece of bread for 6-8 Euros (around $8-10 US) which sounds outrageous compared to American prices.

Just an observation from an outsider

The side of my family from Hong Kong is def NOT tolerant of even slightly overweight-I grew up being laughed at. I think that social repercussions of being too thin or too fat (according to the culture) can also be influential. If people, esp since they are young, are constantly pressured to be a certain way, many will go through lengths to get there. Their idea of "average" is generally the US idea of thin, and most women that I know in Hong Kong and Korea are always watching their weight.
I also heard that in Paris, there is a big pressure to be thin.

When I went to Monteal a few years ago, I thought the portions were fairly large. I've been to Europe and thought portions were large there as well. I think it depends on where you go though.

Whenever I go to Europe and when I went to Montreal, the thing I liked is that a car was optional for the most part if you stayed in one city. I really liked the walkability of Montreal in particular.

I think it depends on where you go too, for example in Montreal it caters a lot to American tourists (mostly from NY, NH, VT etc) and so that is reflected with the meals particularly in tourist areas. Same with having English menus, selling alcohol on site (rather than apporter votre vin, mean bring your own wine which is traditional for most places). When you go outside Montreal, into "real" Quebec, there is a stark difference in portion sizing, for example where I live, and outside the tourist streets of Quebec city.

If you were to go into French Canada where even the service staff cannot speak English, you will find portions a good 1/3-1/2 the size.

I was shocked when I first came here and ate at a restaurant. You get so much food for so little money. Eating out is cheap here compared to a lot of places. That is why I gained so much weight after moving here. Eating out in Australia was a treat that we did MAYBE once a month if that. Here it became multiple times a week.

I have cut that down now, but in the beginning it was so easy and cheap to just eat out.

I don't think outsize portion sizes are necessarily only an American thing. I've done a fair bit of traveling and I've seen big portions in rustic, rural, country style restaurants in Europe too. Especially in small town eateries serving the local area's cuisine. More expensive, fancier restaurants tend to have much smaller portions. But I've also found that to be true as well in America. Globally portions are getting even bigger or maybe in some places, they're traditionally big because of the lifestyles people led historically.

I see no reason why city dwellers in a 1930s, depression-era America wouldnt be obese. Our eating habits in general haven't caught up with the change in lifestyle since the industrial revolution and public transport and machines that make our lives easier. It's one thing to have to walk a few miles to school, it's another to have to do that, come home to do manual labour on a farm for hours afterwards, churning your own butter and walking another several miles to buy your hefty bag of sugar. I don't think the blame is just fat and sugar.

From a non-American perspective, obesity is becoming an issue too where I'm from in sub-Saharan Africa. Okay yes I'm a city-dweller exposed to the modern ills of fast-food andnfried traditional snacks etc. But my people are not naturally small eaters. We're a carby bunch. Where in The West one says, "meat and potatoes" or "fish and chips", here it's called "potatoes WITH meat" and "chips and fish." So you can see the emphasis is on the carbs probably because theyre a cheap, plentiful energy source.

Take my mother's village for example, it's really rural, riverine, there are no fast food joints or anything. The diet is heavy on fish and even heavier on starches. Yams, starch flours, plantains, rice, potatoes etc in large quantities with a side of seafood. The people are fishermen and farmers. But when my mom was little, they had manual boats and canoes that they'd actually row into the ocean to fish (don't ask). Now all the boats have engines, no more rowing. There are still not many cars there, but a motorcycle is never far away to give you a lift where you want to go. Even with farming, because of the salinity of the soil, it was always hard work to get anything out of the ground, and now it's so much easier to bring grain and food from other parts of the country, so why bother, except for little vegetable and herb gardens. Obesity is definitely on the rise. And this is a rural fishing/farming village where you'd think they eat a pretty healthy diet. They DO! The issue is the portions. How much they eat. I won't say they eat that much fat or sugar (at least not in the "fried butter" sense). BUT the quantity of carbs... McD's super sized fries has nothing on it. In the past, it might have made sense but now with the modern conveniences available to them, portions size is becoming a problem.

What I'm saying is that I wouldn't necessarily blame fat or sugar or HFCS as the sole reason why America has an obesity problem that is "impossible" to solve. Part of the American dream or really any country's dream is to be a land of plenty and have food in abundance to feed the people. But times have changed. Because things are so much easier for us, all over the world whether one has a desk job or does manual labour, we just can't eat the same way, with the same lack of consciousness. I think that's really the problem.