Thanks for you very long and personal comment. I could agree more in theory, and it is nice to hear from someone who in practice has verified the differences in our food and food produced in other countries where hormones and other additives are forbidden. I have long thought that it is not really our behavior, that it is in the food we eat. Once we become obese, perhaps then we change our behavior — who knows — but I have not thought that are fundamentally lazier or that we eat more than we ever have. I especially like looking at old movies and old photographs from our grandparent’s times. They simply did not expand the way we do. Thanks for relating your personal experiences.

I’ve lived in Europe, and tested this theory. I honestly think its a “Steroid”, “Growth hormone” issue thats added to our protein sources, and the refined sugars that compose our carbohydrate sources! What about all the Steriods and Growth Hormones that are fed and/or injected into only US and Canadian meat/cattle.. to make them grow faster and fatter? Many countries are starving, yet their government will not allow unhealthly producedure done to their own cattle to produce more meat, nor will they except meat from the US due to such.

Most Americans don’t know that these byproducts are passed on to us, and its in 95% of our meat sources! Natural food (meat and sugars) will keep us healthy, its what American business adds to our food sources (refined sugars and steriod and growth hormone injected meat) that is the real culprit..

Ever wonder why most countries that don’t have enough beef, pork, and/or chicken meat sources, still reject meat from the US (even China) America has the highest cattle producing potential than any other country, however no other countries will accept our meat.. Why of all countries, does our country allow this, and why isn’t there any publicity about this.. I’m sure if more Americans really knew what they fed and inject into our cattle, pork, chicken, and other US meet sources, there would be more concern about this.. Where is the FDA on this??

I actually did a test on this.. I lived in Germany for 9 months. Germany is like a second home to me. In the US I worked out 4 days a week, I watched what at ate, but still ate high fat meals at times did eat fast food, beef, chicken.. I was 6′ 260lbs.. Although I admit I did not always eat the best in the US, i was pretty active.. I have a hard time losing weight, even with doing 90 mins of mixed cardio and weight training workouts 4 times a week.

While in Europe (Germany), I ate what the Germans did..(which was losts of bread, and meets.. mainly pork..).. Their breat is a harder more filling bread which is probably also has less refined sugar, so its probably better for you too.. I ate pork, beef, and only sometimes lean meet.. I never worked out while I was there, but did walk around the cities.. The walking was not more than what I jogged in the US.

Guess what, when I came back, I lost 40lbs and never went to a fitness center or watched what I ate!!! I was always intrigued by how and why Europeans are thinner and I could never put my finger on it.. They eat more than the average Americans and they drink lots of beer.. Did you know that many french spend 6 hours of their day with just eating! They have bakeries at every corner, they never seem to watch what they eat, they eat tons of pork and beef, yet they are much skinner!!!

I encourage anyone to try this, and you will see for yourself.. Don’t change how you eat while in Europe or abroad some other country, or the amount of physical activity, and I bet you will still lose weight.. Think about it, if these Steroids, growth hormones make our livestock fatter, think what they will do to people.. If we eat our food as nature intended with wich natural raised beef and natural sugars, America wouldn’t have the obesity problem it has today guaranteed!!

Our supposive US diet is not any “fatter” than the majority of the other countries.. In fact in Europe (france, GErmany, Russia..) and even in China, they eat “pork” than any other protein.. Pork has the highest fat content of any any protein, yet they are all skinny compared to americans.. The raw difference, is that foreign chemicals that our own food/cattle industry adds to them, that causes the animals to get bigger and fatter.. They do this to increase profits.. We have enough cattle, why do we need to artifically and chemically treat our cattle/lifestock to make them fatter?? We injest these byproducts..

I think this has to do mostly with the more stressful lifestyle since the 1970’s. If you recall, in the 1970’s women were starting to go out to work. By the 1980’s most women were working. By the 1990’s it became a real necessity for a two-earner household. Homes and jobs were further away, more and more women didn’t have time to make healthy, home-cooked meals. More families started to go to take-out or restaurants, or picking up something at the deli on the way home. If you think back to the portions at home we ate growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s and compare them with today’s much larger portions (and greater availablity of many foods, and when choice is increased, most people eat more, too), we must ask WHY the change in portions? Restaurant portions were larger (as they should be for the price), but I guess people aren’t taking much home any more in Doggie Bags, they are probably eating it all, and going out a lot more. Everyone who is stressed eats a lot more (those were the times I gained the most weight, too), and then it’s very hard to lose. And those French women who “don’t get fat” (according to the book) are probably buying protein powder at the pharmacy which is not sold over the counter in America. You have to go to a very expensive diet doctor who sells you the powder only if you take a whole rash of monthly blood tests, etc. And it’s imported to the American doctors from Canada (which the idea probably came from France). I think the stress level in American society since Sept. 11 twin towers has skyrocketed, the economy is difficult, and all this is contributing to obesity.

Eileen, Overseas American Teacher

Was it Ghandi who said,
“We should eat to live,
not live to eat.”.

Competition played out through attractive packaging and entertaining advertising. I remember when oleomargarine first came out and was touted as the best thing ever. Despite the warning that “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” the consensus was that we, and our bodies, could not tell the difference. As food production became bigger and better and more profitable, and consumers became more satiated and eager for more sophisticated tastes, the industry responded with more and more competition, and so more flavorful, attractive foods vied for preference on the grocery shelves. Hormones were added to increase milk production and growth of animals, and a real competitive edge was gained with the addition of artificial flavors and taste enhancers to stimulate interest in food products. Fats were reduced and sugars substituted, and articial sweeteners made a cornucopia of diet products availble.

Unfortunately, the array of new products incorporating treatments — – ranging from chemical pesticides before harvest to the addition of taste enhancers in final processing — – have biological effects on sensitive organisms. Our bodily organs evolved for simple foods, yet we are stressing our systems every single day with any edibles that are not simple and natural, that have additives which can only be cleared from our systems by our natural and perhaps now outmoded physiological waste eliminating organs. Coupled with supplements and drugs of every kind that are popular to take for every reason imaginable, it seems a simple conclusion that we are requiring too much, too fast, and too often from our bodies’ abilities to adapt to such sweeping changes in the nature of our foods.

If were were still in the cave — and in a physiological sense we still are — it would not be too difficult to guess that these new impositions on our digestive systems are simply too much to assimilate. Some of respond better than others, but I do not know anyone who is achieving a normal weight who is not mindful of how and what they eat.

All comments appreciated.