Blog 51

Based on my origin in East Asia compared with life in the United States, I think the major reasons for the obesity epidemic can be narrowed down to two reasons: diet and life style. First, the average diet of an American is heavier than other nations. A Majority of American dishes are fried dishes filled with oil and containing excessive salt and sugar. Compared to the American diet, dishes of other nations are usually boiled and use less oil. Also, their main dishes are less salty and contain less sugar. As everyone knows, oil, salt, and sugar are the major enemies of a healthy diet. However, it seems we are too used to our dishes and don’t recognized how heavy our foods are.
The second reason for obesity is our life style. In the other nations people walk to wherever they need to go. For example, a house wife in East Asia can go to the grocery store, bank, and hospitals simply by walking. They don’t need to drive, becausetheir nations are small, every necessity in their life is closely packed together, and pedestrian lanes and public transportation are well-organized. However, our nation isn’t designed like that. The United States has a vast landscape and everything is spread out. People need a ride for every single thing and we are too used to riding cars to walk.
As mentioned above, we consume highly heavy food but burn up less calories than the other nations. I believe these are why our nation is suffering from a critical obesity epidemic.