The Nomad Mom Diary

I'm carrying around a LOT of baggage

Why Americans are overweight (IMO)

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I recently discovered a large American section in one of the grocery stores here in Oxford – by far and away the largest stock of items I have seen outside of a specialty shop. Once I managed to get over the sticker shock, I was appalled by the items that I was supposed to be missing from home.

Looking at this aisle there is no doubt why americans are overweight

This large supermarket chain (Tesco’s) is a well-run business. So assuming that the items they stock are there for a reason (i.e. lots of people buy them), I think it is safe to say that these are a good representation of what American’s crave when they are far from home.

All I can say is no wonder so many of us are overweight.

Processed sugars and saturated fats galore. Jif peanut butter was the healthiest item on the shelf.

And you know what the worst part was? I was THRILLED! I felt like I had struck gold and I was halfway through filling up a large cart before I realized that I had about 15,000 calories in there, all likely to end up on my butt. Sweetarts, sprees, nerds, Lucky Charms, poptarts in 4 flavors. And let’s not even talk about the syrups, cake mixes and cherry Pepsi.

This, my friends and readers, is why Americans are so overweight (in my opinion). While we may not eat this stuff every day when we are in the US, we obviously eat it enough to crave it when abroad and be willing to pay 2-4x more than the regular price to have it. The surrounding international sections had nowhere near as much junk food as ours did.This is quite clearly an American problem.

I’m kinda glad I had this eye-opening experience. I was feeling sad that my kids won’t grow up on Lucky Charms and poptarts like I did. I felt abandoned and almost betrayed that they preferred cadbury to hersheys, smarties to m&ms and on and on and on. Now I just feel relieved. Chocomel and mushy peas cravings don’t seem like such a bad thing anymore.

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Comments

  1. Totally agree. Although I haven’t seen an ‘American’ section anywhere- I can imagine what it looks like. Our Sligro (a warehouse club) had America Week a while back with things like hot dogs in a can on sale. I was confused as I am not familiar with such things- but hey. Sure sounds like something we’d have.

  2. It’s not an “American” problem, it’s a problem with shipping perishables vs. non-perishables overseas, and with Customs standards. Many healthier American products cannot be shipped here because of restrictions. What is able to be shipped tends to be the items with the most additives/preservatives, and/or items that do not require refrigeration. If you are an American you should know that’s not how we all eat every day, and if it was how you ate every day then it’s not the food that’s to blame.

    That’s pretty elementary, really. Maybe it’s easier to accuse all Americans of being overweight (when it’s not true, and when there are PLENTY of overweight Brits as well–you do realize it’s the most obese country in Europe, right, and that it’s not as if all British foods are healthy?) than to stop and think for one second about why those particular items are able to be imported when others aren’t. Maybe it’s easier to be self-righteous about a store carrying products like canned pumpkin and A-1 sauce (neither of which are hugely caloric last time I checked) at more reasonable prices than specialty shops, and tweet your smug veiled complaint at the store in question, instead of considering how families who are actually able to control their portion sizes and caloric intakes on their own without having to rely on unavailability of these items to help them stay slim, and cannot always afford the specialty prices, are *extremely grateful* to see them locally at affordable prices.

    I find this post offensive on a number of levels.

  3. Hi Anion,

    Thanks for your comment. I am sorry to have so offended you as that was not my intent. I am American and I am certainly not trying to say that the British are any better. In fact, you’ll see me later this week complaining about the food my daughter got served at the school cafeteria here in the UK. My point was more to say that I did eat many of these foods as a kid – not every day and not in copious quantities – but enough to crave them when I live 3000 miles away and can’t get them easily. And certainly enough to have been periodically guilty of massively overpaying for them while abroad. If you were to venture over to the Tesco and look at the international aisle and the options from the other nationalities, you would see the large discrepancy between the types of products offered. The Asian and Middle Eastern sections offer ingredients needed to make home-cooked meals while the American section just offered junk food. I suspect that a British aisle would be pretty similar….

    I don’t purport to be an expert on shipping and customs and you could certainly be right about all of the points that you mention. I do however have quite a bit of experience in marketing and am confident in my suspicion that much of Tesco’s decision about what to stock in the American area is based on what will sell as well as what is available.

    Ultimately though, this is just a blog of my opinions and perceptions based on my own experiences of living far away from my home country. I don’t mean to offend, but I also cannot hope to please everyone all of the time. I am sorry that today was your day and I hope that you won’t hate me forever as a result.

  5. Will you send me over some cherry pepsi here to Croatia? I miss decent soda options here in Croatia. I can’t even buy diet coke (zero does not cut it for me) without travelling a 50km round trip…… oh and pop tarts..hmmmmmm mmmmm

  6. I also find your post offensive. I’m an American living in the UK and I seriously do not think the British diet on a whole is that much better than the American diet – chip butty, anyone? You can’t stereotype an entire nation’s diet based on the non-perishables stocked in a foreign grocery store. And in a country where fish and chips is a staple, crisps are abundant, sausages and bacon are considered dietary staples, chocolate and all other kinds of sweets are everywhere, it is not that much different. You can eat horribly in the UK just as you can eat horribly in the US, or you can eat well. I find it much harder to find reasonably priced, inexpensive yet healthy meals in the UK than it is in the US, but I believe mostly that is a product of my American expectations to eat out more frequently, whereas more Brits would eat at home.

  7. Goodness, I appear to have set off a storm that I was *not* expecting. I had not meant to glorify the British diet, but rereading the post I can see how some of you might have taken it that way. The point here, since it is apparently not clear, is that I (me) realized that I (me) grew up eating a lot of crap. Most of the people who are responding to this post on facebook, email and in comments are saying that they also grew up eating these foods and crave them as well and are nodding their heads in agreement. We Americans do eat a lot of crap. (Other people do to.)

    But I am not these other groups. I am American. I spent the vast majority of my life living in the US. And now that I have been away for a few years, I have become a bit more introspective and a bit less defensive about my culture. We aren’t perfect. Diet is a great example. You can eat healthy most anywhere, but a lot of people in the US don’t and looking at that aisle made me realize just how ingrained these crappy foods are in my identity.

    Regardless of all of that, discourse is good. The more we discuss and agree or disagree or agree to disagree, the more we are all collectively thinking about what we eat and what we are teaching our kids. And at the end of the day, that is the only thing that is important. Can we all just agree at least on that?

  9. Nah, you know what? I was overreacting. I too am an American in England (and actually, I’ve made the international move twice with two kids, too); where we live my kids are subjected to a LOT of abuse and insults for being American, and plenty of people are happy to make anti-American statements to me all the time, so I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction, I think.

    I do know that Customs regulations are responsible for many of the issues we have finding American products–not all, but many–and I stand by my statement that for many of us, seeing that stuff at Tesco is a blessing and relief because of the expense of getting them from places like American Soda. I really, really wish there was a greater variety available, not just candy but things like flour, Better Than Bouillon, canned vegetables, all kinds of meat products, saltines…the list goes on and on.

    But I also believe that the reason why there are, frex, foods to make whole Middle Eastern meals is because there’s a market for them. People here don’t want US products other than candy because they’re not familiar with them, or believe they’re junk, or whatever other reason. The American population isn’t big enough for them to provide those things, and many people wouldn’t buy Gold Medal or King Arthur flour instead of Bero because they don’t see the point. That’s why I personally am sending letters to Tesco to encourage them to expand the selection.

    Either way, I did overreact, and I shouldn’t have, so while I still kind of disagree with your post it was lousy of me to be such a snot about it. I apologize.

  10. I would like to say that there is actually a difference in the food standards applied by government. For instance, a product like macaroni and cheese made for British consumption has an ingredient list half he size of the same product sold in the states. Sodium content for example is much more lax in the USA.
    That means it takes less time for the body to start protesting the crap being out in it, when the chemical count is so much higher.
    Personally I am just happy to see the topic Being discussed.

  11. Now that I am back *home* in the USA, I am still overwhelmed by our grocery stores, where you can buy EVERYTHING! And I don’t mean just food! They are selling patio furniture at our grocery store… And I am overwhelmed by all the yummy choices. I think, being overseas for so long, I missed out on a lot of the new stuff on the market here! Which leads me to ask, is there anything I can send over to you? 🙂

  13. Hi Lynn!

    Just found your blog and am really enjoying it. I’m an American living in Germany and I have to say I did not find your post offensive. At first it took me off guard, but as I read it I had to agree completely. I’m often embarrassed by what is in the “American” sections in the stores here. There are many other items I would love to see yet pop tarts, macaroni and cheese and cheese whiz top the list here. I think it’s not only what Americans may crave, but what other countries think are common to us and they have tried and also enjoy. I know many Germans who love pop tarts. Lol

  14. Welcome to the crazy expat mom club. I am excited that you’ve dropped in for a visit and will look forward to catching up with your blog just as soon as I get out of the office. (I am definitely eager to read your latest post about Advice for your pre-expat self). Thanks for coming by and, more importantly, thanks for not hating me 😉

  15. Hahaha! All my relatives are English and we’ve spent many a summer in the UK. Don’t act like Tesco’s, Safeway and the local fish and chippy are pillars of health. Brits have plenty of junk food and have their own obesity epidemic going on. Fast food isn’t exclusive to America. It’s a westernized country issue, not strictly an American issue. This article just makes you look like you haven’t been to any other countries and are blind to the obesity and nutrition crisis in your own backyard.