Obese

When I was eating my 12 inch Sweet Onion Chicken Teryaki sandwich at Subway INSIDE a Walmart in Chandler, I was watching people leaving walmart. I was wondering how can Europe and the US "produce" people that are so totally different in size.

Being here for 5 months, let's take a look at what factors can be accountable for such different sizes in people.

1. Sizes: A cup of coffee is 0.2 l, a small drink is 0.33l, ... to recap they have NO small drinks. A large drink is 1 l ...

2. There are no alternatives for soda: It is very difficult to drink anything else then soda's when you go out to lunch. Orange juice or other healthy drinks are not available.

3. Americans have a distorted view of what a normal human being looks like. Let's take the Vitruvian man of Leonardo Da Vinci. It is not the ideal man but how a normal man looks like, well you won't find them here.

4. When you are fat in Belgium (and I mean REAL fat) you would be ashamed, eat less and have a social stigma. That is not the case in the US, you have a social stigma of being skinny here when you look like we do... A student once called me "Hey, skinny teacher", well, I will not comment any further LOL.

5. In the US work and life are interconnected. In Belgium life and work are 2 seperate entities. Americans work much harder and longer hours, they don't have the time to take 45 minutes to prepare dinner.

6. Unhealthy food is darn cheap. 0.79 for a hamburger at Mc Donalds, 0.99 for a burrito at Taco Bell, ... Vegetables and fruit is very expensive compared to those "fast food" dinners.