Why Americans are obese, part 2

This was my second cruise, so it wasn’t quite as shocking as last time. But the frightening obesity problems everywhere has a good explanation. The fear of fat is as obvious as the enormous abundance of sugar and starch.

For starters, you are immediately offered unlimited refills of soda for six days for $6 (adults) or $4.50 (kids). And that is just the beginning…

Cake buffet

Once past the soda stations you can go for lunch. Beyond the obvious starchy fast food (fries, cheap hot dogs, ice cream and pizza) you can fortunately choose the buffet lunch with plenty of real food (meat, fish and vegetables).

But even the people choosing the buffet has a mountain of cakes and cookies to choose from. For lunch!

By the fast food

Overall the people choosing the buffet food where among the fittest on the boat. Outside, close to the pool, all the fast food, soda and ice cream you can eat were served for free. That is where the consequences of the American sugary and starchy food were most frightening.

I didn’t want to run around taking pictures of the largest people I could find. Instead I just snapped three quick pictures from the chair I was in. These are no extreme examples, this is about how people in that section looked on average:

The big mistake

Despite the abundance of pure sugar and starch, everywhere, that is not what Americans fear. Instead they are warned, for no good reason, to avoid natural fat.

For breakfast you can for example have loads of sugary cereals, even marschmallows (“Lucky Charms”). But natural whole milk you can forget. Instead you can choose from low fat, skim milk or low fat chocolate milk – with lots of added sugar!

And when you sit down at night for a nice dinner, when you actually can get GOOD and satisfying food, real food, then those who need it the most are suggested not to eat it.

Here is a menu with lots of excellent and tasty options, such as meat and fish dishes:

But check out the “healthy” options at the bottom, those that people with a weight problem may try to choose. Here we see the usual fear of fat and calories. The “healthy” options are low in fat, cholesterol and salt. But no one worries about the sugar and starch. It’s not even mentioned.

Left page, bottom:

Right page, bottom:

So what is the problem? These “healthy” options contain so few calories that the people choosing it are likely to wake up the next morning ravenously hungry, if they even make it that far. And then a ship full of free sugar and starch is waiting for them again. With the food that raises their blood sugar and the hormone insulin, our main fat storing hormone.

Americans fear fat and calories more than any other people. And during the decades that this has been going on they have became the fattest people on earth. How long will it take before everybody realize what a mistake it’s been?

Hopefully we can make it happen fairly soon.

More

Why Americans are obese: Nonfat yogurt

Why Americans are obese, part 1

Want to eat and lose weight instead? Try this:
LCHF for beginners