Americans are fat. This is obviously a crass and rude charge. But it is built out of observations and some statistics. First though, let me just say since coming to the USA, I have lost weight. However, this is due to me not having a car for most the week and cycling everyday. I almost never drink during the week - and fattening beer is my alcoholic drink of choice. Also quitting smoking, which for me has never really been an effective appetite suppressant, but very good at keeping me from exercise. Energy output increase as opposed to energy input decrease has always been the way I've kept weight down more effectively. But, encouraging for me, it doesn't dispel the myth I'm exploring here about Americans being generally fat.
Now there are sound reasons why America has its obesity problem. Food is bountiful, and most of that food is not fresh, it is processed. American cuisine is, in my opinion, very under-rated and should be taken much more seriously. That said, there is a tendency to glorify a large portion as more pleasing to the eye, than a dish which is presented a little more carefully.
The more I think of it, unlike my last subjects, I cannot think of a reason why Americans don't in someway deserve the fat moniker. Food is big, it's in your face, it's presented as fast. It's a million miles away from eating for relaxation. Food is either meant to be fast, and on the go and therefore a digestive nightmare. Or it is meant to be attacked. Something to gobble down, and feel guilty about latter. Hotdogs are a case in point. I know there are many excellent gourmet dishes originating in America, but hotdogs seem more tuned into Americana. They are huge but designed in such a way that eating them has to be done in the fewest bites, with tennis ball size blobs of bread, "meat" and sauce passing down your throat and settling at an awkward angle in your tummy each time. There is no way to get all the ketchup, bread, mustard, ketchup, onions, pickles, chilli (all the flavours) with a small bite.
The knife and fork seems to be only for formal dinner. Even then, the British way of turning a fork down to limit the quantity of a bite, is replaced by a shovelled fork in the right hand into American etiquette. I'm desperately trying to avoid snobbery here, but still thinking that table etiquette is there for a reason. That reason is digestion. I used to be viewed as quaint by my wife for taking a knife and fork to the largest of burgers, or at a barbecue using a knife to spread ketchup on my bun. But this is a case where I will cling to what I have been taught as worthwhile.
However, food is life. Whether it is a Greek family pushing 8 dishes of grilled meat down you. Or a French table with wine and hours spent passionating over each smell and mouthful. In English there seems to be no phrase like Bon Appetite. This is unfortunate. There is no phrase to celebrate the food, like 'cheers' or 'chin chin' does with alcohol. That said there are moments in American culture, like the tail-gate parties at football games. Cook-outs, and outdoor grilling which while are present in the UK, they are an import, and when they happen they don't seem to have the celebration of food as a central conversation piece.
Food in America is a nasty industry, with the poor as it's more severe victims. I'm fresh from watching Fastfood Nation last night - so not in a good mood to write about the food industry in America. Even so, at the stage of consumption. The serving of food by a tip demanding waitress, it is still a part of the positivism and progression of America.
Do Americans deserve to be called fat? Maybe the stereotype is a little deserved. But to wake up to biscuits and gravy, French toast. Pizza's the diameter of an adult hula-hoop. Soft-shell crab, Sweet potato mash with marshmallow topping. Corn beef hash. Burgers cooked rare, topped with crispy bacon. Clam Chowder. Its all so good. I've forgotten what I'm on about. Who cares? I'm off to cook something.
Now there are sound reasons why America has its obesity problem. Food is bountiful, and most of that food is not fresh, it is processed. American cuisine is, in my opinion, very under-rated and should be taken much more seriously. That said, there is a tendency to glorify a large portion as more pleasing to the eye, than a dish which is presented a little more carefully.
The more I think of it, unlike my last subjects, I cannot think of a reason why Americans don't in someway deserve the fat moniker. Food is big, it's in your face, it's presented as fast. It's a million miles away from eating for relaxation. Food is either meant to be fast, and on the go and therefore a digestive nightmare. Or it is meant to be attacked. Something to gobble down, and feel guilty about latter. Hotdogs are a case in point. I know there are many excellent gourmet dishes originating in America, but hotdogs seem more tuned into Americana. They are huge but designed in such a way that eating them has to be done in the fewest bites, with tennis ball size blobs of bread, "meat" and sauce passing down your throat and settling at an awkward angle in your tummy each time. There is no way to get all the ketchup, bread, mustard, ketchup, onions, pickles, chilli (all the flavours) with a small bite.
The knife and fork seems to be only for formal dinner. Even then, the British way of turning a fork down to limit the quantity of a bite, is replaced by a shovelled fork in the right hand into American etiquette. I'm desperately trying to avoid snobbery here, but still thinking that table etiquette is there for a reason. That reason is digestion. I used to be viewed as quaint by my wife for taking a knife and fork to the largest of burgers, or at a barbecue using a knife to spread ketchup on my bun. But this is a case where I will cling to what I have been taught as worthwhile.
However, food is life. Whether it is a Greek family pushing 8 dishes of grilled meat down you. Or a French table with wine and hours spent passionating over each smell and mouthful. In English there seems to be no phrase like Bon Appetite. This is unfortunate. There is no phrase to celebrate the food, like 'cheers' or 'chin chin' does with alcohol. That said there are moments in American culture, like the tail-gate parties at football games. Cook-outs, and outdoor grilling which while are present in the UK, they are an import, and when they happen they don't seem to have the celebration of food as a central conversation piece.
Food in America is a nasty industry, with the poor as it's more severe victims. I'm fresh from watching Fastfood Nation last night - so not in a good mood to write about the food industry in America. Even so, at the stage of consumption. The serving of food by a tip demanding waitress, it is still a part of the positivism and progression of America.
Do Americans deserve to be called fat? Maybe the stereotype is a little deserved. But to wake up to biscuits and gravy, French toast. Pizza's the diameter of an adult hula-hoop. Soft-shell crab, Sweet potato mash with marshmallow topping. Corn beef hash. Burgers cooked rare, topped with crispy bacon. Clam Chowder. Its all so good. I've forgotten what I'm on about. Who cares? I'm off to cook something.
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