In the US, portion size, calorie density, frequency of eating high calorie foods are contributing to people getting a lot fatter a lot faster than before. We now have instant gratification in food delivery services. Get anything you want without leaving home.
In fast food, people are eating a day's worth of food in one sitting. Triple burger, large fries, large drink. People are doing this once a day every day of the week.Then they go home and order more high calorie food with high calorie drinks and constant snacking.
It is amazing to see how much more obese people have gotten in the last decade, and the % of fat people has gone up a lot, too.
Restaurants of all types serve massive portions, and people eat it without thinking or realizing they are eating a day's worth of calories in one meal, and I haven't touched on the amount of fat, sugar, and sodium they are packing away.
The fact that people today have shorter lifespans than their parents should be sounding alarms everywhere, but there is nothing but silence.
These people you describe are experiencing very real eating disorders. Even if they aren’t counting calories, they are keenly aware that they’re destroying their body. They aren’t silent, they’re addicted.
Socially acceptable eating disorders are the foundation of multiple hundred billion dollar companies.
Every junk and fast food company in America sells food that does not satisfy you, is unhealthy for you, has a "taste" that is not easy to replicate at home but that has been scientifically curated to prevent you from reaching the satiation point when you are eating them (like Pringles, "Bet you can't eat just one", but it's all of the foods all of the time), has less nutrition year over year despite artificial vitamin supplementation, and is just a hair less expensive than cooking it yourself with better ingredients.
It's not an eating disorder to eat junk food in America.
It's a symptom of a larger society wide dysfunction that any person who lived in a sane world and was suddenly subjected to would consider demonic/evil/abhorrent/terrifying.
Don't blame the victims. Recognize the blight for what it is.
It’s both. I do recognize, and agree with most of what you’re saying. The junk food industrial complex is real.
But people have autonomy and if you took their burgers away tomorrow they’d riot.
> It's not an eating disorder to eat junk food in America.
It absolutely is a disorder to eat to the level you described in your previous comment.
Just because millions of people take part in it, and it’s socially acceptable doesn’t make the way Americans eat not an eating disorder. They’re also aware, not silent, or ignorant. Everyone knows junk food and eating until you want to throw up is bad for you.
And yes I fully understand there are people out there inventing ways to make food even more addictive. Fuck those people. Those are the worst people.
> In fast food, people are eating a day's worth of food in one sitting. Triple burger, large fries, large drink. People are doing this once a day every day of the week.Then they go home and order more high calorie food with high calorie drinks and constant snacking.
The UK had a reality TV show called Secret Eaters where they signed up people to be monitored 24/7 by cameras and private investigators which tracked every single thing they put in their mouth and counted up the calories.
It was really informative to see how some people eat and it is not pretty. Even the people who didn't regularly eat fast food or go out to chip shops ate way more than is healthy with fatty sausages, fried things, and little fruit or vegetables, all in huge portions.
I'd love to see that happen with people that are keeping a food diary and see how much they're being honest with themselves.
Though their behavior would probably change if they knew they were being recorded.
As someone who lives in Japan I can attest that portion sizes are smaller, and seasoning is much less rich and sweet than it is in the USA - this checks out for me.
As someone that often eats one large meal a day, I appreciate large portion sizes ar restaurants. If its the only thing I eat that day, a 3000 calorie meal is what I need.
Sedentary lifestyles are a huge factor too.
Many elite athletes devour ultraprocessed foods. Elite cyclists have pushed their performance limits by eating as much sugar as their digestive systems can handle. They eat sugar until they puke and it trains their guts to tolerate more sugar in the future.
Sugar and other simple carbs are quick burning fuel. You don't want to be flooding your blood stream with fuel when your body doesn't need it, but when it does, well, it's fuel, it gets into your system fast, and it makes you go.