Land of Plenty

Scott Hardie | December 16, 2004
I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility, but today there's further proof that American culture does influence American obesity: Immigrants to this country gain more weight the longer they live here. (link) I would like to read about a converse study about whether obese Americans lose weight after living abroad, if anybody knows of one.

Anna Gregoline | December 16, 2004
Wow, that's a startling thing to read.

Amy Austin | December 16, 2004
I was waiting for them to address age-related weight gain for the whole first half of the article, and then what they did say was a really small blurb. I'd really like to know more about the foreigners within their own countries after the same period of time in order to agree with these conclusions. I understand that they think the weight gain was more than anticipated for aging, but I'm really not as sure that it was more than could be expected in their own homelands. I also know that, in general, the U.S. does seem to have more obesity issues than abroad... but I'm just not totally convinced by these studies that it is completely our "culture" doing this to immigrants.

Anna Gregoline | December 16, 2004
That would be interesting to find out - although what else would they be comparing it to, except relative weights in people the same age back in their country of origin?

Amy Austin | December 16, 2004
Yes, I would suppose that as well, but they didn't say... it's just a little more vague than I would have liked. But then this *is* just the article, not the actual study.

Anna Gregoline | December 16, 2004
It's a yahoo article at that...not very complete.

Lori Lancaster | December 16, 2004
[hidden by request]

Anna Gregoline | December 16, 2004
That's a good point about larger portions.

I walk a couple miles a day, to and from public transportation. I shudder to think what could happen to my weight should I move somewhere where my daily commute doesn't involve walking.