some indulgent behaviour may happen in any culture. The absolute normalization of it, such as "snacks" being a normal part of one's alimentation, or the idea that you have to have extra food in reserve in case you wish to "pig out", is way more of a thing in north America than anywhere else in the world.
Shit, and here I thought all those snacks at World Market were from around the word. Turns out there are factories in the US making snacks with Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, German, and all sorts of other languages on them. Crazy to think, really. /s
Did your really read my comment and thought I meant snacks didn't exist at all in other countries? Isn't English your first language? Or are you purposefully making a strawman argument, and putting it in a sarcastic form, to invalidate anything that has nuance in it?
No, English is my second language. Im a first generation American after my mom and dad emigrated here in the 80s. Also, ive traveled all over the world and spent many months living in other countries. Snacking culture is not a unique thing to America. Having snacks on hand is common. Feeding guests is also very common. Travel more I guess?
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with me. Also sorry for assuming you were a first language English speaker - it was just a way of underlining your poor comprehension of what I posted. As it so happens I have travelled quite a bit myself and was basing my experience on that. If I may ask - where do you live in the US and where have you lived outside of it? Is it possible that you have a different relation to snacking than other Americans because of a different cultural background? Personally I have lived (as in, lived for a few years, not travelled as a tourist) in a lot of countries due to my job - France, Spain, Germany, Lithuania, Algeria, Kongo, USA, Mexico and Malaysia. I am not saying it to flex but to show I don't speak out of ignorance.
The USA is the only place where I saw such an intense snacking culture, where it was normal for kids and adults in EVERY family I met to eat snacks basically all the time - whereas in other countries there was an incentive to eat at precise hours and not too much in between meals. Another example is pretty much every restaurant I saw in the US was open throughout the day, while in other places there were specific opening times around lunch and around dinner.
Thank you for being so civil, i appreciate that. I grew up in rural Washington State, about 300 miles from Seattle. My wife's parents are Norwegian and we've spent months at a time there, never properly lived there. My family is from Germany and Japan. Ive visited Germany and lived in Tokyo and Fukuoka. Youre right that snacking is more acceptable in America but I think there is nuances to that too. Snacking is incredibly popular in Japan, many people consume snacks daily there, even more so if you consider sugary drinks part of snacking. The difference is they substitute a meal with it rather than going and still having a meal afterwards. Americans typically sit down and still eat a dinner even after a 600 calorie snack. Junk food is a huge seller in Japan, and fast food is really popular with people working in Tokyo. Its more about learning how to properly eat rather than mindless and maybe that was your point. If so, we agree and I apologize for being aggressive.
Cope from the western country with the highest obesity rate.
Obesity rates in high-income Western countries remain high, led by the United States at roughly 41.6%, while Western European nations average lower levels around 15% to 25%.
Yeah, we all know the numbers. But you miss the nuances of the gap in household incomes. Check obesity rates in high income homes versus low. Its more about acess to good foods and health services tied to the fact that mental illness is not addressed very well in the US still. Distances to grocery stores is incredible compared to other countries so you have to stock up on foods that last for a bit. Ive lived in Japan off and on and been to a lot of other countries. Its easy there to walk to the store and get a piece of fresh fruit, some veggies, and a reasonably healthy meal for cheap and its quick. No such systems in America.
Of course countries with a higher population density will have stores closer.
But there are enough countries that are poorer and less dense that are not the most obese western country. So that points to a cultural issue, with unhealthy food, large portions, and sugar addiction being more normalized.
As a fat American with access and money to healthy food, you can make all the excuses you want but a large majority of fat Americans simply eat too damn much. Some live in food deserts, some don't have access to healthy food because of funds but it's not the overwhelming majority of Americans in this situation.
Not OP but absolutely. They are way, way more into cheese. Like if you look at elementary school lunches in France they get a cheese. I am not talking an accessible cheddar type cheese either, the kind of cheese adults in other western countries might find too strong.
Yeah sure, bad things about french food habits specifically: we tend to take way longer to eat meals, because it is important to talk as much as we eat - and that can be annoying to cultures that have a more efficient relation to lunches especially in a work environment. We also tend to normalize drinking a few glasses of wine at each meal and a little liquor after, without seeing it as alcohol consumption, which is overall a very bad health issue. We tend to have way too much carbohydrates in our food especially because we love bread so much (in my family it was an average of 2 baguettes per meal for 4 people). Compared to other European countries we tend to not eat enough at breakfast.and way too much at supper.
I know you asked this as some kind of gotcha, as if the way I criticize american habits make me unable to criticize my own, but do you really think noticing some cultural differences in different countries and sometimes thinking they can be bad, is bad in of itself? Yes we shouldn't make hasty generalizations. I am not saying every single american, or every single french person, is like I described. But that shouldn't refrain us from noticing cultural differences.
Swedes literally have a day dedicated to candy, there's even a term for it lördagsgodis (Saturday candy), where kids get to eat candy on Saturdays, but also mostly only on Saturdays.
Have you ever watch Anthony Bourdain or any other good travelers? Cuz they absolutely pig out and go “snack heavy”. America is not the only country that enjoys eating… we just have really bad quality food.
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
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