It helps when everywhere in that mile radius (and more) is considered walking distance in much of Europe, but Americans would rather drive.
Anon travels overseas
Submitted 7 hours ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/350bd2ec-83e7-48aa-968b-5b7d43c71d1d.png
Comments
radix@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I fucking promise you we don’t prefer to drive, it’s the only option we have. Our government fucked us
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Facts. One time we were talking about how cool it would be to live really close to a mall as a kid.
Then we realized that our local mall has no pedestrian crossings or even sidewalks, so you’d still have to get adults to drive you even if you were across the street.
arrow74@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
Having recently moved to Europe, I occasionally miss the convenience of driving but overall it’s so much better.
Just getting to chill on my commute and not have to worry about traffic is so nice.
When it’s very cold or rainy it would be nice to drive to the store. I do miss being able to buy a week+ worth of groceries and loading up the trunk
Overall this is still way better.
DaddleDew@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Anon needs to learn that the UK isn’t representative of all of Europe
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Europe does have an obesity crisis, with nearly half of adults overweight. The UK is bad but not alone and not the highest.
But even then things are still not as bad as the USA. The obesity rate is about 23% in Europe compared to 36% in the US. Russia has an obesity rate of 30% skewing the European rate. For comparison other high European countries are Finland at about 29%, Malta at 29%, Croatia at 23%, UK at 20%, Germany at 19%. Lower rates are seen in Italy at 10% and Romania at 11%, but even those rates are not great - 1 in 10 people are obese and more are overweight.
So OP is right except the US is worse. Over a third of people are obese and many more are overweight.
Damage@feddit.it 2 hours ago
You’ve also got to consider that “obesity” is a single threshold. I’ve been to the US many times and there are WAY more morbidly obese people in the US, and some who are so fucking huge they would definitely turn heads in the EU.
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 hours ago
Where do you have those numbers from? I’d like to look up my country.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
And does have an obesity problem!
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
That’s just br*tish “food”
SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Hilarious that this is true and yet the US is still somehow fatter.
j4k3@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
It is the milk. Sadly, no joke. Stop eating anything with milk in it for 3 weeks. Your appetite will change entirely. I don’t know if it is the growth hormones or something else but I stopped milk and it changed me. If I eat anything with that garbage in it, I will get the munchies bad 2-4 hours later and it sticks around for days. Milk is in EVERYTHING in the USA, even stuff that makes absolutely no sense.
Anivia@feddit.org 10 minutes ago
I drink a gallon of milk a day (no joke). Take a look at my profile picture 😁
Tommelot@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
eats a tub of sugary chocolate sugar every morning
Pretty sure it’s the milk, guys!
Mac@mander.xyz 2 hours ago
Replying to your edit since you felt it was reasonable to name-call in an edit like a coward instead of at least in reply.
Damn, i guess managing my weight to be within 10lbs of my desired target weight for the last 10 years doesnt count because ive never in my life weighed enough to have to lose a lot of weight.
I consciously work to shed weight when I’m over and gain weight when I’m under. But what do i know?
I’m just a fuckbrained dogmatist.TheBat@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Stop eating anything with milk in it
NO!
SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
lol it’s not the milk
bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
As someone who’s lactose intolerant, it is annoying to find stuff without dairy in it. Not impossible of course, but it is in the most random shit.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
It’s not just the milk but milk is a rich source of nutrition and over consumed in the west.
The obesity crisis is due to excessive calories in all foods, including massive overuse of sugar in processed foods, high levels of red meats and fat etc and low levels of fruit and vegetables. This is combined with physical inactivity.
Southern Europe doesn’t have the same levels of obesity - about 10% in Italy compared to 20% in the UK and 36% in the US. They have a “Mediterranean diet” which is low fat, low sugar, with more fish, fruits and vegetables. Japan also has low obesity rates of 5-6% and again has a much healthier diet. Their rate is going up and it seems to be due to increasing westernised diet.
gnugit@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
You can’t rate world cuisine on England
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
Absolute zero is a useful reference point.
FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
Low key amazing commeny
blx@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
I love how the post never mentions the country, but everyone just knows.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
Fat isn’t unhealthy. Excess calories and absence of exercise is not healthy.
Also the U.K. population is unhealthy just like the U.S.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
UK doesn’t have the highest rate on obesity in Europe, and is similar in levels to Germany. It’s a problem across Europe.
BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
Yes! Fat by itself isn’t unhealthy.
The best example is Italy, it has the lowest obesity rate of Europe, European Obesity Rates by Country 2025. (2025-11-14). World Population Review. but also has the highest consumption of cooking oil of Europe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024);Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank (2025)
LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 hours ago
BMI is also a bad measure of health. It only roughly estimates how statistically unhealthy you’ll be compared to Americans in the middle 20th Century. Bodies can be healthy at any size. Exercise helps.
ook@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
Anon, did you look at the people?
Cruxifux@feddit.nl 5 hours ago
I live in the fattest province in Canada, who is also compared to the rest of the world one of the fatter countries. But going to Tennessee and Texas, man… it’s a different beast down there. Obesity is such an issue that it makes you think something is gravely wrong down there. Idk if it’s the culture or the infrastructure or the food or what but it’s not good.
zloubida@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Transformed food is less healthy than things cooked in butter.
mushroomman_toad@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
neither are unhealthy
zloubida@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Sorry I used the wrong word in my comment. It’s corrected.
Nomad@infosec.pub 5 hours ago
Do you see Abby supersized soda bucketa?
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Been to Seoul. Every place there gives you tons of side dishes that you cant possibly eat all. People are still very very thin there on average. Ofc, cant judge whole country by one city. But maybe city’s landscape helps them keep themselves in shape.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
I recently tried to compare data on morbid obesity, but most countries don’t even have a rate, or only include the data as a sub- 1% share of the obesity.
And the US it’s 9.5%
As in, 30% of the US has a BMI between 30 and 40, and 10% is over 40.
FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
Yes
Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 minutes ago
And yet the number of people obese in the USA is almost double that of the UK.