Why do you think a larger percentage of Americans eat wrong compared to the rest of the Western world?

When I was in school, the lessons on nutrition were heavily influenced by the food industry. Remember the food pyramid?

That probably didn't help. I think junk food is cheap and also tastes good, which is a problem, too. Maybe the biggest problem.

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Yeah. There are complex reasons, some of which you mention.

One that you haven't mentioned is generally lower food standards and regulations in the USA than in Europe -- and, associated with that, the prevalence of cheap high fructose corn syrup in so many of the USA's processed foods. US processed foods can contain up to twice as much sugar as their European equivalents. Furthermore, US portion sizes tend to be much larger.

So some of it isn't about consumer choice per se.

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Because America is the greatest country, duh!

No, but seriously, you and the previous commentators have pretty much nailed it; fewer food regulations and a "hurry up and be productive" culture.

I'll only add that while in Europe I never once saw people eating while they were driving or walking. In Spain, the locals actually told me that people would look at you weird for walking around and eating a pastry. Also, I remember once ordering a coffee “to go,” and the woman at the counter said, “What, no time to sit for a while?” My American Uncle, currently living in Belgium, has expressed similar observations. People actually take the time to stop, eat, and enjoy their food, usually while socializing. In the US, this practice is often viewed as being lazy and unproductive. However, this perspective is somewhat changing among younger generations, though it still widely persists.

A lot of this attitude can be extrapolated from the saying, 'It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.' Anyone who has tasted authentic rustic/artisan bread knows that Wonderbread-style bread falls incredibly short of being 'great.' However, when it was introduced, the idea of buying a loaf of bland, bleached, nutrient-free sandwich bread that wouldn't go bad for a week was seen as a time-saver and convenient. It allowed Americans to spend more time being 'productive,' e.g., working more and spending less time preparing food and eating.

Also, some of this isn't exclusive to the US; I've observed similar 'hurry up and eat on the go' behaviors in Canada and Mexico as well, though perhaps to a lesser extent.

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There are also greedy corporations that bank on selling stuff that has tons of preservatives and sugar in them that make people fat and sick, which plays into the Big Pharma corporations in selling drugs to those same people who go fat and sick off of eating a lot of the processed foods the other corporations (who also funded poorly-advised nutrition classes in schools in the past) sold to the masses.

Then there's the effort to profit off of lazy people who want to lose weight without doing too much work, so the dieting industry profits off of that, and all of them are designed to fail so that their clients will come back eventually when they regain the weight they lost.

There has also been a considerable, deliberate effort poured into making eating healthy and exercise look "way too hard."

Americans are also way more stressed due to having to work more, leading to "stress eating."

I remember reading in a Quora entry about how someone who was an adult in the 80s and 90s, calling the Food Guide Pyramid a "monstrosity." She even showed it to her dad, who was a farmer at the time, and he said, "That's the kind of diet we feed to our cattle to fatten them up!" Considering the amount of carbs the pyramid pushed, and how it didn't specify what a "serving size" was, I'd say that there was an agenda involved with designing that ridiculous diagram.

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More working hours on average means less time to prepare food, which means more shortcuts.

I truly believe this is the main reason, and the earliest seeds of this can be traced back to World War II when a lot of women flooded the workforce out of necessity. The food industry really changed, and not for the better, during the war and after for various reasons.

Also, the food companies extensively study how to hook consumers on their products. They are basically manufacturing addiction. Michael Moss writes about this in his books Salt Sugar Fat and Hooked.

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Portion size.
Sugary processed foods.

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Giant food conglomerates filling grocery stores with industrialized food, and the McDonalds effect.

By the way, other countries diets have gone to shit since US fast food franchises moved in. Some have kept it at bay because they have strong culinary traditions (France, Japan, Italy).

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I call nonsense on this Anti-American bullshit.
My neighborhood is full of bike riders, dog walkers, guys going out hunting, fishermen paddling canoes, joggers…
The ‘chubby American’ is a lie you all bought.

Every one has a big mouth until the Russians and Germans fuck you up.

Maybe we let you loudmouths figure it out next time. You would all be goose stepping or worshiping Stalin within a month.

Never forget who fed you pissants.

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