America- the country where people come to make dreams come true. It's safe to say that after living here my entire life, Americans do things very differently than other countries, and how we handle food is no exception to that. Because of the habits that are mentioned below, it has led America to become one of the most obese countries in the world.

cake, sweet, berry, pastry, pie, cream
Tarika Narain

Portion Sizes

dairy product
Denise Chow

Portion control isn't a thing here in America. Everything here is bigger than the size of our hands. Once my international relations professor said that the size of any appetizer platter here in America would be considered an entire meal back in her home country of Japan. Then she proceeded to discuss how she was stuffed after having a few small dishes.

Fast Food

hamburger, lettuce, cheese, bun, sandwich
Marina Nazario

Americans love fast food. It's cheap and can be eaten in a timely matter. Most people would even go on to say that it "tastes good." Really? Does the plastic in McNuggets "taste good?" Does it make America proud to know that we're always so hungry that eating inanimate objects apparently tastes good?

Also, in this summary of Jamie Oliver's TED Talk, the author goes on to state how "Consuming too much of certain foods is incredibly bad for the body, while not eating enough can be similarly harmful." How do Americans sleep at night knowing that we're slowly poisoning ourselves but doesn't give enough of a damn to do anything about it?

American Ingredients

Luna Zhang

As mentioned in this article regarding eating like a French person, the author goes on to describe how there are only four ingredients made in real French baguettes. While in America, the same baguette made here would have an entire list of ingredients that are all sketchy. The sad part is, we don't even know where most of our ingredients are coming from these days, but we love saying that we do.

Excessive Drinking

alcohol, wine, liquor, beer
Sheon Han

Besides Americans being known to have an obsession with beer, we just love drinking. In fact, we love drinking so much that even if we know that we're going to go out drinking, guess what we do beforehand? Drink. Most liquors have empty calories to them and having a beer belly is all too common, but that doesn't stop us from drinking. 

Americans will drink anything at any time. Most other countries, however, just drink with meals. 

Eating Whatever, Whenever, Wherever

corn, sweet, cereal, milk
Isabel Wang

It's no surprise that Americans love eating junk, which is a cause as to why we're obese. For some people, eating junk is an addiction in which causes them to gain weight, but without exercise, the weight will add up. 

Calling a Food Desert "Heaven"

wine
Erica Szpylczyn

Basically, a food desert is a bunch of food places that are all right on top of one another. For those that love food aka 99.9% of Americans, this is a dream come true, but when's enough going to be enough? 

Altering Non- American Food

sauce, chicken
Jedd Marrero

While Americans do have their own foods, when will they stop making foods from other countries/cultures their own? An example of this would be when two white people in Portland decided to run their own burrito stand and then were accused of cultural appropriation, thus forcing the owners to have to shut their business down.

I get that this is America and we can do as we please, but are we really doing what's best for us?