From My Board

**I am on a French Chic board on Yahoo.  I have enjoyed the women there, and actually that's how I got some readers and met other bloggers.  However, I noticed that there seemed to be some anti-American thoughts when it came to food and I felt the need to respond.  After writing it and reading it, I decided I felt strongly enough about it that I've decided to post it here as well.**

I will be the first to stand up and say I sometimes over-generalize statements about Americans.  I'm a Francophile, Europhile, whatnot, and I know that things can be different.  However, I'm a little disturbed by our tendency as Francophile to over-generalize to the point that it comes across as all Americans  eat too much, are too lazy to walk anywhere, and don't eat enough of the "right" foods.

I'm an American.  Born and raised.  I've been lucky enough to have lived in Europe and to have at my younger age already done some extensive traveling around the world.  I've studied different cultures, both European and Asian and I have seen things that I think we as a country have seemed to have lost a bit.  But I'm also seeing studies showing that these same countries I admire, with every generation, are having just as much trouble as we are, though they're late to the game.

France and Italy both have more fast food, more cars, and more sugary drinks and desserts.  They're all seeing obesity levels rise.  Pretty much every major industrialized country is beginning to discuss how to change things as our health is beginning to fail at earlier ages.  A big problem in not just our country seems to be government protected/subsidized things like corn products.  As well as the fact that we as a world need to slow down and stop trying to be everywhere all the time.  Eating in your car seems like the only option when the only time you're at home is to sleep for a few hours.  But we've created a rat race that no one can win. 

I think it's incredibly important to eat smaller, more proportionate meals, taking our time to enjoy them.  We need to remember that vitamins and minerals come from things like fruit, vegetables, real meat and whole grains, not from a pill bottle.  And we need to learn to move more and start fighting for the right to not be sitting behind a desk so many hours of the day.  However, I'm hearing these same things from France and Italy.  And having lived in the U.K. I can assure you that we are not the only country who needs to put down the constant fried chicken and move more.  My husband and I actually got used to seeing overweight British people everywhere.  Not obese to the extent here in the U.S......yet.  But it's coming if we don't all begin taking our lives into consideration as a priority over cheap food and "getting our money's worth."

So, I don't mean to upset the apple cart, but it has become something I've noticed and was bothering me.  How can we support one another, American women (and yes, I know there are non-Americans as well), and just women in general, if we're saying, "well, Americans just eat badly.  They don't know how to eat right."  If that is the case, then perhaps it's time we step up and go out into our communities.  Volunteer to teach a class at a public space (like a school) on healthy, delicious foods proportioned correctly.  I think if we beat ourselves down it will be harder to get back up.  And as a world, we need to get back up.

**Yes, I do believe as a country we've been self-indulgent for far too long.  But just speaking negatively about our country's food habits isn't getting change made.  We need to be more active in our own health, and slowly expand that outward.**