Europeans who travel to America joke about how much weight they're going to gain on their trip, but it's not really a joke. There's just so much food. American restaurants serve appetisers that are big enough to be a main course and main courses that could feed a family.

Everything about the American food culture works to subtly distort your sense of what a sensible portion looks like. A Big Gulp is a grotesque amount of soda, but it seems almost parsimonious compared to a Double Gulp. It's almost like gaslighting - you're constantly being told that vastly excessive portions are the norm.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/news-even...

Not just that, also the amount of sugar in those portions is astounding. Luckily, when I visited the USA for 3 weeks, I didn't have time to get accustomed to that, and I actually didn't enjoy to eat that kind of food. Unluckily, now that I've been living in the UK for 6 months - where the amount of sugar is less than in the UK, but much higher than in Italy where I used to live - I'm starting to notice it less and less.

> Europeans who travel to America joke about how much weight they're going to gain on their trip, but it's not really a joke. There's just so much food. American restaurants serve appetisers that are big enough to be a main course and main courses that could feed a family.

I've heard this a lot but never experienced it. Are portions smaller in NYC (which is the only place in the US I've visted much)?

I definitely think so from my limited experience. I ate what seemed like normal meals in bars and ethnic restaurants in NYC, but in other areas we'd go to some place like Chilli's were the calories are insane - most appetizers are over 1000kcal, and most single courses 1500-2000kcal.

Obviously this varies a lot from restaurant to restaurant. But yes in general portion sizes tend to be larger in the US southeast and midwest regions.

I haven’t researched it, but I’m pretty sure the american diet has the highest amount of concentrated sugar (the most calorie dense foodstuff). Processed foods with added sugar are the most highly valued by your brain and so trigger overeating more than any other.

French food culture values home cooking from fresh ingredients which I assume results in food with lower concentrations of processed sugar.

Lack of sugar perhaps? Someone sent me a link a while ago showing how sugar triggers the body to store fat. Keto diets are similar in principle and many people claim to loose weight on them.

What about the relative levels of appetite suppressants (e.g. smoking) between the two cultures?

According to Wikipedia, the rates of cigarette consumption are basically the same:

#63 - France #69 - U.S.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette...