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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Angelika Europeans have always scoffed at the fat Americans. That 2/3 of the American population struggles with being overweight and 1/3 are medically considered obese is no secret here in the USA either.
Nowadays, there are increasingly fatter children because kids eat too much fast food and hang out in front of the TV and computer for hours. That children develop juvenile diabetes due to bad eating habits can almost be called a trend. Desperate parents therefore initially tried to sue McDonald's, since the fast food chain did not clearly warn of the health risks of its product range. This typical American way of dragging everyone to court still seems absurd to us.
Even the diet craze is not new. Every American book store has an impressive selection of books that are meant to help reduce excessive pounds. Then there are the various talk shows that present dramatic success stories: people who suddenly fit into their old pants three times, smiling happily into the camera. Lately, you can also find entertainment shows in which a whole group fights their excessive weight together and is accompanied by television cameras for months.
There is no shortage of theories as to why Americans are gaining more and more weight. There is a preference for large portions and fast food. Unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food (which is true). No time to cook healthier meals, lack of exercise, too much fat in the meals, too many carbohydrates. And on the packaging of each product, there are indications of calories, carbohydrates, etc. printed - but these always refer to a so-called "serving size", not to the entire package. So if someone eats the whole bag of chips, they wonder why they are consuming ten times the amount of calories!
The fear of high fat content in food led to a boom in reduced-fat products here. In every American supermarket you can find low-fat chips, cookies and the like. It happens to me from time to time that I grab the wrong - reduced-fat - bag. A misery, because the stuff simply tastes artificial and usually ends up in the trash can with us. My motto is: When eating chips, then the right ones.
But I always get the real crisis when standing in front of the shelf with the dairy products. You almost need telepathic abilities to find the full-fat yoghurt or the full-fat milk. There is usually only one kind of the "full-fat variant". Everything else is low-fat or non-fat. Now I know that this trend has now also infected Germany. I just pray fervently that my German favorite potato chips will be spared.
For some time now, America has been in the second phase of its fight against obesity. No longer is fat the focus of the debate, but rather the "evil" carbohydrates. The blame for this lies with American doctor Robert Atkins, who more than 30 years ago caused nutritionists around the world to scoff at his low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. Atkins assumes that the consumption of carbohydrates stimulates insulin production, which can not only lead to stronger feelings of hunger but also to fat storage. On the other hand, if one abstains from bread, pasta, rice and highly sugary drinks, etc., the body will in turn burn fat.
Critics of the Atkins diet don't necessarily dispute this, but they are disturbed by the allowed consumption of foods with a high fat content due to the increased risk of heart disease. However, the fact is that most people lose weight with Atkins. Many nutritionists, however, attribute the weight loss to the reduced calorie intake under the Atkins diet.
Nevertheless: Atkins has been on everyone's lips for the past 2-3 years. I know some followers of the diet, which you can always tell because there is no bread on their plate. The popularity of this low-carbohydrate diet was not affected by the death of Robert Atkins in 2003, which was accompanied by malicious rumors. It was rumored that Atkins was overweight at the time of his death and had a few extra pounds.
In any case, the pragmatic American businessmen smell ringing cash registers with the Atkins fans. Several restaurant and fast food chains have already adapted to these customers. So there are Atkins-friendly menus at "Subway" and "TGI Friday's" ("Thank God it's Friday). For example, the New York steak with blue cheese crumbles is only 6 carbohydrates at TGI Friday's. From now on, customers at Burger King can also happily bite into a hamburger without a bun, the minced meat patty is held together by a lettuce leaf.
Even manufacturers of various spirits are now advertising that their high-proof distillates contain no carbohydrates! In addition, more and more products with reduced carbohydrate content are quietly and secretly entering American supermarkets. According to the magazine Consumer Reports, there are now 930 such products on the American market: beer, ice cream, cookies, cake - everything the heart desires. They then have such nice names like "Atkins Endulge" or "Carb Smart".
Even Coca-Cola is coming out with a new cola variety this summer that contains fewer carbohydrates. Usually, sugar is replaced by sugar alcohols or fermented carbohydrates, which allegedly stimulate insulin production in the body less than regular sugar. The packaging of the "low-carb" (=low carbohydrate) products then advertises how many carbohydrates are hidden in the product, although the current American food law does not yet define what is considered low.
Generally, few carbohydrates in a product does not necessarily mean few calories. The idea that it is okay to indulge in low-carb cookies does not hold up. What I find interesting about the whole carbohydrate story is that the country is again following the motto "all or nothing". Americans tend to be a bit extreme in this regard. We already saw this in the fight against smokers in California (now you can't even smoke on the beach in Santa Monica). And once they had set their sights on the enemy "carbohydrates", there was no stopping them.
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