American women getting bigger .

Portion size?

Plus trans fats and corn syrup.
Years and years ago coming from a traditional Scottish upbringing I was staggered by the size of helpings in the US especially when eating out.
Food manufacturers must also bear much of the responsibility by creating the sugar addiction which has swept the US and the UK.

www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-cooper-ma-mft-cch-ceds/sugar-addiction_b_2058308.html

And I should add OP not just in the US ?

The sad thing is the UK are going the same way. With supersize menus in pubs, ease of transport and many other things we become Americanised daily.

My SIL - who has a very healthy appetite - could not eat the helpings he was given when he was in the US.

I have to say that when I see programmes from the US I am always struck by how obesity seems to be becoming almost the norm over there.

My DGC sometimes watch YouTube videos of children making marble runs or slime and they are mostly from the US, and the children are huge.

We soon got wise to US portion sizes. We used to have one meal/dessert between us and share it. (Not to be stingy - we found it difficult to move otherwise!)

Dare I also suggest (ducks behind sofa) but the word is fat.
“Bigger” implies improved height and bone structure , both of which are excellent results of better nutrition.
But sadly, what we are talking about here is obesity.

Bigger waists, do not necessarily mean overweight. The female shape has become more boyish over the last two generations, more up and down and less curvy. So bust and hips are similar but waists are larger.

I remember going to Florida in the 90s and being staggered by the size of people now it’s seems the norm both here and there. When you think of your mother and the home cooked meat and two veg dinners sometimes with a pudding it was very healthy compared with microwaved meals and all you can eat buffets of today.....

Despite numerous healthy eating and lifestyle programmes etc maybe some people just don’t care how big they are ?? Obesity in school kids is very worrying, and again they cover health and nutrition in schools, but still junk food is eaten all the time. Portion sizes in the USA, as others have said, it is scary that someone could eat that much. I was also shocked on cruise ships how high the food was piled up on some plates. I have always had to work at not putting weight on and I just feel so uncomfortable when I do, so it keeps me totally focussed ....

But we are talking about obesity Monica .
I believe busts and hips are increasing too. A size 16 dress 40 years ago would have counted as “Outsize”(as in Evans Outsizes) , it is now the average dress size in the U.K.
M&S even admitted they “resized” their sizing some years ago (apologies for the tautology) so that a size 14 today would have been a size 16.
The increase in waist size is also an indicator of more stored body fat and a serious health concern.
www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/849.aspx?CategoryID=51

I speak as one who has had reasonable success with losing weight. There is NOTHING I do not eat but, as is often said here, the quantities are minescule as compared to my norm of about two years ago. I think because nothing is taboo to me I don't feel any pain or challenge of prohibition. Nor do I ever feel deprived of any whims. I indulge them. It has been a slow but sure procedure but the results are good in that I feel better all round. My whole attitude to food has changed but that was so gradual I didn't really notice. Interestingly, I was smiling to myself with a degree of confused bemusement at a meeting I attended last week. On offer beside the tea/coffee was the most lip smacking array of patisserie imaginable. Now the 'old' me would have been rather greedy there but the disinterested one sat down with a coffee and wondered at the fact I had no desire whatsoever. Can't explain it but I am living proof that slowly but surely can and does work. Sorry at the length of this but I just want to seriously encourage those of you out there who have tried every diet going. Eat less slowly but surely over the years and it will change your norm and, hopefully, your life. Good luck.

Walking along the street with huge cartons of beveridges and eating a variety of foods + grazing throughout the day was never part of my upbringing but it’s something I witness daily now.

Set meals plus a time and a place no longer exist.

The portion of my first meal in the US was obscene and I felt, totally unnecessary for a staple diet.

When I first went to the US in the sixties I don't remember that portion sizes were huge. However when I went back in the eighties meals were much larger. We are definitely following that here. Years ago we weren't allowed to eat between meals, now there is a "snack aisle!" I'm sure people are getting fatter and so are children, only need to look back at old school photos to see this.

My son moved to the USA six years ago and married a lady from Boston, Maine. My d-i-l was already very overweight when they married and he soon piled on the pounds. D-i-l decided enough was enough and went on a diet so she would be able to have a stomach band operation done. She has now lost over 13 stone in just over 18 months which is fantastic. I think she would agree that without the operation her weight loss would have been much less as the temptation to overeat is so great what with all you can eat buffets and huge portion sizes. I wish my son would do the same as he is much more overweight than my husband was and is now the same age as his Dad was when he had his first heart attack. Fruit and healthy foods are much more expensive in the USA, and so many of the 'standard' meals are full of chemicals and additives that are not allowed in our foods here.

I think the trend to obesity correlates with the reliance on processed or manufactured food as opposed to cooking from scratch. It’s easy to buy a pie or pizza, and supermarkets are awash with packets with huge lists of ingredients. In the UK over 50% food eaten is processed, whereas in France and Italy it’s less than 12%, obesity is much less evident in those countries.

I do wonder if France is on the same road to obesity problems as when I lived there in the 80’s I noticed more and more of the younger generation at checkouts with trollies full of processed ready meals.

My generation of neighbours were appalled that the younger ones no longer bothered with traditional healthy cooking.

Fast food joints have been and still are a disaster. This has changed eating habits as well as the food content. It is so common now to see lots of people eating in the street. This means that a normal eating habit, and sitting at a table to eat is becoming rarer.

The US was cheap compared to Europe. And food was plentiful which brought abothose large portions. My experience has been that my meal in a restaurant anywhere in the US could feed four of us. That cannot be right for health.

Another major factor in the US is lack of exercise. A friend moved there and was horrified that her boys' school operated on a drive-thru basis - and she was regarded as weird for walking them to school! The transport layout doesn't help - many roads have no pavements so walking is not normalised..

I recommend 'Supersize Me' and 'That Sugar Film' for people who're interested; the latter shows horrendous levels of sugar in bottled and fast-food soft drinks.

When my father died back in 2001, D3 had just started university and Paw was working away from home Monday-Friday. I freely admit I was probably suffering from a combination of depression compounded by grieving and “empty nest” syndrome but I also lived on M&S ready meals for convenience as I was teaching full time and trying to keep the weekends clear for when Paw was home.
I put on about a stone that winter and the rest, as they say, is history.
Guess what is happening since I lost Paw back in November? I am afraid I have slipped back into those bad habits.
Real home cooked food eaten at regular meal times (and not too much of it ) has to be the starting point for healthy nutrition.
Not fancy “traffic light” symbols on food packaging or whatever fad the food industry is trying to push on to us (with little resistance, sadly) I am thinking of “Low-fat “yogurts, “Lean Cuisine”, “Count on Us”and the like.
There is an obesity one bomb ticking, we cannot fool ourselves that education about “healthy options” will solve it.

“An obesity time bomb”

Actually Maw my experience has been that M&S ready meals are OK if eaten once a day and a quick look at the label - mac cheese has massive calories but veggie meals are OK, again it needs thought is all. Can't speak for levels of suga/salt etc.

Besides portion size and fast food, never underestimate how much weight regular drinking - wine, beer, spirits and sugary drink - can affect your weight.

Fifty years ago "having a drink at home" was mostly reserved for Christmas, birthdays, a christening etc. Now So many British people are heavy heavy drinkers - for any reason and at any time - but haven't yet worked out the corrolation between this habit and weight gain that can lead to obesity.