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Comment by cpursley | Hacker News Reader

What really amazes me is seeing little kids at the playground etc, walking around and eating things like Cheetos. Not only is this ultra-processed junk terrible for them, it's programming them bad habits (and manners) to just free feed and roam around like that. Is it any wonder why America is so fat and unhealthy and so many struggle with eating issues? You don't see this behavior nearly as often in Europe, Asia, etc and it should come at no surprise that those kids are more mature and have better self control over American kids.

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My casual observation is that a lot of Americans are obsessed with snacking. They can’t imagine going without food for a few hours.

Honest question (and I’m not from the US), do you have kids?

Question as a parent: kids do need constant snacking now? I know some kids who do but they are overweight.

Snacking is an American/Anglo world thing. As are terrible manners in general. Civilized people sit down and eat at the table, and that includes having their children do the same - even for snacks (there are some exceptions, of course). That also goes for devices at the table, either at home or restaurants (truly incredible that people abuse their children this way). Yes, I have very strong opinions on this as a father who's seen that there's another way called "being a parent".

> Snacking is an American/Anglo world thing

It’s spreading. The notion that if a child is hungry the only solution is to feed them immediately.

Exactly. People seem to think being hungry is not acceptable.

As a spaniard, we had the concept of “merienda” way earlier than any globalisation happened.

Merienda isn’t mindless snacking though.

I don’t have kids but I was kid. We almost never had snacks. There were no parents that would bring snacks after soccer practice. You just ate what you got during regular meal times. And sometimes you would pack a sandwich.

>They can’t imagine going without food for a few hours.

The best example of this phenomena is the movies. People start snacking the moment they enter and continue through the whole show, which is a conditioned response that theatres quite literally created -- normalizing that it's a "part of the experience" -- for revenue production.

Can people really not fathom going a couple of hours without stuffing their faces? It's bizarre.

I feel the same way about flying. It's amazing how demanding people are to be fed on even short flights, when the whole process is just annoying and overbearing.

And both on flights and in theaters you are given the worst quality possible food.

Huh? International flights generally have very good food.

“Very good” is relative and I meant more the snacks you get on domestic flights.

Gentle reminder that while the US is somewhat more overweight than most of Europe, most of Europe is still pretty overweight!

72% overweight rate for US adults, 45-60% for most European countries.

https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/indicator/sh-sta-owad-zs...

That's a binary, right? Either you're overweight or you're not. What about the magnitude of the overweight? (Asking because I'm curious about the data, not because I necessarily disagree with you)

Which excludes the massive difference in obesity. No Wal-Mart motorized shopping carts in Europe.

> The color-coded visualization shared by Brilliant Maps shows that in many U.S. states, obesity rates exceed 30 percent, with some surpassing 40 percent. Southern and Midwestern states, such as Mississippi and West Virginia, report the highest levels, while Western states like Colorado and Hawaii have comparatively lower rates, though still above most European nations.

> Comparatively, obesity rates in most European countries remain below 25 percent, with some nations, particularly in Southern and Western Europe, reporting levels under 15 percent.

https://www.newsweek.com/map-reveals-obesity-rates-us-compar...

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