Wednesday, November 28th, 2007...5:13 pm
London Observations
I lived in South Africa for a year when I was ten. On the way home we first stopped in Australia for a month and I’ll never forget the feeling I got seeing those big American cars driving around Melbourne after a year of not seeing them in South Africa.
I felt a little of the same feelings arriving in London yesterday.
In the six days I spent in Paris I saw a total of two people who were morbidly obese. Now I am morbidly obese, so I am a good judge. It isn’t like I was looking, but I was if you know what I mean. And I simply didn’t see fat people. And of course there is nothing saying the fat people I saw were even French.
I went to London on the Eurostar line to the new St. Pancras station, and then took the Tube from there. I couldn’t help but notice that on my first car on the Victoria Line I saw three people who were fatter than me. I don’t know that I normally would have noticed but after spending a week just not seeing it, it was immediately obvious to me. And then of course I started looking some more and the more I looked the more I saw.
In Paris I saw two McDonald’s, a Starbucks and a Quickie Burger in 6 days of walking around the city. When I got to my destination in London the first 4 restaurants I saw were a Pizza Hut, a Subway, a McDonald’s and a KFC.
Coincidence? I think not.
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4 Comments
November 29th, 2007 at 6:40 am
I think we do have a much bigger obesity problem than Paris/France. Here France is seen to be a very healthy culture, with books published on how to eat the french way etc… I am not sure why when they are known to have a love of cheese, wine and bread lol. I guess it is in the attitude to how much they eat rather than what they consume.
How did you think London fairs compared to the United States? I find the States to have a much bigger problem than the UK that is why I was quite shocked it was so noticable to you here. We do have a problem here I guess it is how obese people get. In the UK to get to what I was at my highest, 266lbs, was considered EXTREMELY obese, a very dire situation, but there seems to be an abundance of americans weighing in at 300-400lbs. There are people that weight here but I dont think it is quite so many. It is heading down the american route though and give it 5 years we will have caught up.
I think you have a valid point about the fast food culture in London. I think London is a micro example though. London culture is not representative of english or even uk culture. London is a very busy, career driven city where people are always two hours late to be at their next location. Fast food is a part of the non-stop culture London finds itself in. Go out into the suburbs and it is not like this and you would have to go to a high street to find a fast food outlet. For example, in our city centre here we have 1 million pop but I cant find a KFC in my mind (I dont use them anyway since I read about someone biting into a cyst when I was 16!) but we have a mcdonalds and pizza hut… and a burger king too. I actually think the lack of exercise in british culture is a bigger problem than fast food culture.
Also, Paris has a cafe culture, which means people will be healthier. And everyone walks everywhere.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:45 am
There is no question in my mind though that it is nowhere near where we are in the States.
Even though I implied it in my post, I don’t know if fast food is the entire problem. I have already enjoyed some lovely meat pies and sausage rolls that would get me pretty heavy if I ate them every day!
Another interesting thing I notices was when i was watching telly last night, there were commercials on with fat people. I didn’t watch much TV in Paris but when I did I don’t recal seeing commercials featuring clearly overweight people like I have seen here.
Again, not enough data points, just observations of what I think I am seeing. Will be interesting to see if I quickly come to any such observations in Munich.
But I imagine I will be equally as shocked this weekend when I get home, since I know obesity is a much bigger problem in my home country.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:16 am
February 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
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