[jyl]

Portions in typical middle-market American restaurants are huge and cheap. As are the "super-sized" fast-food meals. If you go to a neighborhood place in Italy, say, the portions are 1/3 the size.

Package sizes in American grocery stores are also much larger than in other countries. Then there's the monster sizes at Costco. We have big stores, big houses, big cars, big refrigerators.

Most American cities are designed for cars, so most Americans don't walk as part of their daily life.

It is interesting to go to Manhattan, which is quite un-American in this regard. Restaurant portions are small, grocery stores and apartments are small, most people walk and take the subway in their daily routine. Sure enough, the average person in Manhattan is pretty slim - bodies look basically like the average person in Paris.

Then go to, say, Des Moines. Yikes.