The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism by Robert Paarlberg

Author:Robert Paarlberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-01-05T14:00:00+00:00

Culture and Overeating

When considering the cultural sources of excessive food consumption in America, individualism does become the most useful place to start. Americans are the most individualistic people in the industrial world, followed in order by people from Australia, Britain, and Canada. All of these highly individualistic Anglo-Protestant countries experience an obesity prevalence well above the OECD average. The OECD average is 17.8 percent, but the average for Canada in 2010 was 24.2 percent, for Australia 24.6 percent, for Great Britain 26.1 percent, and for the United States 35.9 percent (OECD 2013b).

Individualism leads to eating behaviors less disciplined by social or family routines. Once modernity makes food ubiquitous and continuously available, unstructured eating and in some cases nearly continuous eating becomes a problem in individualistic societies. Eating in America today is driven by highly individualized and personalized psychological inclinations (Oliver 2006). Americans eat alone while at work, alone while commuting to work in the car, alone at the food court while shopping, alone at home while watching TV, and alone in front of the refrigerator both before and after normal mealtime. Eating while driving is also a distinctly American habit. A remarkable 17 percent of all meals ordered at restaurants in America are now eaten in cars (Nassauer 2012). Fast food restaurants sell fried chicken in containers custom-designed to fit automobile cup-holders, and auto steering wheels now mount snacking trays.

Regularly scheduled at-home family meals are of diminished importance in America. Only 66 percent of 15-year-olds in America eat the main meal of the day together with their parents “several times a week,” which ranks the United States 23rd out of 25 industrial countries on this scale. Once again, the other four Anglo-Protestant countries cluster at the bottom along with the United States, ranking 18, 19, 22, and 24. By contrast, in France and Italy more than 90 percent of 15-year-olds still report family meals at least several times a week. The demise of family meals has also diminished the eating of healthy foods. Americans today eat salad with a meal on average only about 36 times a year, which is 20 percent less often than in 1985 (Nassauer 2011). A decline in family meals has also been linked to increased substance abuse, slower language development, and reduced academic achievement (Fiese and Schwartz 2008).

Eating away from home is now more common for every American income group. Among low-income Americans, the share of food calories consumed away from home has increased from 5 percent to 28 percent since the 1960s; among middle-income Americans from 8 percent to 31; and among high-income Americans from 12 percent to 35 percent. More eating away from home coincides with higher calorie intake. Between 1965–1966 and 2007–2008, overall daily energy intake increased in America by 152 food calories per day for low-income groups, 110 calories a day for middle-income groups, and 118 calories a day for high-income groups (Smith, Ng, and Popkin 2013). Among those adults in America who eat fewer breakfasts or dinners at home, obesity is more prevalent (Ma et al.

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