Eating habit gaps between China and U.S. by chungyinso

One thing that caught my eye when I first stepped on the American's land was, the people living in the U.S. are bigger in physical body size. As we've learned this quarter, obesity is caused by genes, social environment, psychological factors, etc. In this wiki page, I am going to write about the eating habit gaps between China and the U.S..

I had spent my childhood in Hong Kong, and then I came to U.S. and stayed with an American family for three years. During that period, I had experience a lot of different between these two cultures. If we narrow down to social environment , eating habit is one of the major factor which cause obesity. People in the United States tend to consume a lot of high calories and fat, such as fast food. I am not saying people do not eat fast food in China, but they do eat healthier at the major meal compared with Americans.

First, let's take a look of what people eat in China. (p.s., I mean the major food which they usually eat in here.)	Then, let's take a look of what people eat in the United States. (p.s., I mean the major food which they eat daily in here.)
In China, we eat rice almost everyday.	Hot dogs are really popular for lunch.
Vegetable such as "Choy Sum" must be present on the major meal (dinner).	As well as the hamburger.
Fish is a really popular dish in China.	French Fries are also popular fast food which we can get easily in everywhere.
Meats are also essential in the major meal.	Pizza is one of the most popular American's food.

As is shown above, in general, if the foods showed on the left represent a full dinner in China, this meal does seem like it is following the food pyramid. On the other side, in general, if the foods showed on the right represent a full dinner meal in the United States that meal does NOT seems like following the food pyramid. We can clearly point out that there is a lack of vegetables.

In concluion, there are many other factors which can cause obesity, but social environment does definitely playing a major role. Needless to say, eating fast food is one of the sources causing obesity. If Americans can cut down eating fast food, it would improve the obesity problem easily.

[Editor's Note: The author's assumption that an American meal would consist of a burger,
fries, hotdog AND pizza is obviously an exaggeration! Also, in China more and more people
are eating the same foods, and obesity is dramatically increasing in Chinese cities where
people have adopted more western styles of eating. ---Judy Learn]