Comment: Germans do not get as obese as around 30 % of us Americans.
I recalled a conversation I had with Urs, an exchange student who spent a year at my
college. He spoke of how many, of course, see the Americans as obese
(actually, pick ANY adjective -- there are enough views/generalizations to
go around. prudes, druggies, slackers, ANYTHING). But *his* take is, and I
believe this is SO TRUE and one of the best judgements of America/Americans
that I have heard from any German, that the US is the land of extremes. Yes,
there are the extremely obese, but there are also those that are twice as
thin as the skinny European. He said there are the fast-food eating couch
potatoes that the world knows and hates, but he also said he's never
encountered so many "health nuts" that exercise or run so often and eat
nothing but granola and veggies, or the "extremists" racing up mountains on
bike to jump off of the peak on a skateboard, using a ziploc baggie as a
parachute and holding a 'boombox' on his shoulder to listen to Van Halen's
'Jump' on his way down.
I *do* think it's true - I bet there are more Americans (percentage-wise)
who are healthy, exercising, well-eating folks than you'd find in Germany,
but that margin does probably pales in comparison to our domination of the
obesity percentage. We've got the richest in the world in posh
neighberhoods, and the grodiest slums with the most violence. Widest open
spaces, folks crammed into ghetto apartment. Genuisses. Idiots.
So yeah, I'll still say we run more. But it's that smaller percentage who's
doing all the running for the rest of us!
Mike
Reply: They walk more!
Further comment: We run more!