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clever
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2026
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American food is usually hybrid food based on other cultures, either with american ingredients (potatos, tomatos, peppers) or multiple cultures blending together.
Some that I would think should be considered good american food:
smoked/BBQ, Cajun food, generally Southern Cooking, American Chinese food, Tex Mex, Lobster and sorta all those northeastern cuisines, hamburgers and hotdogs.
I don't know why people think America does food bad, we're not one of the fattest countries because our food sucks.
I would guess this has more to do with your food having tons of sugar and giant portions. Plenty of countries have amazing food. Not all of them struggle with obesity so much.
ehh its a lot more complicated than it seems.
I think for me I would point to the fact that cheap sugary shit tends to be well, cheap.
For example I had a pack of gummy lifesavers (hard as a rock, rip me) and it was the cheapest thing in my lunch today despite being like, 8 servings of candy? it was cheaper than the water I got??? What the heck is up with that???
Honestly portion size isnt what I would point to, I feel like its custom here to take home leftovers and stuff, even when you visit someone's house for dinner and they make way too much. I'm sure there's some psychological stuff here with portion size, just in my experience I've never felt the need to eat everything and Ive been reasonably healthy all my life.
And yeah shout out to (in no particular order) Mexico, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, China, South Korea, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, The Dutch, Singapore, Poland, and anyone I forgot y'all are real ones I love your food.
You've got to give some credit that gluttony is somewhere in the causal mix.
I dunno I've visited a lot of places and seen a lot of people and it's not like Americans are unique in how much food we eat?
I'd point to the fact that sugary/bad for you stuff tends to be cheap first and foremost. It's really easy to fill up on empty calories if you're stuffing your face with candy and fast food.
Secondarily I would point how hard it is to avoid ultra-processed garbage. It's really everywhere and everything here, even things that are "healthy" are pretty terrible usually. Unless you're eating/making everything fresh it's not easy to avoid some of this garbage and it's basically all empty calories.
I also think, far more important than gluttony, there's very little actual food education in the US. Unless you're kinda into fitness and watching what you eat, you don't really know what macros and stuff do and why things are important.
There's also food deserts, the fact that American cities are meant to be driven and basically cannot be walked/biked, and just generally sedentary lifestyles across all of America.
Genuinely I don't think that the fat countries around the world are "extra gluttons" compared to the rest of the world. It's anecdotal of course, but I often hear of Europeans visiting and gaining weight. I doubt they're suddenly becoming gluttons the moment they land in America. I think that's like maybe the 10th most important reason at best. We're all humans and while culture is different and could lead to different eating habits, I don't think that matters that much. I think Canada for example, is quite culturally similar to the US but they have an obesity rate of only 27.1% compared to America's 41.8%
I think one place where portion size might actually be a factor in retrospect is with soda. Our larges are huge and people will down those things like crazy.
The giant portions thing is a cultural left over in a lot of ways, food used to be cooked in a far more communal method and often combined supper and lunch then a snack later at night. For example apparently my 2x great grandfather ensured a small feast for him, my great grandfather, his wife (remarried technically not my ancestor), and all the temp workers during harvest. That's not even getting into things like potlucks.
As for sugar I blame the post war period, arguably the amount of sugar in shit has been decreasing slowly since the 90s but it's a slow generational thing.
I agree, but also - tomatoes and potatoes are from the Americas - so that pizza in Italy? It is ALSO 'fusion' food.
That's just how food works. People eat what's available, and more stuff has become available over the past few hundred years. heh.
I think the whole thing is silly. Enjoy good food! Who cares about the rest?
And sure, I make authentic creole dishes as well as southern, and some legit texmex. But if I didn't, if I made tasty food, who the hell cares? lol.
Tex mex is soooo good but the name makes it sound like "shitty American version of Mexican food" when that couldn't be further from the truth
Only if you have insufficient love and respect for Texas (ignore recent fascist bullshit). :D
But I think it works. It takes the best from both to come up with... well... in practice, you can take a few ingredients and make them into a lot of different things...... but they are all very tasty, so there's that. hehe
I love food, I so agree. Honestly if I were rich I would be traveling the world trying as much food from as many places as I could.
In spite of recent events, I'm actually quite glad I grew up American with parents who have friends from all over the world.
I'm 30 now, but the appreciation of foods and cultures was instilled into me from very young, I genuinely believe that sitting down and sharing meals with people might be the ultimate peak of the human experience.
So yeah I get a little salty when people start trashing American food, because American food is hundreds of cultures coming together and making something different but similar and what could be better than that?
Also its like, the only good part of this country anymore .-.
WRONG; You got a little MSG-ey. There was salt, but also the umami of stating true things in there, too :)
also agreed on the end thre :)
But I also think that's why people making fun of UK on food are wrong, too. Similar there - the food culture is vibrant.
Also, nice-looking food is nice, but how food tastes is more important to me.