I visit family in other states and I get comments like “I can’t believe you are so thin.” For context I am a healthy weight and I eat what I consider a reasonable diet. I sit and smile while I watch them drink soda and eat pure sugar and salt. I don’t care about your life choices but don’t act surprised by someone that’s a normal weight.
When I returned from Asia and landed in Denver I was shocked by how fat everyone is now. I swear I could’ve counted the number of obese people in East Asia on one hand but in the Denver airport I think it would be safe to say about 80% of the people there were noticeably obese. It certainly isn’t due to a lack of food in Asia, they practically force feed you in China.
It very much depends which gate you’re looking at. There are a whole lot of people flying through Denver to get somewhere else; not everyone in DIA is from Colorado. As someone from Denver, I can say for sure that the airport has a whole lot more fat people than you see out and about.
Are you Asian? (Don’t feel pressured to answer this)
The reason I ask is that according to the CDC Asian obesity is almost non existent. I think this has to do with culture and racially motivated pressure. In the US there is a stereotype of Asians being perfect and smart. That actually comes from the time right after the US interment camps. The idea was that Asians coming out of the camps should be “good little Asians.” I wonder if the pressure put on Asians has to do with them not being overweight. I personally used to know an Asian kid in high school who was almost driven to suicide because all the teachers expected more from him because of his race. He was extremely ADHD but couldn’t get any help as he was told that Asians are smart.
I think that stereotype is also partially driven by immigration selection pressures: those that were able to immigrate would statistically skew towards higher income earners or those that have had higher education. The parents themselves are going to hold higher expectations of their kids due to their own achievements.
Sorry to hear about your friend. I’m not sure to what degree you knew him, but that’s horrible :(