I have been traveling in Thailand this week and one of the things that has stood out to me is how few people are obese. It’s easy to see why, since the diet, even when eating in restaurants a lot, doesn’t include a lot of sugar or starch (beyond rice). The only place I’ve seen a hint of obesity was last evening while walking around in a former ancient capital, Ayutthaya, now a small city, and stumbling on the equivalent of a strip mall with a McDonald’s, a fried chicken place, and a Thai version of Taco Bell. Inside, the people munching on fried chicken and burgers were the largest people I had seen. Not terribly obese, but headed that way.
I know the fast-food chains are major factors in America’s economic influence abroad. But seeing their emerging influence in an emerging country with a traditional healthy diet…well, it didn’t give me goosebumps about being American.
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