Thsi is the reason American's become fat rather than others.

Calories are cheap and people are sedentary.

Cowboys herd cattle across the American plains. It is estimated that there are 94 million cattle in the country.

America has always been a wealthy nation. Immigrants coming to America in the 19th and early 20th century, many fleeing famine and war, often commented on the abundance of food, especially meat.

It’s not surprising. The US has 87 people per square mile, we’re 145th by population density in the world. Some historians even believe that our population never recovered from the effects of the Columbian Exchange. All of this means that we produce domestically a lot of food, especially calorie dense food like meat.

And that’s before you take into account the effects of industrialization, which made sugars, fats and proteins even cheaper and more accessible than ever. All of these are nutrients we are hardwired to crave, because in the Neolithic era they were fairly rare. And industrialization had made them plentiful.

Then there’s the fact that most Americans don’t burn many calories. Because of industrialization and globalization, most Americans now work desk jobs. The wide, open, nature of much of America and the lack of walkable cities, means that most people drive to work. So that’s 8 hours a day you’re sitting at your desk and another 2–3 hours you’re sitting in your car.

Finally there’s the issue of time. Many people in America buy food from restaurants because they don’t have the time to prepare food at home. This food tends to be richer than homemade food, especially if it is from a low quality restaurant that uses fat, sugar, and salt to mask otherwise subpar ingredients.

Add all of this together and you have a nation in which overeating is easy and exercising is hard. Is it any wonder so many people are fat?

Edit: As pointed out in the comments, there are other factors than the ones that I mentioned. The US is the world’s largest producer of corn, which combined with the subsidies given to corn farmers, makes high-fructose corn syrup cheaper than sugar. It is therefore used in place of sugar in many processed foods, and there is some evidence to suggest that this is contributing to the obesity epidemic.