Living in Japan has made it clear to me that cultural attitudes towards food make all the difference. It’s not like there’s a dearth of delicious things here, but obesity rates are more or less a rounding error.
There's a confounding factor to your theory: people in Japan are dramatically less likely to use a car for door-to-door travel. The amount of walking a Japanese person does burns a huge number of calories that most people in the US simply don't burn.
There's a confounding factor to your theory: people in Japan are dramatically less likely to use a car for door-to-door travel. The amount of walking a Japanese person does burns a huge number of calories that most people in the US simply don't burn.