America has many pretty faces.

The cars are big, the supermarkets are huge, the office buildings are tall, the urban area’s of the towns are immense, the steaks are enourmous and  the women are colossal. The latter are also named ‘pretty faces’.

The first time I learned about this expression was in the late 90’s in Ohio. The wife of a collegue was discussing or better, blabbermouthing about a friend of theirs who just left the house. She had a slight handicap. She hardly fit through a doorway. She was so extreme flabbergasting fat that she easily could choke a horse by sitting on top!  Her colossal torso had to be inched like a flagship through the passage and the remaining body followed her in a flexible and blubbery way.

In other words: she was a great fat slob.

I expected my collegues wife to give a lot of flack about big Bertha’s corpulence. Instead she said: ‘Oh, she has such a pretty face’. I suddenly realised that this was an encoded message in communication. Of course she had to avoid the risk of bumping in any lawsuit which could be filed against her. As an American citizen one must be extremely careful amongst their sue happy culture. She kept on nabber jabbing about all other aspects of her exept her extreme body proportions. Her nice character, shoes, hair and family where discussed without really coming to the point. I was amazed by such camouflage techniques by saying things so indirectly.

In Europe and especially in the Netherlands one says directly what one thinks.

So, this was my lessons in understanding what ‘a pretty face’ is all about. A plumper.

Especially in the US there are tons of pretty faces. Not only female but also male ones. Many men at the age of forty have a spare tire around their waist and must undertake the Battle of the Bulge. A visit to a fat farm is an other, rather expensive option. The wallet is the only item what loses weight on the long term after the treatment.

These symptoms of  ‘pretty faces’ are inherent to the food and transportation culture of the US. In Europe, with England heading the race, we are catching up fast.

Go into an average supermarket. The first thing you find out is that the supermarket is big. The trollies are big. The assortment is huge. Breakfast cereals are packed in huge family boxes and are gleaming and beaming at you from the shopping ailes. ‘Fat free’ is yelled from the label. ‘No chlesterol’ is printed on a pack of butter. It is not mentioned that these products often are stacked with free sugars. Those ‘fat and cholesterol free’ sugars are the main culprit causing the pretty faces in the world. The ‘Mackee Dee’ culture is another favorite subject. When seeing the customers ,victims is a better word, pigging out on the fast food as if it is their last meal it may be for some of them considering the quality.

The abundance of the high calorie fast food chains is one of the main reasons consumers are stacking up on food and fat. Waffle house, Dunkin donuts, Wendy’s, KFC, Mc D, can be found at nearly every highway exit or shopping mall. Many of these outlets still serve extreme high calory food. Sure it is fat free. It should be better to expose and display the amount of calories a serving contains.

It doesn’t matter what diet one follows, the bottom line is that one needs the exercise to maintain the calory burning engine and to prevent excess calory intake. 2000 till 2500 kCal per day is enough. Okay, a farmer who is pulling his own plough might need 8000 kCal so let him have his portion.

The tansportation mania is one other item causing this ‘prettiness’.

Ever seen children taking a bike going to school? The schoolbus system is heavy regulated, bringing the chubbettes to sit all day in the schoolbenches. If you are a poor country boy, then mom and dad will bring you to school in their ‘pretty’ car. The way urban area’s are built makes it necessary to have car.  A shopping mall within walking distance or even cycling distance is very rare.

For the Chinese a face is a very important item. In the asiatic cultures it is a big shame to lose face. These people are very proud and have a lot of personal honour. Foreigners which of course are not as distinguished and cultural and well mannered than the Chinese do not have a face. They lose it all the time. Europeans are often nicknamed, mister ‘no face’. This does not matter as long as we get the order is the thinking of most ‘big nosed businessmen’ when they are in the far east.

I prefer a real pretty face and that is one of the reasons The United States of America is one of my favorite places to travel. People are friendly, are in many ways multi cultural, they enjoy good food and their sense of humor is quite like mine.

Here is, to the healthy States of America!