Want to know why Americans are so fat? We eat the most calorie-dense foods in the world.
Weight-loss app Noom combed through its database of more than 42 million users, tracked their eating habits, and found which countries’ dieters consumed the most high-calorie items like chocolate, bacon and ranch dressing, which Noom considers “red foods.”
“This is a pretty honest assessment, since people are logging their own foods, and these are the foods that people are really eating,” Jennifer Major, a client success manager and lifestyle coach at Noom and co-author of the study, tells The Post.
Not surprisingly, the US took the cake: About 28 percent of users’ diets contained red foods such as butter, French fries and fried eggs. Meanwhile, the study’s runners-up were Spain (27 percent) and its affinity for cerveza and Germany’s calorie-laden diet of butter and marmalade.
But of course, this study has its limits: Noom only surveyed 96 countries that had more than 500 users of the app. Peculiarly absent from the top spots was Italy and its love affair with carbs — Noom considers pasta a “yellow food” because it has a more moderate amount of calories. Here, a closer look at the results.
1. USA, 28.8 percent “red foods”
Top culprits: butter, peanut butter, bacon, cheddar cheese and French fries
2. Spain, 27.2 percent
Top culprits: white bread, French fries, beer, cheese and almonds
3. Germany, 27.1 percent
Top culprits: butter, marmalade, Swiss cheese on toast, Nutella and chocolate
4. Canada, 26.4 percent
Top culprits: butter, peanut butter, cheddar cheese, bacon and French fries
5. South Korea, 26.1 percent
Top culprits: milk, hot-and-spicy rice cakes, soju and pork-belly meat