> Applying Occam's Razor I think the main contributor for most people is probably American portion sizes.
That's not an answer, though. Or at least not a root cause.
Why are American portion sizes bigger?
Why do I need to eat more American food to be satiated?
In China, I'm regularly taken out to banquets, where people stuff themselves until they can't eat anymore. I do too. I still lose weight. Other places, we feast too. I'm then full for a long time.
In the US, I'm back to hunger pangs a lot more quickly.
Not sure about your individual situation, but I bet American businesses are better at engineering satiety than Chinese ones, because they've had more time to apply more expertise to it.
What does it mean to engineer satiety? An example is Doritos, they are a food which has been very effectively engineered to compel more consumption without making you full. More consumption and less satiety equals more revenue. Lots of American junk food is engineered with this principle in mind.
A roast duck with some rice and vegetables or something at a banquet will have much better satiety per calorie than Doritos and Hot Pockets, or most typical fast food meals, probably even fast casual meals etc.
In theory, I knew all of that... but I never quite put two and two together.
That's very insightful.
What I don't quite understand, though, is the lack of satiety even from American food not engineered like this. There's a big difference between basic foods like meats and vegetables between the industrial crops of the US and ones from local farms in less industrialized countries.
My hypothesis -- with zero evidence -- is that industrial foods are lower on some nutrient my body needs, and my body wants to eat to get enough.
Protein is notably declining across staples. Protein is not substitutable like carbohydrates. Meaning that your body will trigger you to eat until you get enough protein. Conversely, if you have an abundance of protein and the various micronutrients or vitamins your body can happily convert protein to carbohydrates via ketogenesis. One can subsist on a nearly complete protein diet so long as nutrient deficiencies causing diseases like scurvy are addressed. The same is not true of fat or carbs.
That's not an answer, though. Or at least not a root cause.
Why are American portion sizes bigger?
Why do I need to eat more American food to be satiated?
In China, I'm regularly taken out to banquets, where people stuff themselves until they can't eat anymore. I do too. I still lose weight. Other places, we feast too. I'm then full for a long time.
In the US, I'm back to hunger pangs a lot more quickly.