Mercy! I have no idea where this website got their figures, but I assume they are true:
The value of Romania’s fast food industry exceeds 2 billion Euros per year, whilst the total amount of cash spent to burn the junk food calories barely reaches 300 million.
KFC Romania, for instance, is cashing in on 131.000 Euros per day, that is an increase of 13 percent as compared to 2009. KFC Romania’s fat money comes despite the fact that the company has not raised the prices on their menu since last year.
McDonald’s Romania also features 62 restaurants, each of them with an average daily income of 4.600 Euros. Burger King only has 6 establishments, who cash in 1.400 Euros each day – half a million per year, on average.
Jeez! 62 McDonald’s in Romania?? Looks like homesick Americans aren’t the only ones eating this sh-t.
I do know there are no fewer than four McDonald’s and two KFC’s in Cluj alone, which is a staggering amount of coverage for a city of this size.
Meanwhile, Romanians are facing an increase in obesity cases, one out of three Romanians being either overweight or seriously obese.
I don’t know if this is true. But i do know one thing. If it isn’t true today, it will be true quite soon.
I always look to Spain as a marker because like Romania, Spain was a largely agricultural, rural country that suffered from years under dictatorship. Spain just entered democracy about a decade earlier (late 70’s) than Romania (end of 1989).
And guess what? (link removed by webmaster request)
The child obesity statistics have been released by the Health Ministry and show that one in four Spanish children are now either obese or overweight.
In Madrid however, the number of children that are obese is 5% higher than the national average, with 20% of boys and 10% of girls suffering from obesity.
Health experts believe the obesity crisis, which is currently affecting much of the world, is down to two simple factors: Kids are eating an unhealthy diet high in processed foods, sugar and saturated fat and aren’t taking enough exercise.
Hm, I wonder if it’s any coincidence that there are 276 McDonald’s in Spain? And at least 10 in Madrid alone?
Nah…
Folks, if you haven’t seen the documentary Supersize Me, please click on the link to do so before it’s too late.
AND NOW YOU KNOW!
All Things Romania 
Yes, CHEAP fast food is major factor in obesity. America is the fatest because there the fast food is the cheapest, in terms of price per pound, but also in terms of price versus personal income. This is why a tax of fast food (highly processed foods with plenty of saturated fats and sugar) is a must.
The amount of physical exercise people get these days is the other factor. People are more and more reliant on personal transportation instead of their own two feet. In fact in America walking is not even an option, most suburbs don’t have sidewalks and the distances are far to big to get anywhere of interest.
Childhood obesity is affected by both factors. Too much cheap food and too little exercise. When I grew up I used to spend at least 5 hours a day playing outside, whereas parents today are scared even to let their children alone outside (too many cars, freaks etc). In contrast I used to play soccer in the middle of the street, then take the bus for the other side of the city (I was 6 years old) and nobody asked me a thing when I returned home in the evening.
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One of the oddest things I have discovered is that throughout my (adult) life, it seems like every close friend I ever had ultimately had one thing in common with me – we all spent hours and hours playing outside as children. I honestly think this made a tremendous difference in my life and I find it so odd that the people I ALWAYS get along with better had a similar aspect to their childhood. One of the reasons I’m so grateful to live in Romania is so many people here ALSO played outside as kids (heck there’s kids playing outside my bloc right now) and got lots of fresh air and sun on their faces and time to explore and imagine and fiddle with sticks and make forts and climb trees and all the rest… it truly is criminal to lock ANY human being (esp children) indoors 23 hours a day.
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Obesity is a world wide epidemic.
The one advantage that people in .ro still have is that this known-Brand fast food crap is relatively expensive compared to the average income (ie one cannot afford to eat it on a daily basis even if he/she wants to).
If you add to that the fact that the degree at which food in processed in definitely lower than in other more “advanced” countries you can still eat pretty healthy. Compare that to the US is it doesn’t have organic on it, you can assume the worst.
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Indeed.. which is why I write so often about this subject :D
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