Eating, Cooking, Shopping as an American

According to livescinece.com, the Americans spend an average of 30 minutes per day cooking. People from the States have gotten used to the fast food and to the microwave dinners, and as a result the act of cooking does not seem too welcoming for them. The report was created by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The organization sent members into each of these countries from the list in order to collect the required data. They used the data and they compared it. Simon Chapple, a senior economist in the organization’s Social Policy Division, said that the poll and the comparison were done as accurately and objectively as possible. Cooking was not the only activity analyzed by the OECD, but we will get to that a little bit later.

The time spent cooking was collected from national time-use surveys. In these surveys the volunteers were asked things such as: “do you order food, or do you cook it?” The data collected only the answers which indicated that the volunteers order the food. As I said, the United States of America spends an average of 30 minutes per day cooking. Ireland spends 35 minutes, Canada 40, Germany 41 minutes, and Finland 42 minutes. The average was of 52 minutes per day. The organization also analyzed the rates of volunteering, giving money and helping strangers, and other unpaid services. In this case the United States of America did much better. It leads in this category as well, as 60 percent of the US citizens help the ones in need. That is the largest percentage from the countries that participated to the study, the average being of 39 percent.

The survey also analyzed the time people from these countries spend shopping. In this case France took the first spot with 32 minutes, then Germany (31), Canada (30), Australia (29), United Kingdom (28), and U.S.A (28). The average was of 23 minutes. Chapple said that the survey was pretty complex, and some of the results do not add up. When it comes to eating, America took the third lowest place, spending 74 minutes per day doing this activity. Turkey took the first spot with 162 minutes, then France with 135, New Zealand with 130, Japan with 117 and Italy with 114. As you can see, France is amongst the leaders when it comes to both shopping and eating.

However, despite of the fact that the U.S is amongst the countries that spend the least amount of time eating, they came in the first place at the obesity rates. 33.8 percent of the Americans are obese. The other four spots are occupied by New Zealand with 26.5 percent, Australia with 24.8 percent, the United Kingdom with 24.5 percent, and Canada with 24.2 percent.  According to David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University, the amount of time spent eating and the obesity rates are not related. When it comes to the body weight the most important thing is represented by the calories from the food. You could eat for 2 hours straight if the food you consume has very little calories. However, if you consume foods very rich in calories you do not have to eat for a very long time. It is a known fact that the American foods have very high concentrations of fat and that they have many calories.

The study also analyzed the amount of time spent doing housework. The average was of 128 minutes. Korea spends the least amount of time cleaning with 79 minutes, then Japan with 100, USA with 102, China with 103, and Norway with 114. The study also analyzed the way in which the people of these countries spend their time on a daily basis. Because of the rounding, the sum adds up to 24.1 hours instead of 24 hours. This is the way in which the Americans spend their days: They eat and sleep for 9.9 hours, they work or study for 4.8 hours,  they do unpaid work for 3.0 hours, they take personal care for 0.7 hours, they relax for 3.3 hours, and do other activities for 2.4 hours. It seems that the Americans are very concerned about their health, as they spend the most amount of time and the most amount of money on health care. The Americans spend 16 percent of the GDP on health care each year, which is about $6,100 per person each year. France follows with 11.2 percent, then Switzerland with 10.7 percent, then Australia with 10.5 percent, followed by Austria and Germany with 10.5 percent each.

However, despite of this care for health, the Americans are doing very well when it comes to life expectancy. The life expectancy in the U.S is of 77.9 years, the average being of 77.3 years. The first spot are occupied by Japan with 82.7percent, Switzerland 82.2 percent, Australia 81.5 percent, Italy 81.5 percent, and Sweden with 81.4 percent. When it comes to income, the United States is on the second spot with $31,000, being followed by Norway with $31,000, Iceland with $28,000, Australia with $27,000 and Switzerland with $27,000. The first spot is occupied by Luxemburg with $34,000. The poverty rate is of 17.1 percent in the U.S, and 13.7 percent of the population is made out of immigrants. There are 11 countries which have a larger percent of immigrants than the United States of America.

Marriage seems to be somewhat important for the U.S citizens, as 59 percent of the people are married, 26 percent are single, 6 percent are divorced, 5 percent are widowed, 2 percent are separated, and 2 percent have a domestic partner. 67.8 percent of the children from the United States of America live with both of their parents, 25.8 percent live with one parent, 3.5 percent with no parent, and 2.9 percent with cohabitating parents.

These are the countries which were included in the study: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

You can see an infographic of the data here.11