>Let me put it to you another way, more diplomatically <g>, people are fat not because they are poor but because they are stupid. They load their food cart with steaks, burgers, hot dogs, chips, whole milk, and soda. I bet you they spend more money on food per person than anybody who eats healthy diets.

We eat more than full milk - get it straight from the cow, it's about 4,2% fat. Haven't bought margarine in years - we're on butter. We eat full fat cheese (the kind that doesn't stick to your knife and is hard enough). We eat lots of pork - ham, ribs, knuckles, liver, and chicken and beef too. Occasionally we do get a pljeskavica, which is burger-like in appearance, but not industrial made (though there are such places, which we avoid), or burek (which is rather greasy, with lots of whey cheese).

BUT: we use very little sugar, not even in the coffee. Absolutely no soda (occasional cockta - which is cola like but no chemicals, original slovenian recipe from late fifties, mostly rosehips). No white bread (even gave up on so-called rye bread with less than 12% of rye, dyed with caramel - baking our own again). No chips. We eat our own pekmez (like jam, but no pectin), vegetables, fruit, tomato juice...

And I've lost all of the 9kg I found in the US while I was not smoking. Even my son-in-law, while visiting here, lost about 15lb, while eating regularly (and eating lots of chips too).