behind the china great firewall so unable to open this article, but in general i agree with this title, i was also observing simple things while in china in terms of eating habits, typically meals in asia are family style and you grab small portions of each shared dish unlike in western countries where you have a full meal placed in front of you. when i was growing up in the states, i was always told not to waste food, so if given a big mac, it's getting finished, if a big plate of pasta, devoured. this probably can explain the differences in waist sizes between the 2 regions, asians eat more family style where you take what you can eat instead of being dictated by chilis, olive garden, or mcdonalds in terms of what your body requires from a meal.<p>diet is pretty important for me now as i try to watch my weight, i drink water or hot tea only, absolutely no soda, juices, etc, i also try to eat 60-70% capacity per meal as i dont exercise that much, mostly just sit in front of the computer all day, so there isnt a need for all those calories like before when i was lifting weights and playing basketball for 6 hours a day, few to little carbs (bread, rice, pasta), some fruit for snack, and absolutely no junk food. obviously if i exercise, i will have a little more carbs that day. but overall do you need that many calories a day?<p>you also need to train your stomach, it's like a balloon, eat too much and it stretches out and takes a while to get back into its initial size, so try not to binge eat (binge drink also, i used to olay tennis, could drink ,2 gallons of water in an afternoon), also keep in mind physical pro-portions of food/drink, so dont eat 4 slices of pizza and beer, go with 1 slice, and maybe some salad, some red wine.