Immigrants learn our eating styles
When immigrants pick up our eating styles, they develop our BMI after 15 years. Hope their English progresses at that rate. My college roommate was born in China and now lives in Boston, via Rio De Janeiro. We got together about 15 years ago. She was just as tiny as during our college 40 years ago, and the recent Christmas photos don't reveal any change.
"Among different immigrant subgroups, number of years of residence in the United States is associated with higher BMI beginning after 10 years. The prevalence of obesity among immigrants living in the United States for at least 15 years approached that of US-born adults." JAMA. 2004;292:2860-2867.