u/Defiant-Mouse6543

So, background, I am in my mid 30s, a guy, was at my heaviest ever during my senior year of high school, and have had a long journey of dealing with my issues surrounding food.

I was around 300-310 lbs my senior year, and currently am 225 and while I took a bit of a break from actively losing the last several months, I have at least maintained that weight and have recently started getting back into losing again.

Today at work someone I went to high school with happened to come in. We were never really friends but she was always incredibly sweet and kind to me when things really sucked during that time. It was always very much appreciated and meant a fair bit to me.

Unfortunately, I have been feeling pretty down on myself lately about my weight, and some other physical things (my skin hasn't been great lately, recently started shaving my head because my hair is starting to thin a bit, etc.) and was just not in a place to do the whole "how have you been" thing. She didn't recognize me because I admittedly look very different than high school.

I'm gay, so it's not like I have any real desire for her to find me attractive or anything, but it feels like a real failure on my part to essentially have avoided an interaction with someone because I felt too fat lol.

Anyways, just a vent from a mental setback that I wasn't expecting to have.

I have heard and read more than once in comments and other social media that food in the US is somehow "different" than food in, for example, Europe. Often stated like when someone moves from Europe to the US they gain a bunch of weight or get less healthy eating the same things, or the reverse from the US to Europe.

I understand some things, like processed foods, may contain more sugar, salt, or other ingredients, but is a tomato all that different in the US to France or Italy? I understand their may be differences because of soil, growing techniques, etc., but is a produce or unprocessed grains or something somehow worse for you in the US?