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In The US - Diet, Obesity, and Fat-shaming?

Lunch:

The standard "lunchbox" lunch that a kid would take to school or someone might take to lunch would be a sandwich. Two slices of white bread with peanut butter and grape jelly in between. (Grape jelly is the most standard of jellies, followed by strawberry, but for a PBJ, it's often grape) Peanut butter is smooth or crunchy. Sandwiches can instead have some kind of meat, usually thinly sliced turkey, chicken, bologna, ham, salami, or roast beef known as sandwich meat. Maybe mayo, maybe mustard, maybe spinach, maybe tomatoes. Maybe a slice of cheese, usually American or white American. Sandwiches can go a lot of directions, but I'd say sandwich accounts for 50% of lunches, where as "left overs" from last night's dinner account for a lot of the rest. That is, when you don't go out to eat for lunch.

Before I get into that, lunches also typically involve a bag of potato chips (crisps), combos, chex mix, or pretzels, perhaps a fruit (apple, orange, or bananas usually), and maybe a single pack of yogurt. If you're more health contentious, maybe a vegetable or nuts. If you're in a rush, lunchables are also a thing people get for lunch. They're horrible little conflagrations of fake cheese, bologna, and crackers that are made for convenience, not health. Or you can get fake pizza lunchables with some shredded cheese, sauce, and maybe pepperonis, eaten cold or luke-warm. To the healthier person, about the only "normal" option is a salad... which can quickly become unhealthy once you add bacon, croutons, ranch dressing, and cheese.

Now, if you go out to eat, lunch usually doesn't deviate too much. Maybe a hamburger and fries instead of a sandwich and chips, but we still have the same kind of setup... a sandwich and a starch, with maybe a fruit/vegetable on the side. However, most lunches "out" are the same as dinners, but smaller portions. For Americans, dinner is usually the biggest meal of the day. Many people will skip breakfast and lunch, and ONLY eat Dinner. Or they'll eat a late lunch that also serves as a dinner. Although, while many people only have two meals a day, the three meals a day mentality is strong.

Nutritionists will advise people to eat 5 times a day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. There is a belief that continuous eating curves appetite and dissuades overeating. If I eat an apple before lunch, then I won't each as much during lunch, the story goes... This idea of snacking between meals is pushed on kids too, at my son's school, they require you send your kid to school with not just lunch, but also a snack for the morning so they have a snack break. I remember in middle school, our teachers used to stop class for fifteen minutes in the middle of the day and force us to take a snack break, where they would sell us little debbies (really sugary bakery goods) to eat during the break. Tell me that isn't effed up.

However, time is not on our side. Fifteen minutes is all you ever get for a snack, and 30 minutes is all you get for lunch. Most jobs are required to give you a lunch time if you work over 6 hours in a day, so rather than have you work less than 8 hours, they'll just have you work 8.5 hours instead with that ½ hour pre-deducted from your pay. In most jobs, you'll get a really crappy break room, a microwave, a refrigerator stuffed full of people's bag lunches... and that's it.

Good thing you also have access to microwavable meals... frozen boxes with pre-aliquoted food for one that almost always taste like nothing. If you don't have the time/energy to make a sandwich, that's your option. If you live near a fast food joint, though, you have barely 30 minutes to run over there, order something, eat, and then run back before you run out of time.

Despite popular belief, the American diet isn't overeating or even massive portions. Its speed and convenience. Every problem with our food is entirely about getting the calories in you as quickly as possible, while making them as palatable as we can. The idea of Americans always walking around with some kind of food item is true, but it's not from laziness... it's because we have a culture that doesn't dedicate any time to eating. You eat fast or you eat on the go, those are your choices.