If food is not on your plate, it's in your face.
You can't avoid it," says Melisa Diamantini.
"There's a McDonald's and Starbucks every two feet and the signs and ads are everywhere. It's a constant."
As someone who loves food and feels she eats too much, this toxic food environment poses a problem.
"Food is very comforting and it's very accessible," says the 31-year-old Ottawa woman. "It's a fast fix. Other people exercise, smoke or drink. But for me, food is a release."
Her social life also revolves around food. She and her friends gossip and console each other over food. "You work like a dog all week, you go for food," she says. "It's a reward."
No doubt about it, we're a nation that likes to eat.
Every year, Canadians each consume about 1,000 pounds of food and put away an average of 2,921 calories daily.
That's just a pinch more than what's recommended by those in the know. If you're a moderately active man, you should be consuming 2,500 calories a day. If you're a woman, about 1,800.
The evidence of our love of food is everywhere, particularly in our middle, where expanding waistlines tell the story. The real price will be apparent down the road when a whole generation raised on golden fries will be robbed of their golden years.
For those who think the health system is ailing now, it may be crushed by the looming weight it will be expected to bear.
Half of adult Canucks are overweight or obese. The same trend is increasing in kids at a staggering pace with obesity rates up fivefold from 2% in 1980 to 10% in 2004.
