TOULOUSE, France -- An old man sat down to lunch the other day at a cafe along the Place du Capitole in the heart of this city in southwestern France.

	Online Graphic: Obesity in Europe See a chart showing obesity rates for men and women in the U.S. and across Europe.

A group of teenagers walked by.

"Americans?" the man asked, as the waiter toweled off the table.

"Yes," the waiter replied. They glanced again and shrugged their shoulders.

Americans they were not.

They were German school kids from Munich.

"How can you tell Americans from such a distance?" the waiter was asked.

"Why monsieur," the waiter sputtered. "They are giants, poured into their clothing like sausages into the casing."

William Lederer's 1950s novel, "The Ugly American," planted a stereotyped image of Americans traveling abroad after World War II -- swaggering, boastful, with little respect for the customs and cultures of other countries.

Writing today, Lederer might produce a sequel called, "The Fat American," as people abroad identify Americans as much by their size as by their behavior.

But not for long.

The epidemic of obesity that has turned the United States into the fattest country on the planet is spreading like The Blob, and Europe is fast catching up. So when you see portly young people tottering down the calle, the rue, the via, or the strasse, they're just as likely to be European as American.

The battle of the bulge has become a world war.

"Obesity is a growing health problem in all developed countries, including all European countries," according to Dr. Suzanne L. Dickerson, a professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who heads the European Union's biggest research project ever attempted on obesity. It just began at 24 institutions across the continent.

"The obesity epidemic appears to be more pronounced in the U.S. at this point," Dickerson told me. "But statistics suggest that Europe will soon catch up. Europeans ought to be concerned."

In many European countries, nearly half of the adults are overweight and 30 percent are obese, according to the International Obesity Task Force and the European Association for the Study of Obesity. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight and 33 percent are obese.

Much of the concern in Europe, as in the United States, focuses on children. Excess body weight now is the most common childhood disorder on the continent, and it is blamed for an alarming rise in Type II diabetes among children. Up to 25 percent of children in many European countries are considered obese, a percentage that is reaching toward the U.S. figure of 33 percent.

Dickerson and her associates are searching for causes and solutions, and the prime suspects are as familiar and diverse as in the United States. They include heredity, the mother's diet during pregnancy and a lack of exercise, especially among kids who spend too much time in front of computer games and TV.

But in a region where food and cultural heritage intertwine, the widespread departure in recent years from the traditional European diet gets the most attention -- and most of the blame gets exported to the United States.

"Fast foods and drinks are undermining the European culinary culture," the obesity task force warned in a 2002 report.

Mention eating in Europe, and many Americans think of the famous Mediterranean Diet and other traditional cookery, which includes small portions and heart-healthy items like seafood, olive oil, red wine, fresh fruits and vegetables. But young Europeans, especially, are forsaking tradition for super-sized servings at American fast food restaurants.

Locate the prime real estate in the heart of almost any European city and you'll find McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, KFC, Pizza Hut, and other American transplants. European clones of these eateries also have taken root, including a McDonald's facsimile here in Toulouse on the Place du Capitole.

Krispy Kreme gained a beachhead in Great Britain late last year near the gourmet food section in Harrod's, the pricey London department store. The company's fresh, mouth-watering, sugar-glazed circles of calories and fat are now poised to invade the continent.

The counter-thrust has begun, as well. Pressure from European health officials led McDonald's, for one, to start introducing a new menu at outlets throughout Europe. It features salads and other supposedly healthy fare cooked up by a noted French chef, although critics claim fatty dressings and sauces can boost the new cuisine's calorie counts to Big Mac levels.

Although it's nice that you can use the restrooms of the fast-food places without getting chewed out for not buying anything, it's a mystery why people would pass up the delicious local offerings.

"Money," was the chorus from a dozen University of Barcelona students visiting the Burger King on the Ramblas, the Spanish city's famous boulevard. "Where can you get a meal like this for 5 Euros?" one asked.

Fast food is more expensive in Europe than it is in the U.S. A Burger King Whopper Meal, for instance, runs $6.20US in Barcelona, compared to $3.89 on East Carson Street in Pittsburgh. The Barcelona-Pittsburgh difference for a McDonald's Big Mac Meal is $5.50 versus $3.69.

Still, fast food in Europe is cheap -- and the servings huge -- compared to the sticker-shock prices and small portions in most cafes and restaurants. So some budget-conscious adults are reluctantly converting to U.S.-style fast food, too.

Order a two-piece chicken meal from the KFC a little further down the Ramblas, and you pay $6.10. It includes two hefty pieces of chicken, fries and a big soft drink.

Then order the roast chicken dinner at La Garlana, an inexpensive neighborhood cafe across town. The plate arrives with one small piece of chicken, 4 slices of roasted potato a quarter inch thick, and a sprig of parsley. The price: about $8.75.

In traditional European restaurants, you can see the plate around the food. You buy a meal, not a how-much-can-you-eat challenge or supper-plus-next-day's-lunch.

There are no free "side" orders of fries, bread sticks or deep-fried cheese. Side dishes -- salad, dessert, tea, coffee, soda pop -- are extra. A 6-ounce bottle of cola costs $1.50, more than a beer or wine. No unlimited refills, either. Order another soft drink, and it goes on the bill.

Researchers have linked obesity to food prices.

"It's a question of money," said Dr. Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington school of public health, who has studied the link between obesity and the cost of food with scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"On a per calorie basis, diets composed of whole grains, fish, and vegetables and fruit are far more expensive than refined grains, added sugars and added fats," he said.

Speaking of added sugars, young Europeans are in love with America soft drinks and iced teas, which fill the supermarket shelves.

Mom and dad, and grandpa and grandma, sip red wine with dinner. At barely 100 calories a glass, it's packed with heart-healthy natural substances.

But those 12-ounce cans of soda pop pack 135 calories. Fifteen-plus spoonfuls of sugar are poured into some canned and bottled iced teas.

Dr. Barry M. Popkin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill headed a study last year that identified increased consumption of sugar -- mainly in soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks -- as a critical change in global diet since World War II.

It's estimated that Europeans now consume about 74 more calories a day in soft drinks, sugared fruit drinks and other sweetened foods than they did in 1962. During the same period, Americans boosted their sugar consumption by 83 calories a day.

"That's an absolutely huge increase," Popkin said in an interview. "If you consumed 10 extra calories a day without changing your exercise level or diet, you'd gain a pound a year. The increases that we saw worldwide would be equivalent to 7 pounds a year."

Much of the global increase in sugar consumption occurred in the 1990s, mainly among children and young adults, he said. Such food preferences tend to continue into adulthood.

So it's clear that fast foods, soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks bear a major responsibility for the bulging bodies in Europe, just as they do in the United States, Popkin said. But just how much responsibility -- compared to other changes in diet or physical activity or other factors?

Nobody knows. Most European countries don't gather such information or make it available to researchers. That's why Dickerson is launching her vast data-collection project.

In the meantime, German schoolchildren and other young people across Europe will continue to feast on fast foods, slurp sodas and grow fatter. And their parents -- at least those who aren't joining the kids at Burger King -- will continue to exercise their predilection to blame it on the Americans.

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