Put American food next to its European twin and you begin to wonder whether they are the same species. The fries are pale and identical, the bread is essentially cake, the Fanta glows like a warning light, the cheese is the colour of a traffic cone, the sweets and the cereal come in shades not found in nature, and the chicken has been given a chemical bath on its way out of the factory. The reason is wonderfully simple. In Europe a manufacturer must prove an ingredient is safe before it goes anywhere near your mouth, whereas in America it goes in first and stays there until somebody proves it is killing people. Which may explain why only about seven percent of American adults are in good cardiometabolic health, and why, after a life spent sitting in a car in order to reach a chair, they die years earlier than Europeans. Europe treats its citizens as people to be kept alive, and not as a revenue stream with a pulse.