If certain DCUMers are right about European vs US food…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The answer is constant vigilance. I spend 4x as much on food in the US. For staples like pasta, rice, flour, I buy EU imports. I buy bread every other day and pay 8.50 a loaf so it has only flour, yeast, water, and salt.

I make my own baked goods. Never eat anything with sugar added by the manufacturer (no jarred pasta sauce, no cold cuts, no prepared or frozen meals). Only drink coffee and water. Eat fish 2x a week, always wild-caught.

Make mostly traditional recipes: soups, stews, roast meats with vegetables. Live in a relatively walkable place where I can walk to the bakery, coffee shops, grocery store.

Then I go to Europe and eat literally whatever I want and I still lose weight. It's awful but true, to eat well in the States, it's a job.

Hello, would you please share what brands of pasta you buy? Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I am definitely less hungry when visiting family in Spain and it’s not the walking. I think it is something in the US food supply.

I am always less hungry while on vacation, my job makes me hungry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is constant vigilance. I spend 4x as much on food in the US. For staples like pasta, rice, flour, I buy EU imports. I buy bread every other day and pay 8.50 a loaf so it has only flour, yeast, water, and salt.

I make my own baked goods. Never eat anything with sugar added by the manufacturer (no jarred pasta sauce, no cold cuts, no prepared or frozen meals). Only drink coffee and water. Eat fish 2x a week, always wild-caught.

Make mostly traditional recipes: soups, stews, roast meats with vegetables. Live in a relatively walkable place where I can walk to the bakery, coffee shops, grocery store.

Then I go to Europe and eat literally whatever I want and I still lose weight. It's awful but true, to eat well in the States, it's a job.

Hello, would you please share what brands of pasta you buy? Thank you in advance.

Not the PP but wanted to share that there are artisan flour mills in the US which make their own pasta to sell e.g. Hayden Flour Mills in AZ

[Anonymous]

US foods by definition (FDA?) have higher legal levels of fat, salt and sugar. In the UK and France for instance, the food sold in MacDonalds literally has less fat, salt and sugar in it - because of the laws surrounding that, which exist over there.

[Anonymous]

Even if US adds more fat, sugar, salt, it is disclosed in the label. There is a content breakdown and calories listed for nearly everything you would buy.

Count calories/and or weigh yourself regularly and you should have zero issue in preventing large
amounts of weight gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if US adds more fat, sugar, salt, it is disclosed in the label. There is a content breakdown and calories listed for nearly everything you would buy.

Count calories/and or weigh yourself regularly and you should have zero issue in preventing large
amounts of weight gain.

I know but like one of the PPs said, it takes constant vigilance. Many people aren’t that conscientious. I know people who won’t touch cooked mushrooms but they’ll suck down Diet Coke. It’s sad.

[Anonymous]

I think it is a combination of things.

US food has more inflammatory versions of ingredients.
Gut bacteria from the things we eat are different
People may move more and snack less

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I followed the thread(s) about European foods with some skepticism, because I lived for a long time in Germany, and found it no easier to lose weight there than the US. But recently I spent a longish time in France and had a totally different experience. The biggest difference is that I simply found it easier to stop eating when I was done/full. In the US I find it pretty hard to not just automatically clean my plate. In France I found myself abandoning even delicious meals because I just felt done. And it’s NOT fat content alone. I’ve tried high fat/keto living in the US and that was definitely my biggest diet failure.

So if you’re one of the people who had similar experiences living/traveling in Europe, is there anything you have done to translate it to living home again? Any ingredients you especially avoid or add?

Were you living/working in France, or just vacationing?

The stress of work makes a lot of people overeat. My appetite is lower when I'm on vacation and I can relax, get lots of sleep, not try to keep myself awake at a desk with coffee and food. I feel like 50% of my hunger is actually just fatigue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if US adds more fat, sugar, salt, it is disclosed in the label. There is a content breakdown and calories listed for nearly everything you would buy.

Count calories/and or weigh yourself regularly and you should have zero issue in preventing large
amounts of weight gain.

It is, but US food manufacturers fight simpler labeling systems like the front of package stoplight used in other countries.

I’m a label reader, but it takes a not-small amount of time and effort. A lot of people don’t have that luxury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I followed the thread(s) about European foods with some skepticism, because I lived for a long time in Germany, and found it no easier to lose weight there than the US. But recently I spent a longish time in France and had a totally different experience. The biggest difference is that I simply found it easier to stop eating when I was done/full. In the US I find it pretty hard to not just automatically clean my plate. In France I found myself abandoning even delicious meals because I just felt done. And it’s NOT fat content alone. I’ve tried high fat/keto living in the US and that was definitely my biggest diet failure.

So if you’re one of the people who had similar experiences living/traveling in Europe, is there anything you have done to translate it to living home again? Any ingredients you especially avoid or add?

Were you living/working in France, or just vacationing?

The stress of work makes a lot of people overeat. My appetite is lower when I'm on vacation and I can relax, get lots of sleep, not try to keep myself awake at a desk with coffee and food. I feel like 50% of my hunger is actually just fatigue.

Me too. And boredom. Even if I go on a cruise, which people decry, I eat less because I’m not just sitting around in front of a screen.

But todays WaPo article about salads made me think about this thread and the previous one— it’s a uCSF scientist explaining the chemistry but he says that there is something that basically makes you eat more by destroying something in your gut:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/05/best-salad-dressing-lettuce/

[Anonymous]

I work at the World Bank/IMF, which together employ more than 1,000 people in the DMV. There are very, very, very few visibly fat people working here. Some senior people have lived in the United States for a decade or more, continuously. I know a couple of people coming up on their 30th anniversary.

Point being, it's not just "the US food supply" that magically makes humans living in the USA fat. The Danish, Japanese, Moroccan and Swiss friends who have lived in DC since ~2000 (without a significant break to their home countries) are STILL normal weight .

I am fascinated by this, honestly. ie, if the problem _really_ was "the US food 'supply'" then presumably a lot of Bank/IMF long haulers would be plump by now. Because while you can choose to 100% avoid Coke and Lunchables, it would be difficult if not impossible to avoid any flour, eggs, milk, MEAT, etc. for years on end.

Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if US adds more fat, sugar, salt, it is disclosed in the label. There is a content breakdown and calories listed for nearly everything you would buy.

Count calories/and or weigh yourself regularly and you should have zero issue in preventing large
amounts of weight gain.

I know but like one of the PPs said, it takes constant vigilance. Many people aren’t that conscientious. I know people who won’t touch cooked mushrooms but they’ll suck down Diet Coke. It’s sad.

Not really. Cook your own food, weight yourself every couple days. Up 5 lbs? Eat a little less than you have been. It really is an simple as that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at the World Bank/IMF, which together employ more than 1,000 people in the DMV. There are very, very, very few visibly fat people working here. Some senior people have lived in the United States for a decade or more, continuously. I know a couple of people coming up on their 30th anniversary.

Point being, it's not just "the US food supply" that magically makes humans living in the USA fat. The Danish, Japanese, Moroccan and Swiss friends who have lived in DC since ~2000 (without a significant break to their home countries) are STILL normal weight .

I am fascinated by this, honestly. ie, if the problem _really_ was "the US food 'supply'" then presumably a lot of Bank/IMF long haulers would be plump by now. Because while you can choose to 100% avoid Coke and Lunchables, it would be difficult if not impossible to avoid any flour, eggs, milk, MEAT, etc. for years on end.

Right?

It’s not just fat. I suspect that if you ran comprehensive blood tests on all of them, the US employees would have higher inflammatory markers and worse cholesterol levels.

[Anonymous]

Cook your own food, weight yourself every couple days. Up 5 lbs? Eat a little less than you have been. It really is an simple as that.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t a thread about simplistic “advice” for weight maintenance. Start your own thread if that’s what you want to discuss. Thanks.