Why don’t Americans give a f*** about what they eat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does the rest of the world suck? To each their own. We eat like we eat and the rest of the world sucks like it sucks. Not sure it is more complicated than that.

What are you even talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy? I hear a lot of people on this thread saying they don’t have time to cook from scratch so they would like to pick something up that is not filled with sugar, preservatives, whatever else. What kind of food can a working mom pick up for her kids that is healthy and quick in those countries? Is that not available here in the US?

I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

Searching for recipes on local websites and local news channels in PT, FR, Japan & Thailand, the top hits generally leaned toward savory meals. But when I did similar searches for popular recipes on US sites like epicurious, Food52 or various blogs, I wound up with 1/3 to 1/2 of the results as sweet breakfast food or desserts. In the US, we always had ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. When I was a kid in the 70's, every packed lunch had a Twinkie or a Little Debbie oatmeal cookie sandwich in it - but these weren't nefarious foodstuffs. For my mom, these were wondrous, shelf-stable inventions that let her spoil us with minimal effort. My American husband won't get into the car without packing an emergency trail bar, just in case he gets hungry. I remember being terrified of taking my kid to the playground without baggies filled with goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, etc. just in case, God forbid, DC got hungry in the 3 hours between meals. I'm not sure how we came to be so scared of feeling hungry or passing a day without at least one sweet treat?

When we first arrived in PT, we went to the beach and the thing that struck me the most was the smell. Here, the beaches smell like roasted fish, which is what 99% of the restaurants have on offer. Can you get roasted fish at OC or Rehoboth? Of course you can. But I'm used to seeing most people on the Boardwalk with fries, ice cream or taffy in their hands. Here, people don't walk and eat at the same time; they go sit at a restaurant and eat simply-prepared seafood with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

At my kid's school, they have soup + normal food (maybe steak & salad, or baked fish & fresh fruit), cooked on site. There is no greasy pizza Friday, no chicken nuggets, nor grilled cheese + tater tot platters. Pizza is never served at school functions or birthday parties here - other moms have told me they just don't see it as a meal.

In Thailand, my cousin didn't even have a kitchen in her apartment (just a portable cooktop) for a really long time. She, and my aunt, ate quick food from street vendors 99% of the time, because it was cheap, fast and easy. Fresh fruit. Soup. salads. Curries. They will short-order anything you want, the way you want it in the amount of time it takes to roll through a McD's drive thru stateside. Thai food cooked in the US tastes really different to me because it has so much extra sugar in it vs in Thailand, where your pad Thai is not pre-coated in soupy sauce - instead, you get the dish and accompaniments that let you add more sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar, as needed, and you realize you don't need as much as you thought.

In France, people weren't inhaling croissants and baguettes all day. Most of my work colleagues just had coffee for breakfast and normal sit-down lunches and light dinners; or if you had a client dinner to attend, you just ate less during the day. Of the three non-US places I've lived, I lost weight in Paris, and it wasn't a conscious effort. The rhythm and rituals just don't include grazing on food and having three giant meals.

In Japan, you can get onigiri and sushi even at the gas station; offices have hot bento lunches delivered. Sit down meals were much more about the presentation and quality vs quantity. Home dinners that I was invited to had a well-rounded offering of fish, rice, vegetables, etc and dessert was often ripe fruit. In the schools where I worked, lunches were made on-site and were really healthy-looking. Not a nugget to be found nor a dessert at every meal, but kids there didn't complain because eating normal food was .. normal.

Of course, there are lovely desserts and sweets and addictive snacks in all of the countries above, but they are not all-day, everyday foods, and the people around me in those cultures seemed generally ok with pacing themselves better and not snacking their way through the day.

[Anonymous]

American are addicted to sugar bc of BigFood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

I think a big reason why is marketing and additives. We are allowed to market food with almost no nutritional value to children here. And we're even allowed to call it "healthy" while doing so. In addition, our foods have a lot of additives that are specifically designed to make food addictive.

[Anonymous]

I just came back from a huge road trip, all the way to the Rockies. The choices of food along the highway are terrible. Just appalling. You either need to pack what you like to eat, or be submerged in oil and fried foods! The "cleanest" thing I ate was Jimmy Johns turkey sandwich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy? I hear a lot of people on this thread saying they don’t have time to cook from scratch so they would like to pick something up that is not filled with sugar, preservatives, whatever else. What kind of food can a working mom pick up for her kids that is healthy and quick in those countries? Is that not available here in the US?

I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

Searching for recipes on local websites and local news channels in PT, FR, Japan & Thailand, the top hits generally leaned toward savory meals. But when I did similar searches for popular recipes on US sites like epicurious, Food52 or various blogs, I wound up with 1/3 to 1/2 of the results as sweet breakfast food or desserts. In the US, we always had ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. When I was a kid in the 70's, every packed lunch had a Twinkie or a Little Debbie oatmeal cookie sandwich in it - but these weren't nefarious foodstuffs. For my mom, these were wondrous, shelf-stable inventions that let her spoil us with minimal effort. My American husband won't get into the car without packing an emergency trail bar, just in case he gets hungry. I remember being terrified of taking my kid to the playground without baggies filled with goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, etc. just in case, God forbid, DC got hungry in the 3 hours between meals. I'm not sure how we came to be so scared of feeling hungry or passing a day without at least one sweet treat?

When we first arrived in PT, we went to the beach and the thing that struck me the most was the smell. Here, the beaches smell like roasted fish, which is what 99% of the restaurants have on offer. Can you get roasted fish at OC or Rehoboth? Of course you can. But I'm used to seeing most people on the Boardwalk with fries, ice cream or taffy in their hands. Here, people don't walk and eat at the same time; they go sit at a restaurant and eat simply-prepared seafood with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

At my kid's school, they have soup + normal food (maybe steak & salad, or baked fish & fresh fruit), cooked on site. There is no greasy pizza Friday, no chicken nuggets, nor grilled cheese + tater tot platters. Pizza is never served at school functions or birthday parties here - other moms have told me they just don't see it as a meal.

In Thailand, my cousin didn't even have a kitchen in her apartment (just a portable cooktop) for a really long time. She, and my aunt, ate quick food from street vendors 99% of the time, because it was cheap, fast and easy. Fresh fruit. Soup. salads. Curries. They will short-order anything you want, the way you want it in the amount of time it takes to roll through a McD's drive thru stateside. Thai food cooked in the US tastes really different to me because it has so much extra sugar in it vs in Thailand, where your pad Thai is not pre-coated in soupy sauce - instead, you get the dish and accompaniments that let you add more sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar, as needed, and you realize you don't need as much as you thought.

In France, people weren't inhaling croissants and baguettes all day. Most of my work colleagues just had coffee for breakfast and normal sit-down lunches and light dinners; or if you had a client dinner to attend, you just ate less during the day. Of the three non-US places I've lived, I lost weight in Paris, and it wasn't a conscious effort. The rhythm and rituals just don't include grazing on food and having three giant meals.

In Japan, you can get onigiri and sushi even at the gas station; offices have hot bento lunches delivered. Sit down meals were much more about the presentation and quality vs quantity. Home dinners that I was invited to had a well-rounded offering of fish, rice, vegetables, etc and dessert was often ripe fruit. In the schools where I worked, lunches were made on-site and were really healthy-looking. Not a nugget to be found nor a dessert at every meal, but kids there didn't complain because eating normal food was .. normal.

Of course, there are lovely desserts and sweets and addictive snacks in all of the countries above, but they are not all-day, everyday foods, and the people around me in those cultures seemed generally ok with pacing themselves better and not snacking their way through the day.

Thank you for a very interesting and informative observation about cultures in Europe and Asia that are different from the US. I grew up in America but am a child of immigrant parents. My formative years were spent eating healthy home-made meals and very rarely American junk food. Junk foods were viewed as a rare treat. When I got married to my American husband, he had a very limited palate. Almost all processed, no vegetables or fruits, even chips as meals. I learned to cook and slowly converted him to eating a healthy variety of food that was previously foreign to him. I agree that healthy eating is not intuitive to a lot of Americans because they were raised on nutritionally empty foods marketed by greedy companies.

[Anonymous]

USA-Thai-FR-JP poster: thank you! So interesting and so true.
(Got me really hungry tho)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy? I hear a lot of people on this thread saying they don’t have time to cook from scratch so they would like to pick something up that is not filled with sugar, preservatives, whatever else. What kind of food can a working mom pick up for her kids that is healthy and quick in those countries? Is that not available here in the US?

I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

Searching for recipes on local websites and local news channels in PT, FR, Japan & Thailand, the top hits generally leaned toward savory meals. But when I did similar searches for popular recipes on US sites like epicurious, Food52 or various blogs, I wound up with 1/3 to 1/2 of the results as sweet breakfast food or desserts. In the US, we always had ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. When I was a kid in the 70's, every packed lunch had a Twinkie or a Little Debbie oatmeal cookie sandwich in it - but these weren't nefarious foodstuffs. For my mom, these were wondrous, shelf-stable inventions that let her spoil us with minimal effort. My American husband won't get into the car without packing an emergency trail bar, just in case he gets hungry. I remember being terrified of taking my kid to the playground without baggies filled with goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, etc. just in case, God forbid, DC got hungry in the 3 hours between meals. I'm not sure how we came to be so scared of feeling hungry or passing a day without at least one sweet treat?

When we first arrived in PT, we went to the beach and the thing that struck me the most was the smell. Here, the beaches smell like roasted fish, which is what 99% of the restaurants have on offer. Can you get roasted fish at OC or Rehoboth? Of course you can. But I'm used to seeing most people on the Boardwalk with fries, ice cream or taffy in their hands. Here, people don't walk and eat at the same time; they go sit at a restaurant and eat simply-prepared seafood with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

At my kid's school, they have soup + normal food (maybe steak & salad, or baked fish & fresh fruit), cooked on site. There is no greasy pizza Friday, no chicken nuggets, nor grilled cheese + tater tot platters. Pizza is never served at school functions or birthday parties here - other moms have told me they just don't see it as a meal.

In Thailand, my cousin didn't even have a kitchen in her apartment (just a portable cooktop) for a really long time. She, and my aunt, ate quick food from street vendors 99% of the time, because it was cheap, fast and easy. Fresh fruit. Soup. salads. Curries. They will short-order anything you want, the way you want it in the amount of time it takes to roll through a McD's drive thru stateside. Thai food cooked in the US tastes really different to me because it has so much extra sugar in it vs in Thailand, where your pad Thai is not pre-coated in soupy sauce - instead, you get the dish and accompaniments that let you add more sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar, as needed, and you realize you don't need as much as you thought.

In France, people weren't inhaling croissants and baguettes all day. Most of my work colleagues just had coffee for breakfast and normal sit-down lunches and light dinners; or if you had a client dinner to attend, you just ate less during the day. Of the three non-US places I've lived, I lost weight in Paris, and it wasn't a conscious effort. The rhythm and rituals just don't include grazing on food and having three giant meals.

In Japan, you can get onigiri and sushi even at the gas station; offices have hot bento lunches delivered. Sit down meals were much more about the presentation and quality vs quantity. Home dinners that I was invited to had a well-rounded offering of fish, rice, vegetables, etc and dessert was often ripe fruit. In the schools where I worked, lunches were made on-site and were really healthy-looking. Not a nugget to be found nor a dessert at every meal, but kids there didn't complain because eating normal food was .. normal.

Of course, there are lovely desserts and sweets and addictive snacks in all of the countries above, but they are not all-day, everyday foods, and the people around me in those cultures seemed generally ok with pacing themselves better and not snacking their way through the day.

I'm one of the PPs above who has lived abroad and I agree with this. It matches my experience.

I used to live in Italy. I remember that if I bought bread, even a loaf from the grocery store, it was so fresh that it would be inedible in two days because of the lack of preservatives. Meanwhile a loaf of what passes for bread here (really cake-bread) will last for at least a week if not more because of all the additives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy?

Sure. In France I can stop by a coffee shop/cafe and get a croissant and a yogurt. It’s going to be healthy, not some sugar infused substance with a shelf life of 60 days.

In France I can also stop by a shop or cafe and get a sandwich for lunch. It’s not going to be like a questionable Subway sandwich with sugar filled bread and cold, sad toppings that look like they had been sitting there for days. It will be made fresh with good quality bread, meat and cheese and vegetables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy? I hear a lot of people on this thread saying they don’t have time to cook from scratch so they would like to pick something up that is not filled with sugar, preservatives, whatever else. What kind of food can a working mom pick up for her kids that is healthy and quick in those countries? Is that not available here in the US?

I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

Searching for recipes on local websites and local news channels in PT, FR, Japan & Thailand, the top hits generally leaned toward savory meals. But when I did similar searches for popular recipes on US sites like epicurious, Food52 or various blogs, I wound up with 1/3 to 1/2 of the results as sweet breakfast food or desserts. In the US, we always had ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. When I was a kid in the 70's, every packed lunch had a Twinkie or a Little Debbie oatmeal cookie sandwich in it - but these weren't nefarious foodstuffs. For my mom, these were wondrous, shelf-stable inventions that let her spoil us with minimal effort. My American husband won't get into the car without packing an emergency trail bar, just in case he gets hungry. I remember being terrified of taking my kid to the playground without baggies filled with goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, etc. just in case, God forbid, DC got hungry in the 3 hours between meals. I'm not sure how we came to be so scared of feeling hungry or passing a day without at least one sweet treat?

When we first arrived in PT, we went to the beach and the thing that struck me the most was the smell. Here, the beaches smell like roasted fish, which is what 99% of the restaurants have on offer. Can you get roasted fish at OC or Rehoboth? Of course you can. But I'm used to seeing most people on the Boardwalk with fries, ice cream or taffy in their hands. Here, people don't walk and eat at the same time; they go sit at a restaurant and eat simply-prepared seafood with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

At my kid's school, they have soup + normal food (maybe steak & salad, or baked fish & fresh fruit), cooked on site. There is no greasy pizza Friday, no chicken nuggets, nor grilled cheese + tater tot platters. Pizza is never served at school functions or birthday parties here - other moms have told me they just don't see it as a meal.

In Thailand, my cousin didn't even have a kitchen in her apartment (just a portable cooktop) for a really long time. She, and my aunt, ate quick food from street vendors 99% of the time, because it was cheap, fast and easy. Fresh fruit. Soup. salads. Curries. They will short-order anything you want, the way you want it in the amount of time it takes to roll through a McD's drive thru stateside. Thai food cooked in the US tastes really different to me because it has so much extra sugar in it vs in Thailand, where your pad Thai is not pre-coated in soupy sauce - instead, you get the dish and accompaniments that let you add more sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar, as needed, and you realize you don't need as much as you thought.

In France, people weren't inhaling croissants and baguettes all day. Most of my work colleagues just had coffee for breakfast and normal sit-down lunches and light dinners; or if you had a client dinner to attend, you just ate less during the day. Of the three non-US places I've lived, I lost weight in Paris, and it wasn't a conscious effort. The rhythm and rituals just don't include grazing on food and having three giant meals.

In Japan, you can get onigiri and sushi even at the gas station; offices have hot bento lunches delivered. Sit down meals were much more about the presentation and quality vs quantity. Home dinners that I was invited to had a well-rounded offering of fish, rice, vegetables, etc and dessert was often ripe fruit. In the schools where I worked, lunches were made on-site and were really healthy-looking. Not a nugget to be found nor a dessert at every meal, but kids there didn't complain because eating normal food was .. normal.

Of course, there are lovely desserts and sweets and addictive snacks in all of the countries above, but they are not all-day, everyday foods, and the people around me in those cultures seemed generally ok with pacing themselves better and not snacking their way through the day.

I'm one of the PPs above who has lived abroad and I agree with this. It matches my experience.

I used to live in Italy. I remember that if I bought bread, even a loaf from the grocery store, it was so fresh that it would be inedible in two days because of the lack of preservatives. Meanwhile a loaf of what passes for bread here (really cake-bread) will last for at least a week if not more because of all the additives.

And I don’t know how I would go the grocery store every two days. I really don’t and my DH and I already work much less than most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And I don’t know how I would go the grocery store every two days. I really don’t and my DH and I already work much less than most.

Yes.

In the US, we work much longer hours and have fewer vacations with both parents working. We also largely don't live in neighborhoods where you can walk to a corner market or bakery with fresh food. Our neighborhoods are zoned with housing in one location and commercial businesses in another. All this adds up to a reliance on convenience food. It is possible to avoid it, but it isn't easy.

My family does generally eat pretty well, I think. We use a year-round CSA for veggies and meat, bake our own bread, buy organic products, etc. We only eat out once or sometimes twice a month. But we certainly still eat our share of processed foods - especially when it comes to convenience for kids' lunches and such. We always have chips in the house, though all desserts except ice cream are homemade.

I do always remember though, when a friend from England came to visit with her two year old. One of the snacks I offered was a colby-jack cheese stick and she was horrified and amused by the thought that it was considered cheese at all. It actually made me think twice and now I just buy real blocks of cheese and we cut slices with a cheese slicer for snacks. But it's true that even some of the snacks that many Americans think of as healthy, like a cheese stick, are really not "real food" at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And I don’t know how I would go the grocery store every two days. I really don’t and my DH and I already work much less than most.

Yes.

In the US, we work much longer hours and have fewer vacations with both parents working. We also largely don't live in neighborhoods where you can walk to a corner market or bakery with fresh food. Our neighborhoods are zoned with housing in one location and commercial businesses in another. All this adds up to a reliance on convenience food. It is possible to avoid it, but it isn't easy.

My family does generally eat pretty well, I think. We use a year-round CSA for veggies and meat, bake our own bread, buy organic products, etc. We only eat out once or sometimes twice a month. But we certainly still eat our share of processed foods - especially when it comes to convenience for kids' lunches and such. We always have chips in the house, though all desserts except ice cream are homemade.

I do always remember though, when a friend from England came to visit with her two year old. One of the snacks I offered was a colby-jack cheese stick and she was horrified and amused by the thought that it was considered cheese at all. It actually made me think twice and now I just buy real blocks of cheese and we cut slices with a cheese slicer for snacks. But it's true that even some of the snacks that many Americans think of as healthy, like a cheese stick, are really not "real food" at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy? I hear a lot of people on this thread saying they don’t have time to cook from scratch so they would like to pick something up that is not filled with sugar, preservatives, whatever else. What kind of food can a working mom pick up for her kids that is healthy and quick in those countries? Is that not available here in the US?

I don't see it so much about availability of healthy options as about what is in cultural demand. NP here. Culturally, I'm American and lived many years in the DC area. But I was born in Thailand, and lived in France & Japan and am currently living in Portugal. It strikes me that in so many other places, people seem a lot less focused on sweets & snacks vs the US. I'm not sure why.

Searching for recipes on local websites and local news channels in PT, FR, Japan & Thailand, the top hits generally leaned toward savory meals. But when I did similar searches for popular recipes on US sites like epicurious, Food52 or various blogs, I wound up with 1/3 to 1/2 of the results as sweet breakfast food or desserts. In the US, we always had ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. When I was a kid in the 70's, every packed lunch had a Twinkie or a Little Debbie oatmeal cookie sandwich in it - but these weren't nefarious foodstuffs. For my mom, these were wondrous, shelf-stable inventions that let her spoil us with minimal effort. My American husband won't get into the car without packing an emergency trail bar, just in case he gets hungry. I remember being terrified of taking my kid to the playground without baggies filled with goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, etc. just in case, God forbid, DC got hungry in the 3 hours between meals. I'm not sure how we came to be so scared of feeling hungry or passing a day without at least one sweet treat?

When we first arrived in PT, we went to the beach and the thing that struck me the most was the smell. Here, the beaches smell like roasted fish, which is what 99% of the restaurants have on offer. Can you get roasted fish at OC or Rehoboth? Of course you can. But I'm used to seeing most people on the Boardwalk with fries, ice cream or taffy in their hands. Here, people don't walk and eat at the same time; they go sit at a restaurant and eat simply-prepared seafood with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

At my kid's school, they have soup + normal food (maybe steak & salad, or baked fish & fresh fruit), cooked on site. There is no greasy pizza Friday, no chicken nuggets, nor grilled cheese + tater tot platters. Pizza is never served at school functions or birthday parties here - other moms have told me they just don't see it as a meal.

In Thailand, my cousin didn't even have a kitchen in her apartment (just a portable cooktop) for a really long time. She, and my aunt, ate quick food from street vendors 99% of the time, because it was cheap, fast and easy. Fresh fruit. Soup. salads. Curries. They will short-order anything you want, the way you want it in the amount of time it takes to roll through a McD's drive thru stateside. Thai food cooked in the US tastes really different to me because it has so much extra sugar in it vs in Thailand, where your pad Thai is not pre-coated in soupy sauce - instead, you get the dish and accompaniments that let you add more sugar, salt, pepper or vinegar, as needed, and you realize you don't need as much as you thought.

In France, people weren't inhaling croissants and baguettes all day. Most of my work colleagues just had coffee for breakfast and normal sit-down lunches and light dinners; or if you had a client dinner to attend, you just ate less during the day. Of the three non-US places I've lived, I lost weight in Paris, and it wasn't a conscious effort. The rhythm and rituals just don't include grazing on food and having three giant meals.

In Japan, you can get onigiri and sushi even at the gas station; offices have hot bento lunches delivered. Sit down meals were much more about the presentation and quality vs quantity. Home dinners that I was invited to had a well-rounded offering of fish, rice, vegetables, etc and dessert was often ripe fruit. In the schools where I worked, lunches were made on-site and were really healthy-looking. Not a nugget to be found nor a dessert at every meal, but kids there didn't complain because eating normal food was .. normal.

Of course, there are lovely desserts and sweets and addictive snacks in all of the countries above, but they are not all-day, everyday foods, and the people around me in those cultures seemed generally ok with pacing themselves better and not snacking their way through the day.

I'm one of the PPs above who has lived abroad and I agree with this. It matches my experience.

I used to live in Italy. I remember that if I bought bread, even a loaf from the grocery store, it was so fresh that it would be inedible in two days because of the lack of preservatives. Meanwhile a loaf of what passes for bread here (really cake-bread) will last for at least a week if not more because of all the additives.

I love this post!

My family is Irish. I would say a typical day would involve toast with jam for breakfast, a small sandwich or a plate of cheese and fruit for lunch, and a piece of fresh fish for dinner with plenty of vegetables. Maybe some fries if you were in a pub, but not if you were at home. Dessert would be a cookie or a mini candy bar. It's not THAT different than how Americans eat, but the portions are way smaller and the food is fresher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy?

Sure. In France I can stop by a coffee shop/cafe and get a croissant and a yogurt. It’s going to be healthy, not some sugar infused substance with a shelf life of 60 days.

In France I can also stop by a shop or cafe and get a sandwich for lunch. It’s not going to be like a questionable Subway sandwich with sugar filled bread and cold, sad toppings that look like they had been sitting there for days. It will be made fresh with good quality bread, meat and cheese and vegetables.

Ok, but the real issue is that your French sandwich isn't going to be some foot long behemoth stuffed with meat and cheese. It will be probably a 4-5 inch sandwich. Yes the French sandwich will be fresher with better ingredients, but a 12 inch high quality french sandwich will make you fat too. Self life is not really the issue. American portion sizes are ridiculously large

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Can you give me an example of a specific country where the quick and easy foods are healthy?

Sure. In France I can stop by a coffee shop/cafe and get a croissant and a yogurt. It’s going to be healthy, not some sugar infused substance with a shelf life of 60 days.

In France I can also stop by a shop or cafe and get a sandwich for lunch. It’s not going to be like a questionable Subway sandwich with sugar filled bread and cold, sad toppings that look like they had been sitting there for days. It will be made fresh with good quality bread, meat and cheese and vegetables.

Ok, but the real issue is that your French sandwich isn't going to be some foot long behemoth stuffed with meat and cheese. It will be probably a 4-5 inch sandwich. Yes the French sandwich will be fresher with better ingredients, but a 12 inch high quality french sandwich will make you fat too. Self life is not really the issue. American portion sizes are ridiculously large

Not just the portion size. I firmly believe the quality of food affects how it will be processed, stored in our body, effect hormone levels, etc. It’s both - size and quality.