Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re happier and less stressed. They have universal health care.

This. They have a much more robust social safety net plus universal health care, paid maternity leave, and usually a fiarly good vacation. So much less stress than in the US.
Plus more walking and more public transportation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Italian. Italians eat a lot more veggies than we do… they eat legumes as well, less butter and less died/processed food.
My brother feeds his 3 year old daughter zucchini and tomatoes purée everyday and it’s cooked with onion and oil… and delicious.

In Italy (like in the rest of the world) it has to do with social class too. While older people all are healthy, younger lower middle class people are often fat and unhealthy.

But sayin that European on average eat less vegetables it’s not true. Also, southern European drink far less alcohol than Americans and Northern European.

Op here - I’m living in Italy. In between Torino and Bergamo.

Italians or Atleast the ones I’m observing in their 20s - 30s are not eating more veggies than the health conscious California/dc umc types in my circle.

Not even close.

I go the frutaria and esselunga very often and the variety of veggies is minuscule compared to the combo Whole Foods + Asian grocers I use in the us.

Anonymous wrote:I am American but I almost never eat veggies ("you don't make friends with salad"), never drink water, rarely work out, and while I don't smoke, I do drink a lot of soda. However I am thin. Here's what I have in common with many Europeans:

- I avoid heavily processed foods. Most of the food I eat is homemade, including all the bread and pasta and meat and other non-salad items I consume. There really are not many preservatives in my diet.
- I walk a ton. Miles a day.
- I tend to eat smaller meals (which is easy because I eat heavy things that are satisfying, like pastries, pastas, rich sauces, etc.) and I don't snack much

It's not purely genetic that I am thin because my parents and two of my siblings are obese. But they eat a lot of processed foods, including "diet" foods. And they never walk anywhere, they live in a part of the country where doing so would be very hard anyway. They do "exercise" but it's like once or twice a week they go to a class or the gym. But in between they are extremely sedentary.

I think idealized American suburban life as conceived of in the 1950s is largely to blame. Families with two cars who drive everywhere they go, meals made from processed ingredients or take out or fast food, exercise limited to what you might do in your own yard or a weekly class (that you drive to). We think a lot of this stuff is a sign of success as a person (the American Dream) but I think it's literally killing people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am American but I almost never eat veggies ("you don't make friends with salad"), never drink water, rarely work out, and while I don't smoke, I do drink a lot of soda. However I am thin. Here's what I have in common with many Europeans:

- I avoid heavily processed foods. Most of the food I eat is homemade, including all the bread and pasta and meat and other non-salad items I consume. There really are not many preservatives in my diet.
- I walk a ton. Miles a day.
- I tend to eat smaller meals (which is easy because I eat heavy things that are satisfying, like pastries, pastas, rich sauces, etc.) and I don't snack much

It's not purely genetic that I am thin because my parents and two of my siblings are obese. But they eat a lot of processed foods, including "diet" foods. And they never walk anywhere, they live in a part of the country where doing so would be very hard anyway. They do "exercise" but it's like once or twice a week they go to a class or the gym. But in between they are extremely sedentary.

I think idealized American suburban life as conceived of in the 1950s is largely to blame. Families with two cars who drive everywhere they go, meals made from processed ingredients or take out or fast food, exercise limited to what you might do in your own yard or a weekly class (that you drive to). We think a lot of this stuff is a sign of success as a person (the American Dream) but I think it's literally killing people.

You walk miles a day and have homemade pasta and bread? Are you retired?

No but I have a flexible WFH job that makes it easy to cook during the day. I take my kids to school and run all my errands on foot. I structured my life this way on purpose.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am American but I almost never eat veggies ("you don't make friends with salad"), never drink water, rarely work out, and while I don't smoke, I do drink a lot of soda. However I am thin. Here's what I have in common with many Europeans:

- I avoid heavily processed foods. Most of the food I eat is homemade, including all the bread and pasta and meat and other non-salad items I consume. There really are not many preservatives in my diet.
- I walk a ton. Miles a day.
- I tend to eat smaller meals (which is easy because I eat heavy things that are satisfying, like pastries, pastas, rich sauces, etc.) and I don't snack much

It's not purely genetic that I am thin because my parents and two of my siblings are obese. But they eat a lot of processed foods, including "diet" foods. And they never walk anywhere, they live in a part of the country where doing so would be very hard anyway. They do "exercise" but it's like once or twice a week they go to a class or the gym. But in between they are extremely sedentary.

I think idealized American suburban life as conceived of in the 1950s is largely to blame. Families with two cars who drive everywhere they go, meals made from processed ingredients or take out or fast food, exercise limited to what you might do in your own yard or a weekly class (that you drive to). We think a lot of this stuff is a sign of success as a person (the American Dream) but I think it's literally killing people.

You walk miles a day and have homemade pasta and bread? Are you retired?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:…and are all way healthier than my mc/umc peers in the us.

What gives?

Is it literally just working less and walking more — diet, working out, hydration don’t matter?

They eat waaaaaaaaaaaaay less.

It’s not that. I eat way more when visiting family in Europe. But I lose weight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in NYC where life is pretty intense and stressful. I was surprised to find out recently how long the life expectancy for Manhattan residents is. I think it’s because 1) walking everywhere 2) access to excellent medical professionals and 3) people are highly educated and make better food and life choices. I very rarely see overweight people on the streets in NYC; when I do, they are usually tourists from elsewhere in the country.
So OP, when you say Europeans eat less vegetables than “us”, you likely mean than the affluent, highly educated households in urban America.

NYC isn’t highly educated. Your immediate circle might be but not the whole of NYC.

Anonymous wrote:I am in NYC where life is pretty intense and stressful. I was surprised to find out recently how long the life expectancy for Manhattan residents is. I think it’s because 1) walking everywhere 2) access to excellent medical professionals and 3) people are highly educated and make better food and life choices. I very rarely see overweight people on the streets in NYC; when I do, they are usually tourists from elsewhere in the country.
So OP, when you say Europeans eat less vegetables than “us”, you likely mean than the affluent, highly educated households in urban America.

Anonymous wrote:I am American but I almost never eat veggies ("you don't make friends with salad"), never drink water, rarely work out, and while I don't smoke, I do drink a lot of soda. However I am thin. Here's what I have in common with many Europeans:

- I avoid heavily processed foods. Most of the food I eat is homemade, including all the bread and pasta and meat and other non-salad items I consume. There really are not many preservatives in my diet.
- I walk a ton. Miles a day.
- I tend to eat smaller meals (which is easy because I eat heavy things that are satisfying, like pastries, pastas, rich sauces, etc.) and I don't snack much

It's not purely genetic that I am thin because my parents and two of my siblings are obese. But they eat a lot of processed foods, including "diet" foods. And they never walk anywhere, they live in a part of the country where doing so would be very hard anyway. They do "exercise" but it's like once or twice a week they go to a class or the gym. But in between they are extremely sedentary.

I think idealized American suburban life as conceived of in the 1950s is largely to blame. Families with two cars who drive everywhere they go, meals made from processed ingredients or take out or fast food, exercise limited to what you might do in your own yard or a weekly class (that you drive to). We think a lot of this stuff is a sign of success as a person (the American Dream) but I think it's literally killing people.

Anonymous wrote:They’re happier and less stressed. They have universal health care.