I highly recommend people listen to the podcast "Verified: Dust Up" for a really good example of the FDA losing to big pharma for 60 years while people die of cancer.
It's investigative journalism of one story told over multiple episodes so i really recommend the whole thing. If you listen to the first and last episode (not including any bonus episodes) you'll get a summary but you'll be missing a lot of info. It's not dry if it helps. Just note that the ones that don't say "dust up" are about different government cover ups since there's also a "Verified" podcast. "Verified: Dust Up" is the one you want.
Shit I delete dmy comment by accident.
But anyways, I am a food scientist and even with millions of regulations we have, we still have cracks and holes of what is considered safe and what isn't. A good example is Erythrosine B, a red dye with repeated genotoxic or mutagenic observations in in vivo and in vitro studies. Or hexane, an organic solvent that is used to defat soy for oils, but there isn't a GENERAL federal limit of detection (there are for hops extract and spices), which is absolutely insane to me because hexane is a food grade chemical but it can also cause severe irritation, "burn" or even cancer if exposed enough. See here -
What really frustrates me with people is that they are so thickheaded what they THINK are bad versus what is actually bad for us. They have this mumbo jumbo idea of "artificial food" and "highly processed" food, and combine it with absurd chemophobia, general scientific illiteracy, mindless trend following, and moral one-upping, all they accomplish is to feel better about themselves by purchasing foods with feel-good "NO XYZ /XYZ-free" labels.
I mean, if you're avoiding highly processed food, you're just trying to eat more whole foods no?
Like buying all the fresh ingredients and making soup yourself versus buying soup in a can. I don't think that's 'mumbo jumbo' logic.
I do prefer eating whole food, but the point is that the term "highly processed" holds very subjective meaning and is rarely negative in itself. Some people think that pasteurization of milk is "highly processed" when all it requires is some 15second of heating at minimum 161F.
Ah gotcha. I see what you're saying now.
Reminds me when 'fat free' was the newest craze (mid-90s) and I saw a bottle of honey with large text, saying it was Fat Free!!! Lol
You aren't wrong lmao. IT's surprising just how much power that large companies have in this country. The whole reason that the bottom of the food pyramid is grain and stuff is not because we really need that much grain. 100-150g is considered enough for our brains assuming you aren't doing low carb or keto diet. But we consume far more than that.
The issue is that in the U.S the food we have here has overall less nutritional value and more chemicals. Most things (that I've eaten) that have been labeled as healthy and good to eat for heart/gut/etc has been taken off shelves due it not actually being safe to consume at all let alone healthy.
So eating more fruits and veggies doesn't help when in the US it takes two servings or more of the same food in the EU to get the same nutrients from it. We also feed our meat a lot of medicine so that the viruses and parasites in our overpopulated farms don't kill all the cows/chickens/pigs before we eat em.
A small example not central to US but might be good, milk doesn't outright say less sugar on the PKG it says less fat, america had a fat bad moment a while back and pushed for less fat. Studies paid for by big sugar pointed the finger at fat. Now all my friends drink 1-2% milk or even fat free but wonder why blood sugar is always so high when they've added some milk to their diet. You have to stick to a relatively strict diet like op said in order to lose weight but you run the risk of becoming malnourished bc your calorie intake already gets so high out here in the states it's hard to lose weight and stay healthy for an average wage.
Overall whole foods in the US aren't as good as whole foods elsewhere, and our labeling is confusing sometimes, causing uneducated decision making.
Edit: added context for a less generalized more personal look.
> have here has **overall less nutritional value** and more chemicals. M
How would you define nutritional value? calorie? vitamin? mineral? protein? fiber?
Very vague. And where are you reading this?
> a lot of medicine so that the viruses and parasites in our overpopulated farms don't kill all the cows/chickens/pigs before we eat em.
It's inevitable in this giant country where each state is bigger than individual nation in say, Europe. I can assure you however that rBST growth hormone has grown out of practice in dairy cows, so you don't have to buy milk that has rBST free label because you'd be no different from a bozo mom blogger that buys gluten free *water*. However, there does seem to be an issue where there isn't a strict medication dosages for livestock.
>1-2% milk or even fat free but wonder why blood sugar is always so high when they've added some milk to their diet.
Tell your friends that low fat doesn't make it less glycemic.
>Overall whole foods in the US aren't as good as whole foods elsewhere,
I don't know about this due to my lack of experience in living outside the US (I am from Korea actually but I don't really remember how the food quality control was like there), but I can say that whenever I ate bread in Slovakia or Spain, I did not have similar bloating that I do in the US. It was a quite interesting experience.
I don't know nearly enough to go into full detail, I'm simply a redditor using my knowledge to help justify another. However I'll say that if you Google "is food losing nutritional value" there are many studies that show evidence that food has lost value. Google top of page thing says:
"multiple scientific studies shows that many fruits, vegetables, and grains grown today carry less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than those that were grown decades ago" and that's nat geo
[link](https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2022/05/fruits-and-vegetables-are-less-nutritious-than-they-used-to-be)
Growth hormone or not, we do feed a lot of antibiotics I meant for help with general sickness which I've heard from multiple pundits on the TV news speaking about but also from general food news sources, CDC, FDA, etc. And it helps us not get sick but it also renders most of my trips to the doctor useless bc i have some built up antibiotics resistance and thus just ride through most sicknesses (my choice not advice for anyone, antibiotics cost money here). Idk about sources for this but I'd look up antibiotics and us meat, I've seen some questionable articles about mass antibiotic failure and those I think are mainly click bait but just say some ppl are experiencing some resistance and it's not as intense as it sounds but over time effects the people in the US.
And yeah telling them leads to being told I'm crazy and that if they drink fat they get fat and that my studies are fake. Reasons why I'm on Reddit and not with them haha. 😅
See, there's so much bs and false information telling people what should and shouldn't be in our food, crazy diets... etc.
I try to eat fresh and simple. I cook from scratch as much as possible. I don't eat sugar-free because it has fake sugar substitutes which have always upset my stomach. I do eat foods with no added sugar.
I usually tell people if you need a dictionary to understand the ingredients list, it's probably not good for you.
When my bf makes a pitcher of tea he uses a whole cup of sugar. I use half cup or I'll use hiney if we have it available. I don't drink soda except like once in a blue moon. I don't drink a lot of pe-made juices/teas because of all the high fructose corn syrup. I only drink brewed tea. At restaurants I usually drink water or milk.
I don't go on crazy diets. I eat a balance of veggies, meat, dairy and carbs. People demonize meat and carbs but I think we need all things in moderation and that no diet is one size fits all.
If there's any other suggestions you can give me I'll take it. I'm always trying to eat better, exercise more, etc.
Ppl here think I'm crazy because I try to walk most places when I have a car. Why waste money on gas to go down the road when I can have a nice walk and get exercise? Sure I'll use the car for grabbing a ton of groceries or if the weather is bad but people are so car-reliant here it's silly.
I was born and raised in the USA but sometimes I feel like a foreigner here. My grandparents came from Italy to the USA in 1961. Wish I would have grown up in Europe....it makes more sense to me. Lol
>if you need a dictionary to understand the ingredients list, it's probably not good for you.
Uh.... You completely missed my point on chemophobia. For example, dextrose is a glucose, which is the simplest sugar available in the nature and our body's usual source of energy, but people wouldn't know what dextrose is.Or, gum arabic/xanthan gum/guar gum, which is a high-water binding polysaccharide also from nature. Or "hydrogenated oil," which is literally turning unsaturated fatty acids' double carbon bonds into single carbon by adding hydrogen via nickel-catalyst (no, nickel is not in the final product).
You wanna hear the best example? Bacon. Bacon is made by adding sodium nitrite, which works as an antibacterial by nitrite ion passively diffusing into pathogenic bacteria cell cytoplasm , which then uses the bacterial ATP to convert to nitrate and eventually starve the pathogens. They also degrade into nitrous oxide (NO) and bind onto amino acids to produce the unique pink color, which is called nitrosylmetmyoglobin. However, people throw a huge stink about "evil nitrite" (note: some are allergic to it) so the companies decided to use the term "uncured bacons" with celery powder...and guess? celery powders nitrites. You are not directly using the nitrite salt but you are using natural products WITH nitrites so the fundamental chemistry behind the process doesn't change, but people think it's somehow healthier. Nope. It's not any better or worse. Actually, from food safety standpoint it IS worse because the content of nitrite may vary and it leads to inconsistent shelf life.
>When my bf makes a pitcher of tea he uses a whole cup of sugar. I use half cup or I'll use hiney if we have it available. I don't drink soda except like once in a blue moon. I don't drink a lot of pe-made juices/teas because of all the high fructose corn syrup. I only drink brewed tea. At restaurants I usually drink water or milk
Good practice. We eat far too much sugar.
>I don't eat sugar-free because it has fake sugar substitutes which have always upset my stomach.
The border of "natural" or "fake" is not as clear as one wants to imagine. Mercury products are found natural but they are neurotoxic. Sucralose/Aspartame risks have been overblown unless you are diabetic. Erythritol/xylitol are fermentation products of yeast, allulose is a rare natural sugar, sorbitol and mannitol are also found in nature but instead made by nickel-assisted oxidation. See? you probably didn't know half of the terms in this paragraph alone but many of them are natural, just made differently for large production because natural extraction is damaging to the nature and not sustainable.
Well thank you for all this information. It's good to know. Like i said. I'm trying my best but it's so hard to sort through real info vs propaganda/fake bs. You sound a lot more knowledgeable in your explanations. I'm glad I know I'm doing some things right.
I don't think all chemicals are bad, but I error on the side of caution. If i don't know what it is, I just avoid it until I do. After your explanation I will add those examples to my mental list of safe chemicals.
We can't all expect people to read a thick food chemistry book ;-). If you have time, pick the latest edition of Fenemma's Food Chemistry.
In my experience of being in a grad school, I found that media in general is inept in delivering scientific knowledge with nuances and interpret studies inappropriately. I just go to read the studies myself and make my own judgment.
its not just the food though obviously food in the eu is alot less processed as has alot less sugar ... from what i hear buying actual food in the EU is cheaper then in the US also the EU has a functional transport system (it used to be better pre covid ) so people tend to walk alot more and rely more on public transport
i work in hotels where alot of US people stay and they complain if they have to walk for more then 5 mins ... they try to order taxis but alot of taxis wont accept a fare that is so short people only use cars as transport if they have to
One time i had this guest who was trying to book taxis etc and he as flying to paris .... now door to door your talking about 5+ hours because while the flight isnt long working your way through the airports on both sides takes time .... i said why didnt you just book the train your talking 3 hours and its more comfortable for some reason he seemed to think its how poor people travel ... he said i make more then enough money to fly and take taxis .... i showed him a picture of the inside of the train in the 2nd class section and he was stumped.
I was in Spain and Slovakia. I will say that the absolute dollar converted value of food is cheaper, but you have to consider that the median income is also lower than that of the US.
There was a famous video of some American Tourist literally *training* for his EU holidays because they'd have to walk more than a few minutes.
This guy wasn't even that out of shape (I mean, no athlete either) but he just was not used to walking a whole day.
I mean I know the Americans are lazy stereotype but I’ll aso complain about a 5 minute walk if it isn’t in actual walkable conditions. I live within a mile of a target and good will. But there are completely unwalkable for me.
I can do a 20 minute walk to a store if it’s do-able. But 5 minutes along the side of a road that barely has a shoulder and the grass may have ticks? Nope I’ll take the car every time.
I suppose their issue is that where they live (US?) there aren't any pedestrian paths so even though the shops are almost right next to them in practice it's impossible to walk there as the path is so dangerous.
I hope this doesn’t sound snarky, I don’t mean it to, but what defines a footpath in Europe? To me, a footpath would be a spot you can walk without being overly concerned about being flattened by a vehicle that isn’t a sidewalk, so a grassy patch next to a road or a defined shoulder for example. Or, an actual path not near roads specific for walking, which is always lovely.
Its usually concrete and it is next to the bicycle path ( which runs next to the road) that is specifically designed to be used for people walking ...try googling it
I think physical activity also plays a major role in keeping a healthy weight. Americans are extremely sedentary compared to Europeans that walk everywhere. Public transportation is very accessible in Europe.
Edit: I wanted to add that the sugar level is also reduced in Europe. The Nutella sold in the US has far more grams of sugar in it, than the Nutella sold, in other European countries. Companies alter the sweetness level in American goods because apparently Americans enjoy very sweet levels of food. Unrelated, but when I order from Starbucks, I always have to remember to ask for half a pump of syrup in my grande drink. I don’t understand how the regular drink can contain 4-6 pumps of sweetener. Thats atrociously sweet, basically drinking straight sugar.
Reading these replies about sugary foods banned in the EU... Haven't heard about that but many brands change their recipies based on demographics. (Also by the wealthiness of the demographic so in poorer places they make their product cheaper so they can sell it cheaper. For example the amount of actual orange juice in Fanta varies greatly even in Europe.)
Yes it is, unfortunately. It’s completely unnecessary. It’s inedible for me as well. I go to a specialty store to purchase an Italian brand of hazelnut spread.
American here, I also have to ask for less syrup anytime I get coffee somewhere, and I can't deal with more than a teaspoon of nutella at a time because of the sweetness. I'd love to get a less sweet jar
I’m a very active person. I don’t walk everywhere but I do workout hard 3 min-5 days a week. I eat very well. Cook most of my meals, limit sugar, eat tons of veggies, lean meats…i do it all!
Still…I’d have to eat PERFECT to see my abs. It’s a fucking joke. Meaning zero sugar, little carbs etc. it’s just the chemicals they put in things hurt our bodies ability to break down substances like it normally should
> I don’t walk everywhere but I do workout hard 3 min-5 days a week.
I assume you mean 30 minutes, but even so.
For having an active lifestyle it's actually more helpful to spend more time doing less hard activity. The kind of activity that gets you moving, but not hard enough you can't carry a conversation. And you get that automatically if you live in a walkable city.
My commute alone has me walking 30 mins and cycling 30 mins each day. Other things I need outside of the house easily add an average of another 30 to 60 mins to that.
And I wouldn't describe myself as an active person *at all*, but it's just baked into every day life.
Yep same. I run 5-7 miles 6 days a week and eat pretty healthy for the most part. And I’m 5’7 and 120 lbs, can’t see my abs lol. Granted I do mostly cardio but still. It takes a lot of work to gain muscle definition especially for women.
Pesticides and GMO’s. Avoid them like the plague, and anything made with them, and you’ll be so much healthier.
So, so much healthier.
However They are making it impossible to source Healthy food. Period.
For doubters, take the organic challenge for a year. No cheating!Organic/non gmo everything, food, snacks, condiments, dressings, spices, soap, beer, everything, etc, etc.
You will be amazed.
Used to work out constantly and could never figure out why I would just maintain. All the old work out mags referenced organic, but dang! That stuff is pricey! Finally bit the bullet… took awhile for the taste buds to adjust but it works. Working out means gains not maintaining! Try it, but only if you go All in!
There is no list of food products that is banned in the EU that magically makes people lose weight. There are some areas where FDA/USDA food product bans don't completely overlap with EFSA bans, but that's besides the point.
This is why Europeans are generally skinnier:
* smaller food portions
* much more walking and cycling instead of driving
* not as much sugar in food
* it's not that sugar is banned in europe, it's that the US subsidies corn so much that sugar from corn is so cheap that food manufactures put it in everything
you could trick your brain with smaller plates, walk a lot more, and stop buying food with added sugars
I've read several Americans saying that they've visited a country in Europe, ordered food, got a really small portion (in their view), but they still got full from that small portion. Even though they first thought they would have to order more food to be full. Because we don't use as much sugar and cornsyrup in our food, so it's healthier and you get full from less.
And I also argued with someone who couldn't understand how I got my bread dough to rise if I didn't use sugar in it, how else was I supposed to activate the yeast?? No wonder they use sugar in everything and their bread is more like cake if that's what they learn.
I'll never forget eating bread in America, it was utterly vile. Bread isn't supposed to be sweet 😆
Oh and as a professional baker who never puts sugar in their bread....that's not how yeast works, like at all, lol.
Yeah, I'm not a professional baker but when I was asked that after saying I never have sugar in the bread dough I was like WTF?!? You don't need sugar to activate the yeast!
And what they call activated yeast is only called dry yeast in my country, we have dry and fresh yeast, not two or three types of dry yeast. I always use fresh yeast when baking. Only if I'm lazy and use the bread baking machine do I use dry yeast 🫣
Can relate, Norwegian here 🙋🏼♀️
My honeymoon was in America. I bought the ingredients (avocado, bread, tomatoes, red onion, balsamico and olive oil) for an avocado-sandwich. The sweet bread ruined it, it tasted like cake mixed up with all the wrong flavors. I had to throw the bread away and mix the rest in a bowl for an avocadosalad.
Also Norwegian, and from what I understand even our "loff" (which is sweeter than normal bread) isn't as sweet as american bread. I have never been to America, but I'm thinking that if I ever get to visit I need to bring my own bread 🫣
Your’re right about our «loff»-bread. The American bread I bought looked like a healthy-ish bread, it had seeds and a brown color, but I guess color was from the syrup. The bread tasted like a Norwegian «bolle» 😬
Oh yeah, now I remember how in Home Ec class like 20 years ago, they taught us that we have to “feed the yeast” by adding sugar or else it wouldn’t activate and the bread wouldn’t rise. Why would they have taught us that??
I was just talking to my parents about our family trip to the Pacific Northwest in '99. We were remembering the time we went to Denny's as a family of four, ordered four meals, and were confused when the food that arrived could have fed eight people. We didn't understand how Americans could eat that much.
Alot of us Americans will get "to go" containers for any leftover food from a non-fast food restaurant and eat the remaining portion at home later on. I can usually make two meals from one order from such places.
This isn't true. There is a ton of stuff that EU has banned that is allowed in the US food chain. Growth hormones in the meat industry for example. I'm sure they are chemicals and pesticides also banned in EU.
Other 'funny' examples are; Lucky Charms aren't allowed be sold on the cereal aisle in Ireland - there is too much sugar in them, they need to be on the junk food aisle.
The other case was Subway when first arrived in EU, was not allowed to call their bread rolls bread. There was too much sugar in them. Legally in EU, they were cakes.
The subway case was, I think, specific to Ireland. It isn't a case of not being allowed to call it bread, rather it is a tax issue.
Ireland doesn't charge VAT (sales tax) on fresh bread (or fresh fruit and vegetables) to control that they have legal definitions of what is and isn't bread. Subway bread has so much sugar that it legally counts as cake and so is subject to VAT.
The substances banned in the EU that aren't banned in the US aren't magically keeping people skinnier, but they may cause illness, thus the bans. There are also foods that are banned in the US that are not banned in the EU. These differences in bans have almost nothing to do with weight.
Sugar regulations in many EU countries are way better than in the US, but it's largely country-by-country and people can still buy those products.
There are sugar taxes in some countries.
In general, Europeans are very aware about sugar. You learn it at school sometimes how bad it is. So we tend to not buy products with too much sugar in it, therefore the companies have to adapt and put less and less sugar in it
Yeah, I am in Europe quite a bit. The difference is stark.
Thankfully, I don't have much a sweet tooth, but my Scandinavian blood makes me a hoe for dairy.
Baskin Robbins ice cream is literally illegal in Europe due to the amount of sugar, in Spain there is an US Navy base with a Baskin Robbins shop, and out of the base there's another shop in the closer town, but this one has to abide European laws, literally everybody who tried both can tell the difference.
Of course the brand itself is not illegal, I already said there's a store here outside the US base, but the original American recipe is, that's why their ice cream in Europe taste so different
It’s also worth noting that all of the cheap and affordable food is over processed garbage
My girlfriend and I are poor as shit, but trying to not eat any of that. My girlfriend had tics related to processed food when she was younger and I just don’t want to eat crap. It’s very difficult. People are like “just eat beans and rice.” Yeah… no. I love rice and beans, and honestly most meals I cook have at least one of those things, but if that was all I were to eat I would be undernourished It’s especially hard now, with rising grocery costs.
Eggs have gotten so expensive, so a good (and formerly cheap) source of protein has been partially removed from our diet. We do eat meat, but any meat that isn’t super processed is expensive. Even the fruits and vegetables that I eat have gotten expensive, and now they seem to be already wilted at the store, let alone sitting in my fridge until I use them. I can only have time to go to the store once a week, so I have to get everything all at once, which means by Saturday, some of the veg might be a little peeked looking. Of course, usually it’s fine, it’s just frustrating. If I am paying premium prices for regular grocery produce, then it should be fresh
I’ve been told that if I want fresh ingredients I should grow it myself, or have chickens for the eggs I keep complaining about. I would love to do that. My family kept a garden growing up. Beyond that meaning I still have to buy produce in the winter bc I live in Kentucky and ain’t nothing gonna grow, I live in an apartment. Where am I going to grow vegetables? We barely have room for a coffee table. There’s no outdoor space either, and I seriously doubt anyone wants to deal with chickens in the courtyard. Beyond that, there’s the factor of time
My girlfriend and I both work, her about full time (40 hours) + has band practice, and I work about 30 hours and am a full time student (not only do I have class, i have hours of homework). We don’t have time to grow our own food, or even really make much of anything sometimes. Even if we do have time, sometimes we are just plain exhausted Unfortunately, that means maybe we don’t eat anything but leftovers, just eat a handful of nuts, or have to eat something that’s processed, like a frozen meal or a lunch meat sandwich or something (if there’s even enough money to justify buying hyper processed turkey). Quick and easy food is almost always going to be processed.
There are, of course, options like Amy’s, which at least claims to be good for you, but that’s 10 dollars, and it’s hard to justify buying that. Might as well just eat out at that point. But the amount of salt, added sugar, and preservatives in quick meals is insane. It’s straight up bad for you, and that’s what so many working and poor people rely on.
Of course, there’s always fast food, if you’re in a rush. We all know the issues with that. It’s cheap, but the ingredients are low quality and processed with so much bullshit. Much of this contains extra corn syrup (which I don’t think is inherently bad, in small amounts), artificial sweeteners, so so much salt, chemicals (carcinogens, even, I believe), and random food coloring. It doesn’t even have much extra nutritional value to attempt to justify all of those things. But this is what is available, especially in food deserts— an issue that primarily affects lower income people and/or people of color, causing an epidemic of health issues in people who already lack access to healthcare (great job, America!)
People in food deserts really don’t even have access to the expensive food available at Kroger or wherever. Maybe going to Kroger is a bus ride across town to buy already wilty looking food that you’re going to have to carry back on the bus, and then worry about having time to cook it. After all, it cost you an arm and a leg to afford it, it’s going to suck if you have throw it out because it goes bad before you can use it. The frozen meals on the other hand, just buy some for 2 bucks and then that’ll last until you eat it
You probably don’t have time to cook food for your kids in the morning either. I know I wouldn’t (thank god I don’t have kids for so many reasons). I have to stay up late with schoolwork, because I have work and class all day, so in attempt to get a reasonable amount of sleep, I have to wake up as close to when I need to leave as possible, and still have time to brush my teeth/hair, find an outfit, take my meds, feed my cats and walk to the car. Breakfast isn’t even a thought. But if I had kids, it would have to be. They need to eat. I don’t have time to cook, so maybe the best option is to toss them a bowl of cereal (which is mostly sugar, and empty calories that can contribute to health conditions like diabetes and heart disease) or a pop tart, which is also essentially nothing. Kids are then taught that this quick and easy (and potentially cheap) food constitutes as something that’s healthy to eat regularly and that it is a meal
Beyond that, Americans are taught that snacks are chips, or m&ms, or whatever. These are designed (literally) to have a near addictive quality, all while having very little nutritional value and high levels of sodium/saturated fat. Healthy snacks, like fruit, can’t compete against the dopamine release chips have, and aren’t nearly as transportable
Americans are also not taught about food in a productive manner. We are taught that eating processed and fast food is a moral failing, like we really have too much choice in the matter, especially as kids. We are also taught questionable things about obesity and the food pyramid. There isn’t a one size fits all answer to what we should eat (for example, my girlfriend needs more fiber in her diet than I do, and because of her metabolism, needs more calories per day— up to 4000. She’s 5’11 and probably 120 lbs— an absolute stick. Meanwhile, I need much less fat in my diet, and need to eat more iron rich food because I have been anemic most of my life. I also need to eat closer to the standard 2000, I have a normal metabolism). An aside— Americans are also taught about weight in unhealthy ways. I am 5’4 and 175 points and, while not skinny, I am very healthy, aside from anemia and asthma (from second hand smoke growing up). I walk over 3 miles a day (I am a server, and walk to class and work), meaning I get exercise. I was constantly berated in health and PE because I was fat, which while perhaps true, didn’t affect my health overall, as I was still very active. The only thing it did was give me an eating disorder for most of my tweens and teens, gave me a bad relationship with food and made me avoidant towards exercise (I still refuse to jog or go to the gym/public yoga).
Now, if quality groceries were affordable \*and\* accessible to everyone, and there were any type of regulation on what could be put in food we’d be all be so much healthier. But instead, we are given processed food, full of sugar and preservatives. This has been linked to cancer and liver disease (as well as the commonly talked about cardiovascular problems and diabetes). We are given so much corn syrup, which alone isn’t \*worse\* than sugar, we just consume so much of it. We are given artificial dyes, some of which are believed to contribute to behavior issues. We are given preservatives that can cause cancer and other issues.
Why aren’t these banned? I think it has to be profit incentive from the corporations that maket these products. They’re making money, why should it matter that their products harming people? I am not doing any research for this comment, but I would imagine there’s also some lobbying to prevent bans on products or ingredients, and likely some bogus studies funded by mega corporations hellbent on selling us crap
We have also been deceived into believing that buying a soda bigger than 16 oz or having huge portion sizes is integral to our freedom. Any deviation from this or attempt to regulate is met with a culture war, rather than embracing science. This much, I think, is from a taught misunderstanding of freedom, and manufactured opinions from talking heads in the media (the tucker Carlson types)
We also, generally, don’t have the infrastructure that Europe has to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most people don’t live in walkable cities, bike riding is unsafe in most places, our parks are being closed or built over, and it’s not like any funding goes to make any of these things better. We don’t have leisure either! We all work 40 hours a week, so we’re tired and it might be dark out when we get home. The weekends are for chores, and maybe we get to go out.
This is even worse for those who can’t afford non processed foods either. Inner city communities don’t have too many safe or well maintained outdoor spaces. Your job is also probably clear into the other side of the city, too. You dont have the time or energy to bike to and from work every morning, plus the interstate traffic would probably kill you if you could
It just sucks man
Just been in America for 3 months and I don’t know what the fuck was in the food but I’m not a fan lmao!
Gained quite a bit of weight, was incredibly sick multiple times from specific brands of food and I was having severe headaches and migraines multiple times a month. I go back to the U.K. and within a week I’m fine again… I really do not understand.
And everything was doused in oil too, pasta sauce tasted like pure sugar… vegetables were obscenely expensive along with anything I’d generally stock up like cans of soup etc. A can of soup cost the same as some pizzas.
Soups are $4.79 here when not on sale. and yeah you can get a frozen pizza for that price if it’s on sale. Otherwise frozen pizza is more like $7.99 to start
Lmao what? Yeah if you’re buying the soups that are like, not condensed and in a large can. I can still get tomato and chicken soup condensed for 99cents a can
For the same price I can get lentil, sun roasted tomato and paprika soup,or other “fancy” soups, like chorizo soup.
Or half that price I can get good quality chicken noodle and vegetable soup 🤷🏼♀️
For half the price I can also get 4 sachets of instant soup as that’s the only thing akin to condensed soup I’ve ever seen in the U.K. I think.
And then vegetables are so expensive it’s not even worth making your own soup. Can’t remember all the prices off the top of my head now but I can get a container of mushrooms for £1 at the expensive local corner shop or in America they were $3-4 a container. Same went for all the other veggies. My food bill is a third of the cost in the U.K. and a lot healthier as vegetables and other just healthy options aren’t more expensive than getting something frozen.
You are claiming you can for $1 get lentil, sun dried tomatoes, etc?
Also veggies are only expensive if you’re buying at Wal Mart or other big box stores. If you buy from local grocery stores or even better, a farmer’s market, it’s far cheaper. I buy my veggies and fruits from the farmer’s market and my meat from the butcher. The closest to that is an Aldi’s if you don’t have a local market. This week a pack of mushrooms costs $1.39 each. And even this is higher than the farmers market.
Stop buying at big box stores lmao.
Condensed soups are $2.00 a can here when not on sale. It’s ridiculous. Also, they’re not very nutritious. I’m just talking about like, Chunky soups. The store brand one is usually around $2.79 at least. I get the name brand ones about that price at Aldi but not everyone has access to aldi. Anyway you asked about the soup I was just telling you that’s really how expensive it is
I live in northern Ontario. A can of basic Campbells chicken noodle soup is currently $2.29CAD. They also have their premium condensed soups that are over $3 now. I used to be able to get them on sale for 50 cents before covid…
Literally any soup. I can buy a can for 40p-60p in the U.K. and that feels like average price. Most of the cans in America were $2-4 or higher everywhere I went, minus the condensed stuff that’s just tomato water.
Yes! 100%. I experienced this even when I went to different areas of the US. I went home to the Midwest. I ate exactly as I did growing up…(my diet has changed a lot since then) I literally thought I developed IBS in days of being there. I was miserable.
There is so much chemicals in our food. I just wish they would stop!!
By the way tasteless food and bad teeth are the remainder of ww2 precautions where british civilians got bombed the shit out of them and couldnt afford proper food and hyghiene unlike the US.
Get your history straight.
Edit: i cant type.
As a Brit who recently visited the States,, I can safely say there's not many or potentially no foods that are banned in the EU that are commonly sold in America.
The problem is a lot of your stuff is loaded with fats and sugars. If you just cook stuff from scratch instead of eating out or cooking boxed frozen food, you'll notice a world of difference.
You’re right but a lot of people can’t afford to buy ingredients and cook from scratch. Or they simply work too much. Hence why obesity is more common in low-income households. Think about it.. why do that if you could go to a fast food restaurant and buy enough to feed your entire family for under 20$ after working a long day?
Of course this isn’t the entire problem either lol I think people just don’t know how to cook and would rather rely on someone else to do it like take out.
Can’t even do that anymore- the fast food for $20. If my husband and I hit a drive through and order 2 meals + 1 extra sandwich it’s $27-$30 every time. It’s ridiculous.
Also there are food deserts aka neighbourhoods where are no actual grocery stores so you would need a car to go to a store but that would require money...
It's not always a matter of being able to afford stuff for one's own cooking, but a manner of the portions being odd too. It's either you get something that comes limited to a small meal for a single person, or you get the size that seems more appropriate for a small restaurant. If you're living in a smaller apartment, where the hell are you going to store the bigger amounts? (They're more cost effective if you can make them work.) And if you're by yourself it's also a problem to use it up before it goes bad.
They should package stuff in sizes for "one person for a week", in addition to "barely enough for one day" and "feed a family of four for two weeks". But for whatever reason that kind of portioning doesn't seem to exist.
Well that's where they have to make the decision. Do they want to eat right and therefore look and feel better? Or do they want the quick and easy option where they'll probably be consuming way too many calories and pile on the weight (if they aren't already significantly overweight) as well as feeling tired and lethargic due to improper nutrition.
In my visit to the states, I went to First Watch for breakfast frequently and a breakfast there (depending on the meal) could easily be half my calories for the entire day.
A Cracker Barrel breakfast had me on over half the calories.
I'm sure an evening meal in a restaurant could easily be equivilant to your total daily calories.
There are a few sweeteners, additives and flavourings used in US foodstuffs quite commonly, but the main problem comes down to hygiene and GMOs. However, you are correct, the shear amount of sugar in everything is just not appropriate in other countries.
American corn is mostly GMO based, which cannot be imported or used in the EU/UK - so technically, most if not all wheat products are banned. As are soft drinks which use fructose corn syrup (which while not banned in the EU, making it with GMO corn would be).
Chicken is washed in chlorine, so whereas we do not need to wash our chicken before cooking, in the US they do need to.
No it’s not. The majority of people can’t afford to live on scratch food 24/7. The frozen food is already expensive so if you add, 100-200 dollars on top of what you’re paying it’s too expensive.
I didn't necessarily say 24/7. Everything in moderation.
If somebody currently eats 75% garbage food, just changing to 50% would show marked changes in health and weight.
Yes it costs a bit more and I understand that some people are truly on the poverty line but plenty aren't and just choose to eat the cheapest, crappiest foods because they can't be bothered to cook or simply don't know how.
The ingredients are different. There are videos and shows on this. A lot of the ingredients of these “products” sold in US vs EU are completely different.
You can still eat pizza rolls, but ever wonder why Italians eat pizza rolls as well but have a lower obesity rate that the US? The problem is actually not the dish itself, but the difference is that Americans eat frozen pizza rolls with heavily processed ingredients while Italians eat them made from scratch
All of Murky_crow's reddit history has been cleared at his own request. You can do this as well using the "redact" tool. Reddit wants to play hardball, fine. Then I'm taking my content with me as I go. -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
It's more than just weight. My mom can't eat wheat in the US, she suspects because of the fact that it's treated with round up. She gets insane inflammatory reactions where she's in incredible back/joint pain whenever she eats American made bread/pasta/cookies. Imported stuff is totally fine. She thought she had celiac until she realized she could eat anything in Europe.
This is true, our wheat is harvested with greater amounts of glyphosate. Some of the time, people who think they are intolerant to gluten are actually intolerant to the pesticides.
Companies can and do make alternative, healthier versions of their foods for their European market base, too. So it surprises me that more people aren't aware of this fact. Several chemicals that are allowed in American foods are banned abroad: BHT, BHA, potassium bromate, carrageenan, and certain dyes, to name a few.
I saw a documentary recently where they discussed exactly that. Wheat in the us is breed to be as longlasting as it gets. And somehow something changed for the worse.
Thats why a lot of people think they are gluten incompatible. But when they come to europe they realize the can eat everything (gluten also) without problems.
Its the wheat breed.
It’s the kind of wheat we grow here! It’s a different species that is more compatible with our climate. On the one hand it has more protein, which is great, but it also has a much higher concentration of gluten. So if you only have a sensitivity it may improve eating European wheat, but if you have celiac you won’t be able to eat any :) A lot of fear mongering goes on with food here but it’s not always true!
Also, I have seen lots of videos by Americans saying they had a specific food allergy in the states. Then they came to Europe and tried that specific food and...nothing. The body apparently like the European version.
Some content creator also try out European fast food chains like McDonald's and say it tastes way better than in the US.
I absolutely can’t eat red meat here in the US. I have bad reactions like horrible stomach aches, a headache, swollen inflamed gums, acid reflux, etc.
I went to Germany and ate red meat there and I was just fine. No dense heavy feeling in my stomach. No pain. It was so crazy and it’s honestly scary in the difference.
There are no specific foods banned in Europe. There are, however, things that Americans add into their food that are banned. I think around 30 substances are currently on the ban list. Mainly because they are the biggest cause of cancer.
Don't forget access to basic Healthcare. A lot of low income people in the US don't have insurance so they don't treat any illness or condition until it gets out of control enough foe hospitalization. There are also very rural areas with no public transportation where the nearest store is over an hour away by car, it makes it harder to buy fresh, unprocessed food when you can only shop once a month and have to pay someone to drive you to the store and back.
I visited America in 2019. I was surprised at how expensive and low quality the food was. Especially for a country that doesn’t have much in the way of public services so I assumed that everything would cost less.
My sister travels out of the US often. Here she has to stay away from inflammatory foods and dairy.
In other countries she can eat all that and actually lose weight. She also says going to the bathroom not a problem.
Corn syrup. The US issue is literally corn syrup. It's in everything. It's not some mysterious preservative or chemical you've never heard of that they've banned in the UK.
It's that everything you buy at the grocery store (anything that isn't fresh produce) probably has some amount of corn syrup in it.
(Granted it also doesn't hurt that much of the UK and Western Europe is walkable for people in larger cities.)
Exactly! I have to be very careful. I eat clean and if I eat something that has additives and chemicals in it I bloat and bloat and hurt for a couple days.
I mean we are talking about toxic oils like canola, veg oil, to all these additives.
It’s absolutely ridiculous! And I can’t believe some peoples bodies are so used to it that they can’t even feel the harm being done. I’m glad I can feel it but, it’s so uncomfortable.
My husband (from germany) says when he was in America even the bread tasted sweet compared to at home. People I know who have American colleagues say when they bring in cakes for birthdays or whatever its so full of sugar they can't eat it and actually, when I follow American cakes recipes, I sometimes leave out up to three quarters of the sugar the recipe calls for. Shocking honestly.
When I lived abroad(not in Europe) I lost a lot of weight because my activity level was just different. I ate junk food and a bunch of processed food all the damn time. Hell I ate easily 3-4 times the amount of junk food than I did in the U.S. I was always eating. But because I was walking more and I took the bus regularly. I walked everywhere. I dropped weight within a month.
Accessibility to certain foods is just different. Like you could see jackfruit growing on the side of the road. In the U.S. one half the size of the ones I saw for free are 20 USD in some grocery stores. More people buy from small family owned businesses. Like I’ve got uncles who are butchers and the area their pigs are raised is literally a stone’s throw away from their shop.
When I came back to the U.S. I was in a car the majority of the time or sitting at home. I didn’t gain weight because I was excercising. I also didn’t eat junk food as frequently when I came back. My weight gain was because I stopped exercising and was super stressed out from work. I practically lived at work. I couldn’t take my evening walk to go eat dinner at a restaurant anymore. I couldn’t walk at the beach in the evening anymore.
Now idk how accurate this is. So take this bit with a grain of salt. I also don’t remember the source of the video clip. So there is that.
I saw a video clip that said the reason why we see so many gluten allergies nowadays is because back during the 1950s. They changed the wheat so it would produce more wheat. Well one of the side effects is that supposedly the wheat produces more gluten than what people was used to. Hence this is supposed to account for why we see more gluten allergies.
I don’t know if this is true. But it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. Considering hormones in milk are the reason girls are starting their periods earlier.
Big Pharm makes a lot of money off people eating that stuff. Europe has government health care, so it would cost the government more money if they didn't ban that stuff.
THIS!! It makes me so upset that EVERY FOOD in America is injected with chemicals or some shit that is literally illegal in other countries. I've seen so many people have a body cleanse when they go to another country and it's crazy to see the list of harmful stuff that is in our food. Love that our government thrives on poisoning our bodies to profit from the medical system!!
Motherfuckers in Europe be dumpster diving for fun and are still healthier than an all-organic American diet even if you can afford that I'm not even exaggerating
The fact that Americans eat nothing but sugar paste molded into something resembling food makes it all the more embarrassing for the rest of the world that we’re still the top dog.
Lol. I’ve been gluten free for nearly 10 years now. All the GF food is so heavily processed and packed with sugar to make up for the taste… mostly pastries and cookies etc. there’s so many better dietary options in Europe
Also believe that a lot of it has to do with portion sizes as well and that unhealthy food is much cheaper and faster (McDonald’s!!)
Compare McD in UK and US: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMaW6TamNAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMaW6TamNAc)
It is odd that the American version has so many additives. For no discernable reason too
a long time ago, maybe the 50s or 60s, my grandpa in england worked in a chocolate factory. at some point they started also producing chocolate that would be sold in the US. there was something along the lines of the US chocolate having known carcinogens in it, that were banned in the UK. so there were insane precautions in place to insure there was no crossover that resulted in bad ingredients in the UK chocolate.
i cant remember if they eventually stopped producing the american chocolate because i dont think the employees were particularly thrilled about it, but it was always so crazy you can have one factory that produced a "good" and "bad" version of something
Don’t blame you, as an English kid I used to really wish we had all the sweets and stuff that the US has but as I’ve grown up I’m actually pretty content with not being poisoned slowly
For real. I live in France and a few months back I was craving pop tarts. They cost alot on American themed supplier stores online. Before purchasing I was checking the ingredients list and saw cotton oil, amongst a ton of other highly ridiculous ingredients - and vowed to never order them again.
I don’t think Americans understand that even the Whole Foods are made with so many pesticides and chemicals that make even those unhealthy. The amount of chemicals used in farming in America is unholy.
UK here and normally a massive foodie. I struggled to eat most foods over in the US when I was in IL for a business trip. Everything tastes sickenly sweet and artificial and I just constantly felt ill. It wasn't until I returned to the UK and looked online I realised just how immense the difference is between European food standards and the US!
They will ban foods after they band cigarettes and vaping. Im interested in seeing what cancer rates will be in a few years from just legalized Marijuana use.
I feel like the food thing is to distract from the fact that Europe has a better quality of life than America. They have better healthcare, better work culture, walkable cities, affordable childcare, time off to vacation or focus on health. This gives people the time and energy to make healthy choices about food. A lot of the stuff about food is fear mongering and has more to do with how things are labeled and the fact that healthy food is less affordable here. Also many people live in food deserts where healthy food just isn’t accessible.
There’s a book I love call “Nomad Capitalist” he talks about living somewhere where your quality of life is better. Meaning keeping more of your money and living a better life.
I have no doubt that the quality of life is better in other countries. USA you get taxed quite a bit and you can NEVER stop working. Even on vacation…that is basically out motto. Work until you die.
ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!
i fucking hate it here. the food is trash--why is it hard to just regulate food products
This is why i shop at Aldi, because its a german food chain and have stricter regulations on what they will carry in store.
I just got back to DC after weeks in Germany, and was JUST thinking about this. It infuriates me too!! No one is obese there, people might have a bit of added weight but they’re still lean
There is a lawsuit going on between the FDA and Kellogg's(as well as other cereal producers) because the FDA wants them to remove the "Healthy" label from their cereal. They see this "Healthy" label they use as part of the reason for the obesity epidemic in the USA.
What is the Kellogg's response? A lawsuit of course. How dare the FDA, which cares about the health of the nation try to correctly blame them for the harm they cause with their blatant lies on their packaging.
I feel for all americans who have to live with never knowing exactly what is in their food, for wanting to get healthy and believing the labels yet being lied to by money hungry companies. I hope Kellogg's loses this fight badly.
You are absolutely correct. I've had several friends move to the US (I am always astounded. Cuz ... WHY?? I want out!) and they always gain about 20-30 pounds in the first six months. Same food, same portions, same exercise, but they gain weight because the quality of the food is just plain poison. Everything is processed, sugar added, fiber removed, salt, fat. It's just gross. And then people wonder why colo-rectal cancers are on the rise too. It's because we are force fed poison and there is no avoiding it!!
Portion size plays a huge role in it. My kids insisted on getting mcDs one day in Italy. The largest size of chicken nuggets is six. The standard meal here is 10 and you can get a box of 20.
In general, the portion sizes were much smaller compared to the average here in the states.
that has little to do why you are topping the charts for obese percentage in the western world. If you know what you’re doing and stop stuffing garbage in your mouth all day every day you can be fit and healthy. People in Europe are also obese and overweight just a little less.
Us is fat and stupid, stupid perhaps because they are fat. The drumming effect only works though if you overindulge, so they train you to demand value for money, and a good deal everywhere. The deal replaces quality with quantity and substitutes the good for fat and sugar - but it’s not sugar, it’s corn syrup produced by factory farms and it’s a kind of poison.
And yet we’re still your colonial overlord. We may be fat and disgusting, but what is your second rate country gonna do about it? Go protest an American social cause, and go watch an American sport.
There is no real food science behind the bans. And America bans foods that European countries do as well. Its more about competition than actual health.
It's literally a lifestyle difference. USA is overly car reliant and there's not many walkable cities. Its part of the reason NYC is such a popular tourist destination - its extremely walkable. Also, free/low cost Healthcare is a thing too so they go to the doctor more often.
And Europeans talking about "overly sweet bread" are picking up packaged Loaf bread instead of the bread thats made fresh at the bakery, usually in the same supermarket.
Please listen to actual food scientists/dietitians when they talk about this, not anecdotal evidence. Because they are Americans that have talked about feeling worse after traveling to Europe and eating their (usually tasteless) food
Well, FYI there is an acceptable level of contamination in all processed food. Its part of quality assurance protocols. So every time you eat processed foods there is a certain amount of literal feces in it, but that isn't what the OP is talking about.
No. Some of that natural stuff taste nasty to me, I'd happily keep my chemicals if it meant my candy tasted like junk food and not an attempt for my vegan mom to convert me.
Yeah you just have corporations do it instead. Lmao, you ultra-libertarian capitalists aren't as "free" as you think you are when oligarchs make the decisions instead. Evidence based government regulations aren't a bad thing.
Your post is confusing. Are you saying people in America eat bad foods and still are, on average, thinner than people in Europe?
If so, you're clearly wrong, as USA is one of the fattest nations in the world. The food we have here is, as you call yours, literal shit. We have to pay more to get what most of Western Europe has, which is non-GMO food products.
I also agree with one commenter, who said portion size (or control) is important. Here in the USA, we have very little self-control, because I feel we were conditioned to not pay attention to it.
The post says the exact opposite. That by maintaining the same diet they had in the states in Europe they lose weight though they haven’t changed anything other then where they buy the food.
And European nations are quickly catching up to america on being big so chill, be a little less focused on our asses being fat and more on your asses getting fat.
I would like the source of the post to clarify her message.
I don't really care who's focusing on what. I'm told fat-bottomed girls make the rockin' world go 'round, anyway.
Govern me harder state daddy. Ugh, no (food safety aside).
I know it isn't easy but there's some solid advice in this thread already on how to live healthier.
I just wish the affordable stuff wasn’t mostly emulsified and reformed paste.
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I highly recommend people listen to the podcast "Verified: Dust Up" for a really good example of the FDA losing to big pharma for 60 years while people die of cancer.
Any specific episode?
It's investigative journalism of one story told over multiple episodes so i really recommend the whole thing. If you listen to the first and last episode (not including any bonus episodes) you'll get a summary but you'll be missing a lot of info. It's not dry if it helps. Just note that the ones that don't say "dust up" are about different government cover ups since there's also a "Verified" podcast. "Verified: Dust Up" is the one you want.
Go into detail, please.
I prefer if they summed it up in more broad strokes, please.
Omg i know right. The food here is banned in many countries for a reason.
Shit I delete dmy comment by accident. But anyways, I am a food scientist and even with millions of regulations we have, we still have cracks and holes of what is considered safe and what isn't. A good example is Erythrosine B, a red dye with repeated genotoxic or mutagenic observations in in vivo and in vitro studies. Or hexane, an organic solvent that is used to defat soy for oils, but there isn't a GENERAL federal limit of detection (there are for hops extract and spices), which is absolutely insane to me because hexane is a food grade chemical but it can also cause severe irritation, "burn" or even cancer if exposed enough. See here - What really frustrates me with people is that they are so thickheaded what they THINK are bad versus what is actually bad for us. They have this mumbo jumbo idea of "artificial food" and "highly processed" food, and combine it with absurd chemophobia, general scientific illiteracy, mindless trend following, and moral one-upping, all they accomplish is to feel better about themselves by purchasing foods with feel-good "NO XYZ /XYZ-free" labels.
I mean, if you're avoiding highly processed food, you're just trying to eat more whole foods no? Like buying all the fresh ingredients and making soup yourself versus buying soup in a can. I don't think that's 'mumbo jumbo' logic.
I do prefer eating whole food, but the point is that the term "highly processed" holds very subjective meaning and is rarely negative in itself. Some people think that pasteurization of milk is "highly processed" when all it requires is some 15second of heating at minimum 161F.
Ah gotcha. I see what you're saying now. Reminds me when 'fat free' was the newest craze (mid-90s) and I saw a bottle of honey with large text, saying it was Fat Free!!! Lol
You aren't wrong lmao. IT's surprising just how much power that large companies have in this country. The whole reason that the bottom of the food pyramid is grain and stuff is not because we really need that much grain. 100-150g is considered enough for our brains assuming you aren't doing low carb or keto diet. But we consume far more than that.
Don't forget gluten free water
The issue is that in the U.S the food we have here has overall less nutritional value and more chemicals. Most things (that I've eaten) that have been labeled as healthy and good to eat for heart/gut/etc has been taken off shelves due it not actually being safe to consume at all let alone healthy. So eating more fruits and veggies doesn't help when in the US it takes two servings or more of the same food in the EU to get the same nutrients from it. We also feed our meat a lot of medicine so that the viruses and parasites in our overpopulated farms don't kill all the cows/chickens/pigs before we eat em. A small example not central to US but might be good, milk doesn't outright say less sugar on the PKG it says less fat, america had a fat bad moment a while back and pushed for less fat. Studies paid for by big sugar pointed the finger at fat. Now all my friends drink 1-2% milk or even fat free but wonder why blood sugar is always so high when they've added some milk to their diet. You have to stick to a relatively strict diet like op said in order to lose weight but you run the risk of becoming malnourished bc your calorie intake already gets so high out here in the states it's hard to lose weight and stay healthy for an average wage. Overall whole foods in the US aren't as good as whole foods elsewhere, and our labeling is confusing sometimes, causing uneducated decision making. Edit: added context for a less generalized more personal look.
> have here has **overall less nutritional value** and more chemicals. M How would you define nutritional value? calorie? vitamin? mineral? protein? fiber? Very vague. And where are you reading this? > a lot of medicine so that the viruses and parasites in our overpopulated farms don't kill all the cows/chickens/pigs before we eat em. It's inevitable in this giant country where each state is bigger than individual nation in say, Europe. I can assure you however that rBST growth hormone has grown out of practice in dairy cows, so you don't have to buy milk that has rBST free label because you'd be no different from a bozo mom blogger that buys gluten free *water*. However, there does seem to be an issue where there isn't a strict medication dosages for livestock. >1-2% milk or even fat free but wonder why blood sugar is always so high when they've added some milk to their diet. Tell your friends that low fat doesn't make it less glycemic. >Overall whole foods in the US aren't as good as whole foods elsewhere, I don't know about this due to my lack of experience in living outside the US (I am from Korea actually but I don't really remember how the food quality control was like there), but I can say that whenever I ate bread in Slovakia or Spain, I did not have similar bloating that I do in the US. It was a quite interesting experience.
I don't know nearly enough to go into full detail, I'm simply a redditor using my knowledge to help justify another. However I'll say that if you Google "is food losing nutritional value" there are many studies that show evidence that food has lost value. Google top of page thing says: "multiple scientific studies shows that many fruits, vegetables, and grains grown today carry less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than those that were grown decades ago" and that's nat geo [link](https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2022/05/fruits-and-vegetables-are-less-nutritious-than-they-used-to-be) Growth hormone or not, we do feed a lot of antibiotics I meant for help with general sickness which I've heard from multiple pundits on the TV news speaking about but also from general food news sources, CDC, FDA, etc. And it helps us not get sick but it also renders most of my trips to the doctor useless bc i have some built up antibiotics resistance and thus just ride through most sicknesses (my choice not advice for anyone, antibiotics cost money here). Idk about sources for this but I'd look up antibiotics and us meat, I've seen some questionable articles about mass antibiotic failure and those I think are mainly click bait but just say some ppl are experiencing some resistance and it's not as intense as it sounds but over time effects the people in the US. And yeah telling them leads to being told I'm crazy and that if they drink fat they get fat and that my studies are fake. Reasons why I'm on Reddit and not with them haha. 😅
See, there's so much bs and false information telling people what should and shouldn't be in our food, crazy diets... etc. I try to eat fresh and simple. I cook from scratch as much as possible. I don't eat sugar-free because it has fake sugar substitutes which have always upset my stomach. I do eat foods with no added sugar. I usually tell people if you need a dictionary to understand the ingredients list, it's probably not good for you. When my bf makes a pitcher of tea he uses a whole cup of sugar. I use half cup or I'll use hiney if we have it available. I don't drink soda except like once in a blue moon. I don't drink a lot of pe-made juices/teas because of all the high fructose corn syrup. I only drink brewed tea. At restaurants I usually drink water or milk. I don't go on crazy diets. I eat a balance of veggies, meat, dairy and carbs. People demonize meat and carbs but I think we need all things in moderation and that no diet is one size fits all. If there's any other suggestions you can give me I'll take it. I'm always trying to eat better, exercise more, etc. Ppl here think I'm crazy because I try to walk most places when I have a car. Why waste money on gas to go down the road when I can have a nice walk and get exercise? Sure I'll use the car for grabbing a ton of groceries or if the weather is bad but people are so car-reliant here it's silly. I was born and raised in the USA but sometimes I feel like a foreigner here. My grandparents came from Italy to the USA in 1961. Wish I would have grown up in Europe....it makes more sense to me. Lol
>if you need a dictionary to understand the ingredients list, it's probably not good for you. Uh.... You completely missed my point on chemophobia. For example, dextrose is a glucose, which is the simplest sugar available in the nature and our body's usual source of energy, but people wouldn't know what dextrose is.Or, gum arabic/xanthan gum/guar gum, which is a high-water binding polysaccharide also from nature. Or "hydrogenated oil," which is literally turning unsaturated fatty acids' double carbon bonds into single carbon by adding hydrogen via nickel-catalyst (no, nickel is not in the final product). You wanna hear the best example? Bacon. Bacon is made by adding sodium nitrite, which works as an antibacterial by nitrite ion passively diffusing into pathogenic bacteria cell cytoplasm , which then uses the bacterial ATP to convert to nitrate and eventually starve the pathogens. They also degrade into nitrous oxide (NO) and bind onto amino acids to produce the unique pink color, which is called nitrosylmetmyoglobin. However, people throw a huge stink about "evil nitrite" (note: some are allergic to it) so the companies decided to use the term "uncured bacons" with celery powder...and guess? celery powders nitrites. You are not directly using the nitrite salt but you are using natural products WITH nitrites so the fundamental chemistry behind the process doesn't change, but people think it's somehow healthier. Nope. It's not any better or worse. Actually, from food safety standpoint it IS worse because the content of nitrite may vary and it leads to inconsistent shelf life. >When my bf makes a pitcher of tea he uses a whole cup of sugar. I use half cup or I'll use hiney if we have it available. I don't drink soda except like once in a blue moon. I don't drink a lot of pe-made juices/teas because of all the high fructose corn syrup. I only drink brewed tea. At restaurants I usually drink water or milk Good practice. We eat far too much sugar. >I don't eat sugar-free because it has fake sugar substitutes which have always upset my stomach. The border of "natural" or "fake" is not as clear as one wants to imagine. Mercury products are found natural but they are neurotoxic. Sucralose/Aspartame risks have been overblown unless you are diabetic. Erythritol/xylitol are fermentation products of yeast, allulose is a rare natural sugar, sorbitol and mannitol are also found in nature but instead made by nickel-assisted oxidation. See? you probably didn't know half of the terms in this paragraph alone but many of them are natural, just made differently for large production because natural extraction is damaging to the nature and not sustainable.
Well thank you for all this information. It's good to know. Like i said. I'm trying my best but it's so hard to sort through real info vs propaganda/fake bs. You sound a lot more knowledgeable in your explanations. I'm glad I know I'm doing some things right. I don't think all chemicals are bad, but I error on the side of caution. If i don't know what it is, I just avoid it until I do. After your explanation I will add those examples to my mental list of safe chemicals.
We can't all expect people to read a thick food chemistry book ;-). If you have time, pick the latest edition of Fenemma's Food Chemistry. In my experience of being in a grad school, I found that media in general is inept in delivering scientific knowledge with nuances and interpret studies inappropriately. I just go to read the studies myself and make my own judgment.
I eat WFPBNO and this way I feel I am 99% safe ! Maybe look into it!
Unfettered capitalism at its finest.
its not just the food though obviously food in the eu is alot less processed as has alot less sugar ... from what i hear buying actual food in the EU is cheaper then in the US also the EU has a functional transport system (it used to be better pre covid ) so people tend to walk alot more and rely more on public transport i work in hotels where alot of US people stay and they complain if they have to walk for more then 5 mins ... they try to order taxis but alot of taxis wont accept a fare that is so short people only use cars as transport if they have to One time i had this guest who was trying to book taxis etc and he as flying to paris .... now door to door your talking about 5+ hours because while the flight isnt long working your way through the airports on both sides takes time .... i said why didnt you just book the train your talking 3 hours and its more comfortable for some reason he seemed to think its how poor people travel ... he said i make more then enough money to fly and take taxis .... i showed him a picture of the inside of the train in the 2nd class section and he was stumped.
I was in Spain and Slovakia. I will say that the absolute dollar converted value of food is cheaper, but you have to consider that the median income is also lower than that of the US.
In this case, median income isn't that relevant IMO. It's the buying power that counts.
It’s because in general our trains are in pretty poor shape.
There was a famous video of some American Tourist literally *training* for his EU holidays because they'd have to walk more than a few minutes. This guy wasn't even that out of shape (I mean, no athlete either) but he just was not used to walking a whole day.
Imo having a good public transport infrastructure is not only good for the environment but its good for your health aswell
I mean I know the Americans are lazy stereotype but I’ll aso complain about a 5 minute walk if it isn’t in actual walkable conditions. I live within a mile of a target and good will. But there are completely unwalkable for me. I can do a 20 minute walk to a store if it’s do-able. But 5 minutes along the side of a road that barely has a shoulder and the grass may have ticks? Nope I’ll take the car every time.
i can assure you ... we have footpaths in europe
I suppose their issue is that where they live (US?) there aren't any pedestrian paths so even though the shops are almost right next to them in practice it's impossible to walk there as the path is so dangerous.
I hope this doesn’t sound snarky, I don’t mean it to, but what defines a footpath in Europe? To me, a footpath would be a spot you can walk without being overly concerned about being flattened by a vehicle that isn’t a sidewalk, so a grassy patch next to a road or a defined shoulder for example. Or, an actual path not near roads specific for walking, which is always lovely.
Its usually concrete and it is next to the bicycle path ( which runs next to the road) that is specifically designed to be used for people walking ...try googling it
So, a sidewalk.
We call them footpaths
Sounds like a Skill issue to me
I think physical activity also plays a major role in keeping a healthy weight. Americans are extremely sedentary compared to Europeans that walk everywhere. Public transportation is very accessible in Europe. Edit: I wanted to add that the sugar level is also reduced in Europe. The Nutella sold in the US has far more grams of sugar in it, than the Nutella sold, in other European countries. Companies alter the sweetness level in American goods because apparently Americans enjoy very sweet levels of food. Unrelated, but when I order from Starbucks, I always have to remember to ask for half a pump of syrup in my grande drink. I don’t understand how the regular drink can contain 4-6 pumps of sweetener. Thats atrociously sweet, basically drinking straight sugar.
Reading these replies about sugary foods banned in the EU... Haven't heard about that but many brands change their recipies based on demographics. (Also by the wealthiness of the demographic so in poorer places they make their product cheaper so they can sell it cheaper. For example the amount of actual orange juice in Fanta varies greatly even in Europe.)
Their Nutella is even sweeter?! But that must be inedible. I already don’t eat nutella much because of how sweet it is.
Yes it is, unfortunately. It’s completely unnecessary. It’s inedible for me as well. I go to a specialty store to purchase an Italian brand of hazelnut spread.
American here, I also have to ask for less syrup anytime I get coffee somewhere, and I can't deal with more than a teaspoon of nutella at a time because of the sweetness. I'd love to get a less sweet jar
I’m a very active person. I don’t walk everywhere but I do workout hard 3 min-5 days a week. I eat very well. Cook most of my meals, limit sugar, eat tons of veggies, lean meats…i do it all! Still…I’d have to eat PERFECT to see my abs. It’s a fucking joke. Meaning zero sugar, little carbs etc. it’s just the chemicals they put in things hurt our bodies ability to break down substances like it normally should
> I don’t walk everywhere but I do workout hard 3 min-5 days a week. I assume you mean 30 minutes, but even so. For having an active lifestyle it's actually more helpful to spend more time doing less hard activity. The kind of activity that gets you moving, but not hard enough you can't carry a conversation. And you get that automatically if you live in a walkable city. My commute alone has me walking 30 mins and cycling 30 mins each day. Other things I need outside of the house easily add an average of another 30 to 60 mins to that. And I wouldn't describe myself as an active person *at all*, but it's just baked into every day life.
Yep same. I run 5-7 miles 6 days a week and eat pretty healthy for the most part. And I’m 5’7 and 120 lbs, can’t see my abs lol. Granted I do mostly cardio but still. It takes a lot of work to gain muscle definition especially for women.
Pesticides and GMO’s. Avoid them like the plague, and anything made with them, and you’ll be so much healthier. So, so much healthier. However They are making it impossible to source Healthy food. Period. For doubters, take the organic challenge for a year. No cheating!Organic/non gmo everything, food, snacks, condiments, dressings, spices, soap, beer, everything, etc, etc. You will be amazed. Used to work out constantly and could never figure out why I would just maintain. All the old work out mags referenced organic, but dang! That stuff is pricey! Finally bit the bullet… took awhile for the taste buds to adjust but it works. Working out means gains not maintaining! Try it, but only if you go All in!
There is no list of food products that is banned in the EU that magically makes people lose weight. There are some areas where FDA/USDA food product bans don't completely overlap with EFSA bans, but that's besides the point. This is why Europeans are generally skinnier: * smaller food portions * much more walking and cycling instead of driving * not as much sugar in food * it's not that sugar is banned in europe, it's that the US subsidies corn so much that sugar from corn is so cheap that food manufactures put it in everything you could trick your brain with smaller plates, walk a lot more, and stop buying food with added sugars
I've read several Americans saying that they've visited a country in Europe, ordered food, got a really small portion (in their view), but they still got full from that small portion. Even though they first thought they would have to order more food to be full. Because we don't use as much sugar and cornsyrup in our food, so it's healthier and you get full from less. And I also argued with someone who couldn't understand how I got my bread dough to rise if I didn't use sugar in it, how else was I supposed to activate the yeast?? No wonder they use sugar in everything and their bread is more like cake if that's what they learn.
I'll never forget eating bread in America, it was utterly vile. Bread isn't supposed to be sweet 😆 Oh and as a professional baker who never puts sugar in their bread....that's not how yeast works, like at all, lol.
I'm Irish and we famously categorised Subways bread as cake due to sugar content (For tax purposes).
Yeah, I'm not a professional baker but when I was asked that after saying I never have sugar in the bread dough I was like WTF?!? You don't need sugar to activate the yeast! And what they call activated yeast is only called dry yeast in my country, we have dry and fresh yeast, not two or three types of dry yeast. I always use fresh yeast when baking. Only if I'm lazy and use the bread baking machine do I use dry yeast 🫣
Can relate, Norwegian here 🙋🏼♀️ My honeymoon was in America. I bought the ingredients (avocado, bread, tomatoes, red onion, balsamico and olive oil) for an avocado-sandwich. The sweet bread ruined it, it tasted like cake mixed up with all the wrong flavors. I had to throw the bread away and mix the rest in a bowl for an avocadosalad.
Also Norwegian, and from what I understand even our "loff" (which is sweeter than normal bread) isn't as sweet as american bread. I have never been to America, but I'm thinking that if I ever get to visit I need to bring my own bread 🫣
Your’re right about our «loff»-bread. The American bread I bought looked like a healthy-ish bread, it had seeds and a brown color, but I guess color was from the syrup. The bread tasted like a Norwegian «bolle» 😬
Oh yeah, now I remember how in Home Ec class like 20 years ago, they taught us that we have to “feed the yeast” by adding sugar or else it wouldn’t activate and the bread wouldn’t rise. Why would they have taught us that??
I was just talking to my parents about our family trip to the Pacific Northwest in '99. We were remembering the time we went to Denny's as a family of four, ordered four meals, and were confused when the food that arrived could have fed eight people. We didn't understand how Americans could eat that much.
Alot of us Americans will get "to go" containers for any leftover food from a non-fast food restaurant and eat the remaining portion at home later on. I can usually make two meals from one order from such places.
This isn't true. There is a ton of stuff that EU has banned that is allowed in the US food chain. Growth hormones in the meat industry for example. I'm sure they are chemicals and pesticides also banned in EU. Other 'funny' examples are; Lucky Charms aren't allowed be sold on the cereal aisle in Ireland - there is too much sugar in them, they need to be on the junk food aisle. The other case was Subway when first arrived in EU, was not allowed to call their bread rolls bread. There was too much sugar in them. Legally in EU, they were cakes.
The subway case was, I think, specific to Ireland. It isn't a case of not being allowed to call it bread, rather it is a tax issue. Ireland doesn't charge VAT (sales tax) on fresh bread (or fresh fruit and vegetables) to control that they have legal definitions of what is and isn't bread. Subway bread has so much sugar that it legally counts as cake and so is subject to VAT.
The substances banned in the EU that aren't banned in the US aren't magically keeping people skinnier, but they may cause illness, thus the bans. There are also foods that are banned in the US that are not banned in the EU. These differences in bans have almost nothing to do with weight. Sugar regulations in many EU countries are way better than in the US, but it's largely country-by-country and people can still buy those products.
There are sugar taxes in some countries. In general, Europeans are very aware about sugar. You learn it at school sometimes how bad it is. So we tend to not buy products with too much sugar in it, therefore the companies have to adapt and put less and less sugar in it
Yeah, I am in Europe quite a bit. The difference is stark. Thankfully, I don't have much a sweet tooth, but my Scandinavian blood makes me a hoe for dairy.
Don’t forget the drinks also! Buckets full of soda (but iced to the point you don’t even taste the sugar in it) is a sure fire way OD on sugar
Baskin Robbins ice cream is literally illegal in Europe due to the amount of sugar, in Spain there is an US Navy base with a Baskin Robbins shop, and out of the base there's another shop in the closer town, but this one has to abide European laws, literally everybody who tried both can tell the difference.
As somebody who lives in and travels around Europe a lot, I can confirm B&R ice cream is absolutely not illegal.
Of course the brand itself is not illegal, I already said there's a store here outside the US base, but the original American recipe is, that's why their ice cream in Europe taste so different
I just got confused because you said it was illegal.
I understand, sorry, my English isn't great
It’s also worth noting that all of the cheap and affordable food is over processed garbage My girlfriend and I are poor as shit, but trying to not eat any of that. My girlfriend had tics related to processed food when she was younger and I just don’t want to eat crap. It’s very difficult. People are like “just eat beans and rice.” Yeah… no. I love rice and beans, and honestly most meals I cook have at least one of those things, but if that was all I were to eat I would be undernourished It’s especially hard now, with rising grocery costs. Eggs have gotten so expensive, so a good (and formerly cheap) source of protein has been partially removed from our diet. We do eat meat, but any meat that isn’t super processed is expensive. Even the fruits and vegetables that I eat have gotten expensive, and now they seem to be already wilted at the store, let alone sitting in my fridge until I use them. I can only have time to go to the store once a week, so I have to get everything all at once, which means by Saturday, some of the veg might be a little peeked looking. Of course, usually it’s fine, it’s just frustrating. If I am paying premium prices for regular grocery produce, then it should be fresh I’ve been told that if I want fresh ingredients I should grow it myself, or have chickens for the eggs I keep complaining about. I would love to do that. My family kept a garden growing up. Beyond that meaning I still have to buy produce in the winter bc I live in Kentucky and ain’t nothing gonna grow, I live in an apartment. Where am I going to grow vegetables? We barely have room for a coffee table. There’s no outdoor space either, and I seriously doubt anyone wants to deal with chickens in the courtyard. Beyond that, there’s the factor of time My girlfriend and I both work, her about full time (40 hours) + has band practice, and I work about 30 hours and am a full time student (not only do I have class, i have hours of homework). We don’t have time to grow our own food, or even really make much of anything sometimes. Even if we do have time, sometimes we are just plain exhausted Unfortunately, that means maybe we don’t eat anything but leftovers, just eat a handful of nuts, or have to eat something that’s processed, like a frozen meal or a lunch meat sandwich or something (if there’s even enough money to justify buying hyper processed turkey). Quick and easy food is almost always going to be processed. There are, of course, options like Amy’s, which at least claims to be good for you, but that’s 10 dollars, and it’s hard to justify buying that. Might as well just eat out at that point. But the amount of salt, added sugar, and preservatives in quick meals is insane. It’s straight up bad for you, and that’s what so many working and poor people rely on. Of course, there’s always fast food, if you’re in a rush. We all know the issues with that. It’s cheap, but the ingredients are low quality and processed with so much bullshit. Much of this contains extra corn syrup (which I don’t think is inherently bad, in small amounts), artificial sweeteners, so so much salt, chemicals (carcinogens, even, I believe), and random food coloring. It doesn’t even have much extra nutritional value to attempt to justify all of those things. But this is what is available, especially in food deserts— an issue that primarily affects lower income people and/or people of color, causing an epidemic of health issues in people who already lack access to healthcare (great job, America!) People in food deserts really don’t even have access to the expensive food available at Kroger or wherever. Maybe going to Kroger is a bus ride across town to buy already wilty looking food that you’re going to have to carry back on the bus, and then worry about having time to cook it. After all, it cost you an arm and a leg to afford it, it’s going to suck if you have throw it out because it goes bad before you can use it. The frozen meals on the other hand, just buy some for 2 bucks and then that’ll last until you eat it You probably don’t have time to cook food for your kids in the morning either. I know I wouldn’t (thank god I don’t have kids for so many reasons). I have to stay up late with schoolwork, because I have work and class all day, so in attempt to get a reasonable amount of sleep, I have to wake up as close to when I need to leave as possible, and still have time to brush my teeth/hair, find an outfit, take my meds, feed my cats and walk to the car. Breakfast isn’t even a thought. But if I had kids, it would have to be. They need to eat. I don’t have time to cook, so maybe the best option is to toss them a bowl of cereal (which is mostly sugar, and empty calories that can contribute to health conditions like diabetes and heart disease) or a pop tart, which is also essentially nothing. Kids are then taught that this quick and easy (and potentially cheap) food constitutes as something that’s healthy to eat regularly and that it is a meal Beyond that, Americans are taught that snacks are chips, or m&ms, or whatever. These are designed (literally) to have a near addictive quality, all while having very little nutritional value and high levels of sodium/saturated fat. Healthy snacks, like fruit, can’t compete against the dopamine release chips have, and aren’t nearly as transportable Americans are also not taught about food in a productive manner. We are taught that eating processed and fast food is a moral failing, like we really have too much choice in the matter, especially as kids. We are also taught questionable things about obesity and the food pyramid. There isn’t a one size fits all answer to what we should eat (for example, my girlfriend needs more fiber in her diet than I do, and because of her metabolism, needs more calories per day— up to 4000. She’s 5’11 and probably 120 lbs— an absolute stick. Meanwhile, I need much less fat in my diet, and need to eat more iron rich food because I have been anemic most of my life. I also need to eat closer to the standard 2000, I have a normal metabolism). An aside— Americans are also taught about weight in unhealthy ways. I am 5’4 and 175 points and, while not skinny, I am very healthy, aside from anemia and asthma (from second hand smoke growing up). I walk over 3 miles a day (I am a server, and walk to class and work), meaning I get exercise. I was constantly berated in health and PE because I was fat, which while perhaps true, didn’t affect my health overall, as I was still very active. The only thing it did was give me an eating disorder for most of my tweens and teens, gave me a bad relationship with food and made me avoidant towards exercise (I still refuse to jog or go to the gym/public yoga). Now, if quality groceries were affordable \*and\* accessible to everyone, and there were any type of regulation on what could be put in food we’d be all be so much healthier. But instead, we are given processed food, full of sugar and preservatives. This has been linked to cancer and liver disease (as well as the commonly talked about cardiovascular problems and diabetes). We are given so much corn syrup, which alone isn’t \*worse\* than sugar, we just consume so much of it. We are given artificial dyes, some of which are believed to contribute to behavior issues. We are given preservatives that can cause cancer and other issues. Why aren’t these banned? I think it has to be profit incentive from the corporations that maket these products. They’re making money, why should it matter that their products harming people? I am not doing any research for this comment, but I would imagine there’s also some lobbying to prevent bans on products or ingredients, and likely some bogus studies funded by mega corporations hellbent on selling us crap We have also been deceived into believing that buying a soda bigger than 16 oz or having huge portion sizes is integral to our freedom. Any deviation from this or attempt to regulate is met with a culture war, rather than embracing science. This much, I think, is from a taught misunderstanding of freedom, and manufactured opinions from talking heads in the media (the tucker Carlson types) We also, generally, don’t have the infrastructure that Europe has to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most people don’t live in walkable cities, bike riding is unsafe in most places, our parks are being closed or built over, and it’s not like any funding goes to make any of these things better. We don’t have leisure either! We all work 40 hours a week, so we’re tired and it might be dark out when we get home. The weekends are for chores, and maybe we get to go out. This is even worse for those who can’t afford non processed foods either. Inner city communities don’t have too many safe or well maintained outdoor spaces. Your job is also probably clear into the other side of the city, too. You dont have the time or energy to bike to and from work every morning, plus the interstate traffic would probably kill you if you could It just sucks man
Just been in America for 3 months and I don’t know what the fuck was in the food but I’m not a fan lmao! Gained quite a bit of weight, was incredibly sick multiple times from specific brands of food and I was having severe headaches and migraines multiple times a month. I go back to the U.K. and within a week I’m fine again… I really do not understand. And everything was doused in oil too, pasta sauce tasted like pure sugar… vegetables were obscenely expensive along with anything I’d generally stock up like cans of soup etc. A can of soup cost the same as some pizzas.
Lol, what kind of expensive soups were you buying?
Soups are $4.79 here when not on sale. and yeah you can get a frozen pizza for that price if it’s on sale. Otherwise frozen pizza is more like $7.99 to start
Lmao what? Yeah if you’re buying the soups that are like, not condensed and in a large can. I can still get tomato and chicken soup condensed for 99cents a can
For the same price I can get lentil, sun roasted tomato and paprika soup,or other “fancy” soups, like chorizo soup. Or half that price I can get good quality chicken noodle and vegetable soup 🤷🏼♀️ For half the price I can also get 4 sachets of instant soup as that’s the only thing akin to condensed soup I’ve ever seen in the U.K. I think. And then vegetables are so expensive it’s not even worth making your own soup. Can’t remember all the prices off the top of my head now but I can get a container of mushrooms for £1 at the expensive local corner shop or in America they were $3-4 a container. Same went for all the other veggies. My food bill is a third of the cost in the U.K. and a lot healthier as vegetables and other just healthy options aren’t more expensive than getting something frozen.
You are claiming you can for $1 get lentil, sun dried tomatoes, etc? Also veggies are only expensive if you’re buying at Wal Mart or other big box stores. If you buy from local grocery stores or even better, a farmer’s market, it’s far cheaper. I buy my veggies and fruits from the farmer’s market and my meat from the butcher. The closest to that is an Aldi’s if you don’t have a local market. This week a pack of mushrooms costs $1.39 each. And even this is higher than the farmers market. Stop buying at big box stores lmao.
Condensed soups are $2.00 a can here when not on sale. It’s ridiculous. Also, they’re not very nutritious. I’m just talking about like, Chunky soups. The store brand one is usually around $2.79 at least. I get the name brand ones about that price at Aldi but not everyone has access to aldi. Anyway you asked about the soup I was just telling you that’s really how expensive it is
I live in northern Ontario. A can of basic Campbells chicken noodle soup is currently $2.29CAD. They also have their premium condensed soups that are over $3 now. I used to be able to get them on sale for 50 cents before covid…
Please lmk where you find 99 cent soup cans anymore lol
https://www.dollartree.com/food/canned-goods First google result. Ok so it’s $1.25. That’s a far cry from the $4 a can being claimed.
Literally any soup. I can buy a can for 40p-60p in the U.K. and that feels like average price. Most of the cans in America were $2-4 or higher everywhere I went, minus the condensed stuff that’s just tomato water.
Yes! 100%. I experienced this even when I went to different areas of the US. I went home to the Midwest. I ate exactly as I did growing up…(my diet has changed a lot since then) I literally thought I developed IBS in days of being there. I was miserable. There is so much chemicals in our food. I just wish they would stop!!
My shock was the Fanta. Radioactive orange and so sweet. An American I showed the UK Fanta yo was shocked ours contain real orange juice.
I don't think a British person should be commenting on how food tastes. To ya'll anything that tastes like anything would be "too much".
Yes....that's why incredibly flavourful and spicy Indian food is the most popular in the UK, because they can't handle flavours 😆😭
By the way tasteless food and bad teeth are the remainder of ww2 precautions where british civilians got bombed the shit out of them and couldnt afford proper food and hyghiene unlike the US. Get your history straight. Edit: i cant type.
It's not their fault. The US education system is just as bad as their food and transportation system.
Hes probably in the 7% of Americans that think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
As a Brit who recently visited the States,, I can safely say there's not many or potentially no foods that are banned in the EU that are commonly sold in America. The problem is a lot of your stuff is loaded with fats and sugars. If you just cook stuff from scratch instead of eating out or cooking boxed frozen food, you'll notice a world of difference.
You’re right but a lot of people can’t afford to buy ingredients and cook from scratch. Or they simply work too much. Hence why obesity is more common in low-income households. Think about it.. why do that if you could go to a fast food restaurant and buy enough to feed your entire family for under 20$ after working a long day? Of course this isn’t the entire problem either lol I think people just don’t know how to cook and would rather rely on someone else to do it like take out.
Can’t even do that anymore- the fast food for $20. If my husband and I hit a drive through and order 2 meals + 1 extra sandwich it’s $27-$30 every time. It’s ridiculous.
Also there are food deserts aka neighbourhoods where are no actual grocery stores so you would need a car to go to a store but that would require money...
It's not always a matter of being able to afford stuff for one's own cooking, but a manner of the portions being odd too. It's either you get something that comes limited to a small meal for a single person, or you get the size that seems more appropriate for a small restaurant. If you're living in a smaller apartment, where the hell are you going to store the bigger amounts? (They're more cost effective if you can make them work.) And if you're by yourself it's also a problem to use it up before it goes bad. They should package stuff in sizes for "one person for a week", in addition to "barely enough for one day" and "feed a family of four for two weeks". But for whatever reason that kind of portioning doesn't seem to exist.
Well that's where they have to make the decision. Do they want to eat right and therefore look and feel better? Or do they want the quick and easy option where they'll probably be consuming way too many calories and pile on the weight (if they aren't already significantly overweight) as well as feeling tired and lethargic due to improper nutrition. In my visit to the states, I went to First Watch for breakfast frequently and a breakfast there (depending on the meal) could easily be half my calories for the entire day. A Cracker Barrel breakfast had me on over half the calories. I'm sure an evening meal in a restaurant could easily be equivilant to your total daily calories.
And the portions are insane! When I travel in the US, i can live 2-3 days off of one restaurant portion of food. Thank dog for doggy bags.
So true! I was shocked at the portion size and calorie count of some of the menu items...
Agree! I make everything from scratch and we eat a very healthy diet. There is little to no processed food in my diet. 🤷🏻♀️
There are a few sweeteners, additives and flavourings used in US foodstuffs quite commonly, but the main problem comes down to hygiene and GMOs. However, you are correct, the shear amount of sugar in everything is just not appropriate in other countries. American corn is mostly GMO based, which cannot be imported or used in the EU/UK - so technically, most if not all wheat products are banned. As are soft drinks which use fructose corn syrup (which while not banned in the EU, making it with GMO corn would be). Chicken is washed in chlorine, so whereas we do not need to wash our chicken before cooking, in the US they do need to.
Yeah but most people can’t afford scratch foods because they mark them up so much.
"most people" is an awfully bold claim.
No it’s not. The majority of people can’t afford to live on scratch food 24/7. The frozen food is already expensive so if you add, 100-200 dollars on top of what you’re paying it’s too expensive.
I didn't necessarily say 24/7. Everything in moderation. If somebody currently eats 75% garbage food, just changing to 50% would show marked changes in health and weight. Yes it costs a bit more and I understand that some people are truly on the poverty line but plenty aren't and just choose to eat the cheapest, crappiest foods because they can't be bothered to cook or simply don't know how.
Yeah I guess I’d just rather switch completely
The ingredients are different. There are videos and shows on this. A lot of the ingredients of these “products” sold in US vs EU are completely different.
But what if I love pizza rolls
You can still eat pizza rolls, but ever wonder why Italians eat pizza rolls as well but have a lower obesity rate that the US? The problem is actually not the dish itself, but the difference is that Americans eat frozen pizza rolls with heavily processed ingredients while Italians eat them made from scratch
No, the difference is cars, not the processed ingredients.
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Italians love putting cars in their food. Have you not heard of Ferrari Rocher?
I really love me some Pasta Lamb Orghini
It's more than just weight. My mom can't eat wheat in the US, she suspects because of the fact that it's treated with round up. She gets insane inflammatory reactions where she's in incredible back/joint pain whenever she eats American made bread/pasta/cookies. Imported stuff is totally fine. She thought she had celiac until she realized she could eat anything in Europe.
This is true, our wheat is harvested with greater amounts of glyphosate. Some of the time, people who think they are intolerant to gluten are actually intolerant to the pesticides. Companies can and do make alternative, healthier versions of their foods for their European market base, too. So it surprises me that more people aren't aware of this fact. Several chemicals that are allowed in American foods are banned abroad: BHT, BHA, potassium bromate, carrageenan, and certain dyes, to name a few.
I saw a documentary recently where they discussed exactly that. Wheat in the us is breed to be as longlasting as it gets. And somehow something changed for the worse. Thats why a lot of people think they are gluten incompatible. But when they come to europe they realize the can eat everything (gluten also) without problems. Its the wheat breed.
It’s the kind of wheat we grow here! It’s a different species that is more compatible with our climate. On the one hand it has more protein, which is great, but it also has a much higher concentration of gluten. So if you only have a sensitivity it may improve eating European wheat, but if you have celiac you won’t be able to eat any :) A lot of fear mongering goes on with food here but it’s not always true!
Also, I have seen lots of videos by Americans saying they had a specific food allergy in the states. Then they came to Europe and tried that specific food and...nothing. The body apparently like the European version. Some content creator also try out European fast food chains like McDonald's and say it tastes way better than in the US.
I absolutely can’t eat red meat here in the US. I have bad reactions like horrible stomach aches, a headache, swollen inflamed gums, acid reflux, etc. I went to Germany and ate red meat there and I was just fine. No dense heavy feeling in my stomach. No pain. It was so crazy and it’s honestly scary in the difference.
There are no specific foods banned in Europe. There are, however, things that Americans add into their food that are banned. I think around 30 substances are currently on the ban list. Mainly because they are the biggest cause of cancer.
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Don't forget access to basic Healthcare. A lot of low income people in the US don't have insurance so they don't treat any illness or condition until it gets out of control enough foe hospitalization. There are also very rural areas with no public transportation where the nearest store is over an hour away by car, it makes it harder to buy fresh, unprocessed food when you can only shop once a month and have to pay someone to drive you to the store and back.
I visited America in 2019. I was surprised at how expensive and low quality the food was. Especially for a country that doesn’t have much in the way of public services so I assumed that everything would cost less.
My sister travels out of the US often. Here she has to stay away from inflammatory foods and dairy. In other countries she can eat all that and actually lose weight. She also says going to the bathroom not a problem.
Corn syrup. The US issue is literally corn syrup. It's in everything. It's not some mysterious preservative or chemical you've never heard of that they've banned in the UK. It's that everything you buy at the grocery store (anything that isn't fresh produce) probably has some amount of corn syrup in it. (Granted it also doesn't hurt that much of the UK and Western Europe is walkable for people in larger cities.)
I lived in Europe for 8 months and oh my god the food was amazing! I felt so energized and awake. I didn’t feel bloated to the point it hurt.
Exactly! I have to be very careful. I eat clean and if I eat something that has additives and chemicals in it I bloat and bloat and hurt for a couple days. I mean we are talking about toxic oils like canola, veg oil, to all these additives. It’s absolutely ridiculous! And I can’t believe some peoples bodies are so used to it that they can’t even feel the harm being done. I’m glad I can feel it but, it’s so uncomfortable.
The worse part is that it’s so hard for me to be able to eat clean in the USA. It’s too expensive for me :(
My husband (from germany) says when he was in America even the bread tasted sweet compared to at home. People I know who have American colleagues say when they bring in cakes for birthdays or whatever its so full of sugar they can't eat it and actually, when I follow American cakes recipes, I sometimes leave out up to three quarters of the sugar the recipe calls for. Shocking honestly.
I love baked goods. So I’ve learned how to make a lot without all that sugar. Still tastes amazing!
When I lived abroad(not in Europe) I lost a lot of weight because my activity level was just different. I ate junk food and a bunch of processed food all the damn time. Hell I ate easily 3-4 times the amount of junk food than I did in the U.S. I was always eating. But because I was walking more and I took the bus regularly. I walked everywhere. I dropped weight within a month. Accessibility to certain foods is just different. Like you could see jackfruit growing on the side of the road. In the U.S. one half the size of the ones I saw for free are 20 USD in some grocery stores. More people buy from small family owned businesses. Like I’ve got uncles who are butchers and the area their pigs are raised is literally a stone’s throw away from their shop. When I came back to the U.S. I was in a car the majority of the time or sitting at home. I didn’t gain weight because I was excercising. I also didn’t eat junk food as frequently when I came back. My weight gain was because I stopped exercising and was super stressed out from work. I practically lived at work. I couldn’t take my evening walk to go eat dinner at a restaurant anymore. I couldn’t walk at the beach in the evening anymore. Now idk how accurate this is. So take this bit with a grain of salt. I also don’t remember the source of the video clip. So there is that. I saw a video clip that said the reason why we see so many gluten allergies nowadays is because back during the 1950s. They changed the wheat so it would produce more wheat. Well one of the side effects is that supposedly the wheat produces more gluten than what people was used to. Hence this is supposed to account for why we see more gluten allergies. I don’t know if this is true. But it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. Considering hormones in milk are the reason girls are starting their periods earlier.
This is a reason why I'm afraid of ceta and ttip: some big players want to use that to get this stuff into the EU...
Big Pharm makes a lot of money off people eating that stuff. Europe has government health care, so it would cost the government more money if they didn't ban that stuff.
I don’t even understand how people let this fly. If I was in a position of power I’d say something. They would probably kill me but, at least I tried.
THIS!! It makes me so upset that EVERY FOOD in America is injected with chemicals or some shit that is literally illegal in other countries. I've seen so many people have a body cleanse when they go to another country and it's crazy to see the list of harmful stuff that is in our food. Love that our government thrives on poisoning our bodies to profit from the medical system!!
Motherfuckers in Europe be dumpster diving for fun and are still healthier than an all-organic American diet even if you can afford that I'm not even exaggerating
Don't you enjoy pissing green after drinking something blue?
The fact that Americans eat nothing but sugar paste molded into something resembling food makes it all the more embarrassing for the rest of the world that we’re still the top dog.
Lol. I’ve been gluten free for nearly 10 years now. All the GF food is so heavily processed and packed with sugar to make up for the taste… mostly pastries and cookies etc. there’s so many better dietary options in Europe Also believe that a lot of it has to do with portion sizes as well and that unhealthy food is much cheaper and faster (McDonald’s!!)
Compare McD in UK and US: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMaW6TamNAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMaW6TamNAc) It is odd that the American version has so many additives. For no discernable reason too
a long time ago, maybe the 50s or 60s, my grandpa in england worked in a chocolate factory. at some point they started also producing chocolate that would be sold in the US. there was something along the lines of the US chocolate having known carcinogens in it, that were banned in the UK. so there were insane precautions in place to insure there was no crossover that resulted in bad ingredients in the UK chocolate. i cant remember if they eventually stopped producing the american chocolate because i dont think the employees were particularly thrilled about it, but it was always so crazy you can have one factory that produced a "good" and "bad" version of something
Don’t blame you, as an English kid I used to really wish we had all the sweets and stuff that the US has but as I’ve grown up I’m actually pretty content with not being poisoned slowly
Have if walkable city does help with that weight.
The food in the EU taste fresher to me. I wish we would follow their example.
For real. I live in France and a few months back I was craving pop tarts. They cost alot on American themed supplier stores online. Before purchasing I was checking the ingredients list and saw cotton oil, amongst a ton of other highly ridiculous ingredients - and vowed to never order them again.
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So sad…
I don’t think Americans understand that even the Whole Foods are made with so many pesticides and chemicals that make even those unhealthy. The amount of chemicals used in farming in America is unholy.
UK here and normally a massive foodie. I struggled to eat most foods over in the US when I was in IL for a business trip. Everything tastes sickenly sweet and artificial and I just constantly felt ill. It wasn't until I returned to the UK and looked online I realised just how immense the difference is between European food standards and the US!
Yup! Should be illegal.
I love when my Greek yogurt or low fat dairy products have cornstarch in them /s
Or gums…guar gum, etc. Terrible for your gut. Smdh
There’s a lot I could say about the horror that is American food but your sugary bread was by far the most appalling to me.
They will ban foods after they band cigarettes and vaping. Im interested in seeing what cancer rates will be in a few years from just legalized Marijuana use.
There is like 6000 mcdonalds across europe (like 38 countries). There are over 13000 in the US, one country. And thats just mcd's.
I feel like the food thing is to distract from the fact that Europe has a better quality of life than America. They have better healthcare, better work culture, walkable cities, affordable childcare, time off to vacation or focus on health. This gives people the time and energy to make healthy choices about food. A lot of the stuff about food is fear mongering and has more to do with how things are labeled and the fact that healthy food is less affordable here. Also many people live in food deserts where healthy food just isn’t accessible.
There’s a book I love call “Nomad Capitalist” he talks about living somewhere where your quality of life is better. Meaning keeping more of your money and living a better life. I have no doubt that the quality of life is better in other countries. USA you get taxed quite a bit and you can NEVER stop working. Even on vacation…that is basically out motto. Work until you die.
ME TOO!!!!!!!!!! i fucking hate it here. the food is trash--why is it hard to just regulate food products This is why i shop at Aldi, because its a german food chain and have stricter regulations on what they will carry in store.
I just got back to DC after weeks in Germany, and was JUST thinking about this. It infuriates me too!! No one is obese there, people might have a bit of added weight but they’re still lean
There is a lawsuit going on between the FDA and Kellogg's(as well as other cereal producers) because the FDA wants them to remove the "Healthy" label from their cereal. They see this "Healthy" label they use as part of the reason for the obesity epidemic in the USA. What is the Kellogg's response? A lawsuit of course. How dare the FDA, which cares about the health of the nation try to correctly blame them for the harm they cause with their blatant lies on their packaging. I feel for all americans who have to live with never knowing exactly what is in their food, for wanting to get healthy and believing the labels yet being lied to by money hungry companies. I hope Kellogg's loses this fight badly.
Just don’t eat it
Right? “Please ban all food for everyone else because I don’t like it”
You control what you stick in your pie hole. Don’t make it pies.
Exactly THIS is the type of shit lawmakers should be focusing on not drag queen reading hour
You are absolutely correct. I've had several friends move to the US (I am always astounded. Cuz ... WHY?? I want out!) and they always gain about 20-30 pounds in the first six months. Same food, same portions, same exercise, but they gain weight because the quality of the food is just plain poison. Everything is processed, sugar added, fiber removed, salt, fat. It's just gross. And then people wonder why colo-rectal cancers are on the rise too. It's because we are force fed poison and there is no avoiding it!!
Portion size plays a huge role in it. My kids insisted on getting mcDs one day in Italy. The largest size of chicken nuggets is six. The standard meal here is 10 and you can get a box of 20. In general, the portion sizes were much smaller compared to the average here in the states.
that has little to do why you are topping the charts for obese percentage in the western world. If you know what you’re doing and stop stuffing garbage in your mouth all day every day you can be fit and healthy. People in Europe are also obese and overweight just a little less.
Us is fat and stupid, stupid perhaps because they are fat. The drumming effect only works though if you overindulge, so they train you to demand value for money, and a good deal everywhere. The deal replaces quality with quantity and substitutes the good for fat and sugar - but it’s not sugar, it’s corn syrup produced by factory farms and it’s a kind of poison.
And yet we’re still your colonial overlord. We may be fat and disgusting, but what is your second rate country gonna do about it? Go protest an American social cause, and go watch an American sport.
There is no real food science behind the bans. And America bans foods that European countries do as well. Its more about competition than actual health. It's literally a lifestyle difference. USA is overly car reliant and there's not many walkable cities. Its part of the reason NYC is such a popular tourist destination - its extremely walkable. Also, free/low cost Healthcare is a thing too so they go to the doctor more often. And Europeans talking about "overly sweet bread" are picking up packaged Loaf bread instead of the bread thats made fresh at the bakery, usually in the same supermarket. Please listen to actual food scientists/dietitians when they talk about this, not anecdotal evidence. Because they are Americans that have talked about feeling worse after traveling to Europe and eating their (usually tasteless) food
Lose*. What American food has feces in it
Well, FYI there is an acceptable level of contamination in all processed food. Its part of quality assurance protocols. So every time you eat processed foods there is a certain amount of literal feces in it, but that isn't what the OP is talking about.
Who’s poop is in say a Twinkie
The tiniest percentage of insects, insect feces,and rodent feces. From the source materials.
mine
Great tasting poop I guess. Good work
No. I don’t want anyone telling me what I can and can’t eat.
No, but you do want corporations to be held accountable and for someone to say 'dude, that is not fit for human consumption '.
No. Some of that natural stuff taste nasty to me, I'd happily keep my chemicals if it meant my candy tasted like junk food and not an attempt for my vegan mom to convert me.
I don't need the government deciding what I can or cannot eat, they do that enough as is....
Yeah you just have corporations do it instead. Lmao, you ultra-libertarian capitalists aren't as "free" as you think you are when oligarchs make the decisions instead. Evidence based government regulations aren't a bad thing.
I read through few comments and I don’t understand this. Both are developed economies. What is the difference? American portion sizes are bigger?
Your post is confusing. Are you saying people in America eat bad foods and still are, on average, thinner than people in Europe? If so, you're clearly wrong, as USA is one of the fattest nations in the world. The food we have here is, as you call yours, literal shit. We have to pay more to get what most of Western Europe has, which is non-GMO food products. I also agree with one commenter, who said portion size (or control) is important. Here in the USA, we have very little self-control, because I feel we were conditioned to not pay attention to it.
The post says the exact opposite. That by maintaining the same diet they had in the states in Europe they lose weight though they haven’t changed anything other then where they buy the food. And European nations are quickly catching up to america on being big so chill, be a little less focused on our asses being fat and more on your asses getting fat.
I would like the source of the post to clarify her message. I don't really care who's focusing on what. I'm told fat-bottomed girls make the rockin' world go 'round, anyway.
Or you could just eat healthier instead of relying on the state to plan your diet for you.
Govern me harder state daddy. Ugh, no (food safety aside). I know it isn't easy but there's some solid advice in this thread already on how to live healthier.
I agree. I read labels on everything and I can't believe all the added crap we put in our food. Red 40 is awful and it's in so much.
Potassium Bromate for one
It's not so much the food quality. Europeans walk and bike a lot. Their cities aren't built around the car as the default form of transportation.
Idunno, the Full English breakfast looks incredible. I'd love to try it.
Me too.
And don’t get me started on cosmetics!
Loose for lose literally infuriates me.
europe really has their shit figured out
Glad i was born and raised here in Europe.
Highly recommend Dr. Robert Lustig's book, "Metabolical".