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I REGRET living in usa! I was in canada for over a decade got back almost a decade ago, and I am depressed by how much AMERICA has deteriorated. I also have been unemployed for several years :(((( How difficult is it to get a job for a American over 50 with a low end IT back ground? I know I would need to learn German! I am from the PNW and yes, my ancestry is Oregon! and then Ca then Europe!
I've read a couple of stories recently about Europeans visiting the USA, staying with friends or families in residential areas, and going for a walk around to see what everything looks like and also just to go for a walk. Only to be stopped by police because somebody has phoned to report somebody walking suspiciously around for no reason.
My dad went on a business trip to the US with a work colleague. The work colleague decided to get some snacks from the supermarket. He didn't know that if you aren't in like the city center there is a high chance of not even having sidewalks for pedestrians. So he ended up walking beside the road and ended up getting picked up by the police. They also thought he was some fugitive at first.
@@TheTrueVirus22 Yeah, had the same problem back in the 90s. Frieds lived in a gated community in the suburbs and when they went to work, we decided to walk to the mall. We had been there the day before by car and it looked interesting. So we started walking but around three quarter of the distance, the walkway abruptly ended. We could see the mall, but there was no real way to get there. So we walked next to the highway. We did joke that police will probably come and get us, but we made it without incident. For the way back we wanted to take the bus...only to find out, there are no busses. Our friends got us back with their car. That felt strange to us. In Germany there might be some spots you can't reach by car, but you have to bike or walk. But I can't think of a supermarket, mall or anything else, you can't reach by foot, but by car. Even truck stops on the autobahn usually have a small path in the back, so you can get there without using the autobahn.
You perfectly summarized the key aspects 👍👍👍 Two remarks: What Americans call bread would be toast in Germany, German bread is very uncommon in the US. And a funny story: 20 years ago my then wife and me visited the US and Canada and went to the rocky mountains. We stopped at a nice place and decided to walk up to the top of a small mountain. We were almost the only hikers, except another couple. When we finally met on top of the mountain and started a small talk, it turned out that they also were from Germany 😂
Oh yea, american "bread" ... Irish Supreme Court ruled that Subway sandwich bread cannot be considered bread because of the sugar content, and called it "cake" or "high-sugared buns". Subway was not amused.
@@hg6996 Myself recently in England: either pizza or baguette with cheese and tomato (just that), or a subway sandwich, but I had it with cheese, tuna filler, lettuce, tomato, sweetcorn, cucumber, gherkins, onion, olives... a bit of a garlic mayo dressing... much more satisfying and nutritious with all that fresh goodness. I wasn't aware of the composition of bread (had only half size), but all that veg part negated that small content of sugar in it. But you could have it with tikka chicken and no veg and salad... and that would be a bad choice. The devil is in the detail.
One of my favorite stories regarding walking: Coming from Germany I was with my (now ex-)girlfriend in NewYork. We looked for a certain location but could not find it and as this was before iPhone, we just asked someone on the street. The person explained how to get there, it was like a couple of blocks away. (can't remember exactly) We said: "Thanks" and startet to walk in the direction. The person we asked quickly said: "No, no, you can not walk, you need to take a cab!" "Why? we asked. Maybe a dangerous neighborhood. But the person said: "It's too far!" We walked - it took us like 15 minutes or so.
I asked for directions in a hotel I was staying at and asked if it was withing walking distance. And they told me: NOooooo, it's way too far to walk. I can call you a cab. It was less than 20 minutes.
lol I doubt this happened. Most New Yorkers walk or take the subway everywhere and most do not own cars. I've lived here for 16 years. My bare minimum for walking was 3 miles per day because of my commute. NYC is not the American standard.
@@kelleylmiller Well it did happen. Was around 1998 or so, would need to look up exact date. And the person was of course talking about a taxi, not a private car. ALSO: I was in LA around 2015 the last time, and the amount of UBER-calls for what I would have considered "walking distance" was surprising. So.... from my point of view you are the exception.
I worked for an international institute in Austria for 15 years. There were a lot of excellent US scientists coming and going. They were either extremely sportive and fit or very fat. After a couple of months literally all fat ones dropped much of their weight just by eating the Austrian food and commuting without a car.
@@catriona_drummond- The American equivalent is every day regular food for many average Americans. Only that there's little to no quality and taste in many American equivalents. But the amount consumed is twice as high easily 😊.
Wait, they _lost_ weight??? Being a native of Vienna, it surprises me to no end that somebody would actually _lose_ weight in the land of the Schnitzel, the Sachertorte of the Mohnknödel (with vanilla sauce). But there might be some truth to it, because, let's face it, food in the U.S. is outright poisonous by European standards. There are many things in there that are a known health risk, or outright harmful, so it is no surprise that not bombarding your body with crap all the time will give it the chance to heal, this is, to get the metabolism back in balance.
I walk at least 1 hour a day just by walking to the office and back 🙂 Not only is it healthy for my body and environmentaly friendly, but it is also very relaxing and good for my mental health. Any distance that I can walk in less than 40 minutes I consider a short walk. Greetings from Northern Germany
"but it is also very relaxing and good for my mental health." and for sleeping. Since I regularly go walking (winter) or cycling (rest of the year) I sleep like a baby. Last year I had an injury and couldn't do anything for a month and after a week my sleep pattern got disturbed - waking up at 2 AM unable to fall asleep again. Everything normalized after I was able to ride my bike again.
I actually started biking to work instead of driving because It helped enourmously with depression and sleeping problems. About 60 minutes of pedaling instead of 2x15-minute car drives every day and the sleepless nightly tossing all but ended. Also it does save quite a lot of money. Statistically - writeoffs ect - a car-kilometer will cost at least 45 eurocent, typically more. My ebike does it at 1-2 ct/km. Multiply by four weeks a month, I could nearly start smoking again with the money saved.
@@GoodBread and in the middle we have both - flat land and hills. I'm from Bochum and if I want to climb hills I cycle southwards towards Hattingen and beyond to the Elfringhauser Schweiz. If I want plain country I cycle northwards towards the Münsterland.
Yeah same. I regularly cycle to the closest city to see friends. It's about ten kilometers, so ca 45min cycling and I always feel great afterwards. Transport and workout at once! Why take the car on a nice day :D
I am American and have lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen since 2012. This video is so spot on. Ever since I moved here, I ride my bike and walk everywhere. I rarely use a car unless driving to Austria for good snow. The dairy and food in general is so much more healthy. And I get a little sick when I visit home from the food also. This is extremely accurate. It is so sad about the fructose corn syrup.
As a German person who does not own a car, I was shocked to see that you really cannot walk everywhere in the US. Page,Arizona: no sidewalk to get to Walmart from our hotel - thought it was a myth, now I know it’s true 😂 it is not common here to own a car before you have a full time job, so for some it’s only AFTER university (not at 16 like in the US)
When I visited Orlando with my parents 25 years ago, we wanted to go to a restaurant right across the street from our motel. The motel manager told us to take the car. Of course we tried to walk, but the manager was right, it was _impossible_ to safely cross that street. In the end we took the car. For probably less than 100 meters. I'm still baffled by that experience.
Indeed. I live in Richmond, Va., and sometimes I'll walk home from my mechanic's shop after dropping off my car (50 minute walk). There's a section of the walk where Henrico County intrudes, and for that section, sidewalks are spotty and sometimes you have to walk in the street to get around obstacles. And the trash! You're much more observant of stuff like that when you walk. People are pigs!
As a flight attendant I regularly stay in a hotel in with a walmart nearby. Would be a 5-10 min walk, if you could walk. But it's simply not possible. No sidewalks, no pedestrian crossing to cross the 4 lane street, etc. Colleague of mine tried to walk and was stopped by the police. Seems so weird to me.
@@Schokoladentoertchen Exactly. Even in the suburbs, if they're part of a "county" instead of a "city," sidewalks and crossings can be nonexistent. IT IS VERRUECKT!
I'm a German grandmother and my family and I have been to the US several times and used to stay in self-catering accomodation. So, as a rule of thumb, I cooked dinner every other night and we went out to restaurants the other one. In the supermarkets, I found it really hard to find plain, unprocessed ingredients, say, e.g., rice. When I planned to cook a vegetarian risotto from rice, vegetables, mushrooms, tomato pulp and added parmesan, I only found SHELVES of all sorts of preparations "ready in 5 minutes" or so. The shop assistant scratched his head when I asked him for "just plain rice". Finally, he found some packages in the remotest corner of the lowest shelf. IMO, that's part of the problem.
You may be shopping at the wrong stores. Bulk plain rice, and such as well as canned goods without the chemicals are readily found. Shop at the bulk stores, or were the local poor go, or even the restaurant supply houses. But be prepared for 50 or hundred pound packages, and 5 to 10 pound cans. Usually at half the price or less. For example, 5 lbs of potatoes are 3.99 to 5.99 locally: the 50 lbs cost, depending on time of year, is 8 to 25. The difference is even more pronounced for meat.
@@jameslecka8085 That can't be right. How can a super market not have rice, lol? I've never been to a country where not every single super market stocked plain bags of rice in normal quantities (250 - 500g). I've also never heard that they had this problem in the US, can someone from the US confirm this as well that there are super markets that don't stock normal plain rice?
According to a Lidl executive, the reason their initial entry into the US was unsuccessful is because they did not understand the American palette. He summarised it as follows: "When we make our chocolate bars in Germany we put one teaspoon of sugar and in the UK we put two teaspoons of sugar. It turns out that in the US we need to put four teaspoons of sugar into our chocolate or otherwise people will not buy it"
dominoes pizza just closed down in Denmark this year because no one here liked it. They might try again but their long apology explanation for launch failure is still up on their dk website haha Danes don't eat super healthy, don't get me wrong, but it's just a funny palate thing haha
@@janiceherd1960 There are more forms of Chocolate in and from Germany, other than "Kinder Schokolade" btw... Some of the "American" brands actually get produced in Germany too, funnily enough. Source: Friend works in a Chocolate Factory that almost exclusively exports to America and Brazil
I live in Berlin, and without my bike I am not myself. And I am not the only one: Thousands of Germans are cycling to their jobs in the morning. In the weekends again thousands heading to parks, to their friends etc - all by bike. I love it.
It took me a while to figure out but as a german, watching fitness and nutrition tips online can be confusing, especially when it comes from Americans. Very often you hear tips to cut out bread and carbs in general. This made little sense to me since I eat lots of carbs every day and dont gain weight anyway. That's until you find out that american "bread" would barely pass as white toast sugar sponge in Germany and a lot of the other foods may be drastically different too. More fats, more sugar, more additives. The weirdest stuff I've seen is like a litre of egg white only...like why would you skip the yolk and only slurp the boring part? Thats nasty. Another thing is the coloring of foods. European food looks desaturaed compared to the neon-colored cereals, snacks and even pickled veggies are a glowing green. But Americans look at natural foods and think it's gone bad.
Precisely--"bread" is not bread. But German supermarket bread is also increasingly engineered for low cost and long shelf life. Look how often the ingredients contain rapeseed oil. There are plenty of obese people here also.
What also never fails to startle me as a German are American recipes. One time I made an american-style strawberry cheesecake and only used 1/4 of the amount of sugar it told me to use. The cake was still sweet as hell. How is american food even considered edible?? It‘s beyond me
In addition to the higher sweet tolerance, our strawberries are often chemically ripened to look red, but unsweet and even extra tart, which wouldn’t translate well if you had access to actually sweet strawberries
Totally agree. I usually cut the sugar in american recipes by two thirds and sometimes I find it is still too sweet. I cannot eat american chocolate because they are so sweet.
Even the unhealthy foods are ten times more unhealthy than in Europe. I'm skinny, but I looove iced tea now and then. When I was in the US, I felt like treating myself and bought a bottle of iced tea. Let's just say... it was not a treat. I actually couldn't drink it. And I do love sweet stuff!
German (living in Denmark) here. When we sent our teenage daughter to the US for a High School Year a standard warning during the preparation meetings was:"Expect to gain 4-5 kilos while you are in the States. But don´t worry, you will easily lose them again when you are back!" - And so it happened. Having said that, - Germany may compare well to the US in this respect, but it could learn a lot from Denmark, still. Or any of the scandinavian countries... And may I add: no diet supplements necessary at all.
I lost 3 kg in my 8 months in Michigan during my High School Year even though I gained a ton of muscle. I was living on an Appaloosa stud and got shifted to do all the work for 24 mares and 2 stallions while my host mum got both her knee surgeries during spring break….. I also refused to eat the crap they served at school lunch and always found someone to exchange me their 50cents salad bar plate….it was always stocked with the full variety we see in Germany plus fruit like grapes and melon…in Winter….yet only very few students even took advantage of it. I had to get into a serious argument with my hostmom who tried forbidding me to drink the water from the tap, even though it was from one of their own springs on the land…she really told me ‚just drink a decaffeinated, 0 calories Pepsis instead! But then she refused to buy watermelons on the grounds of them being ‚nothing but sugar water‘. Yep, I stayed for the critters
When I went with AFS we called ourselves Another Fat Student. 😂 I too gained weight there and got sick a lot. Looking back I never fitted in health wise. I'm Danish btw.
spent a year in Canada's biggest city as an Au pair and came back 10 kilos heavier. Since being back in Germany, I haven't really lost it, since I picked up some unhealthy eating practises there, but I also haven't gained much
What exactly do you mean with Germany can learn from Denmark? As someone who lives in Germany and works a lot in Denmark and with danish people, there is pretty much no difference that I could observe. Also data shows that in Germany you have ~54% and Denmark 50% overweight people, which is not such a high difference. Finland even has a rate of 59%, Sweden and Norway, 51%, i think that's pretty much the same in all of nothern europe. Or do you mean something else?
I dunno, I'm German, and I think you focus much too much on food and movement. High weight is a multi-faceted issue, though. There are a lot of other factors at play here. Social security, for example: It has long been proven that stress, especially existential stress leads to a higher body weight. Germans don't usually work multiple jobs to pay their rent. They have free health-care, free universities, paid maternity and paternity leave for a year, a renter-friendly tenancy law, and the list goes on. Plus, the average sleeping length per night is two hours longer in Germany than in the US. Many US citizens work in rooms that only have artificial lighting - most Germans work in rooms with windows. Germans have 25 days of paid holidays a year minimum - many have 30 days. I think the decisive factor is what we chose to do with our wealth. We distribute it more evenly than the US with positive results in average life span etc. Body weight is a lot more than nutrition and movement.
if i didnt live here already, i would move after your commemt ❤ you are absolutely right and we should be thankful more often before claiming other countries do so much better.
Growing up in the US, I walked a lot, walked to school, walked to the mall, went on weekend walks for fun, and cycled extensively... I hated driving and people thought I was weird... eventually I just gave up an moved my family to Europe.... now I'm normal :)
I feel like soda and sugary drinks play a major role in this. They don't satiate hunger or thirst, they dump tons of sugar (and therefore calories) into your system and they make you crave for more once the rush is over. It's the best to keep yourself from sweetened drinks if you want to get/stay slim. I mostly drink plain tea, water or (funnily) non-alcoholic beer and it works quite well. The next thing is of course to cut down on snacks. And here the simple rule is: You can't eat what you don't buy. So if you can avoid these bad aisles with the chocolate and the chips you've cleared 90% of the way to not stuff yourself with unhealthy snacks.
brah, i think thats the major issue, all the well build farmers i worked for, should have been massive fit dudes for what they are working, but instead they had a lot of extra weight, and the main difference between obese and non obese farmer were always soft drinks
As someone who struggled to gain weight and finally did it a few weeks ago: extra fat + extra sugar & lots of highly-processed snacks is the way to go if you wanna gain some fat 😂
Exactly that. Friends of me and me go on vacations together sometimes and they have some extra kg´s. I eat a lot more during regular meals. They drink sugary drinks all day, I drink water mainly... We all do some snacking though me less so and rather "natural foods" like nuts and so on.
@nehalilisays Yeah, that stuff is designed to have empty calories with next to none nutritious value. Dunno if it's the best/healthiest way to gain weight, but if it works for you, it's probably okay. 😅
I lived in the US for three years and developed a ton of digestion issues. I did not know anymore what was going on. it was horrible. Moved back home to germany and it all resolved within weeks completely. It is quite insane.
My stomach also gradually starts to feel unwell and unsettled over the course of 1-2 weeks whenever I go to America, it's always a relief to come back home afterwards.
Not particularly uncommon, and I wouldn't go so far as "it's definitely cus GMOs and chemicals!!" - there is a far simpler explanation; many foods are just different; bread is fundamentally different, and can be made with different yeast which you may have a reaction to, milks are a little bit different, etc. Even simpler, your digestive system is just accustomed to the food you grew up with, and modifying it slightly (ie. I eat more salads now, my diet has more dairy than I'm used to, there's more grease in the food) could cause issues. When I went to italy for a month I found myself having intense cravings for my american foods, that wasn't satisfied until I came home
@@Caffeine_Addict_2020 I've been to a lot of different countries and eaten diverse cultures food (Japanese, Lebanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Etc) and yet none make me feel unwell quite like American food does. I'm not eating anything wildly different in America than what I normally eat in the UK either however the effects are very different. As someone who grew up in agriculture, our laws on what is or isn't legal to spray Etc on crops destined for human consumption are very different (as are a lot of additives put dieectly in food), I don't think you realise how different the standards in these things are are.
Super interesting video, especially the DC vs. Stuttgart comparison. I wonder if the low bicycle usage there is due to missing bike infrastructure? Here some stories from my own experience: When I did a West Coast Trip back in 2015 (I'm from Germany) I was shocked to see that there was a bike lane basically next to the highway without a guard rail! That can't be fun and is immensely dangerous! In LA, where we returned your camper van, we tried to get to the next bus stop from the rental service ... it was impossible without walking on the street and people passing by in cars looked totally bewildered. I think if you enable people to incorporate healthy and fun habits into their daily routine makes a big difference ... and it also removes a lot of traffic from the cities. In my opinion that is an "everybody wins" situation.
I'm English, but have lived in Germany for decades. Great lifestyle - plenty of free time. So as a cyclist my passion of cycling abroad has been satisfied endlessly, having cycled over 100 countries since 1990. Only in America, when I cycled coast to coast, TWICE, did I gain weight! This video helps me to understand why this happened!
@@mathislvd9626 All roadside restaurants had fatty food. In many, a portion of vegetables was just sweetcorn floating in a bowl of hot melted butter! As for the supermarkets, the packages were so huge that it was not easily possible to carry them by bicycle. So, yes, I resorted to a lot of junk food. Mia culpa.
And putting on weight while cycling is hard. Did a two weeks tour with about 100km/day and lost a few kilograms although I was eating a lot more than usual.
I lived in Nuremberg from 1980 to 1996. I am living in Virginia now and I do agree with you on how the Germans do things vs. America. Planning a European vacation now! Love watching your channel!
We know of course that you Americans also do many things right, especially with regard to your economy, otherwise you would not be the richest country in the world! Greetings from Regensburg!
Germans are fat too though... not as fat as Americans but in Europe they are among the most overweight nations. Their BMI for instance is well above the Netherlands where I live and we 100% associate Germany with fatty/unhealthy eating habits (lots of sausages, heavy baked potato meals). Whenever I go to Germany I only order starters because I simply cant finish a full meal. So the premise of this video is wrong.
I am German and studied in the US for one semester and I can add a few more stories: an American friend of mine thought it was crazy that I walked home about 10 minutes uphill to get from the library where we were studying to the place where I was staying (she literally lived across the street). I actually thought that that was extremely convenient as it takes me a 30 min bus ride + a 20 min walk to get home from the university in Germany. My American roommates also were amazed like I was some kind of super chef when I told them I made the pancakes I offered them on my own and not with these only-add-milk-mixtures. For all Americans reading this: Pancakes are super easy to make, just look up a recipe and give it a shot :D All “whole grain” products like toast I found in American supermarkets are ridiculous. And I don’t only say this because “Germans are obsessed with bread”. Whole grain products are just A LOT healthier in general. There are also such things as whole grain rice and I recommend baking cakes and cookies or the pancakes mentioned above with whole grain flour for example.
The pancakes I make at home have three ingredients: milk, eggs and flour. It really doesn't get much easier😅 I personally also like going by foot or bike a lot. I mean in most cases I am just about as fast with the bike as I am with the car. So of course I take the bike, because at least my bike won't heat up intensively in the summer
I also like wholegrain products, but there is a reason no one in asia is eating wholegrain rice. It's contaminated with high levels of various chemicals and metals you dont wann to eat and most of them are sitting on top of the shell
I lived in Germany for a couple of years. I walked a lot more than I do here. We ate out once a month and the food was delicious. I never felt off after eating out. I ate about a pound of European chocolate or more per week and stayed at my slim weight. Upon returning home I did not walk/exercise nearly as much as I did there. I did not gain much weight (maybe 3 lbs?) moving back home, however I hardly ever eat fast food. I try to buy whole grains and hormone free meats & organic veggies. Eating out here I never feel very good afterwards. While doing a road trip around the states my family all gained weight eating out and grabbing quick snacks. We all felt bloated and looked a little doughy for a few weeks after we got home.
Pancakes are super easy but a lot of American college students can’t cook anything beyond Ramen so I believe you. A lot just cook Mexican food in Texas bc it’s easy though
Great show be sure to thank Feli. I am Canadian and have lived here in Germany for 14 years now. I lost 10kg in my first months here until one day I realised I had put 4 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee. OMG I really needed it and my normal diet was not giving it to me.
Im half American and half German and I lived in the US for a while and I always wondered why eggs had to be stored in the fridge and everyone was so concerned about salmonella. Turns out in the us eggs get sanitized/washed and that destroys the protective layer of the egg so they go bad faster. In Germany that is not done and yes some eggs are dirty but they last way longer and I have never worried about salmonella even if they are raw or not fully cooked. Nature made eggs this way but Americans found a way to even mess that up :D
Yeah don’t tell my American acquaintances that I’ll eat two month old eggs as long as they don’t swim in water 😂 and will definitely eat cookie dough if it was made with relatively fresh eggs. It might give someone a heart attack
UK (and European?) eggs are free from salmonella, inoculated hens, or UV, or something. They have a red lion stamp on the shell. Last time I checked US states don't do that and you can get salmonella from raw eggs. Still, never 'do a #Rocky' in Europe, as raw eggs give biotin deficiency.
A few years ago I've been a 140 kg guy. Then I had to hand in my drivers licence for 3 months and were forced to use my bicycle to get to work. Even after the three months i kept using my bike to get to work (6 km distance), what made me lose 40 kg over 1.5 years without even changing my diet. Kinda proofs your theory
@@moaningpheromones for a person who's already fit, you're right. But for someone who was entirely sedentary before, you'd be really surprised what the metabolism kick of daily exercise will do.
@moaningpheromones You are the one talking Bullshit. I started biking LAST WEEK and now I'm down to 71 kg from 74. 3 kg in one week of biking 3-4 hours a day
His increase in exercise might've lead to other changes in lifestyle he's unaware of. However, this is just an anectode and should be treated as just, we'll never know the truth of his weight loss and that's okay; no need to exchange unpleasantries.
I am a first generation American, my parents were both German Europeans. How true your video is. My grandmother lived with us and gardened. Nearly all of our produce came from that garden. Nearly everthing was made from scratch. I still try to do the same. It makes a big difference. I am 64. I take no meds. I love to walk and hike. I would gladly make trips on my bike, if our infastructure was set up to do so. Instead, I do ride, but as exercise, but must drive somewhere to feel safer while riding.
I'm American and I love to ride my bike but won't do so unless on a car free bike path. Everyone here drives like a maniac and is on their phones. I have seen 6 people hit by cars on their bikes and it's so scary.
I had a similar experience growing up as a first generation Canadian with German parents! Gardening for fruits and vegetables, organic produce, home cooked healthy meals, and farmers markets for local seasonal produce, breads and meats were all the normal lifestyle for us. And we were always encouraged to choose some exercise that we enjoyed doing. I’m very glad that I was able to continue those habits with my family! I’m going on 70 and don’t take any medications.
in Schwäbisch Hall many kids drive to school with their bikes. Totally safe. Two friends of mine had been attacked in their cars at red lights during daytime... two attacks, one dead robber. No joke, his lungs had been pumped up by a fire extinguisher. Big and last surprise for him.
My two sons grew up in Switzerland, did university in the US and stayed there after. But my older son told a revealing story about food between the two countries. He was out with a group of friends, having pizza or something, and one of the friends wanted to order more food, but my son declined. Another member of the group urged him to have more, but one his more preceptive friends said "No, leave him alone. He is from Europe. When they aren't hungry, they stop eating." That remark says a huge amount about the difference between how food consumption is regarded on the two sides of the Atlantic.
@@komiks42 A lot of foods in the USA are ultra processed, so by design make you want to eat more and more. Years of companies developing increasingly more crave-able connotations result in people over eating. Some of these ultra processed foods interfere with the body's ability to recognise / trigger the hormone that tells us to stop eating because we're hungry, so we just eat and eat without recognising the signals that we need to stop.
I'm a German flight attendant and travel to the US frequently. the portion sizes are mindblowing to me. I can rarely finish a meal in an American restaurant. I think most meals are also more oily and the free soda refills do the rest.
As a German living in the US I have to say it depends on the type of restaurant though. Upscale restaurants most definitely do not serve huge portions.
If you consider that mental illnesses are more common in the USA than in Germany, there should definitely be a connection between the quality of food and mental health
I guess food is not the only factor. The ability for kids and teens to meet freely after school, without parents constantly "taxing" and controlling them, going on foot to school from the age of 8, biking with friends etc. A lot of ppl perceive not owning a car as being poor. In Europe public transport, walkability of towns and biking also have influence on keeping our mental health in good condition.
Doctor here - mental health and obesity are deeply nested together. Many of the drugs used in therapy for mental diseases tend to make you gain body fat. And for some, that might be a downward spiral they can't escape. Depression -> take antidepressants -> gain weight and get even more depressed, and so on. Imagine how depressing it would be to know that even if your off your medication you couldn't even move like a normal human being is supposed to.
There is more to it. Everybody in GER gets the chance to visit a therapist for free, if neccessary. Also I could see stress playing a big role in mental health issues. German work laws are more humane then they are in the US. also losing your jobs not as big of a deal here
@@timg.532 Yeah, so many factors at play here. Concerning psychiatric therapy, there isn't enough capacity here (DE) and for non-critical patients there is often a few months wait.
I was in america for quiet some time and the most astonishing thing I have seen was a "healthy" grocery bill for 85$ that kept me filled for 2 days. In germany the same bill, maybe 10€ more, keeps me filled for 5-7 days and I am a big guy
I'm Norwegian and have been many times to the USA. I can tell you that I was desperately searching for decent food on my vacations. The bread brought tears to my eyes, they were more like dough, as if they'd only been in the oven for 5 minutes. I'm used to crunchy crust, seeds and whole grains so I was pretty depressed when I couldn't find even one decent bread. I never drink sodas, but was curious of the american ones so tried out different ones. They were all undrinkable, it was like drinking liquid sugar so I kept to bottled water. I was shocked to see what was considered breakfast over there; like doughnuts and muffins - something most Norwegian would only serve on special occations because they are so unhealthy. And pancakes with syrup... need I say more. What shocked me even more was to see all the very obese people, even many kids! That's something we don't see in Norway. I have wondered why american food is so unhealthy and why they keep eating it when they must know how bad it is for them. (And yeah, the portions are extremely large compared to here in Norway/Europe.) Or why they don't walk more and keep active.
American here. If you eat a lot of sugar for a long time it makes you tired and you don't feel like doing anything. Sugar is also addictive -- it spikes brain chemicals. If I can stay away from sugar for a couple weeks, I feel great. But these sugary foods are advertised heavily. Our government doesn't give a shit about us. You can only get assistance if you are in the most direst of straits. If you can find a job that pays you enough to have a life, you arent going to have time to enjoy that life. So, we are stressed out and don't have very many healthy coping mechanisms, so a lot of us who know better than to turn to drugs or alcohol, eat our emotions instead. Also our news media has us scared to walk around in our own communities.
I am German but live in Greece now, I have been to the US twice, and both times I was absolutely shocked about the size some people have, I have never seen anyone that big in Europe I think. Overweight yes, but not to that extreme. But I know why now, and it's very sad. The livestyle Is very, very different. The German obsession with walking was covered in the video, and the Greeks also spend a lot of time outside , mostly in the evening because of heat. You see young children play basketball until midnight.
I was born in 1960 so I remember the mid 60s and 70s as a kid and a teenager. The obesity rate for adults back then was 13%. Its three times higher now. Childhood obesity was rare - I remember maybe three truly fat kids in a school of 350 kids. We lived in the same suburban neighborhoods with at least one car and usually two in the garage. Took the school bus to school. Watched TV in the evening. People worked many of the same jobs as today (more service than manufacturing workers now though). The big difference with today was food. Many/most mothers didn't work outside the home thanks to the economy back then allowing a single income to support a family. My Mom made us a hot breakfast each morning, we ate a hot lunch in the cafeteria at school and she cooked a dinner from scratch in the evening (very little processed food). We usually didn't snack after dinner either. Soda was rare - definitely not a daily drink. Eating out in a restaurant was a treat that we got to do about twice a month. Portion sizes were smaller in those restaurants back then too. There were no fast food places in our small typical American towns until the mid 1970s. Plus even in our suburban neighborhoods we were much more active. Kids played outside from the time they got home from school until dark. Mom worked all day keep the house clean. Dad worked in the garden when he got home from his job. We had a different outlook on food and activities back then. Basically, I think Americans the past 35-40 years have been conditioned to eat more and worse foods and to be more sedentary. It didn't used to be this way. It shouldn't be this way now.
Good point. It's not 'ingrained' in Americans. It's just in a generation or so where this has happened. Sure, women are more likely to work now. But that's the same anywhere in the western world.
Americans think that children can't play unsupervised outdoor because the will be snatched up by a white van. The reality is that child abduction are extreme rare and mostly done by an acquaintance.
@@buddy1155 I did a tiny bit of research, and it's 5x more likely for a child to be killed in a car crash (600+ vs. 100-150), and I think that about 60% of stranger-abducted children are returned alive
I've definitely heard a number of American travellers on RUclips telling about how they've come to a variety of European countries eaten what felt like similar amounts of food to at home but still lost weight. Then gone home, ate same quantities of food but put all the weight back on again. There's obviously the fact that they walked more in Europe but there's definitely more sugar and fat in American food. My daughter worked as an international at an American summer camp when she was a student. I couldn't believe how much weight she put on in just a couple of months!
It all depends. You and only you choose what goes into your body. I worked at a summer camp in the US and dropped 14 kg in 2 months. I was actually underweight after I left summer camp. I lived in Germany and Switzerland for 5 years. I gained 30 kg in this time. It was the bread, cheese (mmmmmmmm fondue and Raclette), and chocolate that did it to me. I moved to the US, and I dropped the 30 kg I gained in 6 months. When I went to the US, I was active like I was in Germany and Switzerland. You can walk and bike in a chunk of the US. I grew up in the US and we walked or biked everywhere.
It is complicated. I felt very healthy in Germany. I thought the food was fresher than in US. At the time I could afford a simple but good diet. So I lost weight. I also walked to school often- like a mile and a half downhill then often back up. The climate is rougher in the US - being hotter and colder and probably making biking to work hard as well as outdoor activity. Also, I bet public transit in Germany is also better almost everywhere- though I don’t know Stuttgart re DC. Cheers
Portion size is also not universal across all restaurants. The "nicer" or "fancier" restaurants in the US serve a lot less food than the less expensive ones. This of course makes sense because people here demand "value" and it's a very easy way to get people in the door. It doesn't cost the restaurant all that much to give you 30% more food. Generally speaking the meal at American restaurants is really two meals. One at the restaurant and a 50% to take home for another meal at home. The problem of course is that one has to make a conscious decision to stop eating at some point. As someone who has a very healthy BMI, even I struggle with making that decision.
Just try to get a regular joghurt in the states. Regular fat, no sugar, bland joghurt. It's almost impossible. It's either low fat and sugar or normal fat with sugar. Who in their right mind puts sugar in a low fat joghurt? It's insane. Same with bread. Even f*cking toast has added sugar. It's systematic, imo. The food industry wants the people fat and addicted to sugar and big pharma wants them diabetic. And if anyone would dare try to regulate that, the answer would be "freedom!" and "that's communism!"...
It's always sweet to see images of the town where I lived for 5 years. :) From the river to my flat exactly 200 stair steps, that’s like walking stairs up to the 11th floor. Good basic exercise that became easier the longer I lived there.
One thing i will say as a woman who loves to bike and walk whenever i can, that its not always safe. The amount of times ive been followed by someone creepily sadly makes me reluctant to engage in these activities where I can afford to live. When i am in places i am safe i walk all the time. So while i know part of this is influenced by infrastructure, there is also the culture of saftey to consider in the US. I have several friends who live in germany that i have visited and we both agree its so much safer to walk and bike around germany
My condolences. I'm a dude but as a Red and a non Chad I've come across any number of barbarians criminals scum bags etc myself. My solution is practice situational awareness and go armed preferably with a gun. A small blade you can pull out under tight quarters and under duress is also helpful. See Craig Douglas for example. Sucks but if you're going to live in creepstan America you unfortunately have to take certain measures to live your life
I'm from the US and moved to Europe in my 20s, have lived in Greece for almost 20 years now, and the differences in lifestyle really add up. I actually had a very healthy lifestyle in the US and was STILL overweight! But here in Greece I am so much healthier and happier. Here are some of the things that I personally think contribute: - gasoline is insanely expensive here to the point that a lot of people straight up cannot afford to drive places (this includes me) - produce is relatively cheap compared to a lot of worse foods, and it's culturally normalized to purchase huge quantities of produce. Go to the farmers market and get 4 kg of lemons and no one bats an eye, they don't ask if you're making marmalade or whatever. It's just this week's lemons. - too many people smoke still. - clothes in large sizes are hard to find, and people don't tend to buy clothes often, so there's a subtle pressure to stay the same size - a lot of our vacations are based around athletic things (swimming in the sea, skiing) - in the same vein, those of us who live by the coast, which is a huge % of us, are in a swimsuit in public a ton. - there's MUCH less pressure placed on the individual to be "the best" at things, so it's perfectly normal to be the sort of person who goes to the gym for half an hour 2x/week, whereas in the US it feels like everything is about constantly improving and being the best, and #2 is the first loser, which is very demotivating for most people and a lot of people just quit when they realize they're not going to be elite. - most people grew up on, and still really like, staples like lentil soup, green beans as a main dish, etc. - it's normal to buy bread from the local bakery, not to buy bread that is shelf stable (at least not as much of it) - people actually understand seasonality in food and aren't trying to buy grapes in March, which leads to people not getting the wrong idea that fruits and vegetables are expensive. - olive oil keeps people fuller longer - health care is ridiculously good compared to the US. My doctors here actually notice when I'm having health issues and intervene. - parking is horrendous and people will do a lot to avoid needing to do it, including walking. But even if you do park, then you still have to walk really far because you parked 10 blocks away because parking lots barely exist here. - all the EU regulations apply. They can't put crap in the food. - it's very trendy to eat healthy. I'm in the food service industry and people seek out organic, local, vegan, etc. Even people you might not expect. Especially new moms do this but so do college students. - discrimination in hiring is widespread, and everyone knows that being attractive is a major boost to getting a job. Plenty of jobs are pretty much only available to slim, attractive young people. - military service is mandatory for almost all men so they get a little boost in terms of physical activity at an age where American men often get extra sedentary I live on a small island, population about 25,000 people, and I have never seen a truly obese (US-type) person here. Even the tourists aren't. Most people here are like 10 lbs overweight. I've noticed this about Greece: there's a lot of hand-wringing over our obesity epidemic, but it's a huge number of people who are like 180 lbs in the 55+ age range. You never see people over 400 lbs here. I have noticed a growing trend of young people being overweight though in the past 10-15 years. But still nothing like US sizes.
Gas is not "insanely expensive" - I just isn't subsidized in Europe! In the US it is, that's why it's cheap (your gallons sometimes cost less or only a little more than a liter here! So frankly we pay the real price (sure: A lot of taxes on top, too), while the US only pays a measly amount! Sadly they can still put "crap" in the food, just not as much and sure not as many different chemicals (as many that the US still allowes have been banned in Europe), but many things still contain added sugars (that's why it's still healthier to put on the apron and make your own food in Europe - but meals ready to eat are still healthier than in the US, because of less added sugars and almost none of that evil corn-sirup!). Military service hm? Yeah it was when I was at the apropriate age - but they didn't want me! The doctor checking me out at the Kreiswehrersatzamt (the office where you had to show up to be checked out, to see if you are fit for service) sent me home after 30 Minutes (one of the few times when being overweight was a good thing)...we've since shelfed mandatory service in Germany, so nobody is forced into the military anymore. ps: Yes, I am working on losing weight...have done so over the years, but it didn't work out long term. Still, I am down ten kilos from 130 KG to 120 KG...I've almost banned processed food that just requires heating up from 3-4 times a week to once a week (saturday, because that's when I play DnD with friends and thus I want a quick meal without preparations etc.)
@@paulhunter9613 It is. What does gas do? Power vehicles that drive on roads. These roads need to be maintained, how do you wanna pay for that? Furthermore, emissions and crashes but other things as well like land use changes (like NALF talks about) are negative externalities caused by driving. Gas taxes DO NOT cover these societal costs AT ALL. The RUclipsr City Nerd did a really good breakdown of the numbers on this.
I came back to the states about two weeks ago after spending two weeks in Germany and I agree with your comment about feeling a bit sick for about a week. I find that food is more easily digestible there than in the states and I don't eat fast food or drink soda. Plus, while in Berlin and Leipzig, I walked almost everywhere I went which helps burn off all of the beer I consumed, which was a lot.
I even feel sick if I eat too much german processed food too much gut wrecking crap allowed these days and better cook for yourself, using organically grown ingredients ......preferably from the own garden or foraged from clean areas if you have the time and space.....
@@feldgeist2637 Same. I'm Irish and we have so much processed crap here. Not as bad as the US, but still. I've cut out processed foods almost entirely from my diet and eat fresh local foods and I feel great. No garden unfortunately but hopefully in the future.
part of the reason is pesticides etc. probably. the "organic" label doesnt mean the same in europe/germany than it does in america. all produce sold in germany is "organic" by fda standards. we have the "bio" label which is meant to ensure a more natural way of production so technically this is another "extra organic" label but its very much optional
@@greenknitter, I agree. As an Irish woman who has lived in Germany for the last thirty years, I visit Ireland at least once a year. I definitely notice a difference in the food there, compared to Germany.
This was an awesome video. I’m a Canadian who lived in Serbia for nearly a decade. Most people were slim, even though they have a bakery every 500 feet and also drink a lot of beer lol. The food was much better quality, and almost everyone rode their bike daily and walked. I was much healthier/fitter when I lived there.
It should be mentioned that some eastern european countries like Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine still deal with the aftermath of war or war itself, dont have a flourishing economy and are the poorest countries in the EU. Many of them are not slim or drive a run down car by choice.
I can think about another difference in the "mild exercise". My American brother in law was shocked by the stroller culture in Europe (Czechia is very similar to Germany in these things) and how it is a big thing to "go out for a walk to get a fresh air" with a newborn / toddler in a stroller in almost every weather, in a nice weather even several times a day. Sporty parents buy a sport strollers and are jogging or skating with it. The lazy parents just go for a walk 😂 Also the strollers seemed to be expensive to him, but here is just regular equipment for parents.
@@sonicxdudex765Sometimes the streets are dangerous but that’s only in a few areas. Mostly it’s just people being lazy and staying inside since everyone goes everywhere by car
I used to see parents with strollers all over town even in mid 2000s, now It's rare, same with just seeing kids doing shit outside, even in mid 2000s we were outside all the time getting in trouble having fun, shit, we still had rifles in trucks to go hunting after school.
I spend a lot of time in the U.S. and the fact that there are no sidewalks in the rural areas caused me some trouble because I like to walk distances up to 2 miles rather than driving. So, when I was in Florence S.C. I got stopped by the police when I was walking on the shoulder of the street. They said it was suspicious and only after I told them that I live in Austria the laughed and let me go. So, no sidewalks contributes to not wanting to walk. As always a great video, NALF!
I noticed this tolerance to sweetness in Canada. My wife and I stayed at my uncle's house who lived there, and he had a neighbor - a very kind woman, but terribly overweight - who baked a Saskatoon cake for us. This cake was so incredibly sweet that I thought it was going to burn my tongue. It really surprised us because we were the only ones who noticed this sweetness. My uncle, his wife, and the neighbor thought it tasted perfectly normal.
Sugar is addictive, and with all addictive substances you build tolerance, there’s this one nutrition specialist who summed it up pretty well: „once you stop eating sugar all together, you won’t even want to go back again“
This is so accurate. I am German, and even in elementary school, we learn about the amount of sugar in food to avoid it. More and more "candy shops" with snacks and sweets from all over the world are opening in Germany. I will never forget how I immediately spit out my first Twinkie because it tasted so disgustingly sweet and chemically. American chocolate tastes like vomit to most of us, and in general, everything is way too sweet and always has an unnatural, chemical aftertaste.
they stopped selling Schogetten here, in the UK, I feel so sad about this. Anyhing Cadbury is way too sweet, but I'll take that over American Hershey's, that proper disgusting.
@@natalijasmirnova7589 god I hate cadbury so much. It’s not like I have a refined palate for chocolate, I’ll take the cheap stuff no problem but Cadbury is so much worse than cheap stuff in germany
The reason for chocolate tasting like vomit is that the sweetener they use in the US has a few chemicals that are very similar in what produces the acidity in actual vomit. It's cheap to make, and was used during WW2 for chocolates in soldier rations, but apparently the population formed a taste for it. Chocolate manufacturers tried to switch to traditional sweeteners but sales plummeted, and they went back to the old vomit-choko flavor.
I still remember when they switched Hershey's kisses recipe from something made with real cocoa to the vomit tasting stuff. I literally thought my bag of kisses had gone rancid. Now kisses have a reputation for being garbage candy but I swear, they used to be delicious!
Lots of products in Germany have a sugar-free counterpart, I actually started buying these since the normal ones lately became way too sweet for me. I can't imagine the norm in America being even sweeter.
You mentioned a really good point about walking as a means of weight loss. After you have gotten accustomed a bit, it doesn't fatigue you anymore. You don't feel drained, don't feel like you need to take a rest or fuel up. But it does burn a fair amount of calories, you just don't notice it like you do with an intense workout.
When I visited the US, I was baffled not only by how many obese people there were, but also how unbelievably fat many of them were. Like "too fat to use their own feet to move themselves through a grocery store and having to ride a cart instead". And not just a single person every now and then; they were everywhere. I've never seen anything like this in Germany besides some very few people suffering from strong cases of metabolic diseases.
When I visited Germany, I was baffled not only by how many egotistical jerks there were, but also how unbelievably rude they were. Like "we have to shit on them so we feel better about ourselves". And not just a single person every now and then; they were everywhere. I've never seen anything like this in the US besides some very few people suffering from strong cases of mental illness. You guys are the worst.
@@joshyhush22 Uh.. This videos uploaders statistics shown at the beginning of the video say otherwise. 20% fat, 40% obese Americans equal 40% "normal sized or muscular".
@@joshyhush22 that doesn't change it. Mobility scooter- Level obesity doesn't come with gains. You are just trying to say anything in defense so you come up with some technicality. The USA is very obese. Being even more obese cause your biceps is big doesn't change the count of people that are obese. People that wouldn't be obese but are counted due to muscle. Very few. I'm repeating myself cause you didn't make an actual point against it.
I am from germany and my husband is from the US. And even before watching this video i can say that it has to do mostly with the price of healthy food. Here in germany all the healthy things like vegetables and fruits are incredibly cheap (and regulated thanks to the EU) while stuff like McDonalds or other fastfood is always really expensive and seen as a luxury by the germans.
@@indigo3610 Nah, that’s not true. In Germany a McMenü (Burger + Fries + Coke) is 10-11€. For that amount of money you can buy enough veggies and fruit for a week!
@@louis8913 1) McDonalds is still cheap 2) You get a cheeseburger for 2€. 2 of them should be enough until the next meal 3) You can't compare eating at a restaurant with buying stuff at a supermarket. For 10-11€ you get a large salad at a restaurant which doesn't even cover your caloric needs for a day, let alone for a week 4) Taking calories and a satiating effect into account, you need about 2-3kg of fruits and vegetables per day or roughly 500g of high calory density junk food. None of the two is much cheaper than the other.
@@TheSandkastenverbot2€ for 2 bites of a cheesburger is nothing else than a scam. It IS expensive. The money you need for a meal is the same as in a regular restaurant. Which is fckin overprized for fastfood.
I am considered overweight, but I do my share to get rid of it. I just had a check on heart, liver, blood, insulin... and all is good (surprisingly). I switched from using my car all the time, to riding a bicycle. It made a HUGE improvement to my fitness (pro tip: buy a really good bike). I do consider my food as healthy, since I prepare the majority myself and don't buy ready made foods. I do not use any sugar, I don't even have any sugar at home (also Chocolate, chips, any sweets). I don't strangle myself with diets. I do love a Hamburger, but I make therm from scratch. And with the salad and veggies, I do not consider them as unhealthy. I went down from over 110kg to a more reasonable 95kg. 85kg is the goal I set for myself. I am 50 years old and I have been told it is harder at that age to loose weight. My biggest weakness is the beautiful Budweiser beer from the Czech republic. Since they are normal people at Budweiser (Czech), no need to boycott them. And I hate walking, that's why I bought myself a bike... Since my fitness improved, it makes really fun and I am as fast or even faster than a car around town. BTW, I still smoke.
There's no need to boycott bud anyways. Don't let politics get into your diet. Also: try walking. Slowly. And looking around - I bet you'll enjoy it. You'll see ant hills and butterflies and bees and little bumblebee butts sticking out of blossoms and it's simply so enjoyable to see all the little things one doesn't notice when speeding by. Of course I don't want to tell you what to do or how to live your life, please don't get me wrong! But there's so much going on around us that we don't even recognise and it's so soothing and delightful to watch. I'm sure you'll like it!
@@Piggelgesicht believe me, I take a good look around every day. On my way to work I pass a local farm and it is so cute to see the cows getting on their meadows in spring. They jump around and you really see the joy they are having. The crops growing, winter wheat is just about to get harvested right now... I don't know how far your next environmental conservatory is... Mine should be less than a mile.
You will get to your goal, enjoy the journey, healthy food can be so tasty and physical activity so rewarding. Dont worry about the beer, im on top shape and drink some beers every weekend. Cz has great beer, love it!
Don't forget , in France we are saying you need to be healthy to live. And living means also doing some unhealthy stuff. If you don't enjoy yourself you are not living. It's all about balance.
Two small additions to your video: 1. It`s even more interesting to know that in Stuttgart, they drive less often than in comparable Washington, if you know that Stuttgart is a big car hotspot. Mercedes, Porsche, Bosch and lots of suppliers are based in that area. 2. The US was very often actually not built for cars, but destroyed for it, so it not only has historical but mostly political reasons. A good counterexample would be Amsterdam, which in the 70s was just as car-centric as US cities but today is one of the most pedestrian and bike friendly places in the world!
I've been to the US once and have seen the most american picture ever: An Obese guy driving in a motorized shopping cart thing, wearing an "I love Guns"-shirt and a white, blue, red cap with an eagle on it shopping at walmart and buying a cowboy hat.
HAHAHA, can also add a nice story from a trip to the US. About seven shops in a row and a row of parking spots directly in front of the shops. A man with a big jeep drives to parking spot A and goes into the shop directly in front of the parking spot. After a minute he comes out, jumps into his car, starts, drives and parks about 2 parking spots(~20meters) away in parking spot B to go into the next shop. The shops doors were closer to each other than the way to his car and back. But of course he had to DRIVE to the second shop XD XD... that was the most american thing i've ever witnessed in my life
The first time I was in the US, I walked to the grocery store. It was just down the road, about 30 minutes walk. Lovely side walk next to the road, completely empty. The weather was nice too, even though it was August in Florida. I garnered a lot of attention, including some sexual harassment from guys in a car. And the person backing bags at the grocery store did not know what to make of my backpack. I later learned from co-workers that the only people who used the sidewalks were joggers and the ones riding a bicycle for exercise. There were several at work who exercised using bicycles yet none took their bicycle to work. Although some used their motorbikes.
It's really interesting how these perspectives differ so much depending on where you were raised. I'm from the Netherlands and consider Germany as very bike-unfriendly, and at the same time the portions in restaurants are always too big for me. I can't imagine the US if for US-Americans Germany seems bike-friendly and the portions apparently small 😄
Yes, I totally agree. I live in Leipzig which is a bike-friendly city by German standards and I use my bike or a rental almost every day because it's the fastest way to get there. But when I visited Utrecht last year, I was blown away by the amazing bike park at the station and the fast bike lanes everywhere. The city makes a lot more room for cyclists than we do, we could do better. While we Germans are miles ahead of the US when it comes to walking and biking, we can still learn a great deal from our neighbours. I'd love to live in the Netherlands, it's so bike-friendly and really pretty with the small canals. As for portion sizes, I think that our portions are quite big and often too salty for my taste. I don't use that much salt when I cook at home. I struggle to finish my plate when I eat out. I think I would be totally stuffed if I tried the 'side dish' shown in the video, I could make two meals out of that.
I was kind of surprised to see Germany as an example of a country that facilitates avoiding obesity. When comparing it to other European countries, Germany doesn't do all that well. But yeah compared with the US it might do pretty well
@@edithgruber2125Die Straßen der Niederlande waren von Anfang an für Fahrräder geplant, das war in Deutschland nicht so. Was hält dich davon ab in die Niederlande zu ziehen?
I really love that your content evolved from pointing out stereotypes and an overview of culture into source based and well researched discussion of core differences between europe/germany and the us. keep it up
tbh @NALF normalizing or balancing audio levels between sections would be really good to look at in the future (audio engineers call this "mastering"), I had to ride the volume knob this entire video for each section change and then the end credits were so loud they scared the cat out of the room! audio is worth the same attention as lighting
The bit you said about how extreme people here in the US are about exercise struck me so hard. My spouse is skinny and does ALL the sports. I am stupidly fat and no amount of activity seems to put a dent in it, especially since I don't do them consistently. My spouse's version of trying to "encourage" me to do activities is to constantly take it to the limit. We can't just go for a walk. We need to go for a 10 mile hike in the heat and humidity of the south. We can't go for a chill bike ride to town, we need to go up a mountain. It makes me want to stress eat just thinking about it, tbh.
I agree with @aewtx. It only hurts your body if you start doing exercise or exhaustive activities while having too much weight to carry. I personally had 135kg (270 lbs) 8 years ago (I was 22) and can therefore tell you straight up, that doing (intense) sports is absurd at that weight. Therefore I had to change my eating behaviour first and cut (almost all) sweets and tried to put some more veggies on the plate instead of always eating processed meals and/or fast food (most stuff I've eaten were "microwave-ready" products). After changing that to a more healthy way, I lost my first 40 lbs in the first 2 years (I did not work out during that time. Not even once!) After that I started with moving more, and doing some small exercises at home where no one could see me, I was just ashamed to get myself out there in the gym, even if that would've been much better for building up some confidence. I could've really needed it back then. The next 4 years brought me down to 190 lbs... It was a time of ups and downs, but that's ok. Life's like this for all of us, I guess. Slow but steady progress is good enough! We don't need to lose everything at once. (Would be funny, though 😀) I'm currently at 170 lbs and built up some muscles - for me this is the right weight (+- 10 lbs) and I'm very happy to have startet the journey back then. If you want to be more active "right now", I'd recommend going for a swim: It's "supporting" your joints and you'll basically do a "full body workout" while you're at it. 🙂 Your idea of going for a "chill bike ride" is also good! Maybe there's some place you want to visit which you could ride to. Just take your time and do it "your way"! Other than that I just found 2 important rules for me which could be good tips for you: 1. Sweets, that aren't at home, can't be eaten. (HUGE impact for me! I rarely have something at home even to this day, because I know I'm weak when it's available) 2. Make a daily list of all the food (AND Drinks, especially in the US) you consume over 1 - 2 weeks and track the calories to get a feel for what has the most impact to you on a daily basis. I wish you the best of luck, regardless of if or what you do! Have a great day!
You absolutely should not push yourself to 100%. Do only 15min walks everyday. It has to feel easy yet accomplishing, and remember quantity over quality. I’ll guarantee you results.
Hi all. I appreciate the replies :) I will say that the general assumption that I have a bad diet is frustrating. I once had an OBGYN just volunteer that I should cut back on sweet tea at the end of an appointment. We hadn't discussed weight, nor did she know anything at all about my lifestyle, she just assumed that as a resident of the south, sweet tea was probably a culprit. I am not a big eater of processed foods, nor of sweets except chocolate, which is why it's generally not in the house lol. I think my body is just super efficient at being fat. My spouse and I went on a week long scuba diving trip where we did and ate essentially the same things. She lost 5 pounds on the trip. I gained 10. Anyway, whoever suggested just doing small things on my own terms at first was right. I've gotten frustrated and depressed about it and gave up. Time to work in small changes.
@@sapphy2530 I don't want to sound like a father to you, but don't compare yourself to others, rather compare yourself to who YOU were yesterday. Take a step by step, slowly and surly, and before you realize you have climbed a mountain. When you have accomplished that, try to remember that feeling and its satisfaction and repeat it, and repeat it until you become addicted to it. Working out should not feel like a prison, but rather like a prisoner that escaped the prison free into the freedom :)
I‘m a German living in Chicago. I didn‘t really changed my diet and I definitely started to workout more and I still gained about 13kg (28.6 pounds) since I moved over here last September. I‘m going to move back in this September after I finished my gap year and I hope that I‘ll be easier to loose weight.
Ja du wirst sehr schnell wieder Gewicht verlieren. Alleine schon durch mehr Bewegung da du in Deutschland zu Fuß gehen oder mehr Fahrrad fahren kannst. Auch unsere Portionen sind kleiner und die deutsche Küche ist generell gesünder.
Yes, my daughter (German) studied for one Semester at a university in Upstate NY three years ago and although she was only in the US for four and a half months, she gained weight. She was amazed by the portions which her American friends on campus took from the buffet at the mensa. They would usually end up leaving half of it on their plate too.
Ich habe nach einem Jahr usa 14kg zugenommen und bin bis jetzt immernoch nicht wieder bei meinem Normalgewicht angelangt nach einem Jahr zurück in Deutschland…Gewicht verlieren ist deutlich schwerer als zunehmen. Und ich gehe regelmäßig ins gym, bin draußen und esse gesund. Der amerikanische Zucker hat sich in mir anscheinend festgesetzt
As someone who has been married to a German for almost 25 years, has lived there, and visits often, your observations are on point. I particularly agree about the added sugar and chemicals in the food supply. We are an active family who eats out very rarely and eats minimal processed food in the US. Whenever we go to Germany, I end up losing a pound or two in the first week - not really changing what I eat or my activity level. I attribute this to higher food standards in the EU with regard to food additives, sugar, antibiotics, and hormones in animal products. Thanks for posting this. I subscribed.
Regarding the food part, back when I was doing an internship, me and a co-worker talked about how various fastfood brands differ from country to country (price, taste, portions, etc.). Since he travels around with his family a lot, he had seen and experienced far more than I did. When I asked him what McDonald‘s is like in america, he frowned and said „Never eat it. It‘s super cheap but you can taste the chemicals going down your throat.“ I’ve never visited america but this quote always… terrified me.
I don't think it's just fast food. I like to cook and while searching for recipes, I came to the conclusion, that "homecooked" means something different in the US than in Europe. We tend to cook everything from scratch, they use processed food at every possible occasion. Like why would you make your own sauce, when you cam buy one in supermarket? Why would you make dumplings at home, when you can buy frozen at grocery store? If main ingredient is something already pre-made and bought at the store, nobody over here would ever call such meal homecooked.
@@TheGamegirl543 And by the way, what I also noticed when baking cakes from the US sites or channels, it's insane how sweet they are. I literally cut sugar at least in half, because it's disgusting how sweet their recipes are.
Yeah, I rarely eat McDonalds, except in emergencies when there are no other places open. I don't taste chemicals, but you can feel the lack of nutrients. So to me it's a waste of money.
My daughter has many food allergies which have always been hard to manage. She went to university out side of the US and many, not all, of her allergies either went away or became mild, she came back to the US and they became more severe again. In the US, eating out is always tricky for her. It isn’t as tricky when she is outside of the US.
Something that I have seen from watching american shows, movies, cooking shows, etc. is that a side salad, or just a veggie side is not as common as it is here (I'm Austrian btw). While growing up, we always had a side salad for our main meal, except when we had soup (would be weird). Sometimes that was the only side, like eating an oven roast chicken with rice and heaps of salad was a common meal in out house. We also learned cooking from a fairly young age, which made us appreciate the plain ingredients a lot. My younger brother and I would spend a lot of time helping our parents wash, peel and chop vegetables, eating them in the process. Also, snacks here are WAY different - eating an apple or two carrots for a snack between lunch and dinner was the norm - we always had access to fresh produce to eat when we became peckish. Things like granola bars, crackers, sandwiches were either small meals or treats, not daily snacks.
@MissyChiyo - You are making assumptions about Americans based on tv shows? That is why Europeans opinions are so mistaken. Every sit down restaurant offers salad as part of the set price of a meal consisting of it, a meat and 1 or 2 vegetables. My grocery store (in a town of less than 8,000) has a huge salad and fruit bar where you fill a recyclable container with whatever you want and pay by the pound. That is my entire meal for that day. The fast food restaurant I go to offers 5 types of salads. That's why I go there in preference to most others. Soup and salad is a common lunch offering in many restaurants. My mother served a salad with nearly every dinner. You are right about snacks, though, and soft drinks are terrible for your health.
As an American living a long time in Germany, I agree with all your points 100%! Since living here since 1989, we actually go on hiking vacations, something that was totally uncommon as a native New Yorker. Visiting my sister in Texas, breakfast portions were humongous; everything is big in Texas. I could only eat half the portion, with my sister asking if I was on a hunger strike😅. In the supermarket, you rarely see people buying fresh produce, opting for more processed foods. I don’t want to sound arrogant but the Europeans have a different eating/ movement culture that is healthier. As you said, America goes to extremes both good and bad. Auf Wiedersehen! P.s. do follow American Football 🏈 here in Berlin ( Berlin Rebels!! America does have some wonderful things to offer!❤
Hiking vacations is big in the US. Go to Yosemite, Sequoia, the big 5 National Parks in Utah or any western National parks. Camping, long hikes and backpacking has always been big in the US.
@@dezafinado depends on which neck of the woods you come from. Growing up in Manhattan, it was quite uncommon and there was no hiking culture per se. Traveling to the great national parks like Yosemite was a rare event especially if one didn’t have the money to travel. Living in Berlin, the next forest is 10 minutes away. Happy hiking dezafinado!
@@jvl4832 True that Berlin has easy access to green space but in NYC you have the Catskills and Adirondacks. There're plenty of State, County and City parks. The National Parks serve as example to the popularity of outdoor activities in the US. The most popular national park in France is Mercantour (800,000 visitors per year), which is easily accessible from Nice. Sequoia receives 1.2 million and Yosemite 3.6 million. Americans don't need to go the mountains and National Parks to hike/camp or pump iron at a gym to stay fit. Shooting hoops or walking around one's neighborhood park and watch what one eats... that's it. Doing it is a personal choice. ruclips.net/video/S1UwNd33oG4/видео.htmlsi=uFdSVz0_UrWhimMM
@@dezafinado I agree , staying fit is a personal choice, not just limited to hiking. I always was a gym member , cycled and jogged. Getting to the Catskills for vacation was also possible. Vacation time is also a big question , most people here in Germany get 30 days vacation. So you get alot time to get away.
Well researched video! I think another major factor that wasn't mentioned is *drinkable tap water* in Germany vs soft drinks in the US. I see so many US Americans refusing to drink water because "it tastes bland" on social media, it blows my mind. Soft drinks are filled to the brim with sugar and chemicals and if I imagine I'd swap my daily water intake with soft drinks you best believe I'd be getting fat. In Germany tap water quality literally exceeds bought water quality so if we feel thirsty we guys have to walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water. In the US you need to buy water which is both more work and more expensive. I believe those are reasons why US Americans dislike drinking water and drink more soft drinks which itself contributes to the obesity problem.
Ok, let’s make one thing abundantly clear: the overwhelming majority of US tap water (i.e. provided through local/city sanitation and infrastructure) is SAFE to drink. By law (including the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act “SDWA”) have established MCLs for containments, pollution, and constituents; and enforcement of these purity standards is rigorous. The EPA oversees enforcement of water standards, any you can google maps of aquifers or cities to look at the actual measurements and data ( MCLs of SDWA) of say, calcium, (etc.) all over the country. If you are concerned, curious, or just want to know what your water bill money is going into, you have a LEGAL right to that data from your water provider (assuming you are not on a personal groundwater well). It is, and should always be free and publicly available. Disclaimer: while I am a geochemist with training in analytical methods for water chemistry, notably with experience for trace containments, some federal government work background, and thousands water samples tested; I am not a lawyer, every year there is water tested to be unsafe for drinking and a boil warning is announced, and as always, if your water suddenly one day changes in color, smell, taste, don’t consume it without contacting the proper authorities.
I lived in Germany for 22 years as an American and it was very common to only drink bottled water versus tap water. If you asked for tap water in a restaurant they always gave you a hard time.
I saw your pictures of German dairy and had a chuckle at the milk containers. Born in the US, but was fortunate to visit Germany for 6 weeks in the summer of 93. I would walk to the store everyday to get a liter of milk. Sometimes twice as I was used to drinking approximately half a gallon of milk a day. Was very fit at the time since I was just out of highschool where I did athletic activities. You mentioned portion size/control ,but now remembering the clerks look on their faces seeing me buy so much milk made me laugh.
11:00 This is wrong. Cities in the USA weren't build for cars. They were build for people, with a good rail system for the time. Cities were bulldozed for the car. That's true.
I am from France and similar comparison may be made with the US while French people may less walk outdoors than the German. By our education, we know what good foods are, including at school cantines. There is a current campaign that says "5 portions of vegetables or fruits per day." Are recommended to stay healthy healthy. Our product are much less sweet than in the US. Even for pastries we focus on the taste and flavor rather than on the sugar.
I am in Germany for a month and as a older and overweight American I see all these lifestyle differences in Hamburg. And Hamburg is a big city(1.9 million) There no gallon containers of milk in the stores here. All of the grocery stores I have been to have no parking lot, so most of the people going there walked. I made a comment to my family that I see women riding their bikes to work in dresses. When was the last time you saw an American woman riding a bike in a dress? HALF said that 48% of US families had bikes but what percentage of those bikes were for adults. Probably a much, much, smaller percentage.
My observation of the US is far from being scientific (i only spent some time in Washington D.C. and New York), but what i think really adds to the problem: I found it very hard to find affordable groceries. Our plan was to save some money by cooking at least some meals for ourselves, but this proved to be nearly impossible, as even really basic stuff like broccoli, milk and cereals were extremely expensive. And mind you our accomodation was located in a part of Washington D.C. where people constantly told us, that it was not a very safe area to live in and even there the prices for groceries and especially vegetables were surprisingly high. In Germany on the other hand, even in Munich - arguably the most expensive city in the country - you will easily find rather affordable grocery store to buy ingredients for a self prepared healthy meal.
Absolutely excellent point!! The cost of healthy food is MUCH higher in the US than in Germany. Supermarkets in general are more expensive in the US, but particularly if you're looking for high quality, it will cost almost three times as much as in Germany. On the other hand, fast food is cheaper in the US than in Germany. So if you're poor in the US, you can't afford to eat healthy.
I have spent a week in Munich and I already found myself paying 3,30€ for a small cup of fruit. I thought THAT was crazy expensive. Can’t imagine what Americans are dealing with in their grocery stores!!
You were probably in a food desert, which aren't all that uncommon in inner cities. Also, if you don't know where to go or what to look for, it's also difficult trying to navigate in a city in a country you're not familiar with. But most middle class Americans have access to farmers markets, supermarkets, roadside produce stands, Amish markets, and other ways to get fresh food. A 3lb bag of apples where I shop is $2.
I think that has more to do with it being Washington D.C., a super city. I live in DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth), which is the most expensive area for groceries and I buy fresh produce. In fact, when I buy processed foods, my grocery bill comes out at least double.
@@nekonekosugargirls3448 I don't think this guy's experience is representative. For one being in a densely populated but unsafe part of a city actually increases food costs, they're called "food deserts" for a reason. I'm in the midwest and find it hard to believe that our produce, dairy, and meat are more expensive than Germany's.
I'm not sure how your video ended up in my recommendations but I'm glad it did. This is a great summary of all the differences in lifestyle, diet and infrastructure. As a running instructor at a German university, I noticed that so-called German beginners are much fitter than their international peers. Running 11-12 min/mi pace is the slowest we do and run/walk or jeffing isn't really a thing here while beginners from the US usually start out with run/walk intervals and their running is much slower, more like 13-14 min/mi. I said so-called beginners because I got comments from friends in the US that they don't think that 11-12 pace is beginners level. They are not the only ones who said that though, other internationals are also a bit behind their German peers in terms of fitness. I really think that the habitual exercise that we get by walking and cycling everywhere really helps to pick up a new sport quicker because the base fitness level is better. Oh and PE is compulsory until you graduate from high school, it's not optional and you can't drop it. At least, that was the case when I was a student. So children up to the age of 16 or 18 get weekly exercise. The diet part was eye-opening. I knew about the ridiculous portion sizes and the origin of the fast food culture but I was shocked by the prevalence of corn syrup in almost everything and the long list of food additives. Is it even possible to find 'cleaner' food in the US? I guess you could buy organic and local but it will be expensive so poorer people won't have a choice. Thank you very much for a very informative video.
Even buying 'organic' or local anywhere in the USA, is NOT at all healthier. "Organic" in the USA means fuck all. Yes, it CAN be healthier, if you eat whole foods vs anything processed in the USA, Kurzgesagt did a video on this too, and another on GMO's! It's honestly hard and VERY EXPENSIVE to eat real foods and stay healthy in the USA. Another thing would be comparing fast foods in the USA vs other countries. They are NOTHING alike!!!! American fast 'food' is anything but food, eating it will literally kill you, but eating fast food, even from the same company like McDonald's, is VASTLY different. Literally nothing is the same. Even the exact same foods in the USA vs other countries, just like Coke. It's honestly difficult to find food that doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, even bread!! It's pure insanity here in the USA!
@@Mark-nu3us that's what I thought. I read about the term 'food deserts' which means that even though you have grocery stores around you, the food they are selling would be banned in the EU because of all the additives in them - so essentially non-food by European standards. In a nutshell, nutritious food is inaccessible for many Americans. Also, I can imagine that organic farmers will have trouble to keep their food organic if their neighbors use all sorts of pesticides on their fields. Wind and rain don't know field boundaries. Plus, the control of organic food quality standards won't be the same as in Europe either. As for buying whole foods, that's what we mostly do in Europe. Most of the groceries I buy every week are fresh produce which I use to cook meals from scratch. I guess cooking skills are pretty much non-existent in the USA, too.
@@edithgruber2125 Yeah, it's gotten so bad that EVEN BY AMERICAN STANDARDS "Ice Cream" can no longer be called ice cream, it's a "Frozen Desert" because there's so much crap in it, it can't legally be called ice cream... Yeah, I think if I went to any grocery store and just found foods that were banned in the EU, it would easily take out 90% of all 'foods' in America. It's also that organic doesn't mean without pesticides or bugs or germs, etc. Even our produce I'd honestly be surprised if it could be called produce. It really makes me want to open up a store that serves fresh fruits and veggies as meals instead of fast foods, but serve them in a fast food manner, see if we couldn't help at all. And another store that refuses to sell any foods that contain ingredients that are banned in the EU/UK, can't imagine we'd have much to sell, but minimally maybe it would open some eyes about what changes we MUST take in order JUST to get REAL FOOD!
As an American, we are pretty much commercial farm animals that are fed poison to put us into the hospital, given expensive medicine to treat the symptoms and not the cause, then fed the same food in the hospital that puts a lot of people there in the first place. This country is literally a big food, big pharma, private healthcare/insurance farming operation.
Great video. On your last point about driving, walking, and biking. The channel "not just bikes" posted a video this week, that I found hilarious, about how city planning and the different attitude towards it in Europe vs North America plays a massive role in giving citizens the ability to choose to walk or bike. For many Americans, it is not even an option to choose to walk or bike to a store because roads and public transport are not geared towards enabling that choice. That being said, I live in the Netherlands and I too suffer from obesity and related illnesses (diabetes, heart disease) even though I have had a rather physically demanding job as a landscaper for the last 15 years.
The last time I visited my Aunt in Georgia, US, (I'm from Portugal) I was shocked by how no one goes outside. The streets were always empty, like a ghost town. Everyone was disgustingly obese and their lives seemed sterile, devoid of soul or emotion.
@@tyleraltom6026dude I see you under so many comments here. You seem like a triggered snowflake when you hear the USA isnt best in everything😂 „Oh dont generalize wah“ but then you yourself generalize.
„Disgustingly obese“ is really judgmental, it’s like saying someone is „disgustingly alcoholic“. It says more about your personality than about the obese person. I am in Sarasota, Florida, visiting from Berlin right now. People are very friendly, much more so than in Germany. (Also, most of them haven’t been overweight so far.) My half brother lives in Atlanta and I know other people in Georgia and most are pretty happy and social. And yes, they don’t walk around much but the cities are too spread out (and in Florida‘s case, frankly too hot) to be walking to get from one place to another. Its not ideal but you make it sound like the zombie apocalypse just hit or something.
@@beanem.3989 "„Disgustingly obese“ is really judgmental, it’s like saying someone is „disgustingly alcoholic“." both things are disgusting. Objectively. The cause a "yuck" reaction. Should you tell people into their faces "YOU'RE DISGUSTING!LY OBESE!", of course not.
My dual but German born sons made a great observation one trip back to the US. (We used to go twice a year to visit family). At about the ages of 13 and 15, they randomly said to me, we love visiting the US. “Everything is so yummy but I always feel sick for a while.” And they were making “healthy” choices and we cooked at home often but they were still affected.
Interesting. It makes me remembering a doctor who spoke about health in my company. He said that it is essential to walk a little on a daily basis. It doesn't matter from a certain distance. 1-2 km are already quiet well. For example walking to your work. More is not so much neccessary. I think as a German it's important to have your own weekly market in your town. That is a great motivation to go there an buy good food from local butchers, farmers etc. ...
I live in the Netherlands. People with a BMI over 40 are very rare here. My girlfriend is from the UK, where (morbid) obesity is a lot more common. I think a lot of factors go into why such differences exist, the UK and the US do share a thirst for the 'always more, always better, always higher' mindset. This makes them achieve more, but also indulge more in unhealthy habits.
@@GlitchNectar Healthy food is not more expensive than fast food or unhealthy food in general, that's a myth that is around in Germany too. Many fat people claim this nonsense. You don't have to buy "BIO" products to get healthy products. Which is what some think.
@@nimmha6708 Fast food is more convenient and releases more short-term dopamine which, when you’re afflicted by the harshities of poverty, is very addictive. I’m not claiming that fast food is cheaper.
I am from Austria, I lived for some time in NY and you are right and there are even more reasons. i remember how shocked I was on how many super fat people I saw in the USA, it was really a shock. But after I ate American style, I put on weight too. The food was the main reason I had to go back, I could not stand it.
No one is forcing anyone to eat too much caloric food. We are free to eat sensibly and get plenty of exercise. I’m a vegan living in the US, I’m free to prepare my own food and buy organic foods at the stores, and stay fit hiking and working on my land.
@@sidilicious11 I remember my times in NY when only a fast food restaurant was available, it was horrible. Here in Austria you get top quality everywhere and the farming in my region is 60% organic, this is the highest rate in the western world, so there is no comparison here.
@@mymixture965 that’s fantastic about the 60% organic farming!!! Sounds like you were living in NYCity? Maybe in some big cities there are “food deserts”, very sad. Counting on restaurants for good nutrition in the US might not work well.! Yet where there are grocery stores there are good options.
@@sidilicious11 I was in NYCity, right and you can get good stuff there. The danger for me was that everybody was used to eat junk food and I picked it up a little. Nobody of my friends and family here would ever go to McDonald and also we don't have a lot of these fast food chains here, I would have to make a conscious decision to eat fast food.
@@mymixture965Austria is awesome for eating and living well! I went to Vienna for two weeks this February and despite the winter weather, it was perfect for long walks. I basically only walked from restaurant to café to Konditorei to café to Würstelstand and ate EVERYTHING, but I actually lost weight!
I went to the US for 1.5 weeks, I was constantly feeling either hungry or sick and gained over 10 pounds despite trying NOT TO. Went back to my home country of Switzerland and lost the weight in no time (eating carbs 3x a day and not restricting). Pop Tarts and the enourmous and overly sweet iced coffees (both for breakfast!!) from the US still haunt me in my dreams.
so who forced you to eat pop tarts ? nobody with any sense eats pop tarts. And you can ask for iced coffee with no sugar. you chose to eat/drink that stuff.
I’m from the US and I haven’t had a pop tart since I was like 8 years old and never had an iced coffee, haha. It’s not like you’re forced to eat these things
@@Augrills the truth is that European tourists come to the USA and dont want to spend any money on food. So they eat pop tarts and go to McDonald's because they are too cheap to pay for real food. Then they go home and tell everybody how Americans dont eat vegetables. Never in their life would they cough up the cash for a decent T-bone steak or Maine lobster or a Cobb salad. A decent hamburger in my city is $25 + but the Euro tourist won't spend that and they run to McD to eat and then complain.
I would like to mention "Not just bikes" here. It's a youtube channel by a Canadian man, who has lived in a lot of places in the world, including Canada and the US, and who is very critical towards the urban planning of these countries. He finally moved to the Netherlands, to Amsterdam, because he did no longer wanted to live in a car-centered place. He is very outspoken about this topic and makes a lot of video's about it. Recent one was about the excuse that the US is so much bigger than this places (walkable, bike-friendly) in Europe. He debunks this argument I think. About food, I think there is more awareness about what is good food and what is bad food. It does not mean you can't eat chips ever, you just don't do that so often. A lot of things from the US have enriched our lives I think (movies, music) but the influence of fast food on the world is really bad. There is a MacDonalds everywhere you go around the world, and that is not something to be proud at.
I watched this last video from NJB, too. He's not an 'extremist'; he just doesn't want people to be locked into car dependency. For example, I live in D.C. and bike to work (50 minutes each way), but public transit takes 90 minutes, while the car takes only 25 minutes.
I wouldn't even blame "fast food". A lot of dishes around the world could be called "fast food" but are actually pretty healthy. Looking at East Asia for example. I would call it "industrially processed food". And interestingly the MacDonalds around the world can be quite different.
@@fumanchu4785 I don't remember him ever calling for a ban of private owned motor vehicles. He says we should use less and smaller ones whereever possible and I agree.
My time living in Germany had me at my most fit. I was in my early 30s and walked pretty much everywhere. It didn't matter how much beer and bratwurst I consumed because my daily walking distance more than countered it. As soon as I moved back to the US, I gained 20lbs in a matter of months. I eat a lot more here than I did in Germany. Despite having been pretty bad at the language, I still was out roaming around whether it was solo or with friends... which all was by foot, aside from the train rides.
I grew up in a very walkable part of Boston most of my life, and have friends and family in Germany. My next door neighbors would still drive everywhere, even though there were 2 convenience stores within a 5 minute walk and a Dunkin Donuts about the same. They would complain about dealing with so much traffic just to get a coffee, and when I suggested just simply walking there, it seemed to short circuit their brains. The thought of walking to Dunkin never even crossed their minds.
And a big difference I see comparing the US and Germany is the price of fresh nutritious food, like produce. Fresh produce in the US can be twice as much as in Germany. The same goes for quality bread. Good bread in the US that isn't loaded with additives is shockingly expensive, if one even has access to it in the first place.
Good program. Many US cities and towns don’t have pleasant infrastructure for walking and biking. Access to shopping is often busy with vehicle traffic, sometimes difficult to reach, and even dangerous. Also, the US mostly has higher temperatures and a walker or biker can get hot and sweaty more easily than in a cooler climate like Europe.
"American cities where not build for cars, they where bulldozed for cars." - from: Not Just Bikes in his latest video. Almost all American cities where build when the car was not invented. Zoning was not a thing and every city had a train station, tram lines and a walk-able center. At some point in time North-America took a turn and scrapped most of the train-connections, the tram systems and they bulldozed the cities to create space for more and more cars.
The major cities still have trams, buses, trains,subways, Elevated Train, Cable far, etc. It never went away. New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, etc all of them you can get around by biking, walking, or using public transportation. My mom's friend lives in downtown Chicago and never got his drivers license. He's 88 years old. He lived in downtown Chicago since he was 18. He walks or bikes everywhere (even at 88). If it was to far he takes the train. I lived in New York City for 2 years and only owned a car for one month of the 2 years. The car sat in the spot for 99.9% of time. I spent 4 weeks in San Francisco and I didn't own a car at all. I only used cable car, Tram, and the bus. I walked a lot also. The smaller cities either didn't exist before cars, or they only used horse and buggy. I used to live in Nashville and downtown Nashville is only walkable. You can't bike and there's no public transportation. I admit it was founded in 1714. The only way people got around was riding their horse. If they had lots of things to carry they brought the carriage. They didn't walk at all. The city I grew up in didn't exist until 1970. This was long after cars were popular.
@@jessicaely2521 Of course public transport never completely disappeared, but thee was a major decline from the 30s to the 50s, namely in the Loa Angeles area, which once had a very good public transportation system. Imagine that! There are some efforts to revive public transportation in major cities over the last decades. It is still bad compared to European cities. And the Railway system mainly transports good rather than people.
@@mondkalb9813 They also pushed for jaywalking laws to absolve the car from being responsible for hitting somebody while crossing the street as muhc as possible. Before that stuff, it was totally common for people to walk on streets. that's what they were there for. But cars started to get a negative press and instead of coming up wiht a good solution, thanks to the car companies, the blame got shifted on the people wanting to cross the street, instead of drivers not paying attention.
@@mondkalb9813What your forgeting to ask is who provided the incentives, dual relationship and backroom deals with them without the public knowing....Its easy...Its called Goverment the very thing that you thought provided solutions created the problems in the first place.
@@fast1nakus It started in Europe after WWII. The cities were built car-friendly because the car industry brought a lot of jobs with it. The USA was the model.
As a German who visited the Us last year and will visit again in 2 weeks, there is one thing you didnt mention that I think is really important too. Food prices: When I went into a Supermarket for the first time I was absolutly shocked how expensive everything was.Most of the ingrediants where like 3 or even 4 times as much as you would pay in germany. On the contrary to that Fast food wasnt cheap as I thought but even more expensive than here in Germany but cheaper than cooking on your own.This made me relize that most people just pick the cheaper, less effort and quicker alternative without thinking about the long term problems this will cause
Thank you very much for your great video. I am always happy how much positive you can gain from your life here in Germany. Unfortunately, you can no longer say this about many of my German compatriots at the moment, so that sometimes I am already worried about where we will be back politically in 5-10 years. I hope my fear is unfounded. Please keep up the good work.
When you look at German articles about weightloss a lot emphasize simple daily activities like walking somewhere instead of taking the car. Or taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Taking a small walk during lunch break. Just incorporate small activities during the day. German children are also trained to walk to places from an early age. Start with kindergarden. They are always located in the center of a suburb or "Neubausiedlung" and a lof parents walk their children to the kindergarden and back. Same with school. When I had to take the bus to school that still included a five to ten minutes walk to the bus stop. Also, before the car, Americans had to walk and I'm pretty certain that the cities back then were more pedestrian friendly. Yet even with places like New York the focus seems to be on cars instead of banning the car and making it more pedestrian friendly. Since you mentioned Stuttgart. The Königsstraße, Stuttgart's shopping mile is basically car free. So people have to walk to do their shopping. Yet, 5th Avenue is clogged with cars and strolling down 5th Avenue is not much fun. Same with Time Square.
We also use the word "Elterntaxi" for parents that bring their children and it has a connotation of being something helicopter parents would do. When I went to school, it might have been ok, when the parents brought you, if you lived in a village with few busses. But it was considered a mark of shame if your parents brought you when you lived nearby. "What do you think this is? Kindergarden? And even they can walk by themselves."
A friend of mine was complaining about his weight, I told him to stop using the elevator (as a joke because he lived on the 15th floor) I saw him a few months later, he was in perfect shape.... he had taken my joke serious.
It was interesting to compare Stuttgart with DC. Stuttgart - to me - is the the car capital of Germany. It's a while since I've been there, but the defining feature was the noisy expressway you had to cross to get out of the city centre. I think it's been enclosed now, but let's face it, it's still the home of the Merc.
Lol New York City is focused on the car? I really needed that laugh. The people who drive in the city are generally tourists who drove from a different place or extremely rich people who live in the city. Here's some numbers. About 60% of people living in New York City do not own a car. People who actually live in the city walk, bike, walk, or take public transportation. Parking is extremely expensive in New York. *Edit you have to remember New York City is just a city in New York. The state of New York has a lot of cars and this is because outside of New York City everything is pretty much wilderness. 1/3 of New York (the entire state) is wilderness. If you want this in numbers there's 10,000 acres or 40,468,564.2 m² wilderness in New York state.
the display on my newest bike (I ofc own several of them) tells me that I rode nearly 500 km in the last ca one and a half month .......it's a e-bike tho, but I always ride it on the lowest assist level and often totally unassisted ....and it naturally only counts the distance when the display is actually on ......and as mentioned, I also got other bikes .....and do a lot of walking .... shouldn't surprise that I look like a typical lean German, I guess
I weighed 150 lbs since I was a teenager. When I got into my early 40s I got a dog and we used to walk 4 - 6 miles a day and often much longer hikes on the weekend. He died of cancer 😭 when I was in my early 50s and my walking dropped probably 90%. In only a month or two I had put on over 15 lbs, for the first time in my life. Two months after getting another dog and starting the daily walking routine, I went right back down to 150. I love walking and think it is the best exercise, especially as you get older. Enjoyed the vid, thanks 👍
as a german for some reason the shot at 13:09 was especially funny to me 😆 it's almost as if you were saying "look mom, I'm in germany and I'm WALKING!"
That was very interesting to see! I never considered walking as something that you could put into the „healthy workout“ category because it’s so normal here. I walk every day 30 Minutes to work (& ofc the same back,making it 1h walking each day) without feeling I did something good for my body. It’s just how it is done here. I also heard that in many American towns you have a separation between the living- and the shopping areas. So you have to drive to these areas to buy your stuff and can’t just walk there. Meanwhile in Germany it’s normal to live in an area with many apartment houses and there are one or two grocery stores in between them. This way you don’t have to drive out of the „living zone“ just to buy something.
In some cities in Canada, like. Edmonton where I live, it’s a little unrealistic to walk 30 minutes to work when it’s -20/-30 in the winter and snowy and icy. As for biking, we’ll, use your imagination.
Unfortunately, it has changed in some small villages in Germany. Nowadays, you need a car in Germany, too if you live in such a village. The small shops that have been there in former times (like 30+ years ago) have disappeared for economical reasons.
@@jgriffin282 I would almost say: big deal. I'm Dutch, and went to Kyiv, Ukraine 5 years ago in the midst of winter on invitation by a Ukrainian friend I het in The Netherlands. Many streets were covered in snow, crushed to ice by pedestrians walking over it and temperatures were well below zero on some days, sometimes feeling even more chilly by the wind. But it didn't stop anyone from walking... hell, it still was very busy on the streets. I even started to get used to it at some point and noticed I started to take more risks (taking a short sprint to take advantage of the last 9 seconds of green light for me as a pedestrian... bad idea as I nearly went down). Just did that as we Dutch tend to keep walking and cycling no matter what, but our winters are hardly winters anymore and only last a week at most these days, where winter lasts a few months in Kyiv. I even saw some cyclists in Kyiv. Shortly after I left, temperatures dropped even further, but no, it did not stop pedestrians...
The separation of shopping and living areas is bad in some towns and not a problem in others. Boulder, Ann Arbor, Escondido - easy walking from residential to grocery, other stores. For now I am in Kalispell Montana, in the downtown area, easy walk to bank, grocery, good food. The big shopping area for hardware, clothes, lamps, pillows and all kinds of other useful (and useless) things is only about two miles away, but there's no sidewalk or wide shoulder along most of the stretch of road to get there. Can't walk without flirting with death!
Something else that should be factored in is the American approach to pharmaceuticals. Many of these medications have a side affect of slowing the metabolism, retaining fluids, and overall causing weight gain; I saw this in my mother as she was on anti-depressants and mood stabilizers most of her adult life, and she gained a LOT of weight from this. American physicians are quick to throw medications at patients, Lastly, I heard from one of my good German friends one time, care is better than cure. My oh my, how we could learn from that approach.
Thanks for this. I lived in Stuttgart for a long time, also visited the US. At my visit in NYC I was badly surprised by the costs of healthy food. Veggies, fruit and also meat were soooo expensive that the trip to McD seemed financially more reasonable. In Germany you can get healthy food (that you have to process yourself by cutting, cooking etc) for a very low price. And if you go even more to the south east of the world it gets even more ridiculously cheap when it comes to veggies and fruit. I was in Israel once and paid 1$ for 3 super ripe and sweet oranges that have been cut off the tree that very morning. Americans do have to pay so much for healthy food and the convenience of getting everything brought to your door makes another big difference between US and Germany
But McDonald's is not financially more reasonable. it costs $20 per person now. You know how much fruits and vegetables you can buy with that $20? McDonald's now costs the same as a sit-down restaurant with quality food. Just go to the quality restaurant.
@@faebite It costs me $20. For example, chicken nuggets alone s $10. You add fried, $5 and a drink $4, plus tax, equals a little under $20. And when were you living on the west coast? 10 years ago?
Yep, totally right - I am a German living since 18 years here in Indiana and I made the same observations - my Answer to this living here is NO Corn based food, homemade low carb meals - and as my mom used to say - eat half portions to keep your ideal weight. You decide how you stretch your Stomach to a Belly. AND I miss Walkways and Bicycle-ways here living in a small Village. Another missing thing is, in Germany I could walk and wander across the land out of town on well structured "Wander-ways". Walking through Forrest where so much easier and enjoyable that way. Here you can get shot by leaving the road and trespassing on private ground everywhere. You never know exactly when you are trespassing and when not, because of many missing warn-signs.
Recently moved closer to my job and don't have a car anymore. Got a new bicycle and I walk on a daily at least 10k steps. Sometimes even up to 18k steps a day. I lost within just two months around 10 kg and feel much healthier than I did before. So, I do understand the luxury of cars, they are very convenient but you are right, walking or cycling does quite a good deal to how we keep the body weight down
Good video! When choosing Stuttgart as the German example, you actually chose a hard case, as Stuttgart is actually one of the most car-dependent and least bike-friendly major German cities (only some Ruhr area cities like Essen or Dortmund are even worse). The modal split for bike usage in Stuttgart is 10%, as you mentioned. In Bremen, it is 25%. And DC really is one of the most livable U.S. cities if you do not own or do not wish to rely on a car.
It was one of the worst things about Stuttgart when I lived there. The air quality as a result of so much car dependency was poor. The car industry owns that city, it's such a shame. Even the Green Party are afraid to upset them there.
Bremen is a labrinth for drivers 😁 feels like every side road is one-way traffic... Bremen also hosts six day races. A lot of cycling enthusiasts here.
@@greenknitterWell we have some very steep hills there, and though we have a real good Tram/Bus system, some parts are rather remote. Without car my family would have problems with buying groceries, going to the doctor or reaching our garden.
@@baum7des7lebens7 You have three options: (1) Give car drivers more space by blowing up entire blocks of houses in the city to make room for more streets. You need to blow up lots of houses. This is what many U.S. cities have done, especially in the central part, South West and West of the country. High Ways through the city; streets where hardly anyone walks or rides a bike (too dangerous); bulldozed city centers with lots of parking for cars; broke cities that cannot pay for the maintenance of streets and other infrastructure (no mode of transportation destroys its own infrastructure as fast as the car, and free parking lots bring in little or no revenue); streets and roads with potholes and regular traffic congestions. Not a good option. (2) Leave the street structures of the city as they are but propagate and foster car driving in lots of different small ways (easy parking, no one-way streets, more money for street maintenance and less for public transport etc etc). You will end up with lots of cars on the street and constant congestions all over town. Car drivers will hate that, as will everybody else. This is what many German cities have done. Not a good option either. (3) That leaves you with option 3: support walking, cycling and the use of public transport. Sometimes, this will be annoying for car drivers, but overall, this is the solution that is cheapest, most environment-friendly, and it makes best use of the limited space available in a city (cars take up way more space than bikes and waaay more than pedestrians). I am not saying that was exactly what the city of Bremen does, but Bremen at least does this a bit better than some other big German cities. Ironically, in the end, this is the best solution for car drivers, too. You have restrictions, but at least you can drive. Put half of the bike riders of Bremen, or Münster, for that matter, in a car and let them drive around town together with you. See where that gets you. So, there you go. Pick your poison. Addendum: Do you know the car drivers of which country are overall most satisfied with their driving experience? (I will have to look up the data to give a source for this one.) It is not good old Germany, and it certainly is not the home of the brave. It is the Netherlands, in fact, the country that has made option 3 the policy for its cities for the last three decades.
Also I was phased by the term “hike” when I moved to the US. Americans will call anything in the realm of walk to the store a hike, which makes me think they have a completely different approach to physical activity
That’s just a linguistic difference that you’re drawing broad conclusions from. To be fair, your conclusions may not be wrong, but they don’t follow from your observation. “Hike” as a noun in US English and “Wanderung” do not mean exactly the same thing, even though they translate to one another. Generally, any distance walked outside the home can be called a “hike” here. Hiking, on the other hand, more closely matches the German verb “wandern.”
@@mattkuhn6634 That's a pretty interesting take. I might have overexaggerated with the "walk to the store" being called a hike, but walks over 30 min involving lululemon-wear I noticed being referred to as a hike, so perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between.
I went to a local community park in America for a relaxing walk, the Americans are telling me that's a "Hike" and they were exhausted after the slow 30 minutes walk, it's crazy
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I REGRET living in usa! I was in canada for over a decade got back almost a decade ago, and I am depressed by how much AMERICA has deteriorated. I also have been unemployed for several years :(((( How difficult is it to get a job for a American over 50 with a low end IT back ground? I know I would need to learn German! I am from the PNW and yes, my ancestry is Oregon! and then Ca then Europe!
I've read a couple of stories recently about Europeans visiting the USA, staying with friends or families in residential areas, and going for a walk around to see what everything looks like and also just to go for a walk. Only to be stopped by police because somebody has phoned to report somebody walking suspiciously around for no reason.
Americans are some of the most paranoid people out there, does not mix well with guns.
My dad went on a business trip to the US with a work colleague. The work colleague decided to get some snacks from the supermarket. He didn't know that if you aren't in like the city center there is a high chance of not even having sidewalks for pedestrians. So he ended up walking beside the road and ended up getting picked up by the police. They also thought he was some fugitive at first.
@@TheTrueVirus22 Yeah, had the same problem back in the 90s. Frieds lived in a gated community in the suburbs and when they went to work, we decided to walk to the mall. We had been there the day before by car and it looked interesting. So we started walking but around three quarter of the distance, the walkway abruptly ended. We could see the mall, but there was no real way to get there. So we walked next to the highway. We did joke that police will probably come and get us, but we made it without incident. For the way back we wanted to take the bus...only to find out, there are no busses. Our friends got us back with their car. That felt strange to us. In Germany there might be some spots you can't reach by car, but you have to bike or walk. But I can't think of a supermarket, mall or anything else, you can't reach by foot, but by car. Even truck stops on the autobahn usually have a small path in the back, so you can get there without using the autobahn.
I always fount it to be absolutely insane.
They call themselves land of free, but can't even go for a walk. 😂
@@fast1nakus😂😂😂
You perfectly summarized the key aspects 👍👍👍
Two remarks:
What Americans call bread would be toast in Germany, German bread is very uncommon in the US.
And a funny story:
20 years ago my then wife and me visited the US and Canada and went to the rocky mountains. We stopped at a nice place and decided to walk up to the top of a small mountain. We were almost the only hikers, except another couple. When we finally met on top of the mountain and started a small talk, it turned out that they also were from Germany 😂
Oh yea, american "bread" ... Irish Supreme Court ruled that Subway sandwich bread cannot be considered bread because of the sugar content, and called it "cake" or "high-sugared buns". Subway was not amused.
@@badoli1074 I only tried subway food once and found so disgusting that I simply cannot imagine that anyone would even pay money for this crap.
@@hg6996 LOL, by American standards, Subway is considered one of the healthier restaurants.
@@JohnWilson-hc5wq that's crazy 😧
@@hg6996 Myself recently in England: either pizza or baguette with cheese and tomato (just that), or a subway sandwich, but I had it with cheese, tuna filler, lettuce, tomato, sweetcorn, cucumber, gherkins, onion, olives... a bit of a garlic mayo dressing... much more satisfying and nutritious with all that fresh goodness. I wasn't aware of the composition of bread (had only half size), but all that veg part negated that small content of sugar in it. But you could have it with tikka chicken and no veg and salad... and that would be a bad choice. The devil is in the detail.
To quote “Not Just Bikes”, The US wasn’t build for the car, it was bulldozed for the car..
that channel is awesome
I came here to say the same thing. Knowing our 20th Century history, I can't say he's wrong.
Exactly!
I just saw that episode of “Not Just Bikes” and totally agree. The US could change, but probably won’t.
Thank you, I wanted to say the same thing. Still really liked Nalfs video :D
80% of german households own a bike. 79% own two or more.
One of my favorite stories regarding walking: Coming from Germany I was with my (now ex-)girlfriend in NewYork. We looked for a certain location but could not find it and as this was before iPhone, we just asked someone on the street. The person explained how to get there, it was like a couple of blocks away. (can't remember exactly)
We said: "Thanks" and startet to walk in the direction. The person we asked quickly said: "No, no, you can not walk, you need to take a cab!" "Why? we asked. Maybe a dangerous neighborhood. But the person said: "It's too far!"
We walked - it took us like 15 minutes or so.
15 min is like bare minimum walk on the day wow
I asked for directions in a hotel I was staying at and asked if it was withing walking distance. And they told me: NOooooo, it's way too far to walk. I can call you a cab. It was less than 20 minutes.
lol I doubt this happened. Most New Yorkers walk or take the subway everywhere and most do not own cars. I've lived here for 16 years. My bare minimum for walking was 3 miles per day because of my commute. NYC is not the American standard.
@@kelleylmiller Well it did happen.
Was around 1998 or so, would need to look up exact date.
And the person was of course talking about a taxi, not a private car.
ALSO: I was in LA around 2015 the last time, and the amount of UBER-calls for what I would have considered "walking distance" was surprising.
So.... from my point of view you are the exception.
The entire daily life of Americans seems to be designed so as to squeeze as much money out of them as possible.
I worked for an international institute in Austria for 15 years.
There were a lot of excellent US scientists coming and going. They were either extremely sportive and fit or very fat.
After a couple of months literally all fat ones dropped much of their weight just by eating the Austrian food and commuting without a car.
Grüße aus Wien!
Das liegt an der Qualität des Essens!
That’s nice to hear. My retirement home is in a walkable community.
The famous Schnitzel & Sachertorten diet. :P
@@catriona_drummond- The American equivalent is every day regular food for many average Americans. Only that there's little to no quality and taste in many American equivalents. But the amount consumed is twice as high easily 😊.
Wait, they _lost_ weight??? Being a native of Vienna, it surprises me to no end that somebody would actually _lose_ weight in the land of the Schnitzel, the Sachertorte of the Mohnknödel (with vanilla sauce). But there might be some truth to it, because, let's face it, food in the U.S. is outright poisonous by European standards. There are many things in there that are a known health risk, or outright harmful, so it is no surprise that not bombarding your body with crap all the time will give it the chance to heal, this is, to get the metabolism back in balance.
I walk at least 1 hour a day just by walking to the office and back 🙂 Not only is it healthy for my body and environmentaly friendly, but it is also very relaxing and good for my mental health. Any distance that I can walk in less than 40 minutes I consider a short walk. Greetings from Northern Germany
"but it is also very relaxing and good for my mental health."
and for sleeping. Since I regularly go walking (winter) or cycling (rest of the year) I sleep like a baby.
Last year I had an injury and couldn't do anything for a month and after a week my sleep pattern got disturbed - waking up at 2 AM unable to fall asleep again. Everything normalized after I was able to ride my bike again.
I actually started biking to work instead of driving because It helped enourmously with depression and sleeping problems.
About 60 minutes of pedaling instead of 2x15-minute car drives every day and the sleepless nightly tossing all but ended.
Also it does save quite a lot of money. Statistically - writeoffs ect - a car-kilometer will cost at least 45 eurocent, typically more.
My ebike does it at 1-2 ct/km.
Multiply by four weeks a month, I could nearly start smoking again with the money saved.
😂 swabian German here: you guys up north have much less hills and mountains, no wonder you can walk more! 😉
@@GoodBread and in the middle we have both - flat land and hills. I'm from Bochum and if I want to climb hills I cycle southwards towards Hattingen and beyond to the Elfringhauser Schweiz. If I want plain country I cycle northwards towards the Münsterland.
Yeah same. I regularly cycle to the closest city to see friends. It's about ten kilometers, so ca 45min cycling and I always feel great afterwards. Transport and workout at once! Why take the car on a nice day :D
I am American and have lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen since 2012. This video is so spot on. Ever since I moved here, I ride my bike and walk everywhere. I rarely use a car unless driving to Austria for good snow. The dairy and food in general is so much more healthy. And I get a little sick when I visit home from the food also. This is extremely accurate. It is so sad about the fructose corn syrup.
As a German person who does not own a car, I was shocked to see that you really cannot walk everywhere in the US. Page,Arizona: no sidewalk to get to Walmart from our hotel - thought it was a myth, now I know it’s true 😂 it is not common here to own a car before you have a full time job, so for some it’s only AFTER university (not at 16 like in the US)
When I visited Orlando with my parents 25 years ago, we wanted to go to a restaurant right across the street from our motel. The motel manager told us to take the car. Of course we tried to walk, but the manager was right, it was _impossible_ to safely cross that street. In the end we took the car. For probably less than 100 meters. I'm still baffled by that experience.
Indeed. I live in Richmond, Va., and sometimes I'll walk home from my mechanic's shop after dropping off my car (50 minute walk). There's a section of the walk where Henrico County intrudes, and for that section, sidewalks are spotty and sometimes you have to walk in the street to get around obstacles. And the trash! You're much more observant of stuff like that when you walk. People are pigs!
It's definitely hit or miss. But, for context, Paige Arizona is extremely rural and not a good metric to measure typical US life against.
As a flight attendant I regularly stay in a hotel in with a walmart nearby. Would be a 5-10 min walk, if you could walk. But it's simply not possible. No sidewalks, no pedestrian crossing to cross the 4 lane street, etc. Colleague of mine tried to walk and was stopped by the police. Seems so weird to me.
@@Schokoladentoertchen Exactly. Even in the suburbs, if they're part of a "county" instead of a "city," sidewalks and crossings can be nonexistent. IT IS VERRUECKT!
I'm a German grandmother and my family and I have been to the US several times and used to stay in self-catering accomodation. So, as a rule of thumb, I cooked dinner every other night and we went out to restaurants the other one. In the supermarkets, I found it really hard to find plain, unprocessed ingredients, say, e.g., rice. When I planned to cook a vegetarian risotto from rice, vegetables, mushrooms, tomato pulp and added parmesan, I only found SHELVES of all sorts of preparations "ready in 5 minutes" or so. The shop assistant scratched his head when I asked him for "just plain rice".
Finally, he found some packages in the remotest corner of the lowest shelf. IMO, that's part of the problem.
😮 that is crazy! (I am also German)
You may be shopping at the wrong stores. Bulk plain rice, and such as well as canned goods without the chemicals are readily found. Shop at the bulk stores, or were the local poor go, or even the restaurant supply houses. But be prepared for 50 or hundred pound packages, and 5 to 10 pound cans. Usually at half the price or less. For example, 5 lbs of potatoes are 3.99 to 5.99 locally: the 50 lbs cost, depending on time of year, is 8 to 25. The difference is even more pronounced for meat.
@@jameslecka8085 Good idea that I would consider if I were a US resident ;-)
@@jameslecka8085 why dont u have rice at your nornal supermarkets omfg
@@jameslecka8085 That can't be right. How can a super market not have rice, lol? I've never been to a country where not every single super market stocked plain bags of rice in normal quantities (250 - 500g). I've also never heard that they had this problem in the US, can someone from the US confirm this as well that there are super markets that don't stock normal plain rice?
According to a Lidl executive, the reason their initial entry into the US was unsuccessful is because they did not understand the American palette. He summarised it as follows: "When we make our chocolate bars in Germany we put one teaspoon of sugar and in the UK we put two teaspoons of sugar. It turns out that in the US we need to put four teaspoons of sugar into our chocolate or otherwise people will not buy it"
I don’t buy choc from Germany,because it is milk chocolate,it taste sweet without chocolate flavor. No thanks
@@janiceherd1960nah man German chocolate is so good, American chocolate probably doesn’t contain cocoa 😂
dominoes pizza just closed down in Denmark this year because no one here liked it. They might try again but their long apology explanation for launch failure is still up on their dk website haha Danes don't eat super healthy, don't get me wrong, but it's just a funny palate thing haha
@@janiceherd1960 There are more forms of Chocolate in and from Germany, other than "Kinder Schokolade" btw...
Some of the "American" brands actually get produced in Germany too, funnily enough. Source: Friend works in a Chocolate Factory that almost exclusively exports to America and Brazil
wow so interesting and makes sanse
I live in Berlin, and without my bike I am not myself. And I am not the only one: Thousands of Germans are cycling to their jobs in the morning. In the weekends again thousands heading to parks, to their friends etc - all by bike. I love it.
It took me a while to figure out but as a german, watching fitness and nutrition tips online can be confusing, especially when it comes from Americans.
Very often you hear tips to cut out bread and carbs in general. This made little sense to me since I eat lots of carbs every day and dont gain weight anyway.
That's until you find out that american "bread" would barely pass as white toast sugar sponge in Germany and a lot of the other foods may be drastically different too.
More fats, more sugar, more additives.
The weirdest stuff I've seen is like a litre of egg white only...like why would you skip the yolk and only slurp the boring part? Thats nasty.
Another thing is the coloring of foods. European food looks desaturaed compared to the neon-colored cereals, snacks and even pickled veggies are a glowing green. But Americans look at natural foods and think it's gone bad.
man believe me, most americans are barely above chimpanzees when it comes to education or intellect. Its crazy.
Eiweiß im Tetrapak kriegt man hier auch, das spielt zb. in der Gastro ne Rolle. Oder nur Eigelb. Oder beides ;-)
The last sentence: Amen!
@@ingafalkenstein4221 genau das wollte ich auch schreiben.
Precisely--"bread" is not bread. But German supermarket bread is also increasingly engineered for low cost and long shelf life. Look how often the ingredients contain rapeseed oil. There are plenty of obese people here also.
What also never fails to startle me as a German are American recipes. One time I made an american-style strawberry cheesecake and only used 1/4 of the amount of sugar it told me to use. The cake was still sweet as hell. How is american food even considered edible?? It‘s beyond me
In addition to the higher sweet tolerance, our strawberries are often chemically ripened to look red, but unsweet and even extra tart, which wouldn’t translate well if you had access to actually sweet strawberries
Totally agree. I usually cut the sugar in american recipes by two thirds and sometimes I find it is still too sweet. I cannot eat american chocolate because they are so sweet.
Even the unhealthy foods are ten times more unhealthy than in Europe. I'm skinny, but I looove iced tea now and then. When I was in the US, I felt like treating myself and bought a bottle of iced tea. Let's just say... it was not a treat. I actually couldn't drink it. And I do love sweet stuff!
I think it's all a matter of getting used to. Had German cake am German. Sip of cola. Cake ain't sweet anymore in comparison.
Yeah, I always reduce the sugar, when I make some "American style cookies",cause why tf is there more sugar than flour.
German (living in Denmark) here.
When we sent our teenage daughter to the US for a High School Year a standard warning during the preparation meetings was:"Expect to gain 4-5 kilos while you are in the States. But don´t worry, you will easily lose them again when you are back!" - And so it happened.
Having said that, - Germany may compare well to the US in this respect, but it could learn a lot from Denmark, still. Or any of the scandinavian countries...
And may I add: no diet supplements necessary at all.
I lost 3 kg in my 8 months in Michigan during my High School Year even though I gained a ton of muscle.
I was living on an Appaloosa stud and got shifted to do all the work for 24 mares and 2 stallions while my host mum got both her knee surgeries during spring break…..
I also refused to eat the crap they served at school lunch and always found someone to exchange me their 50cents salad bar plate….it was always stocked with the full variety we see in Germany plus fruit like grapes and melon…in Winter….yet only very few students even took advantage of it.
I had to get into a serious argument with my hostmom who tried forbidding me to drink the water from the tap, even though it was from one of their own springs on the land…she really told me ‚just drink a decaffeinated, 0 calories Pepsis instead!
But then she refused to buy watermelons on the grounds of them being ‚nothing but sugar water‘.
Yep, I stayed for the critters
There are exceptions to any rule. I think you had a much different experience than most of us.
When I went with AFS we called ourselves Another Fat Student. 😂
I too gained weight there and got sick a lot. Looking back I never fitted in health wise. I'm Danish btw.
spent a year in Canada's biggest city as an Au pair and came back 10 kilos heavier.
Since being back in Germany, I haven't really lost it, since I picked up some unhealthy eating practises there, but I also haven't gained much
What exactly do you mean with Germany can learn from Denmark?
As someone who lives in Germany and works a lot in Denmark and with danish people, there is pretty much no difference that I could observe.
Also data shows that in Germany you have ~54% and Denmark 50% overweight people, which is not such a high difference.
Finland even has a rate of 59%, Sweden and Norway, 51%, i think that's pretty much the same in all of nothern europe.
Or do you mean something else?
I dunno, I'm German, and I think you focus much too much on food and movement. High weight is a multi-faceted issue, though. There are a lot of other factors at play here. Social security, for example: It has long been proven that stress, especially existential stress leads to a higher body weight. Germans don't usually work multiple jobs to pay their rent. They have free health-care, free universities, paid maternity and paternity leave for a year, a renter-friendly tenancy law, and the list goes on. Plus, the average sleeping length per night is two hours longer in Germany than in the US. Many US citizens work in rooms that only have artificial lighting - most Germans work in rooms with windows. Germans have 25 days of paid holidays a year minimum - many have 30 days. I think the decisive factor is what we chose to do with our wealth. We distribute it more evenly than the US with positive results in average life span etc. Body weight is a lot more than nutrition and movement.
Body weight is like 80 percent diet and 20 percent movement.
All stuff you listed leads to healthy or unhealthy eating.
I‘m german and for me a Quarktasche feels like sugar punching me in the face.
if i didnt live here already, i would move after your commemt ❤ you are absolutely right and we should be thankful more often before claiming other countries do so much better.
Free health care? Why i need to pay like 1,5k every month then without using it lol? Also for „good“ unis you need either contacts or money….
Growing up in the US, I walked a lot, walked to school, walked to the mall, went on weekend walks for fun, and cycled extensively... I hated driving and people thought I was weird... eventually I just gave up an moved my family to Europe.... now I'm normal :)
How did you just move to Europe?
@@thedmitryguy He had a lot of money.
Lustig. From a weird Person to a normal Person only by moving.
Crazy
I feel like soda and sugary drinks play a major role in this.
They don't satiate hunger or thirst, they dump tons of sugar (and therefore calories) into your system and they make you crave for more once the rush is over.
It's the best to keep yourself from sweetened drinks if you want to get/stay slim. I mostly drink plain tea, water or (funnily) non-alcoholic beer and it works quite well.
The next thing is of course to cut down on snacks. And here the simple rule is: You can't eat what you don't buy.
So if you can avoid these bad aisles with the chocolate and the chips you've cleared 90% of the way to not stuff yourself with unhealthy snacks.
brah, i think thats the major issue, all the well build farmers i worked for, should have been massive fit dudes for what they are working, but instead they had a lot of extra weight, and the main difference between obese and non obese farmer were always soft drinks
As someone who struggled to gain weight and finally did it a few weeks ago: extra fat + extra sugar & lots of highly-processed snacks is the way to go if you wanna gain some fat 😂
Exactly that.
Friends of me and me go on vacations together sometimes and they have some extra kg´s.
I eat a lot more during regular meals. They drink sugary drinks all day, I drink water mainly...
We all do some snacking though me less so and rather "natural foods" like nuts and so on.
@-esox-3714 Nothing wrong with a bit of snacking here and there. 😌👍
@nehalilisays
Yeah, that stuff is designed to have empty calories with next to none nutritious value.
Dunno if it's the best/healthiest way to gain weight, but if it works for you, it's probably okay. 😅
I lived in the US for three years and developed a ton of digestion issues. I did not know anymore what was going on. it was horrible. Moved back home to germany and it all resolved within weeks completely. It is quite insane.
My stomach also gradually starts to feel unwell and unsettled over the course of 1-2 weeks whenever I go to America, it's always a relief to come back home afterwards.
as an american it sucks to know i will always have health issues because of the overprocessed food and chemicals added.
You have to purchase organic and non-GMO products. I'm American, and I destroyed my stomach when I started buying conventional foods.
Not particularly uncommon, and I wouldn't go so far as "it's definitely cus GMOs and chemicals!!" - there is a far simpler explanation; many foods are just different; bread is fundamentally different, and can be made with different yeast which you may have a reaction to, milks are a little bit different, etc. Even simpler, your digestive system is just accustomed to the food you grew up with, and modifying it slightly (ie. I eat more salads now, my diet has more dairy than I'm used to, there's more grease in the food) could cause issues. When I went to italy for a month I found myself having intense cravings for my american foods, that wasn't satisfied until I came home
@@Caffeine_Addict_2020 I've been to a lot of different countries and eaten diverse cultures food (Japanese, Lebanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Etc) and yet none make me feel unwell quite like American food does. I'm not eating anything wildly different in America than what I normally eat in the UK either however the effects are very different. As someone who grew up in agriculture, our laws on what is or isn't legal to spray Etc on crops destined for human consumption are very different (as are a lot of additives put dieectly in food), I don't think you realise how different the standards in these things are are.
Super interesting video, especially the DC vs. Stuttgart comparison. I wonder if the low bicycle usage there is due to missing bike infrastructure? Here some stories from my own experience: When I did a West Coast Trip back in 2015 (I'm from Germany) I was shocked to see that there was a bike lane basically next to the highway without a guard rail! That can't be fun and is immensely dangerous! In LA, where we returned your camper van, we tried to get to the next bus stop from the rental service ... it was impossible without walking on the street and people passing by in cars looked totally bewildered. I think if you enable people to incorporate healthy and fun habits into their daily routine makes a big difference ... and it also removes a lot of traffic from the cities. In my opinion that is an "everybody wins" situation.
I'm English, but have lived in Germany for decades. Great lifestyle - plenty of free time. So as a cyclist my passion of cycling abroad has been satisfied endlessly, having cycled over 100 countries since 1990. Only in America, when I cycled coast to coast, TWICE, did I gain weight! This video helps me to understand why this happened!
Damn all day and still putting on Weight...
Were you going to restaurants/fast food for every meal ?
@@mathislvd9626 All roadside restaurants had fatty food. In many, a portion of vegetables was just sweetcorn floating in a bowl of hot melted butter! As for the supermarkets, the packages were so huge that it was not easily possible to carry them by bicycle. So, yes, I resorted to a lot of junk food. Mia culpa.
And putting on weight while cycling is hard. Did a two weeks tour with about 100km/day and lost a few kilograms although I was eating a lot more than usual.
@@AJGeeTV not really your fault in these conditions. On a bike trip you just go for what's convenient.
I lived in Nuremberg from 1980 to 1996. I am living in Virginia now and I do agree with you on how the Germans do things vs. America. Planning a European vacation now! Love watching your channel!
We know of course that you Americans also do many things right, especially with regard to your economy, otherwise you would not be the richest country in the world! Greetings from Regensburg!
@@QuantumWaveMaster If they had a proper soziale Marktwirtschaft they would fare a lot better though.
@@K__a__M__I Yes. US has more freedom to grow as a company but they also could do this with more rights for their worker.
I am from Nuremberg and have some relatives in Virginia! Cheers!
Germans are fat too though... not as fat as Americans but in Europe they are among the most overweight nations. Their BMI for instance is well above the Netherlands where I live and we 100% associate Germany with fatty/unhealthy eating habits (lots of sausages, heavy baked potato meals). Whenever I go to Germany I only order starters because I simply cant finish a full meal.
So the premise of this video is wrong.
I am German and studied in the US for one semester and I can add a few more stories: an American friend of mine thought it was crazy that I walked home about 10 minutes uphill to get from the library where we were studying to the place where I was staying (she literally lived across the street). I actually thought that that was extremely convenient as it takes me a 30 min bus ride + a 20 min walk to get home from the university in Germany.
My American roommates also were amazed like I was some kind of super chef when I told them I made the pancakes I offered them on my own and not with these only-add-milk-mixtures. For all Americans reading this: Pancakes are super easy to make, just look up a recipe and give it a shot :D
All “whole grain” products like toast I found in American supermarkets are ridiculous. And I don’t only say this because “Germans are obsessed with bread”. Whole grain products are just A LOT healthier in general. There are also such things as whole grain rice and I recommend baking cakes and cookies or the pancakes mentioned above with whole grain flour for example.
The pancakes I make at home have three ingredients: milk, eggs and flour. It really doesn't get much easier😅 I personally also like going by foot or bike a lot. I mean in most cases I am just about as fast with the bike as I am with the car. So of course I take the bike, because at least my bike won't heat up intensively in the summer
I also like wholegrain products, but there is a reason no one in asia is eating wholegrain rice. It's contaminated with high levels of various chemicals and metals you dont wann to eat and most of them are sitting on top of the shell
I lived in Germany for a couple of years. I walked a lot more than I do here. We ate out once a month and the food was delicious. I never felt off after eating out. I ate about a pound of European chocolate or more per week and stayed at my slim weight. Upon returning home I did not walk/exercise nearly as much as I did there. I did not gain much weight (maybe 3 lbs?) moving back home, however I hardly ever eat fast food. I try to buy whole grains and hormone free meats & organic veggies. Eating out here I never feel very good afterwards. While doing a road trip around the states my family all gained weight eating out and grabbing quick snacks. We all felt bloated and looked a little doughy for a few weeks after we got home.
Pancakes are super easy but a lot of American college students can’t cook anything beyond Ramen so I believe you. A lot just cook Mexican food in Texas bc it’s easy though
you live 200 meters away from a grocery store😂
Great show be sure to thank Feli. I am Canadian and have lived here in Germany for 14 years now. I lost 10kg in my first months here until one day I realised I had put 4 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee. OMG I really needed it and my normal diet was not giving it to me.
Im half American and half German and I lived in the US for a while and I always wondered why eggs had to be stored in the fridge and everyone was so concerned about salmonella. Turns out in the us eggs get sanitized/washed and that destroys the protective layer of the egg so they go bad faster. In Germany that is not done and yes some eggs are dirty but they last way longer and I have never worried about salmonella even if they are raw or not fully cooked. Nature made eggs this way but Americans found a way to even mess that up :D
Yeah don’t tell my American acquaintances that I’ll eat two month old eggs as long as they don’t swim in water 😂 and will definitely eat cookie dough if it was made with relatively fresh eggs. It might give someone a heart attack
UK (and European?) eggs are free from salmonella, inoculated hens, or UV, or something. They have a red lion stamp on the shell. Last time I checked US states don't do that and you can get salmonella from raw eggs. Still, never 'do a #Rocky' in Europe, as raw eggs give biotin deficiency.
@@icannotbeseen Just because you don't get sick doesn't mean you aren't increasing your risk.
@OhThreeOh...👌🏻 absolut richtig, das weiß jeder Bauer 🙏🏻
@@Snow-hp9jz Also wir schonmal nicht 😎
A few years ago I've been a 140 kg guy. Then I had to hand in my drivers licence for 3 months and were forced to use my bicycle to get to work. Even after the three months i kept using my bike to get to work (6 km distance), what made me lose 40 kg over 1.5 years without even changing my diet. Kinda proofs your theory
Bullshit - that amount of cycling alone won't get 140kg down to 100kg.
@@moaningpheromones well, it's 12km every day, plus daily grocery shopping, plus doing all the other stuff you would normally do with a car
@@moaningpheromones for a person who's already fit, you're right. But for someone who was entirely sedentary before, you'd be really surprised what the metabolism kick of daily exercise will do.
@moaningpheromones
You are the one talking Bullshit. I started biking LAST WEEK and now I'm down to 71 kg from 74. 3 kg in one week of biking 3-4 hours a day
His increase in exercise might've lead to other changes in lifestyle he's unaware of. However, this is just an anectode and should be treated as just, we'll never know the truth of his weight loss and that's okay; no need to exchange unpleasantries.
I am a first generation American, my parents were both German Europeans. How true your video is. My grandmother lived with us and gardened. Nearly all of our produce came from that garden. Nearly everthing was made from scratch. I still try to do the same. It makes a big difference. I am 64. I take no meds. I love to walk and hike. I would gladly make trips on my bike, if our infastructure was set up to do so. Instead, I do ride, but as exercise, but must drive somewhere to feel safer while riding.
I'm American and I love to ride my bike but won't do so unless on a car free bike path. Everyone here drives like a maniac and is on their phones. I have seen 6 people hit by cars on their bikes and it's so scary.
@@mofly1860
I moved my living room to the back of the house because so many people here drive into store fronts and front yards
I had a similar experience growing up as a first generation Canadian with German parents! Gardening for fruits and vegetables, organic produce, home cooked healthy meals, and farmers markets for local seasonal produce, breads and meats were all the normal lifestyle for us. And we were always encouraged to choose some exercise that we enjoyed doing. I’m very glad that I was able to continue those habits with my family! I’m going on 70 and don’t take any medications.
in Schwäbisch Hall many kids drive to school with their bikes. Totally safe. Two friends of mine had been attacked in their cars at red lights during daytime... two attacks, one dead robber. No joke, his lungs had been pumped up by a fire extinguisher. Big and last surprise for him.
The most popular fast food there is Doner Kebab and they usually put a ton of vegetables on it.
My two sons grew up in Switzerland, did university in the US and stayed there after. But my older son told a revealing story about food between the two countries.
He was out with a group of friends, having pizza or something, and one of the friends wanted to order more food, but my son declined. Another member of the group urged him to have more, but one his more preceptive friends said "No, leave him alone. He is from Europe. When they aren't hungry, they stop eating."
That remark says a huge amount about the difference between how food consumption is regarded on the two sides of the Atlantic.
Wow!
lol
Schwaben nicht: Lieber den Magen verrenken als dem Wirt etwas verschenken 😂
I don't get why would you order/made more than you can resonably eat.
Its waste off food, and MONEY
@@komiks42 A lot of foods in the USA are ultra processed, so by design make you want to eat more and more. Years of companies developing increasingly more crave-able connotations result in people over eating. Some of these ultra processed foods interfere with the body's ability to recognise / trigger the hormone that tells us to stop eating because we're hungry, so we just eat and eat without recognising the signals that we need to stop.
I'm a German flight attendant and travel to the US frequently. the portion sizes are mindblowing to me. I can rarely finish a meal in an American restaurant. I think most meals are also more oily and the free soda refills do the rest.
I don't think Americans usually finish the meals either we just like leftovers
Try Schokoladentörtchen instead.
As a German living in the US I have to say it depends on the type of restaurant though. Upscale restaurants most definitely do not serve huge portions.
I can barely finish the portions in Austria and Germany
Nor do we use free refills that was a thing of the past . It’s the lack of walking period
If you consider that mental illnesses are more common in the USA than in Germany, there should definitely be a connection between the quality of food and mental health
I guess food is not the only factor. The ability for kids and teens to meet freely after school, without parents constantly "taxing" and controlling them, going on foot to school from the age of 8, biking with friends etc.
A lot of ppl perceive not owning a car as being poor.
In Europe public transport, walkability of towns and biking also have influence on keeping our mental health in good condition.
Doctor here - mental health and obesity are deeply nested together. Many of the drugs used in therapy for mental diseases tend to make you gain body fat. And for some, that might be a downward spiral they can't escape. Depression -> take antidepressants -> gain weight and get even more depressed, and so on. Imagine how depressing it would be to know that even if your off your medication you couldn't even move like a normal human being is supposed to.
There is more to it. Everybody in GER gets the chance to visit a therapist for free, if neccessary.
Also I could see stress playing a big role in mental health issues. German work laws are more humane then they are in the US. also losing your jobs not as big of a deal here
@@timg.532 Yeah, so many factors at play here.
Concerning psychiatric therapy, there isn't enough capacity here (DE) and for non-critical patients there is often a few months wait.
Yes and if you dont go outside for a walk in the sun you dont get enough Vitamin D and its important for your body especially the psyche
I was in america for quiet some time and the most astonishing thing I have seen was a "healthy" grocery bill for 85$ that kept me filled for 2 days. In germany the same bill, maybe 10€ more, keeps me filled for 5-7 days and I am a big guy
I'm Norwegian and have been many times to the USA. I can tell you that I was desperately searching for decent food on my vacations. The bread brought tears to my eyes, they were more like dough, as if they'd only been in the oven for 5 minutes. I'm used to crunchy crust, seeds and whole grains so I was pretty depressed when I couldn't find even one decent bread. I never drink sodas, but was curious of the american ones so tried out different ones. They were all undrinkable, it was like drinking liquid sugar so I kept to bottled water. I was shocked to see what was considered breakfast over there; like doughnuts and muffins - something most Norwegian would only serve on special occations because they are so unhealthy. And pancakes with syrup... need I say more. What shocked me even more was to see all the very obese people, even many kids! That's something we don't see in Norway. I have wondered why american food is so unhealthy and why they keep eating it when they must know how bad it is for them. (And yeah, the portions are extremely large compared to here in Norway/Europe.) Or why they don't walk more and keep active.
American here. If you eat a lot of sugar for a long time it makes you tired and you don't feel like doing anything.
Sugar is also addictive -- it spikes brain chemicals. If I can stay away from sugar for a couple weeks, I feel great.
But these sugary foods are advertised heavily.
Our government doesn't give a shit about us. You can only get assistance if you are in the most direst of straits. If you can find a job that pays you enough to have a life, you arent going to have time to enjoy that life. So, we are stressed out and don't have very many healthy coping mechanisms, so a lot of us who know better than to turn to drugs or alcohol, eat our emotions instead.
Also our news media has us scared to walk around in our own communities.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
@@internetopinion3043❤
I am German but live in Greece now, I have been to the US twice, and both times I was absolutely shocked about the size some people have, I have never seen anyone that big in Europe I think. Overweight yes, but not to that extreme. But I know why now, and it's very sad. The livestyle Is very, very different. The German obsession with walking was covered in the video, and the Greeks also spend a lot of time outside , mostly in the evening because of heat. You see young children play basketball until midnight.
Americans are not citizens. Their customers. It's a big difference
I was born in 1960 so I remember the mid 60s and 70s as a kid and a teenager. The obesity rate for adults back then was 13%. Its three times higher now. Childhood obesity was rare - I remember maybe three truly fat kids in a school of 350 kids. We lived in the same suburban neighborhoods with at least one car and usually two in the garage. Took the school bus to school. Watched TV in the evening. People worked many of the same jobs as today (more service than manufacturing workers now though). The big difference with today was food. Many/most mothers didn't work outside the home thanks to the economy back then allowing a single income to support a family. My Mom made us a hot breakfast each morning, we ate a hot lunch in the cafeteria at school and she cooked a dinner from scratch in the evening (very little processed food). We usually didn't snack after dinner either. Soda was rare - definitely not a daily drink. Eating out in a restaurant was a treat that we got to do about twice a month. Portion sizes were smaller in those restaurants back then too. There were no fast food places in our small typical American towns until the mid 1970s. Plus even in our suburban neighborhoods we were much more active. Kids played outside from the time they got home from school until dark. Mom worked all day keep the house clean. Dad worked in the garden when he got home from his job. We had a different outlook on food and activities back then. Basically, I think Americans the past 35-40 years have been conditioned to eat more and worse foods and to be more sedentary. It didn't used to be this way. It shouldn't be this way now.
America needs walkable and bikable towns
@@LucasDimoveo I don't disagree, but we managed to be slim back in the day with the current set up.
Good point. It's not 'ingrained' in Americans. It's just in a generation or so where this has happened. Sure, women are more likely to work now. But that's the same anywhere in the western world.
Americans think that children can't play unsupervised outdoor because the will be snatched up by a white van.
The reality is that child abduction are extreme rare and mostly done by an acquaintance.
@@buddy1155 I did a tiny bit of research, and it's 5x more likely for a child to be killed in a car crash (600+ vs. 100-150), and I think that about 60% of stranger-abducted children are returned alive
I've definitely heard a number of American travellers on RUclips telling about how they've come to a variety of European countries eaten what felt like similar amounts of food to at home but still lost weight. Then gone home, ate same quantities of food but put all the weight back on again. There's obviously the fact that they walked more in Europe but there's definitely more sugar and fat in American food.
My daughter worked as an international at an American summer camp when she was a student. I couldn't believe how much weight she put on in just a couple of months!
It all depends. You and only you choose what goes into your body. I worked at a summer camp in the US and dropped 14 kg in 2 months. I was actually underweight after I left summer camp. I lived in Germany and Switzerland for 5 years. I gained 30 kg in this time. It was the bread, cheese (mmmmmmmm fondue and Raclette), and chocolate that did it to me. I moved to the US, and I dropped the 30 kg I gained in 6 months. When I went to the US, I was active like I was in Germany and Switzerland. You can walk and bike in a chunk of the US. I grew up in the US and we walked or biked everywhere.
It is complicated. I felt very healthy in Germany. I thought the food was fresher than in US. At the time I could afford a simple but good diet. So I lost weight. I also walked to school often- like a mile and a half downhill then often back up.
The climate is rougher in the US - being hotter and colder and probably making biking to work hard as well as outdoor activity.
Also, I bet public transit in Germany is also better almost everywhere- though I don’t know Stuttgart re DC.
Cheers
Portion size is also not universal across all restaurants. The "nicer" or "fancier" restaurants in the US serve a lot less food than the less expensive ones. This of course makes sense because people here demand "value" and it's a very easy way to get people in the door. It doesn't cost the restaurant all that much to give you 30% more food. Generally speaking the meal at American restaurants is really two meals. One at the restaurant and a 50% to take home for another meal at home. The problem of course is that one has to make a conscious decision to stop eating at some point. As someone who has a very healthy BMI, even I struggle with making that decision.
Just try to get a regular joghurt in the states. Regular fat, no sugar, bland joghurt. It's almost impossible. It's either low fat and sugar or normal fat with sugar. Who in their right mind puts sugar in a low fat joghurt? It's insane. Same with bread. Even f*cking toast has added sugar. It's systematic, imo. The food industry wants the people fat and addicted to sugar and big pharma wants them diabetic. And if anyone would dare try to regulate that, the answer would be "freedom!" and "that's communism!"...
@@TMD3453 >public transit in Germany
>good at all
lmao, it's actually really shit these days
It's always sweet to see images of the town where I lived for 5 years. :) From the river to my flat exactly 200 stair steps, that’s like walking stairs up to the 11th floor. Good basic exercise that became easier the longer I lived there.
One thing i will say as a woman who loves to bike and walk whenever i can, that its not always safe. The amount of times ive been followed by someone creepily sadly makes me reluctant to engage in these activities where I can afford to live. When i am in places i am safe i walk all the time. So while i know part of this is influenced by infrastructure, there is also the culture of saftey to consider in the US. I have several friends who live in germany that i have visited and we both agree its so much safer to walk and bike around germany
Shotgun mount. Look at war bicycles.
My condolences. I'm a dude but as a Red and a non Chad I've come across any number of barbarians criminals scum bags etc myself. My solution is practice situational awareness and go armed preferably with a gun.
A small blade you can pull out under tight quarters and under duress is also helpful. See Craig Douglas for example.
Sucks but if you're going to live in creepstan America you unfortunately have to take certain measures to live your life
Gun Control protects criminals and increases crime! Take a gun next time! And vote for Lars Mapstead when you love freedom so much.
As a chad this never happened to me, i walk at night freely and sometimes stalk people. But i understand your pain
@@mr.bmasterclyde3171
All you have to do is look at, like, ANY statistics and see that you're wrong.
I'm from the US and moved to Europe in my 20s, have lived in Greece for almost 20 years now, and the differences in lifestyle really add up. I actually had a very healthy lifestyle in the US and was STILL overweight! But here in Greece I am so much healthier and happier. Here are some of the things that I personally think contribute:
- gasoline is insanely expensive here to the point that a lot of people straight up cannot afford to drive places (this includes me)
- produce is relatively cheap compared to a lot of worse foods, and it's culturally normalized to purchase huge quantities of produce. Go to the farmers market and get 4 kg of lemons and no one bats an eye, they don't ask if you're making marmalade or whatever. It's just this week's lemons.
- too many people smoke still.
- clothes in large sizes are hard to find, and people don't tend to buy clothes often, so there's a subtle pressure to stay the same size
- a lot of our vacations are based around athletic things (swimming in the sea, skiing)
- in the same vein, those of us who live by the coast, which is a huge % of us, are in a swimsuit in public a ton.
- there's MUCH less pressure placed on the individual to be "the best" at things, so it's perfectly normal to be the sort of person who goes to the gym for half an hour 2x/week, whereas in the US it feels like everything is about constantly improving and being the best, and #2 is the first loser, which is very demotivating for most people and a lot of people just quit when they realize they're not going to be elite.
- most people grew up on, and still really like, staples like lentil soup, green beans as a main dish, etc.
- it's normal to buy bread from the local bakery, not to buy bread that is shelf stable (at least not as much of it)
- people actually understand seasonality in food and aren't trying to buy grapes in March, which leads to people not getting the wrong idea that fruits and vegetables are expensive.
- olive oil keeps people fuller longer
- health care is ridiculously good compared to the US. My doctors here actually notice when I'm having health issues and intervene.
- parking is horrendous and people will do a lot to avoid needing to do it, including walking. But even if you do park, then you still have to walk really far because you parked 10 blocks away because parking lots barely exist here.
- all the EU regulations apply. They can't put crap in the food.
- it's very trendy to eat healthy. I'm in the food service industry and people seek out organic, local, vegan, etc. Even people you might not expect. Especially new moms do this but so do college students.
- discrimination in hiring is widespread, and everyone knows that being attractive is a major boost to getting a job. Plenty of jobs are pretty much only available to slim, attractive young people.
- military service is mandatory for almost all men so they get a little boost in terms of physical activity at an age where American men often get extra sedentary
I live on a small island, population about 25,000 people, and I have never seen a truly obese (US-type) person here. Even the tourists aren't. Most people here are like 10 lbs overweight. I've noticed this about Greece: there's a lot of hand-wringing over our obesity epidemic, but it's a huge number of people who are like 180 lbs in the 55+ age range. You never see people over 400 lbs here. I have noticed a growing trend of young people being overweight though in the past 10-15 years. But still nothing like US sizes.
Gas is not "insanely expensive" - I just isn't subsidized in Europe! In the US it is, that's why it's cheap (your gallons sometimes cost less or only a little more than a liter here! So frankly we pay the real price (sure: A lot of taxes on top, too), while the US only pays a measly amount!
Sadly they can still put "crap" in the food, just not as much and sure not as many different chemicals (as many that the US still allowes have been banned in Europe), but many things still contain added sugars (that's why it's still healthier to put on the apron and make your own food in Europe - but meals ready to eat are still healthier than in the US, because of less added sugars and almost none of that evil corn-sirup!).
Military service hm? Yeah it was when I was at the apropriate age - but they didn't want me! The doctor checking me out at the Kreiswehrersatzamt (the office where you had to show up to be checked out, to see if you are fit for service) sent me home after 30 Minutes (one of the few times when being overweight was a good thing)...we've since shelfed mandatory service in Germany, so nobody is forced into the military anymore.
ps: Yes, I am working on losing weight...have done so over the years, but it didn't work out long term. Still, I am down ten kilos from 130 KG to 120 KG...I've almost banned processed food that just requires heating up from 3-4 times a week to once a week (saturday, because that's when I play DnD with friends and thus I want a quick meal without preparations etc.)
@@dreamingflurry2729 gas is not subsidized in the US, never has been
Much less tax@@paulhunter9613
@@dreamingflurry2729gas is not "not subsidized" - Governments earn a shitload on fuel taxes
@@paulhunter9613 It is. What does gas do? Power vehicles that drive on roads. These roads need to be maintained, how do you wanna pay for that? Furthermore, emissions and crashes but other things as well like land use changes (like NALF talks about) are negative externalities caused by driving. Gas taxes DO NOT cover these societal costs AT ALL. The RUclipsr City Nerd did a really good breakdown of the numbers on this.
I came back to the states about two weeks ago after spending two weeks in Germany and I agree with your comment about feeling a bit sick for about a week. I find that food is more easily digestible there than in the states and I don't eat fast food or drink soda. Plus, while in Berlin and Leipzig, I walked almost everywhere I went which helps burn off all of the beer I consumed, which was a lot.
I even feel sick if I eat too much german processed food
too much gut wrecking crap allowed these days and better cook for yourself, using organically grown ingredients ......preferably from the own garden or foraged from clean areas if you have the time and space.....
@@feldgeist2637 Same. I'm Irish and we have so much processed crap here. Not as bad as the US, but still. I've cut out processed foods almost entirely from my diet and eat fresh local foods and I feel great. No garden unfortunately but hopefully in the future.
Take a walk after your meal it helps you digesting
part of the reason is pesticides etc. probably. the "organic" label doesnt mean the same in europe/germany than it does in america. all produce sold in germany is "organic" by fda standards. we have the "bio" label which is meant to ensure a more natural way of production so technically this is another "extra organic" label but its very much optional
@@greenknitter, I agree. As an Irish woman who has lived in Germany for the last thirty years, I visit Ireland at least once a year. I definitely notice a difference in the food there, compared to Germany.
Hey NALF, that was very informative and motivational. Keep it up. Greetings from Frankfurt
This was an awesome video. I’m a Canadian who lived in Serbia for nearly a decade. Most people were slim, even though they have a bakery every 500 feet and also drink a lot of beer lol. The food was much better quality, and almost everyone rode their bike daily and walked. I was much healthier/fitter when I lived there.
True
It should be mentioned that some eastern european countries like Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine still deal with the aftermath of war or war itself, dont have a flourishing economy and are the poorest countries in the EU. Many of them are not slim or drive a run down car by choice.
I can think about another difference in the "mild exercise". My American brother in law was shocked by the stroller culture in Europe (Czechia is very similar to Germany in these things) and how it is a big thing to "go out for a walk to get a fresh air" with a newborn / toddler in a stroller in almost every weather, in a nice weather even several times a day. Sporty parents buy a sport strollers and are jogging or skating with it. The lazy parents just go for a walk 😂 Also the strollers seemed to be expensive to him, but here is just regular equipment for parents.
Maybe in the US people think that streets are dangerous or they actually are? This seems very odd to me.
@@sonicxdudex765Sometimes the streets are dangerous but that’s only in a few areas. Mostly it’s just people being lazy and staying inside since everyone goes everywhere by car
I love that concept.
I used to see parents with strollers all over town even in mid 2000s, now It's rare, same with just seeing kids doing shit outside, even in mid 2000s we were outside all the time getting in trouble having fun, shit, we still had rifles in trucks to go hunting after school.
A LOT more fat people in Czechia over the last 20 years since McDonald's, KFC and American products came in.
Video starts at 4:13
Those "deep dive" videos are really great. Job well done
I spend a lot of time in the U.S. and the fact that there are no sidewalks in the rural areas caused me some trouble because I like to walk distances up to 2 miles rather than driving. So, when I was in Florence S.C. I got stopped by the police when I was walking on the shoulder of the street. They said it was suspicious and only after I told them that I live in Austria the laughed and let me go.
So, no sidewalks contributes to not wanting to walk.
As always a great video, NALF!
I noticed this tolerance to sweetness in Canada. My wife and I stayed at my uncle's house who lived there, and he had a neighbor - a very kind woman, but terribly overweight - who baked a Saskatoon cake for us. This cake was so incredibly sweet that I thought it was going to burn my tongue. It really surprised us because we were the only ones who noticed this sweetness. My uncle, his wife, and the neighbor thought it tasted perfectly normal.
Sugar is addictive, and with all addictive substances you build tolerance, there’s this one nutrition specialist who summed it up pretty well: „once you stop eating sugar all together, you won’t even want to go back again“
This is so accurate. I am German, and even in elementary school, we learn about the amount of sugar in food to avoid it. More and more "candy shops" with snacks and sweets from all over the world are opening in Germany. I will never forget how I immediately spit out my first Twinkie because it tasted so disgustingly sweet and chemically. American chocolate tastes like vomit to most of us, and in general, everything is way too sweet and always has an unnatural, chemical aftertaste.
they stopped selling Schogetten here, in the UK, I feel so sad about this. Anyhing Cadbury is way too sweet, but I'll take that over American Hershey's, that proper disgusting.
@@natalijasmirnova7589 god I hate cadbury so much. It’s not like I have a refined palate for chocolate, I’ll take the cheap stuff no problem but Cadbury is so much worse than cheap stuff in germany
The reason for chocolate tasting like vomit is that the sweetener they use in the US has a few chemicals that are very similar in what produces the acidity in actual vomit. It's cheap to make, and was used during WW2 for chocolates in soldier rations, but apparently the population formed a taste for it. Chocolate manufacturers tried to switch to traditional sweeteners but sales plummeted, and they went back to the old vomit-choko flavor.
I still remember when they switched Hershey's kisses recipe from something made with real cocoa to the vomit tasting stuff. I literally thought my bag of kisses had gone rancid. Now kisses have a reputation for being garbage candy but I swear, they used to be delicious!
Lots of products in Germany have a sugar-free counterpart, I actually started buying these since the normal ones lately became way too sweet for me. I can't imagine the norm in America being even sweeter.
You mentioned a really good point about walking as a means of weight loss. After you have gotten accustomed a bit, it doesn't fatigue you anymore. You don't feel drained, don't feel like you need to take a rest or fuel up. But it does burn a fair amount of calories, you just don't notice it like you do with an intense workout.
When I visited the US, I was baffled not only by how many obese people there were, but also how unbelievably fat many of them were. Like "too fat to use their own feet to move themselves through a grocery store and having to ride a cart instead". And not just a single person every now and then; they were everywhere. I've never seen anything like this in Germany besides some very few people suffering from strong cases of metabolic diseases.
When I visited Germany, I was baffled not only by how many egotistical jerks there were, but also how unbelievably rude they were. Like "we have to shit on them so we feel better about ourselves". And not just a single person every now and then; they were everywhere. I've never seen anything like this in the US besides some very few people suffering from strong cases of mental illness.
You guys are the worst.
@@joshyhush22 Uh.. This videos uploaders statistics shown at the beginning of the video say otherwise.
20% fat, 40% obese Americans equal 40% "normal sized or muscular".
@@joshyhush22dude. Sorry to burst your gymtube bubble but the amount of people overweight due to sheer muscle is very small.
The Plague of Obese people 😂
@@joshyhush22 that doesn't change it. Mobility scooter- Level obesity doesn't come with gains. You are just trying to say anything in defense so you come up with some technicality. The USA is very obese. Being even more obese cause your biceps is big doesn't change the count of people that are obese. People that wouldn't be obese but are counted due to muscle. Very few. I'm repeating myself cause you didn't make an actual point against it.
I am from germany and my husband is from the US. And even before watching this video i can say that it has to do mostly with the price of healthy food. Here in germany all the healthy things like vegetables and fruits are incredibly cheap (and regulated thanks to the EU) while stuff like McDonalds or other fastfood is always really expensive and seen as a luxury by the germans.
Whattt??? So wrong… Mc Donalds is cheap here and healthy food more expensive. Thats global
@@indigo3610 Nah, that’s not true. In Germany a McMenü (Burger + Fries + Coke) is 10-11€. For that amount of money you can buy enough veggies and fruit for a week!
@@louis8913
1) McDonalds is still cheap
2) You get a cheeseburger for 2€. 2 of them should be enough until the next meal
3) You can't compare eating at a restaurant with buying stuff at a supermarket. For 10-11€ you get a large salad at a restaurant which doesn't even cover your caloric needs for a day, let alone for a week
4) Taking calories and a satiating effect into account, you need about 2-3kg of fruits and vegetables per day or roughly 500g of high calory density junk food. None of the two is much cheaper than the other.
a friend of my son ate during a Mc Donalds visit over 7.000 calories, he was 7 years old....
@@TheSandkastenverbot2€ for 2 bites of a cheesburger is nothing else than a scam. It IS expensive. The money you need for a meal is the same as in a regular restaurant. Which is fckin overprized for fastfood.
I am considered overweight, but I do my share to get rid of it. I just had a check on heart, liver, blood, insulin... and all is good (surprisingly). I switched from using my car all the time, to riding a bicycle. It made a HUGE improvement to my fitness (pro tip: buy a really good bike). I do consider my food as healthy, since I prepare the majority myself and don't buy ready made foods. I do not use any sugar, I don't even have any sugar at home (also Chocolate, chips, any sweets).
I don't strangle myself with diets. I do love a Hamburger, but I make therm from scratch. And with the salad and veggies, I do not consider them as unhealthy.
I went down from over 110kg to a more reasonable 95kg. 85kg is the goal I set for myself. I am 50 years old and I have been told it is harder at that age to loose weight.
My biggest weakness is the beautiful Budweiser beer from the Czech republic. Since they are normal people at Budweiser (Czech), no need to boycott them.
And I hate walking, that's why I bought myself a bike... Since my fitness improved, it makes really fun and I am as fast or even faster than a car around town. BTW, I still smoke.
There's no need to boycott bud anyways. Don't let politics get into your diet.
Also: try walking. Slowly. And looking around - I bet you'll enjoy it. You'll see ant hills and butterflies and bees and little bumblebee butts sticking out of blossoms and it's simply so enjoyable to see all the little things one doesn't notice when speeding by. Of course I don't want to tell you what to do or how to live your life, please don't get me wrong! But there's so much going on around us that we don't even recognise and it's so soothing and delightful to watch. I'm sure you'll like it!
@@Piggelgesicht believe me, I take a good look around every day. On my way to work I pass a local farm and it is so cute to see the cows getting on their meadows in spring. They jump around and you really see the joy they are having. The crops growing, winter wheat is just about to get harvested right now...
I don't know how far your next environmental conservatory is... Mine should be less than a mile.
You will get to your goal, enjoy the journey, healthy food can be so tasty and physical activity so rewarding. Dont worry about the beer, im on top shape and drink some beers every weekend. Cz has great beer, love it!
Don't forget , in France we are saying you need to be healthy to live. And living means also doing some unhealthy stuff. If you don't enjoy yourself you are not living.
It's all about balance.
@@kevinblankenburg4816 I smoke too :( I wish I had the strength to quit. It seems an impossibility. I
Two small additions to your video:
1. It`s even more interesting to know that in Stuttgart, they drive less often than in comparable Washington, if you know that Stuttgart is a big car hotspot. Mercedes, Porsche, Bosch and lots of suppliers are based in that area.
2. The US was very often actually not built for cars, but destroyed for it, so it not only has historical but mostly political reasons. A good counterexample would be Amsterdam, which in the 70s was just as car-centric as US cities but today is one of the most pedestrian and bike friendly places in the world!
I've been to the US once and have seen the most american picture ever: An Obese guy driving in a motorized shopping cart thing, wearing an "I love Guns"-shirt and a white, blue, red cap with an eagle on it shopping at walmart and buying a cowboy hat.
HAHAHA, can also add a nice story from a trip to the US. About seven shops in a row and a row of parking spots directly in front of the shops. A man with a big jeep drives to parking spot A and goes into the shop directly in front of the parking spot. After a minute he comes out, jumps into his car, starts, drives and parks about 2 parking spots(~20meters) away in parking spot B to go into the next shop. The shops doors were closer to each other than the way to his car and back. But of course he had to DRIVE to the second shop XD XD... that was the most american thing i've ever witnessed in my life
@@lf4114 I love the story!
The first time I was in the US, I walked to the grocery store. It was just down the road, about 30 minutes walk. Lovely side walk next to the road, completely empty. The weather was nice too, even though it was August in Florida. I garnered a lot of attention, including some sexual harassment from guys in a car. And the person backing bags at the grocery store did not know what to make of my backpack.
I later learned from co-workers that the only people who used the sidewalks were joggers and the ones riding a bicycle for exercise. There were several at work who exercised using bicycles yet none took their bicycle to work. Although some used their motorbikes.
It really makes me depressed just seeing these things. No wonder people in the usa also have all kinds of mental problems
It's really interesting how these perspectives differ so much depending on where you were raised. I'm from the Netherlands and consider Germany as very bike-unfriendly, and at the same time the portions in restaurants are always too big for me. I can't imagine the US if for US-Americans Germany seems bike-friendly and the portions apparently small 😄
Yes, I totally agree. I live in Leipzig which is a bike-friendly city by German standards and I use my bike or a rental almost every day because it's the fastest way to get there. But when I visited Utrecht last year, I was blown away by the amazing bike park at the station and the fast bike lanes everywhere. The city makes a lot more room for cyclists than we do, we could do better. While we Germans are miles ahead of the US when it comes to walking and biking, we can still learn a great deal from our neighbours. I'd love to live in the Netherlands, it's so bike-friendly and really pretty with the small canals.
As for portion sizes, I think that our portions are quite big and often too salty for my taste. I don't use that much salt when I cook at home. I struggle to finish my plate when I eat out. I think I would be totally stuffed if I tried the 'side dish' shown in the video, I could make two meals out of that.
Also, those amazing underground trash containers. Can we have those, too? 😅
I was kind of surprised to see Germany as an example of a country that facilitates avoiding obesity. When comparing it to other European countries, Germany doesn't do all that well. But yeah compared with the US it might do pretty well
German cities are bike-unfriendly. However Germans still like biking. They just don't do it in the city.
@@edithgruber2125Die Straßen der Niederlande waren von Anfang an für Fahrräder geplant, das war in Deutschland nicht so. Was hält dich davon ab in die Niederlande zu ziehen?
I really love that your content evolved from pointing out stereotypes and an overview of culture into source based and well researched discussion of core differences between europe/germany and the us. keep it up
This IS true and very important
W
tbh @NALF normalizing or balancing audio levels between sections would be really good to look at in the future (audio engineers call this "mastering"), I had to ride the volume knob this entire video for each section change and then the end credits were so loud they scared the cat out of the room! audio is worth the same attention as lighting
The bit you said about how extreme people here in the US are about exercise struck me so hard. My spouse is skinny and does ALL the sports. I am stupidly fat and no amount of activity seems to put a dent in it, especially since I don't do them consistently. My spouse's version of trying to "encourage" me to do activities is to constantly take it to the limit. We can't just go for a walk. We need to go for a 10 mile hike in the heat and humidity of the south. We can't go for a chill bike ride to town, we need to go up a mountain. It makes me want to stress eat just thinking about it, tbh.
I have never been overweight in my life. I'm also a pretty lazy person. The biggest thing to help your weight is a balanced diet. Exercise is next.
I agree with @aewtx.
It only hurts your body if you start doing exercise or exhaustive activities while having too much weight to carry.
I personally had 135kg (270 lbs) 8 years ago (I was 22) and can therefore tell you straight up, that doing (intense) sports is absurd at that weight.
Therefore I had to change my eating behaviour first and cut (almost all) sweets and tried to put some more veggies on the plate instead of always eating processed meals and/or fast food (most stuff I've eaten were "microwave-ready" products).
After changing that to a more healthy way, I lost my first 40 lbs in the first 2 years (I did not work out during that time. Not even once!)
After that I started with moving more, and doing some small exercises at home where no one could see me, I was just ashamed to get myself out there in the gym, even if that would've been much better for building up some confidence. I could've really needed it back then.
The next 4 years brought me down to 190 lbs... It was a time of ups and downs, but that's ok. Life's like this for all of us, I guess.
Slow but steady progress is good enough! We don't need to lose everything at once. (Would be funny, though 😀)
I'm currently at 170 lbs and built up some muscles - for me this is the right weight (+- 10 lbs) and I'm very happy to have startet the journey back then.
If you want to be more active "right now", I'd recommend going for a swim: It's "supporting" your joints and you'll basically do a "full body workout" while you're at it. 🙂
Your idea of going for a "chill bike ride" is also good! Maybe there's some place you want to visit which you could ride to. Just take your time and do it "your way"!
Other than that I just found 2 important rules for me which could be good tips for you:
1. Sweets, that aren't at home, can't be eaten. (HUGE impact for me! I rarely have something at home even to this day, because I know I'm weak when it's available)
2. Make a daily list of all the food (AND Drinks, especially in the US) you consume over 1 - 2 weeks and track the calories to get a feel for what has the most impact to you on a daily basis.
I wish you the best of luck, regardless of if or what you do!
Have a great day!
You absolutely should not push yourself to 100%. Do only 15min walks everyday. It has to feel easy yet accomplishing, and remember quantity over quality. I’ll guarantee you results.
Hi all. I appreciate the replies :) I will say that the general assumption that I have a bad diet is frustrating. I once had an OBGYN just volunteer that I should cut back on sweet tea at the end of an appointment. We hadn't discussed weight, nor did she know anything at all about my lifestyle, she just assumed that as a resident of the south, sweet tea was probably a culprit.
I am not a big eater of processed foods, nor of sweets except chocolate, which is why it's generally not in the house lol. I think my body is just super efficient at being fat. My spouse and I went on a week long scuba diving trip where we did and ate essentially the same things. She lost 5 pounds on the trip. I gained 10.
Anyway, whoever suggested just doing small things on my own terms at first was right. I've gotten frustrated and depressed about it and gave up. Time to work in small changes.
@@sapphy2530 I don't want to sound like a father to you, but don't compare yourself to others, rather compare yourself to who YOU were yesterday. Take a step by step, slowly and surly, and before you realize you have climbed a mountain. When you have accomplished that, try to remember that feeling and its satisfaction and repeat it, and repeat it until you become addicted to it. Working out should not feel like a prison, but rather like a prisoner that escaped the prison free into the freedom :)
I‘m a German living in Chicago. I didn‘t really changed my diet and I definitely started to workout more and I still gained about 13kg (28.6 pounds) since I moved over here last September. I‘m going to move back in this September after I finished my gap year and I hope that I‘ll be easier to loose weight.
Ja du wirst sehr schnell wieder Gewicht verlieren. Alleine schon durch mehr Bewegung da du in Deutschland zu Fuß gehen oder mehr Fahrrad fahren kannst. Auch unsere Portionen sind kleiner und die deutsche Küche ist generell gesünder.
Yes, my daughter (German) studied for one Semester at a university in Upstate NY three years ago and although she was only in the US for four and a half months, she gained weight. She was amazed by the portions which her American friends on campus took from the buffet at the mensa. They would usually end up leaving half of it on their plate too.
Ich habe nach einem Jahr usa 14kg zugenommen und bin bis jetzt immernoch nicht wieder bei meinem Normalgewicht angelangt nach einem Jahr zurück in Deutschland…Gewicht verlieren ist deutlich schwerer als zunehmen. Und ich gehe regelmäßig ins gym, bin draußen und esse gesund. Der amerikanische Zucker hat sich in mir anscheinend festgesetzt
@@lifeasnat6341 Kaloriendefizit führt zu abnehmen. Bleibe konsistent im leichten Defizit und du WIRST abnehmen.
@@TerenceChiII nicht wenn man Hormone einnehmen muss. 🤷🏽
Als Deutscher feier ich deinen Kanal!! Sehr informativ und Unterhaltsam
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As someone who has been married to a German for almost 25 years, has lived there, and visits often, your observations are on point. I particularly agree about the added sugar and chemicals in the food supply. We are an active family who eats out very rarely and eats minimal processed food in the US. Whenever we go to Germany, I end up losing a pound or two in the first week - not really changing what I eat or my activity level. I attribute this to higher food standards in the EU with regard to food additives, sugar, antibiotics, and hormones in animal products. Thanks for posting this. I subscribed.
Regarding the food part, back when I was doing an internship, me and a co-worker talked about how various fastfood brands differ from country to country (price, taste, portions, etc.). Since he travels around with his family a lot, he had seen and experienced far more than I did.
When I asked him what McDonald‘s is like in america, he frowned and said „Never eat it. It‘s super cheap but you can taste the chemicals going down your throat.“
I’ve never visited america but this quote always… terrified me.
I don't think it's just fast food. I like to cook and while searching for recipes, I came to the conclusion, that "homecooked" means something different in the US than in Europe. We tend to cook everything from scratch, they use processed food at every possible occasion. Like why would you make your own sauce, when you cam buy one in supermarket? Why would you make dumplings at home, when you can buy frozen at grocery store?
If main ingredient is something already pre-made and bought at the store, nobody over here would ever call such meal homecooked.
@@ElysV135 Could very much be. Wouldn‘t surprise me at least.
@@TheGamegirl543 And by the way, what I also noticed when baking cakes from the US sites or channels, it's insane how sweet they are. I literally cut sugar at least in half, because it's disgusting how sweet their recipes are.
Yeah, I rarely eat McDonalds, except in emergencies when there are no other places open. I don't taste chemicals, but you can feel the lack of nutrients. So to me it's a waste of money.
My daughter has many food allergies which have always been hard to manage. She went to university out side of the US and many, not all, of her allergies either went away or became mild, she came back to the US and they became more severe again. In the US, eating out is always tricky for her. It isn’t as tricky when she is outside of the US.
That’s because Americans live in a chemical soup. Air food water full of toxic chemicals. Especially our food. She should move back to Europe.
Something that I have seen from watching american shows, movies, cooking shows, etc. is that a side salad, or just a veggie side is not as common as it is here (I'm Austrian btw). While growing up, we always had a side salad for our main meal, except when we had soup (would be weird). Sometimes that was the only side, like eating an oven roast chicken with rice and heaps of salad was a common meal in out house. We also learned cooking from a fairly young age, which made us appreciate the plain ingredients a lot. My younger brother and I would spend a lot of time helping our parents wash, peel and chop vegetables, eating them in the process. Also, snacks here are WAY different - eating an apple or two carrots for a snack between lunch and dinner was the norm - we always had access to fresh produce to eat when we became peckish. Things like granola bars, crackers, sandwiches were either small meals or treats, not daily snacks.
Same in Slovenia
@MissyChiyo - You are making assumptions about Americans based on tv shows? That is why Europeans opinions are so mistaken. Every sit down restaurant offers salad as part of the set price of a meal consisting of it, a meat and 1 or 2 vegetables. My grocery store (in a town of less than 8,000) has a huge salad and fruit bar where you fill a recyclable container with whatever you want and pay by the pound. That is my entire meal for that day. The fast food restaurant I go to offers 5 types of salads. That's why I go there in preference to most others. Soup and salad is a common lunch offering in many restaurants. My mother served a salad with nearly every dinner.
You are right about snacks, though, and soft drinks are terrible for your health.
NOBODY needs salad.
nutrients = 0
You could just eat paper and get the same amount of nutrients.
And don't come with minerals. We can't properly absorb them from plants. You would have to eat 10 kg of salad every day to get anything out of it.
As an American living a long time in Germany, I agree with all your points 100%! Since living here since 1989, we actually go on hiking vacations, something that was totally uncommon as a native New Yorker. Visiting my sister in Texas, breakfast portions were humongous; everything is big in Texas. I could only eat half the portion, with my sister asking if I was on a hunger strike😅. In the supermarket, you rarely see people buying fresh produce, opting for more processed foods. I don’t want to sound arrogant but the Europeans have a different eating/ movement culture that is healthier. As you said, America goes to extremes both good and bad. Auf Wiedersehen! P.s. do follow American Football 🏈 here in Berlin ( Berlin Rebels!! America does have some wonderful things to offer!❤
Hiking vacations is big in the US. Go to Yosemite, Sequoia, the big 5 National Parks in Utah or any western National parks. Camping, long hikes and backpacking has always been big in the US.
@@dezafinado depends on which neck of the woods you come from. Growing up in Manhattan, it was quite uncommon and there was no hiking culture per se. Traveling to the great national parks like Yosemite was a rare event especially if one didn’t have the money to travel. Living in Berlin, the next forest is 10 minutes away. Happy hiking dezafinado!
@@jvl4832 True that Berlin has easy access to green space but in NYC you have the Catskills and Adirondacks. There're plenty of State, County and City parks. The National Parks serve as example to the popularity of outdoor activities in the US.
The most popular national park in France is Mercantour (800,000 visitors per year), which is easily accessible from Nice. Sequoia receives 1.2 million and Yosemite 3.6 million. Americans don't need to go the mountains and National Parks to hike/camp or pump iron at a gym to stay fit. Shooting hoops or walking around one's neighborhood park and watch what one eats... that's it. Doing it is a personal choice.
ruclips.net/video/S1UwNd33oG4/видео.htmlsi=uFdSVz0_UrWhimMM
@@dezafinado I agree , staying fit is a personal choice, not just limited to hiking. I always was a gym member , cycled and jogged. Getting to the Catskills for vacation was also possible. Vacation time is also a big question , most people here in Germany get 30 days vacation. So you get alot time to get away.
Well researched video! I think another major factor that wasn't mentioned is *drinkable tap water* in Germany vs soft drinks in the US. I see so many US Americans refusing to drink water because "it tastes bland" on social media, it blows my mind. Soft drinks are filled to the brim with sugar and chemicals and if I imagine I'd swap my daily water intake with soft drinks you best believe I'd be getting fat.
In Germany tap water quality literally exceeds bought water quality so if we feel thirsty we guys have to walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water. In the US you need to buy water which is both more work and more expensive. I believe those are reasons why US Americans dislike drinking water and drink more soft drinks which itself contributes to the obesity problem.
Ok, let’s make one thing abundantly clear: the overwhelming majority of US tap water (i.e. provided through local/city sanitation and infrastructure) is SAFE to drink. By law (including the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act “SDWA”) have established MCLs for containments, pollution, and constituents; and enforcement of these purity standards is rigorous. The EPA oversees enforcement of water standards, any you can google maps of aquifers or cities to look at the actual measurements and data ( MCLs of SDWA) of say, calcium, (etc.) all over the country. If you are concerned, curious, or just want to know what your water bill money is going into, you have a LEGAL right to that data from your water provider (assuming you are not on a personal groundwater well). It is, and should always be free and publicly available.
Disclaimer: while I am a geochemist with training in analytical methods for water chemistry, notably with experience for trace containments, some federal government work background, and thousands water samples tested; I am not a lawyer, every year there is water tested to be unsafe for drinking and a boil warning is announced, and as always, if your water suddenly one day changes in color, smell, taste, don’t consume it without contacting the proper authorities.
@@M.B.Wallace Theres an issue with your point. Why is it overwhelming majority and not all tap water?
Tap is fine in the US. It'd drinkable. It's going to be bland wherever you get it, because it's...water. Flavorless, colorless.
I lived in Germany for 22 years as an American and it was very common to only drink bottled water versus tap water. If you asked for tap water in a restaurant they always gave you a hard time.
@@M.B.Wallace SAFE TO DRINK is a different label than healthy.
I saw your pictures of German dairy and had a chuckle at the milk containers. Born in the US, but was fortunate to visit Germany for 6 weeks in the summer of 93. I would walk to the store everyday to get a liter of milk. Sometimes twice as I was used to drinking approximately half a gallon of milk a day. Was very fit at the time since I was just out of highschool where I did athletic activities. You mentioned portion size/control ,but now remembering the clerks look on their faces seeing me buy so much milk made me laugh.
Lmao thanks for sharing your little story!
Interesting lol. Drinking milk just like that is rather rare in Germany.
11:00 This is wrong. Cities in the USA weren't build for cars. They were build for people, with a good rail system for the time. Cities were bulldozed for the car. That's true.
You talk about the 1930ies and before. Cities are still developed today, and residential areas without a busline is still the default.
@@holger_p It's true. Just wanted to point out the USA hasn't been like this since existence.
I am from France and similar comparison may be made with the US while French people may less walk outdoors than the German.
By our education, we know what good foods are, including at school cantines.
There is a current campaign that says "5 portions of vegetables or fruits per day." Are recommended to stay healthy healthy.
Our product are much less sweet than in the US. Even for pastries we focus on the taste and flavor rather than on the sugar.
I am in Germany for a month and as a older and overweight American I see all these lifestyle differences in Hamburg. And Hamburg is a big city(1.9 million) There no gallon containers of milk in the stores here. All of the grocery stores I have been to have no parking lot, so most of the people going there walked. I made a comment to my family that I see women riding their bikes to work in dresses. When was the last time you saw an American woman riding a bike in a dress? HALF said that 48% of US families had bikes but what percentage of those bikes were for adults. Probably a much, much, smaller percentage.
My observation of the US is far from being scientific (i only spent some time in Washington D.C. and New York), but what i think really adds to the problem: I found it very hard to find affordable groceries. Our plan was to save some money by cooking at least some meals for ourselves, but this proved to be nearly impossible, as even really basic stuff like broccoli, milk and cereals were extremely expensive. And mind you our accomodation was located in a part of Washington D.C. where people constantly told us, that it was not a very safe area to live in and even there the prices for groceries and especially vegetables were surprisingly high.
In Germany on the other hand, even in Munich - arguably the most expensive city in the country - you will easily find rather affordable grocery store to buy ingredients for a self prepared healthy meal.
Absolutely excellent point!!
The cost of healthy food is MUCH higher in the US than in Germany. Supermarkets in general are more expensive in the US, but particularly if you're looking for high quality, it will cost almost three times as much as in Germany.
On the other hand, fast food is cheaper in the US than in Germany. So if you're poor in the US, you can't afford to eat healthy.
I have spent a week in Munich and I already found myself paying 3,30€ for a small cup of fruit. I thought THAT was crazy expensive. Can’t imagine what Americans are dealing with in their grocery stores!!
You were probably in a food desert, which aren't all that uncommon in inner cities. Also, if you don't know where to go or what to look for, it's also difficult trying to navigate in a city in a country you're not familiar with. But most middle class Americans have access to farmers markets, supermarkets, roadside produce stands, Amish markets, and other ways to get fresh food. A 3lb bag of apples where I shop is $2.
I think that has more to do with it being Washington D.C., a super city. I live in DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth), which is the most expensive area for groceries and I buy fresh produce. In fact, when I buy processed foods, my grocery bill comes out at least double.
@@nekonekosugargirls3448 I don't think this guy's experience is representative. For one being in a densely populated but unsafe part of a city actually increases food costs, they're called "food deserts" for a reason. I'm in the midwest and find it hard to believe that our produce, dairy, and meat are more expensive than Germany's.
I'm not sure how your video ended up in my recommendations but I'm glad it did. This is a great summary of all the differences in lifestyle, diet and infrastructure. As a running instructor at a German university, I noticed that so-called German beginners are much fitter than their international peers. Running 11-12 min/mi pace is the slowest we do and run/walk or jeffing isn't really a thing here while beginners from the US usually start out with run/walk intervals and their running is much slower, more like 13-14 min/mi. I said so-called beginners because I got comments from friends in the US that they don't think that 11-12 pace is beginners level. They are not the only ones who said that though, other internationals are also a bit behind their German peers in terms of fitness. I really think that the habitual exercise that we get by walking and cycling everywhere really helps to pick up a new sport quicker because the base fitness level is better. Oh and PE is compulsory until you graduate from high school, it's not optional and you can't drop it. At least, that was the case when I was a student. So children up to the age of 16 or 18 get weekly exercise.
The diet part was eye-opening. I knew about the ridiculous portion sizes and the origin of the fast food culture but I was shocked by the prevalence of corn syrup in almost everything and the long list of food additives. Is it even possible to find 'cleaner' food in the US? I guess you could buy organic and local but it will be expensive so poorer people won't have a choice.
Thank you very much for a very informative video.
Even buying 'organic' or local anywhere in the USA, is NOT at all healthier. "Organic" in the USA means fuck all. Yes, it CAN be healthier, if you eat whole foods vs anything processed in the USA, Kurzgesagt did a video on this too, and another on GMO's! It's honestly hard and VERY EXPENSIVE to eat real foods and stay healthy in the USA.
Another thing would be comparing fast foods in the USA vs other countries. They are NOTHING alike!!!! American fast 'food' is anything but food, eating it will literally kill you, but eating fast food, even from the same company like McDonald's, is VASTLY different. Literally nothing is the same. Even the exact same foods in the USA vs other countries, just like Coke. It's honestly difficult to find food that doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, even bread!! It's pure insanity here in the USA!
@@Mark-nu3us that's what I thought. I read about the term 'food deserts' which means that even though you have grocery stores around you, the food they are selling would be banned in the EU because of all the additives in them - so essentially non-food by European standards. In a nutshell, nutritious food is inaccessible for many Americans. Also, I can imagine that organic farmers will have trouble to keep their food organic if their neighbors use all sorts of pesticides on their fields. Wind and rain don't know field boundaries. Plus, the control of organic food quality standards won't be the same as in Europe either.
As for buying whole foods, that's what we mostly do in Europe. Most of the groceries I buy every week are fresh produce which I use to cook meals from scratch. I guess cooking skills are pretty much non-existent in the USA, too.
@@edithgruber2125 Yeah, it's gotten so bad that EVEN BY AMERICAN STANDARDS "Ice Cream" can no longer be called ice cream, it's a "Frozen Desert" because there's so much crap in it, it can't legally be called ice cream... Yeah, I think if I went to any grocery store and just found foods that were banned in the EU, it would easily take out 90% of all 'foods' in America.
It's also that organic doesn't mean without pesticides or bugs or germs, etc.
Even our produce I'd honestly be surprised if it could be called produce. It really makes me want to open up a store that serves fresh fruits and veggies as meals instead of fast foods, but serve them in a fast food manner, see if we couldn't help at all. And another store that refuses to sell any foods that contain ingredients that are banned in the EU/UK, can't imagine we'd have much to sell, but minimally maybe it would open some eyes about what changes we MUST take in order JUST to get REAL FOOD!
As an American, we are pretty much commercial farm animals that are fed poison to put us into the hospital, given expensive medicine to treat the symptoms and not the cause, then fed the same food in the hospital that puts a lot of people there in the first place. This country is literally a big food, big pharma, private healthcare/insurance farming operation.
Great video. On your last point about driving, walking, and biking. The channel "not just bikes" posted a video this week, that I found hilarious, about how city planning and the different attitude towards it in Europe vs North America plays a massive role in giving citizens the ability to choose to walk or bike. For many Americans, it is not even an option to choose to walk or bike to a store because roads and public transport are not geared towards enabling that choice.
That being said, I live in the Netherlands and I too suffer from obesity and related illnesses (diabetes, heart disease) even though I have had a rather physically demanding job as a landscaper for the last 15 years.
The last time I visited my Aunt in Georgia, US, (I'm from Portugal) I was shocked by how no one goes outside. The streets were always empty, like a ghost town. Everyone was disgustingly obese and their lives seemed sterile, devoid of soul or emotion.
Good with the generalizing, the US isn’t like a very large country or anything
@@tyleraltom6026dude I see you under so many comments here.
You seem like a triggered snowflake when you hear the USA isnt best in everything😂
„Oh dont generalize wah“ but then you yourself generalize.
That's my observation of America as well. People have this numbness on their looks, as if they don't care about anything anymore, it's so eerie
„Disgustingly obese“ is really judgmental, it’s like saying someone is „disgustingly alcoholic“. It says more about your personality than about the obese person.
I am in Sarasota, Florida, visiting from Berlin right now. People are very friendly, much more so than in Germany. (Also, most of them haven’t been overweight so far.) My half brother lives in Atlanta and I know other people in Georgia and most are pretty happy and social. And yes, they don’t walk around much but the cities are too spread out (and in Florida‘s case, frankly too hot) to be walking to get from one place to another. Its not ideal but you make it sound like the zombie apocalypse just hit or something.
@@beanem.3989 "„Disgustingly obese“ is really judgmental, it’s like saying someone is „disgustingly alcoholic“." both things are disgusting. Objectively. The cause a "yuck" reaction. Should you tell people into their faces "YOU'RE DISGUSTING!LY OBESE!", of course not.
My dual but German born sons made a great observation one trip back to the US. (We used to go twice a year to visit family). At about the ages of 13 and 15, they randomly said to me, we love visiting the US. “Everything is so yummy but I always feel sick for a while.” And they were making “healthy” choices and we cooked at home often but they were still affected.
Interesting. It makes me remembering a doctor who spoke about health in my company. He said that it is essential to walk a little on a daily basis. It doesn't matter from a certain distance. 1-2 km are already quiet well. For example walking to your work. More is not so much neccessary. I think as a German it's important to have your own weekly market in your town. That is a great motivation to go there an buy good food from local butchers, farmers etc. ...
I live in the Netherlands. People with a BMI over 40 are very rare here. My girlfriend is from the UK, where (morbid) obesity is a lot more common. I think a lot of factors go into why such differences exist, the UK and the US do share a thirst for the 'always more, always better, always higher' mindset. This makes them achieve more, but also indulge more in unhealthy habits.
The poverty in the UK is a big factor too
@@GlitchNectar Yeah I hear that a lot. But it's not an actual excuse.
@@GlitchNectar Healthy food is not more expensive than fast food or unhealthy food in general, that's a myth that is around in Germany too. Many fat people claim this nonsense. You don't have to buy "BIO" products to get healthy products. Which is what some think.
@@nimmha6708 Fast food is more convenient and releases more short-term dopamine which, when you’re afflicted by the harshities of poverty, is very addictive. I’m not claiming that fast food is cheaper.
@@GlitchNectar Ok, good point.
I am from Austria, I lived for some time in NY and you are right and there are even more reasons. i remember how shocked I was on how many super fat people I saw in the USA, it was really a shock. But after I ate American style, I put on weight too. The food was the main reason I had to go back, I could not stand it.
No one is forcing anyone to eat too much caloric food. We are free to eat sensibly and get plenty of exercise. I’m a vegan living in the US, I’m free to prepare my own food and buy organic foods at the stores, and stay fit hiking and working on my land.
@@sidilicious11 I remember my times in NY when only a fast food restaurant was available, it was horrible. Here in Austria you get top quality everywhere and the farming in my region is 60% organic, this is the highest rate in the western world, so there is no comparison here.
@@mymixture965 that’s fantastic about the 60% organic farming!!! Sounds like you were living in NYCity? Maybe in some big cities there are “food deserts”, very sad. Counting on restaurants for good nutrition in the US might not work well.! Yet where there are grocery stores there are good options.
@@sidilicious11 I was in NYCity, right and you can get good stuff there. The danger for me was that everybody was used to eat junk food and I picked it up a little. Nobody of my friends and family here would ever go to McDonald and also we don't have a lot of these fast food chains here, I would have to make a conscious decision to eat fast food.
@@mymixture965Austria is awesome for eating and living well! I went to Vienna for two weeks this February and despite the winter weather, it was perfect for long walks. I basically only walked from restaurant to café to Konditorei to café to Würstelstand and ate EVERYTHING, but I actually lost weight!
I went to the US for 1.5 weeks, I was constantly feeling either hungry or sick and gained over 10 pounds despite trying NOT TO. Went back to my home country of Switzerland and lost the weight in no time (eating carbs 3x a day and not restricting). Pop Tarts and the enourmous and overly sweet iced coffees (both for breakfast!!) from the US still haunt me in my dreams.
so who forced you to eat pop tarts ? nobody with any sense eats pop tarts. And you can ask for iced coffee with no sugar. you chose to eat/drink that stuff.
I’m from the US and I haven’t had a pop tart since I was like 8 years old and never had an iced coffee, haha. It’s not like you’re forced to eat these things
@@Augrills the truth is that European tourists come to the USA and dont want to spend any money on food. So they eat pop tarts and go to McDonald's because they are too cheap to pay for real food. Then they go home and tell everybody how Americans dont eat vegetables. Never in their life would they cough up the cash for a decent T-bone steak or Maine lobster or a Cobb salad. A decent hamburger in my city is $25 + but the Euro tourist won't spend that and they run to McD to eat and then complain.
@@anastasia10017 I was on campus with my cousin, that‘s what her friends were eating so I ate it too.
I moved to Japan and lost 20 pounds in two months. I didn't even know it was happening. I thought the scale was wrong.
I would like to mention "Not just bikes" here. It's a youtube channel by a Canadian man, who has lived in a lot of places in the world, including Canada and the US, and who is very critical towards the urban planning of these countries. He finally moved to the Netherlands, to Amsterdam, because he did no longer wanted to live in a car-centered place. He is very outspoken about this topic and makes a lot of video's about it. Recent one was about the excuse that the US is so much bigger than this places (walkable, bike-friendly) in Europe. He debunks this argument I think. About food, I think there is more awareness about what is good food and what is bad food. It does not mean you can't eat chips ever, you just don't do that so often. A lot of things from the US have enriched our lives I think (movies, music) but the influence of fast food on the world is really bad. There is a MacDonalds everywhere you go around the world, and that is not something to be proud at.
I love this channel. It is soo informative and educational. I did like the video about SUVs a lot.
"Not just bikes" is not just "very critical"; he is an extremist. His obsession is to get rid of private owned motor vehicles entirely.
I watched this last video from NJB, too. He's not an 'extremist'; he just doesn't want people to be locked into car dependency. For example, I live in D.C. and bike to work (50 minutes each way), but public transit takes 90 minutes, while the car takes only 25 minutes.
I wouldn't even blame "fast food". A lot of dishes around the world could be called "fast food" but are actually pretty healthy. Looking at East Asia for example.
I would call it "industrially processed food".
And interestingly the MacDonalds around the world can be quite different.
@@fumanchu4785 I don't remember him ever calling for a ban of private owned motor vehicles. He says we should use less and smaller ones whereever possible and I agree.
My time living in Germany had me at my most fit. I was in my early 30s and walked pretty much everywhere. It didn't matter how much beer and bratwurst I consumed because my daily walking distance more than countered it. As soon as I moved back to the US, I gained 20lbs in a matter of months. I eat a lot more here than I did in Germany. Despite having been pretty bad at the language, I still was out roaming around whether it was solo or with friends... which all was by foot, aside from the train rides.
I grew up in a very walkable part of Boston most of my life, and have friends and family in Germany. My next door neighbors would still drive everywhere, even though there were 2 convenience stores within a 5 minute walk and a Dunkin Donuts about the same. They would complain about dealing with so much traffic just to get a coffee, and when I suggested just simply walking there, it seemed to short circuit their brains. The thought of walking to Dunkin never even crossed their minds.
And a big difference I see comparing the US and Germany is the price of fresh nutritious food, like produce. Fresh produce in the US can be twice as much as in Germany. The same goes for quality bread. Good bread in the US that isn't loaded with additives is shockingly expensive, if one even has access to it in the first place.
@@Oceanic83 Could bake their own. Then you know exactly what is in it.
Good program. Many US cities and towns don’t have pleasant infrastructure for walking and biking. Access to shopping is often busy with vehicle traffic, sometimes difficult to reach, and even dangerous. Also, the US mostly has higher temperatures and a walker or biker can get hot and sweaty more easily than in a cooler climate like Europe.
1:30 in and you answered the question, "walking around."
"American cities where not build for cars, they where bulldozed for cars." - from: Not Just Bikes in his latest video.
Almost all American cities where build when the car was not invented. Zoning was not a thing and every city had a train station, tram lines and a walk-able center. At some point in time North-America took a turn and scrapped most of the train-connections, the tram systems and they bulldozed the cities to create space for more and more cars.
Also: The car industry wanted to sell their cars, so they bought the tram and railway companies and made them disappear.
The major cities still have trams, buses, trains,subways, Elevated Train, Cable far, etc. It never went away. New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, etc all of them you can get around by biking, walking, or using public transportation. My mom's friend lives in downtown Chicago and never got his drivers license. He's 88 years old. He lived in downtown Chicago since he was 18. He walks or bikes everywhere (even at 88). If it was to far he takes the train.
I lived in New York City for 2 years and only owned a car for one month of the 2 years. The car sat in the spot for 99.9% of time. I spent 4 weeks in San Francisco and I didn't own a car at all. I only used cable car, Tram, and the bus. I walked a lot also.
The smaller cities either didn't exist before cars, or they only used horse and buggy. I used to live in Nashville and downtown Nashville is only walkable. You can't bike and there's no public transportation. I admit it was founded in 1714. The only way people got around was riding their horse. If they had lots of things to carry they brought the carriage. They didn't walk at all. The city I grew up in didn't exist until 1970. This was long after cars were popular.
@@jessicaely2521 Of course public transport never completely disappeared, but thee was a major decline from the 30s to the 50s, namely in the Loa Angeles area, which once had a very good public transportation system. Imagine that!
There are some efforts to revive public transportation in major cities over the last decades. It is still bad compared to European cities. And the Railway system mainly transports good rather than people.
@@mondkalb9813 They also pushed for jaywalking laws to absolve the car from being responsible for hitting somebody while crossing the street as muhc as possible. Before that stuff, it was totally common for people to walk on streets. that's what they were there for. But cars started to get a negative press and instead of coming up wiht a good solution, thanks to the car companies, the blame got shifted on the people wanting to cross the street, instead of drivers not paying attention.
@@mondkalb9813What your forgeting to ask is who provided the incentives, dual relationship and backroom deals with them without the public knowing....Its easy...Its called Goverment the very thing that you thought provided solutions created the problems in the first place.
It's good to see more and more people realizing how problematic our city design over the last couple of decades was.
Do you mean for the last 80 years?
Didn't it all start around the 60s?
@@fast1nakus It started in Europe after WWII. The cities were built car-friendly because the car industry brought a lot of jobs with it. The USA was the model.
As a German who visited the Us last year and will visit again in 2 weeks, there is one thing you didnt mention that I think is really important too. Food prices: When I went into a Supermarket for the first time I was absolutly shocked how expensive everything was.Most of the ingrediants where like 3 or even 4 times as much as you would pay in germany. On the contrary to that Fast food wasnt cheap as I thought but even more expensive than here in Germany but cheaper than cooking on your own.This made me relize that most people just pick the cheaper, less effort and quicker alternative without thinking about the long term problems this will cause
Thank you very much for your great video. I am always happy how much positive you can gain from your life here in Germany. Unfortunately, you can no longer say this about many of my German compatriots at the moment, so that sometimes I am already worried about where we will be back politically in 5-10 years. I hope my fear is unfounded.
Please keep up the good work.
When you look at German articles about weightloss a lot emphasize simple daily activities like walking somewhere instead of taking the car. Or taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Taking a small walk during lunch break. Just incorporate small activities during the day.
German children are also trained to walk to places from an early age. Start with kindergarden. They are always located in the center of a suburb or "Neubausiedlung" and a lof parents walk their children to the kindergarden and back. Same with school. When I had to take the bus to school that still included a five to ten minutes walk to the bus stop.
Also, before the car, Americans had to walk and I'm pretty certain that the cities back then were more pedestrian friendly. Yet even with places like New York the focus seems to be on cars instead of banning the car and making it more pedestrian friendly.
Since you mentioned Stuttgart. The Königsstraße, Stuttgart's shopping mile is basically car free. So people have to walk to do their shopping. Yet, 5th Avenue is clogged with cars and strolling down 5th Avenue is not much fun. Same with Time Square.
We also use the word "Elterntaxi" for parents that bring their children and it has a connotation of being something helicopter parents would do.
When I went to school, it might have been ok, when the parents brought you, if you lived in a village with few busses. But it was considered a mark of shame if your parents brought you when you lived nearby. "What do you think this is? Kindergarden? And even they can walk by themselves."
A friend of mine was complaining about his weight, I told him to stop using the elevator (as a joke because he lived on the 15th floor)
I saw him a few months later, he was in perfect shape.... he had taken my joke serious.
It was interesting to compare Stuttgart with DC. Stuttgart - to me - is the the car capital of Germany. It's a while since I've been there, but the defining feature was the noisy expressway you had to cross to get out of the city centre. I think it's been enclosed now, but let's face it, it's still the home of the Merc.
Lol New York City is focused on the car? I really needed that laugh. The people who drive in the city are generally tourists who drove from a different place or extremely rich people who live in the city. Here's some numbers. About 60% of people living in New York City do not own a car. People who actually live in the city walk, bike, walk, or take public transportation. Parking is extremely expensive in New York.
*Edit you have to remember New York City is just a city in New York. The state of New York has a lot of cars and this is because outside of New York City everything is pretty much wilderness. 1/3 of New York (the entire state) is wilderness. If you want this in numbers there's 10,000 acres or 40,468,564.2 m² wilderness in New York state.
the display on my newest bike (I ofc own several of them) tells me that I rode nearly 500 km in the last ca one and a half month .......it's a e-bike tho, but I always ride it on the lowest assist level and often totally unassisted ....and it naturally only counts the distance when the display is actually on ......and as mentioned, I also got other bikes .....and do a lot of walking ....
shouldn't surprise that I look like a typical lean German, I guess
I weighed 150 lbs since I was a teenager. When I got into my early 40s I got a dog and we used to walk 4 - 6 miles a day and often much longer hikes on the weekend. He died of cancer 😭 when I was in my early 50s and my walking dropped probably 90%. In only a month or two I had put on over 15 lbs, for the first time in my life. Two months after getting another dog and starting the daily walking routine, I went right back down to 150. I love walking and think it is the best exercise, especially as you get older. Enjoyed the vid, thanks 👍
as a german for some reason the shot at 13:09 was especially funny to me 😆 it's almost as if you were saying "look mom, I'm in germany and I'm WALKING!"
That was very interesting to see! I never considered walking as something that you could put into the „healthy workout“ category because it’s so normal here. I walk every day 30 Minutes to work (& ofc the same back,making it 1h walking each day) without feeling I did something good for my body. It’s just how it is done here.
I also heard that in many American towns you have a separation between the living- and the shopping areas. So you have to drive to these areas to buy your stuff and can’t just walk there. Meanwhile in Germany it’s normal to live in an area with many apartment houses and there are one or two grocery stores in between them. This way you don’t have to drive out of the „living zone“ just to buy something.
In some cities in Canada, like. Edmonton where I live, it’s a little unrealistic to walk 30 minutes to work when it’s -20/-30 in the winter and snowy and icy. As for biking, we’ll, use your imagination.
Unfortunately, it has changed in some small villages in Germany. Nowadays, you need a car in Germany, too if you live in such a village. The small shops that have been there in former times (like 30+ years ago) have disappeared for economical reasons.
@@jgriffin282 I would almost say: big deal. I'm Dutch, and went to Kyiv, Ukraine 5 years ago in the midst of winter on invitation by a Ukrainian friend I het in The Netherlands. Many streets were covered in snow, crushed to ice by pedestrians walking over it and temperatures were well below zero on some days, sometimes feeling even more chilly by the wind. But it didn't stop anyone from walking... hell, it still was very busy on the streets. I even started to get used to it at some point and noticed I started to take more risks (taking a short sprint to take advantage of the last 9 seconds of green light for me as a pedestrian... bad idea as I nearly went down). Just did that as we Dutch tend to keep walking and cycling no matter what, but our winters are hardly winters anymore and only last a week at most these days, where winter lasts a few months in Kyiv. I even saw some cyclists in Kyiv.
Shortly after I left, temperatures dropped even further, but no, it did not stop pedestrians...
The separation of shopping and living areas is bad in some towns and not a problem in others. Boulder, Ann Arbor, Escondido - easy walking from residential to grocery, other stores. For now I am in Kalispell Montana, in the downtown area, easy walk to bank, grocery, good food. The big shopping area for hardware, clothes, lamps, pillows and all kinds of other useful (and useless) things is only about two miles away, but there's no sidewalk or wide shoulder along most of the stretch of road to get there. Can't walk without flirting with death!
Something else that should be factored in is the American approach to pharmaceuticals. Many of these medications have a side affect of slowing the metabolism, retaining fluids, and overall causing weight gain; I saw this in my mother as she was on anti-depressants and mood stabilizers most of her adult life, and she gained a LOT of weight from this. American physicians are quick to throw medications at patients, Lastly, I heard from one of my good German friends one time, care is better than cure. My oh my, how we could learn from that approach.
But America isn't trying to cure the problem. They're only providing care.
Not all anti-depressants cause weight gain.
Thanks for this. I lived in Stuttgart for a long time, also visited the US. At my visit in NYC I was badly surprised by the costs of healthy food. Veggies, fruit and also meat were soooo expensive that the trip to McD seemed financially more reasonable. In Germany you can get healthy food (that you have to process yourself by cutting, cooking etc) for a very low price. And if you go even more to the south east of the world it gets even more ridiculously cheap when it comes to veggies and fruit. I was in Israel once and paid 1$ for 3 super ripe and sweet oranges that have been cut off the tree that very morning. Americans do have to pay so much for healthy food and the convenience of getting everything brought to your door makes another big difference between US and Germany
But McDonald's is not financially more reasonable. it costs $20 per person now. You know how much fruits and vegetables you can buy with that $20? McDonald's now costs the same as a sit-down restaurant with quality food. Just go to the quality restaurant.
@@aewtxfor a meal that’s honestly exaggerated, for one person it’s about $9 and this was when i was living in the west coast.
@@faebite It costs me $20. For example, chicken nuggets alone s $10. You add fried, $5 and a drink $4, plus tax, equals a little under $20.
And when were you living on the west coast? 10 years ago?
Yep, totally right - I am a German living since 18 years here in Indiana and I made the same observations - my Answer to this living here is NO Corn based food, homemade low carb meals - and as my mom used to say - eat half portions to keep your ideal weight. You decide how you stretch your Stomach to a Belly. AND I miss Walkways and Bicycle-ways here living in a small Village. Another missing thing is, in Germany I could walk and wander across the land out of town on well structured "Wander-ways". Walking through Forrest where so much easier and enjoyable that way. Here you can get shot by leaving the road and trespassing on private ground everywhere. You never know exactly when you are trespassing and when not, because of many missing warn-signs.
Recently moved closer to my job and don't have a car anymore. Got a new bicycle and I walk on a daily at least 10k steps. Sometimes even up to 18k steps a day. I lost within just two months around 10 kg and feel much healthier than I did before. So, I do understand the luxury of cars, they are very convenient but you are right, walking or cycling does quite a good deal to how we keep the body weight down
Good video!
When choosing Stuttgart as the German example, you actually chose a hard case, as Stuttgart is actually one of the most car-dependent and least bike-friendly major German cities (only some Ruhr area cities like Essen or Dortmund are even worse). The modal split for bike usage in Stuttgart is 10%, as you mentioned. In Bremen, it is 25%.
And DC really is one of the most livable U.S. cities if you do not own or do not wish to rely on a car.
It was one of the worst things about Stuttgart when I lived there. The air quality as a result of so much car dependency was poor. The car industry owns that city, it's such a shame. Even the Green Party are afraid to upset them there.
Bremen is a labrinth for drivers 😁 feels like every side road is one-way traffic... Bremen also hosts six day races. A lot of cycling enthusiasts here.
@@greenknitterWell we have some very steep hills there, and though we have a real good Tram/Bus system, some parts are rather remote.
Without car my family would have problems with buying groceries, going to the doctor or reaching our garden.
Best comparison would probably have been Karlsruhe since the layout of Washington was copied from there.
@@baum7des7lebens7 You have three options:
(1) Give car drivers more space by blowing up entire blocks of houses in the city to make room for more streets. You need to blow up lots of houses. This is what many U.S. cities have done, especially in the central part, South West and West of the country. High Ways through the city; streets where hardly anyone walks or rides a bike (too dangerous); bulldozed city centers with lots of parking for cars; broke cities that cannot pay for the maintenance of streets and other infrastructure (no mode of transportation destroys its own infrastructure as fast as the car, and free parking lots bring in little or no revenue); streets and roads with potholes and regular traffic congestions.
Not a good option.
(2) Leave the street structures of the city as they are but propagate and foster car driving in lots of different small ways (easy parking, no one-way streets, more money for street maintenance and less for public transport etc etc). You will end up with lots of cars on the street and constant congestions all over town. Car drivers will hate that, as will everybody else. This is what many German cities have done.
Not a good option either.
(3) That leaves you with option 3: support walking, cycling and the use of public transport. Sometimes, this will be annoying for car drivers, but overall, this is the solution that is cheapest, most environment-friendly, and it makes best use of the limited space available in a city (cars take up way more space than bikes and waaay more than pedestrians). I am not saying that was exactly what the city of Bremen does, but Bremen at least does this a bit better than some other big German cities. Ironically, in the end, this is the best solution for car drivers, too. You have restrictions, but at least you can drive. Put half of the bike riders of Bremen, or Münster, for that matter, in a car and let them drive around town together with you. See where that gets you.
So, there you go. Pick your poison.
Addendum: Do you know the car drivers of which country are overall most satisfied with their driving experience? (I will have to look up the data to give a source for this one.) It is not good old Germany, and it certainly is not the home of the brave. It is the Netherlands, in fact, the country that has made option 3 the policy for its cities for the last three decades.
Also I was phased by the term “hike” when I moved to the US. Americans will call anything in the realm of walk to the store a hike, which makes me think they have a completely different approach to physical activity
Good, generalizations aren’t ignorant at all
That’s just a linguistic difference that you’re drawing broad conclusions from. To be fair, your conclusions may not be wrong, but they don’t follow from your observation. “Hike” as a noun in US English and “Wanderung” do not mean exactly the same thing, even though they translate to one another. Generally, any distance walked outside the home can be called a “hike” here. Hiking, on the other hand, more closely matches the German verb “wandern.”
@@mattkuhn6634 That's a pretty interesting take. I might have overexaggerated with the "walk to the store" being called a hike, but walks over 30 min involving lululemon-wear I noticed being referred to as a hike, so perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between.
I went to a local community park in America for a relaxing walk, the Americans are telling me that's a "Hike" and they were exhausted after the slow 30 minutes walk, it's crazy
@@tyleraltom6026 It isn't a generalization, when it is a fact! *shrug*