My Brand New, FREE Meal Plan: Mediterranean Style with Time-Restricted Feeding and all the timing and optimization comments: www.thomasdelauer.com/eatrealfood . Consider it my THANK-YOU for subscribing to my channel and newsletter.
Soon, there is going to be the rapture. It's when there will be trumpet sounds, and after the trumpet sounds, God will lift his people from here. Also, God said people should be living by the Bible. Amen, and God bless you. ❤ ❤* John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life". ❤
I know the McDonalds in the UK is 100% beef, because I used to work there and read the ingredients on the burger bags. They only add a pinch of salt per burger, mixed in, so the cook doesn't need to think about it. But I prefer Burger King burgers that are 70% beef mixed with offal, and it's pre cooked and reheated. Just tastes better.
there's good and bad food in the US. The choice is yours. Good is more expensive, but that's just regular price. Garbage is always cheaper and food shouldn't be compared with garbage
@@user-lx6pk9os2d I cook at home..,visit a local meat & farm market. The obesity rate is disgusting..,processed food & "fast food"..killing us one convenient meal at a time. Learned my lesson.
I’m Italian, and I think that the thing that tourist miss to really understand why we are not all obese 😅it’s that they “experience” people at the restaurant, but our “secret” here in Italy it’s simply that we cook 😅 We don’t eat much processed food, we use very little delivery food, and we go to the restaurant once a week, this means that we cook almost 11/12 meals a week, with fresh ingredients cooked at the moment with a little olive oil and more rarely some butter (it’s a more French thing 😅). That’s it! We are used and we like to prepare our meals, so we always know what we’re eating. Ah! And a HUGE thing is that we drink almost always just water during meals, especially kids: no soda, juice, milk or whatever, just water when you eat on a daily basis.
This reminds me. I knew an Italian doctor who grew up in a small village way down in the south, near Sicily. He said he never saw butter until he moved north to near Milan. He was born in the 1960s.
@@chronic2023 sad to see butter demonized like that. Nothing purer than bio butter. It's even healthier than any type of seed oil you can have, least of all margarine.
I love how Americans talk about Europe as it was a country. A country with a common culture, way of life, food etc. You went to Italy. Had you visited Sweden or England instead, the experience would have been entirely different.
@vinterskog people in Europe walk, rather than drive in cities... most of the things he said about Italy are true for any EU country. Because theybf9llow the same directives.
Funny you say that. Same thing when it comes to Africa. Everyone in Europe/America says I'm going to Africa/ ate african food and I'm like dude Africa is a continent and there are many countries in "africa"
@@lizet3more we travel a lot to North Africa for holidays and no one say that "we are going to Africa" they say we are going to Egipt, Maroko, Tunezja, and if you go more to south is the same, you say to which country you are going
I have ulcerative colitis. In the US, I have to stay ketovore or I’m extremely ill. I cannot eat any food in the US with flour. I headed to Italy and Greece for two weeks in June. My Gastroenterology doctor told me to try the breads in Italy/Greece to see how my gut handled the food. It was WONDERFUL to be able to have pasta/pizza without being in the bathroom all day. The FDA and food companies have ruined our food in the US.
In Greece (im from there) US breads are considered sweets/confectionery. Almost all bread in Greece is made with sourdough, and left to proof for hours. Also no sugar in the mix. Also-also, we use a different variety of wheat. Heirloom seeds and ancient seed varieties that are not genetically optimised for sweetness or high GI index.
@@davg.2589 its doing its job in banning any food products that their lobbists want banned, like raw milks, but legalise any trash that big companies want to sell the US has a corruption problem
I went to Norway and Sweden for 2 weeks, and I was astounded at the food. No added sugar in everything (including their bread), more fresh seafood and wild animals, way less preservatives, and I could tell a massive difference by how I felt. It was pretty polarizing.
When i visited usa i was amazed at how unnatural and synthetic the food tasted and that most people consider this normal and acceptable. Also amazed at how fat and unheathy americans are. But i got the feeling that it is somehing more fundamental than just the low quality food in usa. In general, the entire lifestyle (anything from the way people interact and what is considered important and the way cities are structured etc etc) seemed very unnatural, stressful, fake, synthetic and not oriented towards human well-being but more towards business well-being.. It is quite sad and worrying..
The amount of sugar US adds to their "bread" is alarming. That's the reason bread in Subway is marked as cake in most European countries. Preservatives used in US are banned within EU and I would guess in rest of the Europe as well. Unless you revolt against the sh*t they put into your food in US, it will never change. Just thinking about the chlorine bath they put your chickens through makes me wanna puke. Not to mention the growth hormones in cattle.
In general in Europe we eat more fresh foods, less additives, less sugar People cook at home. often use local products from the season My sister visited America, said if you order a coke you get a bottle, a pizza is the same size as the wheel of a truck. So happy to get something fresh, tomatoes They added Sugar!!! She gained 10lb in 2 weeks
We had American bread on our shelves for about 20mins. It had to be removed and placed with the cake sales. Way too much sugar. P. S. I am from Ireland.
Part of the freshness of food (in France at least), is helped by the fact that your Boulangerie(Bakery) and Charcuterie(Butcher) shops are everywhere, just below where your apartment is. So no need for preservatives to have things on shelves for weeks/months. You just grab your fresh foods as you get home each day....Great city planning to allow for walking, etc.
What do you mean by Europe? Its a continent dude, you got massive, massive differences for half of your points from one city to another in Germany alone.
Thank you!!!! This! This might be applicable to Italy (presume that is where he was) but Europe is a continent. There are vast differences. I'm in the Uk and don't identify with the majority of this. 'Europeans' is a very generic description and actually comes across as very ignorant in this context. You need to be much more specific!
I just got back from Portugal, ate anything I wanted, slept like a baby and lost a couple of pounds! The food and beverage industry in the US is killing us, and so to combat this, we eat a clean, organic, whole foods diet. We were able to find wholesome food choices nearly everywhere we went and it was a relief not to have to steer clear of genetically modified foods since they’re illegal in Europe. We need to do the same here.
in the US, the affordability of healthy food seems to be manufactured, really. maybe you've seen it yourself when you visited Portugal, that not everyone is rich but there's still affordable healthy food everywhere.
We also just got back from Portugal for a couple of weeks, and our experience was very different. Lisbon, Cascais, Coimbra, and Porto. I ate mostly my regular keto diet with a few fun things most days within reason, and I gained weight. The shelf-stable foods (crackers, etc) were full of seed oils, I had to ask for olive oil at all restaurants, most markets didn't sell beef (lots of pork), the yogurt was full of sugar and thickeners, etc. Lots more cheese choices though, and the preservatives/additives were still there but less. I still had to watch what I was eating even with all the extra walking. I lived in Eastern Europe in the 90's, and the food choices now are shockingly more westernized and not all that healthy with many more obese people than the first time I was there. I had heard so much about how the food is so much more healthy, but overall it seemed sadly more similar to the States.
@@passiveincomeadventures Perhaps you went to the cheapest restaurants? In Spain, olive oil is the default, actually, they´ll give you a weird look if you ask for a different oil, and I can assure Portugal follows the same culture. Regarding meet. Again, pork is the cheapest meat you can have after chicken, but beef meet is, literally, everywhere. Even the smallest restaurant always have beef meat. Cheese. Again, Spain cheese is among the best cheese you can find in the world, and although it is not the case for Portugal, they import lots of cheese from Spain and other Europeans countries. It is way easier to find quality cheese than cheese with additives. Portugal food culture is quite similar to Spanish food culture, it is less "Mediterranean diet", that's true, perhaps due to british influence, but it is pretty good too. But one thing is 100% true. In general, European food is on a slow "usafication" process. My guess is that this is what companies wants. Cheap low quality food that brings more benefits. That would explain why the european government is fighting local farmers.
@@passiveincomeadventures As a Portuguese, most of what you said makes no sense to me...ask for olive oil? We use olive oil for almost everything as dressing, usually there's a flask of olive oil and vinegar on each table or will be placed when the food arrives, we certainly consume more pork but beef is for sale everywhere...what kind of markets are you talking about? Comparing the produce ( meats, vegetables...) available in Europe to what you've got in the U.S. is just wrong...food in the U.S. makes me think of the movie Soylent Green.
I'm Italian, I've worked in fast foods restaurants in the past and I can tell you for sure that the beef patties are 100% beef. Maybe not the best quality, as you can buy from a butcher and cook by yourself, but 100% beef. Also Mc Donalds and Burger King in Italy have the same supplier for the patties, which is the biggest meat producer in the country, the big difference is in the way they are cooked. We have very strict rules on the quality and supply chain of our food in Italy.
Yeah that's amazing. Plus sometime it's a but better than some Bucher. Because in France for example. If you ask for a patty. You will get lean meat. No fat amount. Better quality but not for burger. It need a bit of fat.
I will just mention that having dinner late is a pure mediterranian thing because of the sun heat...so people there eat later in the evening 9-10 pm when the temperture is a bit down... I live in the Alpine region our "common dinner time" is considered culturally on avarage between 5-7pm (around 5pm in winter, around 7pm in summer unless on very hot days then it might be 8pm)
I lived in Germany, the Netherlands, and France for about one year. I lost around 10 kilograms of weight. My sleep got better. My parents saw me on videocall and got concerned about me as I looked thinner. They thought I was not well/sick. I used to walk a lot, ate bread and protein, and many times desserts/juices😆🤣 This year I was in Spain for 14 days, and I again lost 2 kilos and gained back those lost kilos after getting back to my country 😭 I ate a lot of protein, shellfishes, orange juices, wines during my time in Spain
Well you know, what actually is american cuisine? Burgers, fries, pizza, donuts? Nothing of that is actually american. Burgers and donuts are german, fries are belgian and pizza is italian food. What actually makes it american is: Dramatically reducing the quality of the foods inside and add a bunch of garbarge in order to make it both more profitable and more addicting. That's american cuisine. It just sucks.
😂 My mother reacted the same when I slimmed down by eating REAL food in South Korea in the mid-1970s. Americans are so fat these days, many don't know what a normal body should look like.
Europeans eat and live for love and pleasure 🧡 That’s how I was raised in an Italian household. Not how much fat will I gain if I eat this or how many hours have I spent at the gym this week. I’m an Italian living in Australia and even though I have those roots ingrained in me, because Australia likes to mimick the US it’s easy to fall into that unnatural trap that infiltrates our media and medical system. So wonderful that you’ve recognised this Thomas and shared it…thank you 🙏😊
I'm 73. Over the years, my observation is we work more and live less than than Europeans. I'm not talking about longevity but about enjoying life in general.
I am counting down! Wifey and I leaving back for Eastern Europe in 29 days! We go about 3, sometimes 4 times a year for 3 weeks at a time. We eat and eat and drink all we want while we are there and we lose weight. And when we come back to the US, it seems like all can taste is chemicals in everything we eat! If you are ever in Romania, you have to check out Therme in Bucharest! Super hot saunas, Himalayan Salt saunas, Eucalyptus Saunas, mineral spas, very cool stuff!
Olive oil is very important , especially for Mediterranean countries like Greece, Spain, Italy Turkey, and Portugal .We don't even care if the it's expensive. We always have olive oil in our home .
You forgot Italy's neighbor--Croatia, which has some of the oldest olive trees in the world, though the very oldest is in Crete, Greece (3,000 years old). Nearly everyone with a parcel of land in Southern Croatia grows olive trees for olive oil production.
The real big difference is everything has a full ingredient list not just a summary as the US has. If you read the ingredients list on bread you will know why you are allergic to gluten. You’re not allergic to gluten just the other ingredients they don’t tell you about.
Greetings from Germany. You're right, the food in Europe is a lot healthier, but you can also eat badly if you don't watch what you buy. In any case, you have the chance to eat healthily at a reasonable price. Especially in Southern Europe you have the very best quality fish, oils and natural foods. I always find it difficult to eat healthily when I travel to the USA. Best regards and keep up the good work
Having lived in Germany for many years, this is nothing compared to France or Italy. The supermarket food that you can get there - although 15-35% more expensive, but still much cheaper than in the US - is on another level with regard to taste, quality and freshness. I would prefer a French Careffour over any German supermarket in my town any day.
You forgot to mention one important factor: Time! Europeans take their time to eat. That means to sit down, if possible with friends or family, and do nothing else than appreciate the moment. Restaurant tables are normally yours for the whole evening, so there's no reason to rush things. This is incredibly healthy, too!
Believe it or not, people in Europe have jobs and we have half an hour to eat. Nobody spends every evening at a restaurant "taking their time" to eat with friends and family.
As an Italian. That's a stereotype. No one has time to do that, unless you're unemployed or very rich. The average person has 15-30 minutes for lunch during the week. The image you have in mind might be realistic for dinner (not always), when we have guests or the during weekend. The main difference is what and the amount of what we eat
Hey Thomas, I literally lived half my life in Europe and the other half in North America. And that's 25 years in each place. Yup, food culture and quality are sooo different in those two places. Night and day. Currently I am living in the Netherlands and every time I leave the city and drive past farmers field I see cows grazing freely in the most amazing green grass and I think to myself " Now those are Happy cows". Food quality, portion size, and food regulations all beat the American standard. Tope that with walking integrated into your daily life... It's a much easier to stay healthy in Europe. Great show as always, thank you.
SO true...and I noticed when I visited the Netherlands the same...happy cows standing, not obese cows, pumped up with hormones and antibiotics. They looked thin to me, but actually, they were hormone free, probably...healthy.
Yeah, I was just at the Alps in Italy, so amazing and beautiful. Cows also were roaming freely everywhere, and no hormones ofc (that's illegal in all of Europe btw) and the milk was so fresh and natural. Italian cheese in the best in the world (NOT french, dutch, or swiss)!
"Europe" is not a country,there are wild differences in what the north and South of Europe eat. Having said that, compared to the U.S., European countries have much more in common among themselves than with the States, the food portions, the restrictions on additives,the way people socialize with their meals,walk more etc.
Just back from Sicily - and I didn't want to go back to Uk - I can only imagine how you'd feel coming from USA: food there was organic and nutritious everywhere
all my friends who visited USA have told me that most of their foods have sweet taste, bread and even main dish is usually unnaturally sweet. We only use sugar in desserts
wrong... read the ingredients on the packaging... why do you think people in Europe are getting fatter? The food industry wants to produce as cheaply as possible and at the same time the pharmaceutical industry should also benefit.
I moved to Eastern Europe in my 40's and had two large cysts on both of my arms about the size of large walnuts. Two years living in Europe and they are gone. The lifestyle and food here is night and day different than Canada and USA. Awesome video Thomas and keep up the great work!
The main difference between a McDonald's burger in USA and one in Europe is that the one in Europe will spoil if you leave it out for a couple of days, while the one from USA will still be edible in a month because of all the additives. Also in most places in Europe, traditional fast food options use mainly unprocessed ingredients.
And this is also a reason why people eat smaller breakfasts and lunches. When it is very hot you don't really feel like eating a substantial meal. Being hot does not motivate you to cook on a hot stove as well.
And the further north you go, the sooner you'll see people have their dinner. Like Belgium, Netherlands, etc, people generally have their dinner at 6pm. Go to the south of Spain and people might start at 9pm.
I am from North Spain and lived in Italy as well for reference. Just a couple of comments: The valiety and abundance of quality fresh seafood is unmatched, in my opinion, and I miss it terribly. We value food quality above all, not appearance, that is why Denomination of Origin is so important. The farmer is proud of his product, and it shows. It is identifiable. You know where those tomatoes came from. Traditional, unadulterated methods. Think about it. When it comes to eating, the focus is to enjoy the company and the quality and flavor of the food. Since most people protein intake comes from their daily meals with the belief that a balanced meal of natural ingredients should provide what you need. You can't find much in the way of added protein.
I am British and eat a plant based diet. The UK is part of Europe and I have traveled extensively theought France, Spain, Germany, Romania and Italy. I don't understand how you were not getting enough protein in your diet. Yes, Italy has a lot of processed and cured meats, but it has tons of seafood options, eggs, nuts and legumes. Even with a plant based diet I had no problem eating enough protein. On the subject of plant based food, even in the backwood rural areas of Italy there was tons of vegan food, much of which was just "peasant" food tgat just happened to be vegan. Cucina Povera - a style of seasonal cooking that uses inexpensiva and locally sourced food often has no meat dairy or eggs in its dishes. Yes, you will find smaller portions, fewer additives and preservatives, better animal husbandry than in the USA, less industrialised food production, far more walking and walkability, and, of course dairy because cheese is something Italy (and much of Europe) does, but I'm sorry, I don't recognise about half of what you describe. What were you doing in Italy, walking around blindfold?
Spent 3 weeks in Italy last year. Gastronomy there is such a stark contrast to the American way. They have an integrated philosophy of living and eating(by default we do as well i suppose). Quite beautiful to witness and participate in. My chronic gastrointestinal issues evaporated after the first week. Enough to make me think long and hard about what’s important and what to do and how and why to do it. There’s a ton more to this. Appreciate the video. Americans need to understand this!
Here in the Netherlands there are many vegan foods in supermarkets and increasingly more on menus in restaurants. In the south of Europe it is less common than over here (speaking as a long time vegetarian), so you can't really speak for all of Europe on this if you've mainly visited Mediterranean countries.
AH Terra for the win! Intentionally designed to make it very easy to find in the store. My diet can be most closely described as pescetarian but I happily switch between goat cheese salad one week and soygurt the next, then regular yoghurt followed by unsweetened soy milk for savory oats.
in Italy there is a big difference in the times at which we eat, between north and south. lunch in the north is eaten between 12 and 1 pm and dinner 7 or 8 pm. in the south lunch is around 2 pm and dinner at 8 or 9 or even 10 pm. furthermore, throughout Italy, in summer people eat later than in winter. you can notice these differences both among families and in pizzerias, restaurants, etc. generally the further south you go the later you eat, the further north you go the earlier you eat
As a southern Italian you completely made up this statement. I have always eaten lunch at 1 pm and dinner at 8 pm, and so my friends. 10 pm dinner would only be possible if you eat outside
I was in Colorado, went to a restaurant and ordered lunch. I kid you not that I thought the waitress had come to the wrong table as the portion was enough for a family. The portions in the USA are way too big. I ate half of it and was full until the next day.
It used to be like that here too, unless it was pizza. Pizza always came in small size if you ask for it (they call it baby). Is only few years that all restaurants give you smaller portions. Still above average, but at least you can order one portion for two people.
@@MM-pl6zi but irs still a problem cause you will eat even if you are ful. Less on the plate and you are not stuffed and cant move after. Plus Europe we can sit for hours, taking a pause, talking, lauging, enjoying, then eat again. No stress
Europe is a very large place with different countries and cultures, thus different eating habits. In Scandinavia, it is common to eat dinner quite early.
in Italy you can find differences in dinner time , in the north usually is earlier, in the south later. But if you go out for a dinner and not stay at home also in the north you go later in the evening
@@BracchiAlessandroFineArtin the North it's a bit earlier than in the South, but nobody eats before 19-19:30 (unless you go up in the mountains where they are full Germans in all but the passport)
That's the tourist filter in the south.... nothern Europeans looking for a restaurant that opens at 17.00 for dinner 😂 whereas the vast majority of restaurants opens at 20.00 😂. Love that to observe.
I was in Europe for almost 2 months a couple of summers ago (France - Paris & countryside, Stockholm, England - London & other cities, North Wales, Greece, & Copenhagen), and one of the big things I also noticed is that MOST of the people I saw walking around were at a good weight. I didn't see ANY seriously overweight or obese people the entire time I was there either! At the time, I was heavier than almost everyone there (I weighed 245 pounds at the time. I changed my eating Keto when I came back from my trip and have been eating carnivore for the last year and now weigh 218.) The food is overall WAY healthier there! The flour/wheat is VERY DIFFERENT there, because they don't use glyphosate and other chemicals/preservatives, and they ferment the flour for 2 to 3 days, but in the USA, we only ferment the flour for 2 to 3 HOURS!!! That's why we have bloating and all kinds of weird gastrointestinal issues, and THEY DON'T!!! I ate bread, croissants, baguettes, etc, there and DIDN'T FEEL BAD ONCE! I didn't binge on them either!!! I was satisfied with 1 or 2. It's SO different with food there and their attitude about food. You don't just eat and run or eat on the run! You take your time and enjoy your food, which all tasted amazing! And of course, I walked EVERYWHERE, something I don't do here nearly as much. I'm glad you made this video! Thank you!
Great comment. I didn't know they ferment the flour 2-3 days. Great that gly. is not allowed... no bad stuff is the way it should be. Congrats on the weight loss! 👍
Yep, spent 3 weeks in Italy eating all the foods I would never eat here, such as pasta, gelato, cream-based sauces, and bread. We hiked, walked, and I traveled with a backpack. I came back one pound lighter.
Unfortunately, it is changing. I have younger friends here in Europe who eat junk and "cook" junk and it's showing. They have all sorts of health problems including obesity.
Teenagers talking rather than scrolling probably comes from the fact that children are encouraged to talk at the dinner table. Having lived in France for a number of years I was pleasantly surprised that you'd visit friends for dinner and their children would be able to join in with the conversation, ask questions and generally lear how to interact. When I look at the maturity of French teenagers versus UK ones the difference is striking. One other thing that I'll mention is how my diet completely changed having lived there. In reality it went back to the kind of diet I had as a kid, prior to fast food becoming a thing in the UK, albeit foods of superior quality, particularly the fresh, local meats. Overall I have never been healthier than I was living in France, but that's down to the culture of food, friends, family, weather, nature and the outdoor space.
Hi. I have to point out that espresse and espresso-made coffee drinks have less(!) caffeine than ordinary coffee. It has much more taste, but less caffeine. That's because the water goes trough the coffee grains much faster as steam than ordinary hot water which is used when making ordinary coffee. So in an espresso the steam leaves behind much of the coffee oils containing tannin and caffeine.
I grew up in Italy. There is a vast difference between the real food in Italy and Europe and the so called “food” in the USA. It’s good to see many Americans are awake to that fact.
It is great in Europe! Yeah, lots of walking everywhere, but why not? The food is mostly fresh and smaller portions. I lost 3 lbs in 2 weeks and was never, NEVER hungry. Time of meals depends on where in Europe you had visited. I have family in Scandinavia and cycling everywhere is always incorporated into the infrastructure. During summertime in the northern countries, it stays lighter much longer which allows later eating together and enjoying a lot of conversations. Glad you had an awesome time. Try Copenhagen next time. Awesome people and food!
🇪🇺 People I know who have visited EU talk about how there are less chemicals in the food, when they read ingredients. Certain chemicals are banned in the EU that are allowed in foods in the USA. My friends who have gone to France rave about the bread there! ❤
I agree. I m french and live next to Paris. We eat quite well (it sliwly changes but we have lots of food regulation to prevent becoming like US). When I go to us I am amazed how the portions are huge and the taste seems unnatural, each time I was a little disgusted and totally bloated
Bans of many U.S. sourced foods due to additives is the same for Japan. Found out when unsuccessfully attempted sending CARE packages to friends there but was promptly returned because of banned additives. Was able to hand carry in when I visited. The rest of the world is trying to hint to the U.S. that we should reconsider our current status.
When i visited usa i was amazed at how unnatural the food tasted and that most people consider this normal and acceptable. Also amazed at how fat and unheathy americans are. In general, the entire lifestyle (also beyond the food) seemed very unnatural, stressful, fake and synthetic. It is quite sad and worrying..
Keep in mind that Europe is composed of very different countries with very different cuisines and food traditions. Italy and French are not the same as Germany or Spain. In fact, just inside Italy, you will find various food choices, cusines and traditions that differ from each other in a matter of one city to the next one. I can tell you this cause I'm Italian, and a 30 minutes drive could bring me to a completely different food experience from where I'm actually at. This is also why, to us, the Mediterranian Diet means nothing. Say that to someone from Romagna or Puglia regions. Same country, totally different way of eating.
Yet within all EU the quality of food is regulated far stricter than in the USA. So even if we have huge differences in our cuisines in Europe, there's something we all have in common: EU makes sure we're not sold too much crap 😅
@@helgaioannidis9365 The European Union has strictly regulated food standards, not all of Europe. For example, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Moldova and Macedonia are all or partly located in Europe, and there the regulations on food standards and food production are drastically lower than in the countries of the European Union.
@@pawekubicki4022 She is writting "within all EU" and hence not talking about non-EU Europe.... Some of the countries you mention do want to be part of the EU though...
@@pawekubicki4022These regulations affect the food production of the UE members but not the food imported from other countries (morocco, south africa, etc). They use phytosanitary products, fertilizers, preservatives, etc. that are prohibited in the EU.
@@pawekubicki4022 North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are European countries, their mass is all located in Europe, they are not just partly located in Europe. Only Russia and Kazakhstan are partly in Europe.
I am from Germany but I lived in the USA around 25 years ago... Back then I had my "there is something seriously wrong with the food around here" moment when the opened milk did not spoil after a week or so. I bought a gallon and we just used it for coffee, so it was in the fridge for maybe two months and it just would not go bad.
I’m in the Netherlands and found this interesting. Im accustomed to travelling throughout Europe and there is definitely not one European kitchen but many due to that we are all so different, but it’s easy to get all the foods from other European countries in my town. I also visit the USA regularly because my 2 siblings moved to the USA more than 30 years ago and built up their lives there. I have noticed that even though I try my hardest I always gain weight there. I don’t when I vacate in southern Europe. In the us I find it difficult to follow my regular eating patterns and hardly get to walk around.
I recent returned to the US after 11 years living in Dublin and traveling for business a bit on the mainland. It was easy to stay healthy in my late 40s and 50s. Now, it is all I can do to desperately/barely stay healthy.
If you lived in Ireland for eleven years and travelled extensively around mainland Europe during that time then you were obviously exposed to many different influences and diverse foods which were immeasurably less unhealthy than US foods.
@@koschmx Correct. Same rules in effect: buy food you can clearly identify! Fewest number of ingredients, good ones. It's really simple, seek healthy food, it's just more of a challenge back here in the US, and more expensive since I was last here.
@@koschmx tbf its obvious that its unhealthy. Ireland has unhealthy stuff here too, like Guinness, spice bags, pretty much anything from the chipper. The difference in the US though is that because of what they put into their food, their food in general is just far more unhealthy than what we eat in Europe. You have so much more control of your diet in Europe.
I'm returning to the US after a month in Italy with my family in a couple days and agree with just about everything you've said. I think the key point - and you said it - is the US engineers stuff out of our lives and then offers it back as a product or service. In Italy / Europe, things are simpler and slower for the most part. We noticed we had to put salt on everything as most authentic food in Italy has far less salt than the same food in America. We thought of the maple syrup analogy - we're so used to the sugary maple syrup that real Vermont maple syrup tastes a bit odd or bitter at first. I could give dozens of examples of great/simple Italian food, but one was simple bruschetta which was made only with high quality fresh bread, tomatoes, basil and real olive oil. Better than any we've had in the US by far. They focus on simple food with a few high quality ingredients. PIzza usually has 1-3 toppings at most.
😂😂 well said! You go to the gym and your brain needs to tell your eyes where to look and the rest of the body how to move! It's your responsibility! How fascinating! And we're not talking about if the roof falls on your head here. You make the wrong step and hurt yourself? It's your fault. Get over it! 😂
02:06 - sorry but it's incredibly easy to find meat, you just need to not go to the supermarket and go to the butcher instead :) In France, you'll find one within walking distance in most places you can visit.
@@jimmyryan5880 it's not always obvious where to go though because in most countries supermarkets *also* sell meat it's just not displayed the same. But yeah...
Really interesting video picking up on the big differences that exist between US and European food. Here in Italy there is a big 'slow food' movement where the emphasis is on seasonal, local ingredients. Makes it easier to incorporate fresh, natural foods into the diet.
I'll agree and disagree with you by saying there's no slow food movement in Italy, they just continue to eat how they've always eaten (slowly with high quality ingredients) and the US and other countries have moved to faster eating, poor quality ingredients, etc. You make a really good point though on how they eat slowly.
@@dave5185man slow food doesn’t mean you eat it slow. It means it’s been cooked and served slowly. Not having shortcuts like the fast food does that everything is packaged and already made and you just need to heat them up m.
It really isn't, the difference is that the bad choices are taken away from you in Europe. Where as in the US for the poor, we have cheap subsidized unhealthy food. But the healthy options are still easily available in the US, they are just more expensive
yes it is mostly true, but you have to be picky even here in France ! around me there are imported bad tomatoes or very good ones, but I have to take care ! about smoked salmon, or salmon in general, this is becoming disgusting everywhere in Europe, because of the "sea farming" of the salmons in Norway (or other northern countries). The salmons are called Frankenfish, because they are fed with disgusting animal flours, they live in very small and polluted spaces, and it is recommended for pregnant women to eat this salmon as less as possible ! (sorry for my English, but I am French)
Your comment on yogurt was spot on. I've been living in Europe for almost 30 years and I remember the last time I went to the US feeling so frustrated that there was only (and sometimes not) only 1 kind of white yogurt--Greek. That was it.
I see diffrences between countrys in Europe, so I think you should change the title from Europe to Italy. Let's say in Poland, where I live, we don't have shellfish. But we have for example a lot of pickles, like sauerkraut, that we eat a lot in mamy variations. So cousine will depends from latitude, seasons. And about how food taste. Come to Poland in June, so you will know what really strawberry looks like and taste.
A lot of countries in Europe are not allowed to fortify their wheat, ie spray it with folic acid, which around 45% of people don’t have the enzyme to break down anyway and which can cause gut irritation. That may have been why didn’t have trouble with the bread.
The total amount of alcohol consumed isn't all that different. The difference is more that people in Southern often have a glass of wine every day, Northern Europeans (particularly Scandinavians) will drink all that alcohol in one go on Saturday night.
As European i must say, you nailed it. We like yogurt because it lovers your blood sugar if you eat it with cheese Burek and it tastes good. You should also go to Greece or Turkey. Thay have realy good food....Healthy and teasty... We like eating lokal food from our farmers, not some big corporate "food" producers... But corporate is very agresive here too....
I just checked: Burger patty at McDonalds Germany (and I would be surprised if it would be hugely different in France or Italy) is made of: 100% pure ground beef, salt, pepper. They would need to declare preservatives and other stuff if they put anything else in there.
I’m visiting family in Italy, leaving tomorrow, and this video has me so excited to enjoy my family and the delicious and nutritious meals we will share ❤
Thomas, when my gf and I went to Europe (Barcelona and Southern France), I ate like a pig and lost 5lbs, why? Not only because of everything you are speaking of but also because the cities are designed for walking. I was easily walking over 20,000 steps!
People don't realize how much simply walking burns calories. Many Americans go from couch to car to office to car to couch to bed. Not enough walking. Swedes walk just to get exercise. It's very common here. Simply going out for a evening walk. Not a stroll, but a fast-paced walk.
Nice video. A bit more differentiation with the countries visited Europe would have been nice. People in Germany or Denmark go to bed earlier than the ones in Italy or Spain, usually.
Arthur Miller briefly visited post war Italy in the 1940s. So he would have been in his thirties. He bought a simple cheese sandwich. It was the most delicious food he had ever tasted!
I loved this video! Thank you for sharing, Thomas! I also spent a month in Europe and discovered so much about what’s wrong with our food and portions!
We received a canned ham from from USA. It was sweet after we opened it, so we thought it was spoiled. But we found there was like 14g of sugar per 100g lol. We were surprised and didn't understand...
I am so glad that you mentioned the gluten in Europe, because when I go there, I don't get nearly as sick as when I have the gluten here and people told me I was insane and made it up. Every morning I get up and I walk to Aldi's (fresh bread made daily)for fresh bread and I have meat and cheese for breakfast, and my stomach never hurt me!!!
and aldi is not even the benchmark. there are very good bakeries around. the secret is resting time of the dough. if you let the dough rest for many hours the yeast is eating a lot of the stuff in the dough that gives you allergic reaction or other poisonous reactions like from gluten. the industry does not take the time for resting the dough. but to have similar physical properties like the gas inside letting the dough rise in the oven, they have to add other bullshit chemicals to emulate that natural process. all that is very unhealthy.
There are sometimes high levels of Roundup/Glyphosate chemicals in gluten and gluten free products. These chemicals cause tears in the lining of our intestines. It’s why so many people have problems digesting food in the USA. In France Glyphosate has been banned. My husband and I do not get sick eating bread made in France or beer made in France. Also, when eating food in Spain, Italy and Poland we do not get sick. Many people we know feel the same.
It's not just the glyphosate, it's the different type of wheat - hard red wheat high in gluten mainly grown the the US vs soft white wheat low in protein and therefore also in gluten in Europe.
@@YashoShashoGlyphosate is actually still in use in agriculture in France... But it is used very differently than in the USA (only before the wheat sprouts, to get rid of competition from weeds, whereas I think in the US they use it as a pre-harvest dessicant). So yes, there's no way to get glyphosate residue on the grain here - which is also why French farmers want to keep using it.
Not in terms of food quality. We have different food popular, we do a lot of things differently but most of our regulations in terms of food are EU level regulations. I lived for some time in 5 EU countries (Lithuania, Czechia, Latvia, Cyprus and Poland) + was on vacations in some like Italy. Groceries shopping was different in almost all of them (except Lithuania and Latvia, they are kinda similar). But food quality and products producted in different EU countries was a universal experience for all of them
@@stannumowl All you've said is minimum safety standards in food production are in effect amongst the EU countries. You havent added anything to the post you replied to. _"Europe is much more than just Italy_ _Every country in Europe is very different"_ You state you have experience living in the EU; please stop confusing the EU with Europe.
@@kanedaku EU is more than half of European countries. + former Yugoslavia + some other countries have food standards harmonised with the EU. And yes... I basically said "we have safety standards. Cry about it"
@@stannumowl The EU Vs Europe wasnt the point of my comment, so of course you would take aim at that, to avoid the point actually made. Your comment was pointless, it neither agreed or disagreed with the post and added nothing to it. And, I will say proudly that the origins of the EU safety standards came from the UK. You go cry now, your beloved EU just copypasted from my superior country. And thats why you all were so butthurt when we left the club 😢😆
@@kanedaku I guess you should reading before writing in that case. I don't see how "yep, until it's not" + some examples are neither agreement nor something in addition. EU was affected by one of our biggest members? Who could've ever think about that? What a shock! And honestly... You left - good, have fun. You're still members of NATO and none of us need visa to visit each other. Just make sure that we wouldn't need to touch the Brexit bureaucracy once again
With regards to being a gym guest: we don't have the litigation culture that the US has. If you stub your toe, you will probably get a small band-aid. 😂 If you're bleeding profusely, they might offer to call an ambulance. You cannot get rich from having an accident on someone else's premises. We expect you to watch what you're doing.
@@koschmx In no European country that I am aware of (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Denmark) can you sue someone for damages to the degree that you can in the US. Not even close. So if a British McDonald's had served a customer hot coffee and the customer had spilt it and hurt herself, she would not get 1/10th of what she got in the US. Hence my "You cannot get rich" statement. So unless you can show otherwise, I will stand by that statement. I'd be VERY surprised if any European country had laws accommodating US-type litigation.
@@koschmx I said "get rich." Yes of course damages are awarded. But receiving generational wealth over something stupid you basically did yourself does not happen in Europe.
@@koschmx Yeah that's totally not the reason. It's not just about hot coffee, which by the way gets served just as hot. It's about who's responsible for shit happening. If there's a wet floor, owner can be expected to put up a sign, and customers can be expected to watch themselves a little bit, whereas in the US, people apparently must be treated as toddlers with zero agency or responsibility.
Spent time last summer in Provence and Tuscany, was amazing. Totally agree with your point about our engineering of health, rather than making it more natural, effortless. There is a feeling that food culture is more important than commerce. The culture demands high quality food over price and convenience.
@@po-lightsabich8855 I am from UK (Scotland) yes they are grass fed as they eat grass but grains are added to fatten they up sadly unless they are certified grass fed and grass finished
@OpenlyBritish bro no one said ALL uk beef is grass fed 😂 the main comment says 97% so you just stated whats already there ... because 97% is not 100% so yea not all beef is grass fed in uk ...
@OpenlyBritish They may get fattened up with grains in the UK but for most of the time they graze in fields or get fed hay or silage in winter (because it is cheap if the farmer has harvested/stored it) but I have no doubt things are getting worse. Not sure about it being as high as 97% though.
Your experience totally mirrors lots of my eye-opening experiences I had as an American who lived in Italy for 6 years. I always noticed the attention people spent on QUALITY of food, regardless of what food it was. Dietary pattern seemed to always come secondary to food quality. Inspiring stuff!
I live in Italy ❤ When I go grocery shopping I spend most of the time trying to choose a new yogurt and which shellfish/seafood I crave more 😂😂😂😂 Aww so happy you enjoyed and noticed so many things
When I went to UK and Paris in 2019 I agree to everything you said including phone usage. When I went to Starbucks and order coffee to be there, I got it on actual ceramic cup of coffee and my surroundings felt so refreshing people having conversations without their phones. I miss it..
We use olive oil. For instance today I made an ensalada malagueña which is boiled potatoes,olives,oranges,spring onions, cod (cooked for 4 minutos in the microwave) a little olive oil, vinegar and salt to taste. All cut up It probable sounds horrible ,but it's so so tasty
In Italy, they were great about having gluten-free options. The gluten-free bread, pizza, and noodles tasted wonderful. Loved it. And you forgot to mention smoking-it's everywhere.
#5 yes, please stop eating dinner at 4pm in italy if they serve you anything resembling a whole meal you’re either at mcdonald’s or eating in a tourist trap restaurant
Greek food is tasty, but 1/10th as varied and sophisticated as Italy's. And "grilled" fish on the menu means fish fried to death in a sea of oil. Greek wines used to be undrinkable only twenty years ago. Now drinkable, but rarely more.
You described latin/ mediterranean Europe. Scandinavia, Germanic, Slavic and Anglosaxon Europe is way differnent. Closer to the US... European countries are much more eclectic than US states. You have to accept that fact.
Slevic cuisine is by mo means closer to USA. In some respect it's even further away from it, since we len more to traditional, natural food rather than a mixture of chemicals.
Thomas, you're not imagining anything. Although I haven't been to Europe for 15+ years, the food, preparation, and feeling of nourishment are definitely superior. Food tastes SO much better. I will say that when I was in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, the portions were huge but very nutritious. And Italy... OMG! Thanks for another great video!
Also, (as mentioned earlier in the video), the yogurt is real. In the US, I only ever have a need for the plain, whole fat yogurt. The one that lists two ingredients: Whole milk, cultures. I almost always have to look hard for it. It's either on a low shelf in a corner at the grocery store, or on an upper shelf. There are half a dozen tubs, when lucky. Only one brand, sold as big tubs. Which is fine, it allows me to portion my own, and natural yogurt keeps longer than people think. The rest of the yogurt aisle is the ultra sweet, shiny, strange after taste stuff that kills you slowly over time. Funny story. I met an old friend recently at a conference in Milwaukee. He's from Germany. He was surprised to learn that what he had thought was mayonnaise at the breakfast buffet (and therefore not touched because that was a strange thing to eat with Muesli) was actually yogurt.
One main thing to notice is Thomas’ emphasis on ‘protein’ ‘whey protein’ ‘supplements’ ‘gym’ etc…in Europe, we just enjoy the food, the surroundings and taking the time to eat it too. There is obviously so much engineering of foods in the US that has filtered down in to the way they actually eat! We live to eat in Europe, not the other way around…
i consider myself lucky in this regard. but when i am in italy i am always surprised about the higher food quality compared to austria. in austria you buy expensive bullshit olive oil in fancy bottles wrapped in gold foil. in italy you go with the supermarket's own kind of cheap noname olive oil brand and it is a wonderful experience. a few years ago i was in tuscany with friends renting an house hundreds of years old and sometimes i made myself some food. so we went to the supermarket 4km away for shopping. i was amazed about the quality and the low price for the ingredients to make a Caprese with real mozarella di buffala and good pesto genovese and tasty tomatos and we had some extra fresh basilicum in the garden. it was awesome.
My wife and I had a similar takeaway visiting Ireland and the UK. The food seemed cleaner and more nutritious. My wife eats gluten-free and did better overall and we are convinced that the ban on glyphosate (Round Up) is a major difference. Locally sourced dairy, meats and cheeses, in particular in Ireland, was noticeable.
I live in Ireland and I'm not aware of any restrictions on glyphosate here. I don't know about the UK. Perhaps farmers can't use it in a blanket way to kill vegetation prior to tilling and planting a field? I know it is used around buildings and with a sort of roller to control rushes on meadow and pasture land. I bought some this year and couldn't buy the larger, cheaper containers without a farm registration number.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay in Switzerland! It truly is a beautiful country with so much to offer. Hope you have more amazing travels in the future!
Reguarding salt, if you went to tuscany they have the tradition of not salting breads and pizzas, I'm from a close region and I had to get used to it too when I went there for vacation. I think it originates from an embargo on salt that happened a few centuries ago.
We enjoy food. We sit down and talk, so we probably don't eat large portions. Furthermore there are far fewer additives in our food. Therefore we don't need so much salt to hide the taste of additives. I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Europe.
Just some remarks on the meals per day: Generally in countries like Italy, Spain or France, breakfast is light but sweet. Lunch is the most important meal of the day. It also easily takes an hour. After lunch, you have a restperiod (commenly known as siesta). Dinner is later (after eight in the evening) but also not as big as lunch, so a lighter meal. And yes, people tend to go to bed later (your nine o' clock is absurdly early), but they do get up early too. They just take a long break when the day is at its hottest. So life in these countries tends to be a bit slower, at bit more at ease, but also enjoyed more. We work to live, we do not live to work. And btw, in more northern countries of Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavian countries) the ideas on meals are often very different.
As a german who has lived in Canada and has frequently visited the US, I also noticed the american obsession with "adding" things to your diet in order for it to become "healthy". For example, in America there will be isles upon isles of vitamins and supplements and I always wondered why I would need that, because I get all that stuff from my regular "european" diet. And vitamin D I get from the sun and dairy products. I get that as a bodybuilder you may need some extra whey protein or whatever, but if I'm not, I don't really need that stuff. Similarly with medicine, like you pointed out. I think in Europe there is a higher emphasis on trying to treat little things like a normal cold with home remedies and just resting, whereas in America you have a billion options of extremely strong over-the-counter medicines in the drug stores. For most of that stuff you would need a doctor's prescription in Europe. Also the differences within Europe are very big like others have pointed out. For example, in Germany I don't eat a lot of fish and shellfish, because I live far from the ocean and I don't get great fresh fish or shellfish. When I visit the coastal regions of Italy and France I really indulge in that stuff and I feel great. Also the fruits and vegetables in southern italian street markets are just amazing. Lastly, like you said, there isn't a great emphasis on alcohol in mediterranean countries, at least not in Italy. Wine is a special product that is supposed to be savoured and not to be consumed with the intention of getting drunk. Germany and England on the other hand are a whole different story. Getting drunk is almost part of the lifestyle, mostly with beer though.
Interesting video, especially when viewed as a European. You sure hit the right spot on the fact that many chemicals used in food in the US are illegal in the EU. On the same level where don't need to be very anti-diary, anti-gluten or pro-vegan, because the "original" foods containing gluten/diary or meat aren't as over engineered as in the USA (yet...!), so our guts are perfectly capable of digesting things that are used as food here for ages. Just a few things where you miss the big picture a bit in this video (not meant as a nasty comment, but purely educational): There is no such thing as "one Europe", sure, we work together on many fields, use the same currency (Most of us, for example the scandinavians use their own currency) , most of the time have no active border-control among other EU members (unless there is a soccer championship in Germany, and actually the non-border agreement is only for the Schengen-countries, but lets not get into details). And off-course within the EU (which aren't all European countries) we apply the same laws and regulations (sometimes a bit too many, agreed). But we still remain independent countries with own (food) traditions. On that subject: - About the absence of seed oils; especially in the southern countries (Italy, Spain, France (southern part), Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, etc) olive oil is the main thing to cook with. They even eat it purely on bread with some seasalt, yum. The more northern countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, etc) are more butter minded and when it comes to using oil for cooking, they mainly use sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, pumpkinseed oil and other seed-oils. (And olive-oilsince the last 30 years or something) - Same thing with dinner time, the southerns will eat late, like after 8 pm and sometimes after 10pm (Spain i believe), just because its tradition and the climate is warmer, more and longer light all year round. In the middle and northern parts, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany it's around 6pm all year round, and i'm actually uncertain how it is in the real north. (Early in winter, late in summer i suppose) - Cured, salted meats, like hams, serano, iberico, salami, etc are also more populair in the South, but the main reason you can hardly find any precooked chicken, or meat is because most Europeans cook their own diner or go out to a restaurant/take-away. Not many people live from precooked foods from the supermarket. - Loads of caffeine, since you where in Italy, thats Wahalla for coffee-lovers, pure delicious coffee, (Cappuccino-like the morning, dark and pure rest of the day) But other countries have other caffeine traditions, like the traditional blunt vending-machine coffee at the office with sugar (and milk) in The Netherlands, fortunately we are finally changing to real (italian like) coffee here. Oh, and the British are off course very tea-minded (very strong with loads of milk). - Breakfast, differs per country. Italy coffee with and some sweet bread (they love and have invented Nutella), France bread with jam (or Nutella) and coffee or orange juice; Britain toast, beans and eggs; Netherlands bread with cheese or chocolate sprinkles and a glass of milk. - Seafood and fish, you're are right that those sure are popular in the sea-side or lake-side territories like Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Scandinavia but in the more in-land countries like Germany, Austria or the east of France, those are such a big thing. There people are more game, pork and poultry minded. All those different, great and pure/honest (food) traditions at just a few hours apart makes living in Europe the best (and makes it no problem something are a bit over-regulated :) )
France banned glyphosate/Roundup. So good quality bread and beer. We never get sick eating french bread. Also, we never got sick eating food in Spain and Poland.
Great video! I can confirm most people here (Italy) consider wine just food. Like tiramisù, we are well aware that indulging in it isn't healthy at all. So we don't do that, or if we do, it's in moderation. Are we alcoholism free? Not at all. But it's relatively rare compared to the general consumption.
I was in France and turkey and Italy last year for 3.5 weeks. My psoriasis arthritis only flared up twice! And I ate everything under the sun. Every pastry, pastas, meats, rice, bread, tomatoes, sooo many sweets. Back home in CA, I have to eat a pretty restricted diet. There... idk what kind if preservatives and pesticides are banned there that are legal here, but it was amazing. One flare up for sure was from Turkish delight. The other one was in France, and I still wonder what food did it. For the rest of my psoriasis symptoms, the itchy scaly spots were actually going away too. I need to move somewhere with EU-like agriculture and food standards
I’d say 80-85% of items in American supermarkets you can’t eat long term. It’s ironic that alcohol is pushed as European but it’s not really that big of a deal, people can drink or not. EU has a lot of additives banned.
Hey. You guys in the states now eat “edible industrial waste”. Industrial deconstruct everything to a cellular level then recombine it with flavourings, emulsifiers, vitamins to once again call it food. We don’t have GM foods at all in Europe.
My Brand New, FREE Meal Plan: Mediterranean Style with Time-Restricted Feeding and all the timing and optimization comments: www.thomasdelauer.com/eatrealfood . Consider it my THANK-YOU for subscribing to my channel and newsletter.
In Italy the food is pretty good. Jump over to France to taste the trash that they are made to eat.
Soon, there is going to be the rapture. It's when there will be trumpet sounds, and after the trumpet sounds, God will lift his people from here. Also, God said people should be living by the Bible. Amen, and God bless you.
❤
❤* John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life". ❤
You look younger after your trip to Europe.
Get lost.
I know the McDonalds in the UK is 100% beef, because I used to work there and read the ingredients on the burger bags. They only add a pinch of salt per burger, mixed in, so the cook doesn't need to think about it. But I prefer Burger King burgers that are 70% beef mixed with offal, and it's pre cooked and reheated. Just tastes better.
Mate, all you need to know is that what's sold in the US as "food" is illegal in Europe because of the additives.
We are slowly poisoned for higher profit margin...due to preservatives...last longer on shelves. Hence...the 20 year twinkie' jokes.
Can I UberEat from Europe? I’m in New York…
everything is over regulated in EU, like motorcycle pollution standards….
there's good and bad food in the US. The choice is yours. Good is more expensive, but that's just regular price. Garbage is always cheaper and food shouldn't be compared with garbage
@@user-lx6pk9os2d I cook at home..,visit a local meat & farm market.
The obesity rate is disgusting..,processed food & "fast food"..killing us one convenient meal at a time. Learned my lesson.
I’m Italian, and I think that the thing that tourist miss to really understand why we are not all obese 😅it’s that they “experience” people at the restaurant, but our “secret” here in Italy it’s simply that we cook 😅 We don’t eat much processed food, we use very little delivery food, and we go to the restaurant once a week, this means that we cook almost 11/12 meals a week, with fresh ingredients cooked at the moment with a little olive oil and more rarely some butter (it’s a more French thing 😅). That’s it! We are used and we like to prepare our meals, so we always know what we’re eating. Ah! And a HUGE thing is that we drink almost always just water during meals, especially kids: no soda, juice, milk or whatever, just water when you eat on a daily basis.
This reminds me. I knew an Italian doctor who grew up in a small village way down in the south, near Sicily. He said he never saw butter until he moved north to near Milan. He was born in the 1960s.
@@chronic2023 sad to see butter demonized like that. Nothing purer than bio butter. It's even healthier than any type of seed oil you can have, least of all margarine.
@@KujieSama It wasn't demonised, it's just the South of Italy has olives, and the North has cows. :)
@@KujieSama Shut up. You don't know anything. Nothing is purer and healthier than extra-virgin olive oil.
@@chronic2023 Not true. Italians do use butter (source: I am Italian, and I eat both a lot of butter as well as using olive oil)
I love how Americans talk about Europe as it was a country. A country with a common culture, way of life, food etc. You went to Italy. Had you visited Sweden or England instead, the experience would have been entirely different.
@vinterskog people in Europe walk, rather than drive in cities... most of the things he said about Italy are true for any EU country. Because theybf9llow the same directives.
@@nadyadobreva9904 That's simply not true everywhere in Europe.
Funny you say that. Same thing when it comes to Africa. Everyone in Europe/America says I'm going to Africa/ ate african food and I'm like dude Africa is a continent and there are many countries in "africa"
@@nadyadobreva9904mmmh not true
@@lizet3more we travel a lot to North Africa for holidays and no one say that "we are going to Africa" they say we are going to Egipt, Maroko, Tunezja, and if you go more to south is the same, you say to which country you are going
I have ulcerative colitis. In the US, I have to stay ketovore or I’m extremely ill. I cannot eat any food in the US with flour. I headed to Italy and Greece for two weeks in June. My Gastroenterology doctor told me to try the breads in Italy/Greece to see how my gut handled the food. It was WONDERFUL to be able to have pasta/pizza without being in the bathroom all day. The FDA and food companies have ruined our food in the US.
I think it's the sugar or corn syrup added to the bread in USA.
It maybe the type of wheat or the pesticides used rather@@amafirenze-vi1uh
Your FDA has “ruined” food because it’s not doing it’s job as it once used too.
In Greece (im from there) US breads are considered sweets/confectionery. Almost all bread in Greece is made with sourdough, and left to proof for hours. Also no sugar in the mix. Also-also, we use a different variety of wheat. Heirloom seeds and ancient seed varieties that are not genetically optimised for sweetness or high GI index.
@@davg.2589 its doing its job in banning any food products that their lobbists want banned, like raw milks, but legalise any trash that big companies want to sell
the US has a corruption problem
I went to Norway and Sweden for 2 weeks, and I was astounded at the food. No added sugar in everything (including their bread), more fresh seafood and wild animals, way less preservatives, and I could tell a massive difference by how I felt. It was pretty polarizing.
When i visited usa i was amazed at how unnatural and synthetic the food tasted and that most people consider this normal and acceptable. Also amazed at how fat and unheathy americans are. But i got the feeling that it is somehing more fundamental than just the low quality food in usa. In general, the entire lifestyle (anything from the way people interact and what is considered important and the way cities are structured etc etc) seemed very unnatural, stressful, fake, synthetic and not oriented towards human well-being but more towards business well-being.. It is quite sad and worrying..
The amount of sugar US adds to their "bread" is alarming. That's the reason bread in Subway is marked as cake in most European countries. Preservatives used in US are banned within EU and I would guess in rest of the Europe as well. Unless you revolt against the sh*t they put into your food in US, it will never change. Just thinking about the chlorine bath they put your chickens through makes me wanna puke. Not to mention the growth hormones in cattle.
We are pretty astounded ourselves, that in the US you put so much sugar in the bread :) it's rather weird
In general in Europe we eat more fresh foods, less additives, less sugar People cook at home. often use local products from the season My sister visited America, said if you order a coke you get a bottle, a pizza is the same size as the wheel of a truck. So happy to get something fresh, tomatoes They added Sugar!!! She gained 10lb in 2 weeks
We had American bread on our shelves for about 20mins.
It had to be removed and placed with the cake sales.
Way too much sugar.
P. S. I am from Ireland.
Part of the freshness of food (in France at least), is helped by the fact that your Boulangerie(Bakery) and Charcuterie(Butcher) shops are everywhere, just below where your apartment is. So no need for preservatives to have things on shelves for weeks/months. You just grab your fresh foods as you get home each day....Great city planning to allow for walking, etc.
My bakery.. 15 meters, butcher, 100m, fish, same, wine and fruit and cheese.. 20 m....
What do you mean by Europe? Its a continent dude, you got massive, massive differences for half of your points from one city to another in Germany alone.
To us Americans, all of it is Europe to us
Spain, at least.
Firenze, Italy for sure. Hungary for sure. And PROBABLY Cinque Terre, Italy
His experience of the US is also much different than mine. His generalizations are as sad as his lifestyle.
Thank you!!!! This! This might be applicable to Italy (presume that is where he was) but Europe is a continent. There are vast differences. I'm in the Uk and don't identify with the majority of this. 'Europeans' is a very generic description and actually comes across as very ignorant in this context. You need to be much more specific!
I just got back from Portugal, ate anything I wanted, slept like a baby and lost a couple of pounds!
The food and beverage industry in the US is killing us, and so to combat this, we eat a clean, organic, whole foods diet. We were able to find wholesome food choices nearly everywhere we went and it was a relief not to have to steer clear of genetically modified foods since they’re illegal in Europe. We need to do the same here.
Food and drink are killing us because companies own our gov't.
in the US, the affordability of healthy food seems to be manufactured, really. maybe you've seen it yourself when you visited Portugal, that not everyone is rich but there's still affordable healthy food everywhere.
We also just got back from Portugal for a couple of weeks, and our experience was very different. Lisbon, Cascais, Coimbra, and Porto. I ate mostly my regular keto diet with a few fun things most days within reason, and I gained weight. The shelf-stable foods (crackers, etc) were full of seed oils, I had to ask for olive oil at all restaurants, most markets didn't sell beef (lots of pork), the yogurt was full of sugar and thickeners, etc. Lots more cheese choices though, and the preservatives/additives were still there but less. I still had to watch what I was eating even with all the extra walking. I lived in Eastern Europe in the 90's, and the food choices now are shockingly more westernized and not all that healthy with many more obese people than the first time I was there. I had heard so much about how the food is so much more healthy, but overall it seemed sadly more similar to the States.
@@passiveincomeadventures
Perhaps you went to the cheapest restaurants? In Spain, olive oil is the default, actually, they´ll give you a weird look if you ask for a different oil, and I can assure Portugal follows the same culture.
Regarding meet. Again, pork is the cheapest meat you can have after chicken, but beef meet is, literally, everywhere. Even the smallest restaurant always have beef meat.
Cheese. Again, Spain cheese is among the best cheese you can find in the world, and although it is not the case for Portugal, they import lots of cheese from Spain and other Europeans countries. It is way easier to find quality cheese than cheese with additives.
Portugal food culture is quite similar to Spanish food culture, it is less "Mediterranean diet", that's true, perhaps due to british influence, but it is pretty good too.
But one thing is 100% true. In general, European food is on a slow "usafication" process. My guess is that this is what companies wants. Cheap low quality food that brings more benefits. That would explain why the european government is fighting local farmers.
@@passiveincomeadventures As a Portuguese, most of what you said makes no sense to me...ask for olive oil? We use olive oil for almost everything as dressing, usually there's a flask of olive oil and vinegar on each table or will be placed when the food arrives, we certainly consume more pork but beef is for sale everywhere...what kind of markets are you talking about?
Comparing the produce ( meats, vegetables...) available in Europe to what you've got in the U.S. is just wrong...food in the U.S. makes me think of the movie Soylent Green.
I'm Italian, I've worked in fast foods restaurants in the past and I can tell you for sure that the beef patties are 100% beef. Maybe not the best quality, as you can buy from a butcher and cook by yourself, but 100% beef. Also Mc Donalds and Burger King in Italy have the same supplier for the patties, which is the biggest meat producer in the country, the big difference is in the way they are cooked. We have very strict rules on the quality and supply chain of our food in Italy.
Same as McDonalds in Australia, burger patties are 100% beef with just salt and pepper.
Same in Ireland. 100% Irish farmed beef with salt and pepper added after cooking.
Yeah that's amazing. Plus sometime it's a but better than some Bucher. Because in France for example. If you ask for a patty. You will get lean meat. No fat amount. Better quality but not for burger. It need a bit of fat.
Worked for their supplier in Denmark: 100 % beef. Goes for all of the EU.
Our burgers in McDonald’s UK is 100% farmed beef , the area I live in the meat comes from either UK or Irish farms.
I will just mention that having dinner late is a pure mediterranian thing because of the sun heat...so people there eat later in the evening 9-10 pm when the temperture is a bit down...
I live in the Alpine region our "common dinner time" is considered culturally on avarage between 5-7pm (around 5pm in winter, around 7pm in summer unless on very hot days then it might be 8pm)
Plus, especially in Spain, the time zone is shifted. They have the same time zone as Germany (+1) despite being more to the West than GB (0).
I lived in Germany, the Netherlands, and France for about one year. I lost around 10 kilograms of weight. My sleep got better. My parents saw me on videocall and got concerned about me as I looked thinner. They thought I was not well/sick. I used to walk a lot, ate bread and protein, and many times desserts/juices😆🤣 This year I was in Spain for 14 days, and I again lost 2 kilos and gained back those lost kilos after getting back to my country 😭 I ate a lot of protein, shellfishes, orange juices, wines during my time in Spain
Well you know, what actually is american cuisine? Burgers, fries, pizza, donuts? Nothing of that is actually american. Burgers and donuts are german, fries are belgian and pizza is italian food. What actually makes it american is: Dramatically reducing the quality of the foods inside and add a bunch of garbarge in order to make it both more profitable and more addicting. That's american cuisine. It just sucks.
😂 My mother reacted the same when I slimmed down by eating REAL food in South Korea in the mid-1970s. Americans are so fat these days, many don't know what a normal body should look like.
Did you try eating that way at home?
@@dude861 Anche i biscotti sono tipici della loro cucina e sono una invenzione italiana^^
Europeans eat and live for love and pleasure 🧡 That’s how I was raised in an Italian household. Not how much fat will I gain if I eat this or how many hours have I spent at the gym this week. I’m an Italian living in Australia and even though I have those roots ingrained in me, because Australia likes to mimick the US it’s easy to fall into that unnatural trap that infiltrates our media and medical system. So wonderful that you’ve recognised this Thomas and shared it…thank you 🙏😊
I'm 73. Over the years, my observation is we work more and live less than than Europeans. I'm not talking about longevity but about enjoying life in general.
I am counting down! Wifey and I leaving back for Eastern Europe in 29 days! We go about 3, sometimes 4 times a year for 3 weeks at a time. We eat and eat and drink all we want while we are there and we lose weight. And when we come back to the US, it seems like all can taste is chemicals in everything we eat!
If you are ever in Romania, you have to check out Therme in Bucharest! Super hot saunas, Himalayan Salt saunas, Eucalyptus Saunas, mineral spas, very cool stuff!
Will do, going on my list for visiting along with returning to Bulgaria
Olive oil is very important , especially for Mediterranean countries like Greece, Spain, Italy Turkey, and Portugal .We don't even care if the it's expensive. We always have olive oil in our home .
You forgot Italy's neighbor--Croatia, which has some of the oldest olive trees in the world, though the very oldest is in Crete, Greece (3,000 years old). Nearly everyone with a parcel of land in Southern Croatia grows olive trees for olive oil production.
In the US, even our "extra virgin" olive oil is adulterated with cheap seed oils.
Portugal is not a "Mediterranean" country. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean.
@@tic-tacdrin-drinn1505 it feels more Mediterranean than other Mediterranean countries lol
@@tic-tacdrin-drinn1505 Geographically you are correct, but unfortunately culturally it IS a Mediterranean country.
The real big difference is everything has a full ingredient list not just a summary as the US has. If you read the ingredients list on bread you will know why you are allergic to gluten. You’re not allergic to gluten just the other ingredients they don’t tell you about.
And most of us avoid anything with more than 3 ingredients...
Greetings from Germany. You're right, the food in Europe is a lot healthier, but you can also eat badly if you don't watch what you buy. In any case, you have the chance to eat healthily at a reasonable price. Especially in Southern Europe you have the very best quality fish, oils and natural foods. I always find it difficult to eat healthily when I travel to the USA. Best regards and keep up the good work
Many food additives are banned in Europe, but widely used in the USA
But then Germany isn’t known for its healthy food culture
Having lived in Germany for many years, this is nothing compared to France or Italy.
The supermarket food that you can get there - although 15-35% more expensive, but still much cheaper than in the US - is on another level with regard to taste, quality and freshness. I would prefer a French Careffour over any German supermarket in my town any day.
@@astrobeacon I agree.
@@dickschwanzstein1789 but a good schnitzel with baked patatoes isnt bad.. yummy
You forgot to mention one important factor: Time! Europeans take their time to eat. That means to sit down, if possible with friends or family, and do nothing else than appreciate the moment. Restaurant tables are normally yours for the whole evening, so there's no reason to rush things. This is incredibly healthy, too!
Absolutely, v the culture of social dining is endemic, and better for mental health!
Believe it or not, people in Europe have jobs and we have half an hour to eat. Nobody spends every evening at a restaurant "taking their time" to eat with friends and family.
As an Italian. That's a stereotype.
No one has time to do that, unless you're unemployed or very rich.
The average person has 15-30 minutes for lunch during the week.
The image you have in mind might be realistic for dinner (not always), when we have guests or the during weekend. The main difference is what and the amount of what we eat
@@martin-1764 yeah it's def a stereotype. the only people here that do it live in islands and are retired, or rich
English don't! We're terrible for rushing it down.
Hey Thomas, I literally lived half my life in Europe and the other half in North America. And that's 25 years in each place. Yup, food culture and quality are sooo different in those two places. Night and day. Currently I am living in the Netherlands and every time I leave the city and drive past farmers field I see cows grazing freely in the most amazing green grass and I think to myself " Now those are Happy cows". Food quality, portion size, and food regulations all beat the American standard. Tope that with walking integrated into your daily life... It's a much easier to stay healthy in Europe. Great show as always, thank you.
SO true...and I noticed when I visited the Netherlands the same...happy cows standing, not obese cows, pumped up with hormones and antibiotics. They looked thin to me, but actually, they were hormone free, probably...healthy.
Yeah, I was just at the Alps in Italy, so amazing and beautiful. Cows also were roaming freely everywhere, and no hormones ofc (that's illegal in all of Europe btw) and the milk was so fresh and natural. Italian cheese in the best in the world (NOT french, dutch, or swiss)!
Europeans are getting fatter too, though. A lot of chronic illnesses caused by diet are up by a lot
"Europe" is not a country,there are wild differences in what the north and South of Europe eat. Having said that, compared to the U.S., European countries have much more in common among themselves than with the States, the food portions, the restrictions on additives,the way people socialize with their meals,walk more etc.
Just back from Sicily - and I didn't want to go back to Uk - I can only imagine how you'd feel coming from USA: food there was organic and nutritious everywhere
all my friends who visited USA have told me that most of their foods have sweet taste, bread and even main dish is usually unnaturally sweet. We only use sugar in desserts
There was a court case in Ireland [to do with tax] where they found Subway bread had so much sugar in it it counted as cake.
@@andyleighton6969in Australia too!
wrong... read the ingredients on the packaging... why do you think people in Europe are getting fatter? The food industry wants to produce as cheaply as possible and at the same time the pharmaceutical industry should also benefit.
They're getting fatter because they're following the American example and consuming more processed foods.
@@OceanFrontVilla3 Aaand because he or she is right and there is sugar everywhere. Just read the ingredients of the items and the argument is settled.
I moved to Eastern Europe in my 40's and had two large cysts on both of my arms about the size of large walnuts. Two years living in Europe and they are gone. The lifestyle and food here is night and day different than Canada and USA. Awesome video Thomas and keep up the great work!
they mail order their women. you don't actually have to move there.
Which country in Eastern Europe?
The main difference between a McDonald's burger in USA and one in Europe is that the one in Europe will spoil if you leave it out for a couple of days, while the one from USA will still be edible in a month because of all the additives. Also in most places in Europe, traditional fast food options use mainly unprocessed ingredients.
Dinner is late in Southern Europe, because it's hot during the day. Especially during the summer period.
35 degress these days
@@Gman-nb9ge42° today center Spain
And this is also a reason why people eat smaller breakfasts and lunches.
When it is very hot you don't really feel like eating a substantial meal.
Being hot does not motivate you to cook on a hot stove as well.
And the further north you go, the sooner you'll see people have their dinner. Like Belgium, Netherlands, etc, people generally have their dinner at 6pm. Go to the south of Spain and people might start at 9pm.
@@Gman-nb9ge 35° is what we have right now in the middle of the Alps.
I am from North Spain and lived in Italy as well for reference. Just a couple of comments:
The valiety and abundance of quality fresh seafood is unmatched, in my opinion, and I miss it terribly.
We value food quality above all, not appearance, that is why Denomination of Origin is so important. The farmer is proud of his product, and it shows. It is identifiable. You know where those tomatoes came from. Traditional, unadulterated methods. Think about it.
When it comes to eating, the focus is to enjoy the company and the quality and flavor of the food. Since most people protein intake comes from their daily meals with the belief that a balanced meal of natural ingredients should provide what you need. You can't find much in the way of added protein.
I am British and eat a plant based diet. The UK is part of Europe and I have traveled extensively theought France, Spain, Germany, Romania and Italy.
I don't understand how you were not getting enough protein in your diet. Yes, Italy has a lot of processed and cured meats, but it has tons of seafood options, eggs, nuts and legumes. Even with a plant based diet I had no problem eating enough protein. On the subject of plant based food, even in the backwood rural areas of Italy there was tons of vegan food, much of which was just "peasant" food tgat just happened to be vegan. Cucina Povera - a style of seasonal cooking that uses inexpensiva and locally sourced food often has no meat dairy or eggs in its dishes.
Yes, you will find smaller portions, fewer additives and preservatives, better animal husbandry than in the USA, less industrialised food production, far more walking and walkability, and, of course dairy because cheese is something Italy (and much of Europe) does, but I'm sorry, I don't recognise about half of what you describe. What were you doing in Italy, walking around blindfold?
Spent 3 weeks in Italy last year. Gastronomy there is such a stark contrast to the American way. They have an integrated philosophy of living and eating(by default we do as well i suppose). Quite beautiful to witness and participate in. My chronic gastrointestinal issues evaporated after the first week. Enough to make me think long and hard about what’s important and what to do and how and why to do it. There’s a ton more to this. Appreciate the video. Americans need to understand this!
Chronic GI issues gone in 1 week? Wow.
Torna a trovarci :)
@@alessandromancuso7242 Grazie Mille. Essere lì in 6 settimane. Non vedo l'ora!
@@TrapperDavido Bene! Se passate da Genova dovete provare i pansoti al sugo di noci e la focaccia al formaggio di Recco ;)
@@alessandromancuso7242 Suona perfettamente delizioso. Grazie!
Here in the Netherlands there are many vegan foods in supermarkets and increasingly more on menus in restaurants. In the south of Europe it is less common than over here (speaking as a long time vegetarian), so you can't really speak for all of Europe on this if you've mainly visited Mediterranean countries.
AH Terra for the win! Intentionally designed to make it very easy to find in the store. My diet can be most closely described as pescetarian but I happily switch between goat cheese salad one week and soygurt the next, then regular yoghurt followed by unsweetened soy milk for savory oats.
in Italy there is a big difference in the times at which we eat, between north and south. lunch in the north is eaten between 12 and 1 pm and dinner 7 or 8 pm. in the south lunch is around 2 pm and dinner at 8 or 9 or even 10 pm. furthermore, throughout Italy, in summer people eat later than in winter. you can notice these differences both among families and in pizzerias, restaurants, etc.
generally the further south you go the later you eat, the further north you go the earlier you eat
As a southern Italian you completely made up this statement. I have always eaten lunch at 1 pm and dinner at 8 pm, and so my friends. 10 pm dinner would only be possible if you eat outside
Ma infatti diglielo
@@marcoac-sx6lq Beh allora sei un'eccezione.
I was in Colorado, went to a restaurant and ordered lunch. I kid you not that I thought the waitress had come to the wrong table as the portion was enough for a family. The portions in the USA are way too big. I ate half of it and was full until the next day.
It used to be like that here too, unless it was pizza. Pizza always came in small size if you ask for it (they call it baby). Is only few years that all restaurants give you smaller portions. Still above average, but at least you can order one portion for two people.
We don't eat it all, though. We usually take half of it home with us.
@@MM-pl6zi That would have been a problem as home for me was a 10 hour flight to Ireland!
@@MM-pl6zi but irs still a problem cause you will eat even if you are ful. Less on the plate and you are not stuffed and cant move after. Plus Europe we can sit for hours, taking a pause, talking, lauging, enjoying, then eat again. No stress
Europe is a very large place with different countries and cultures, thus different eating habits. In Scandinavia, it is common to eat dinner quite early.
Thank you for mentioning that. Europe is not a country.
Large parts of central Europe eat their last meal at five or six.
in Italy you can find differences in dinner time , in the north usually is earlier, in the south later. But if you go out for a dinner and not stay at home also in the north you go later in the evening
@@BracchiAlessandroFineArtin the North it's a bit earlier than in the South, but nobody eats before 19-19:30 (unless you go up in the mountains where they are full Germans in all but the passport)
That's the tourist filter in the south.... nothern Europeans looking for a restaurant that opens at 17.00 for dinner 😂 whereas the vast majority of restaurants opens at 20.00 😂. Love that to observe.
I was in Europe for almost 2 months a couple of summers ago (France - Paris & countryside, Stockholm, England - London & other cities, North Wales, Greece, & Copenhagen), and one of the big things I also noticed is that MOST of the people I saw walking around were at a good weight. I didn't see ANY seriously overweight or obese people the entire time I was there either! At the time, I was heavier than almost everyone there (I weighed 245 pounds at the time. I changed my eating Keto when I came back from my trip and have been eating carnivore for the last year and now weigh 218.) The food is overall WAY healthier there! The flour/wheat is VERY DIFFERENT there, because they don't use glyphosate and other chemicals/preservatives, and they ferment the flour for 2 to 3 days, but in the USA, we only ferment the flour for 2 to 3 HOURS!!! That's why we have bloating and all kinds of weird gastrointestinal issues, and THEY DON'T!!! I ate bread, croissants, baguettes, etc, there and DIDN'T FEEL BAD ONCE! I didn't binge on them either!!! I was satisfied with 1 or 2. It's SO different with food there and their attitude about food. You don't just eat and run or eat on the run! You take your time and enjoy your food, which all tasted amazing! And of course, I walked EVERYWHERE, something I don't do here nearly as much. I'm glad you made this video! Thank you!
Great comment. I didn't know they ferment the flour 2-3 days. Great that gly. is not allowed... no bad stuff is the way it should be.
Congrats on the weight loss! 👍
Yep, spent 3 weeks in Italy eating all the foods I would never eat here, such as pasta, gelato, cream-based sauces, and bread. We hiked, walked, and I traveled with a backpack. I came back one pound lighter.
Also no GMO
Unfortunately, it is changing. I have younger friends here in Europe who eat junk and "cook" junk and it's showing. They have all sorts of health problems including obesity.
Hope you enjoyed North Wales.
Teenagers talking rather than scrolling probably comes from the fact that children are encouraged to talk at the dinner table. Having lived in France for a number of years I was pleasantly surprised that you'd visit friends for dinner and their children would be able to join in with the conversation, ask questions and generally lear how to interact. When I look at the maturity of French teenagers versus UK ones the difference is striking. One other thing that I'll mention is how my diet completely changed having lived there. In reality it went back to the kind of diet I had as a kid, prior to fast food becoming a thing in the UK, albeit foods of superior quality, particularly the fresh, local meats. Overall I have never been healthier than I was living in France, but that's down to the culture of food, friends, family, weather, nature and the outdoor space.
Hi. I have to point out that espresse and espresso-made coffee drinks have less(!) caffeine than ordinary coffee. It has much more taste, but less caffeine. That's because the water goes trough the coffee grains much faster as steam than ordinary hot water which is used when making ordinary coffee. So in an espresso the steam leaves behind much of the coffee oils containing tannin and caffeine.
I grew up in Italy. There is a vast difference between the real food in Italy and Europe and the so called “food” in the USA. It’s good to see many Americans are awake to that fact.
It is great in Europe! Yeah, lots of walking everywhere, but why not? The food is mostly fresh and smaller portions. I lost 3 lbs in 2 weeks and was never, NEVER hungry. Time of meals depends on where in Europe you had visited. I have family in Scandinavia and cycling everywhere is always incorporated into the infrastructure. During summertime in the northern countries, it stays lighter much longer which allows later eating together and enjoying a lot of conversations. Glad you had an awesome time. Try Copenhagen next time. Awesome people and food!
🇪🇺 People I know who have visited EU talk about how there are less chemicals in the food, when they read ingredients. Certain chemicals are banned in the EU that are allowed in foods in the USA. My friends who have gone to France rave about the bread there! ❤
I agree. I m french and live next to Paris. We eat quite well (it sliwly changes but we have lots of food regulation to prevent becoming like US). When I go to us I am amazed how the portions are huge and the taste seems unnatural, each time I was a little disgusted and totally bloated
Actually thousands of chemicals you use there are totally illegal here
Bans of many U.S. sourced foods due to additives is the same for Japan. Found out when unsuccessfully attempted sending CARE packages to friends there but was promptly returned because of banned additives. Was able to hand carry in when I visited. The rest of the world is trying to hint to the U.S. that we should reconsider our current status.
When i visited usa i was amazed at how unnatural the food tasted and that most people consider this normal and acceptable. Also amazed at how fat and unheathy americans are. In general, the entire lifestyle (also beyond the food) seemed very unnatural, stressful, fake and synthetic. It is quite sad and worrying..
There are so many chemicals in food in Europe, if that's less then what the hell do you eat in the US? 😂
Keep in mind that Europe is composed of very different countries with very different cuisines and food traditions. Italy and French are not the same as Germany or Spain. In fact, just inside Italy, you will find various food choices, cusines and traditions that differ from each other in a matter of one city to the next one. I can tell you this cause I'm Italian, and a 30 minutes drive could bring me to a completely different food experience from where I'm actually at. This is also why, to us, the Mediterranian Diet means nothing. Say that to someone from Romagna or Puglia regions. Same country, totally different way of eating.
Yet within all EU the quality of food is regulated far stricter than in the USA. So even if we have huge differences in our cuisines in Europe, there's something we all have in common: EU makes sure we're not sold too much crap 😅
@@helgaioannidis9365 The European Union has strictly regulated food standards, not all of Europe. For example, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Moldova and Macedonia are all or partly located in Europe, and there the regulations on food standards and food production are drastically lower than in the countries of the European Union.
@@pawekubicki4022 She is writting "within all EU" and hence not talking about non-EU Europe.... Some of the countries you mention do want to be part of the EU though...
@@pawekubicki4022These regulations affect the food production of the UE members but not the food imported from other countries (morocco, south africa, etc). They use phytosanitary products, fertilizers, preservatives, etc. that are prohibited in the EU.
@@pawekubicki4022 North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are European countries, their mass is all located in Europe, they are not just partly located in Europe. Only Russia and Kazakhstan are partly in Europe.
I am from Germany but I lived in the USA around 25 years ago... Back then I had my "there is something seriously wrong with the food around here" moment when the opened milk did not spoil after a week or so. I bought a gallon and we just used it for coffee, so it was in the fridge for maybe two months and it just would not go bad.
I’m in the Netherlands and found this interesting. Im accustomed to travelling throughout Europe and there is definitely not one European kitchen but many due to that we are all so different, but it’s easy to get all the foods from other European countries in my town. I also visit the USA regularly because my 2 siblings moved to the USA more than 30 years ago and built up their lives there.
I have noticed that even though I try my hardest I always gain weight there. I don’t when I vacate in southern Europe. In the us I find it difficult to follow my regular eating patterns and hardly get to walk around.
I recent returned to the US after 11 years living in Dublin and traveling for business a bit on the mainland. It was easy to stay healthy in my late 40s and 50s. Now, it is all I can do to desperately/barely stay healthy.
If you lived in Ireland for eleven years and travelled extensively around mainland Europe during that time then you were obviously exposed to many different influences and diverse foods which were immeasurably less unhealthy than US foods.
@@koschmx : In which country are those unhealthy foods?
@@koschmx Correct. Same rules in effect: buy food you can clearly identify! Fewest number of ingredients, good ones. It's really simple, seek healthy food, it's just more of a challenge back here in the US, and more expensive since I was last here.
@@koschmx tbf its obvious that its unhealthy. Ireland has unhealthy stuff here too, like Guinness, spice bags, pretty much anything from the chipper. The difference in the US though is that because of what they put into their food, their food in general is just far more unhealthy than what we eat in Europe. You have so much more control of your diet in Europe.
I'm returning to the US after a month in Italy with my family in a couple days and agree with just about everything you've said. I think the key point - and you said it - is the US engineers stuff out of our lives and then offers it back as a product or service. In Italy / Europe, things are simpler and slower for the most part. We noticed we had to put salt on everything as most authentic food in Italy has far less salt than the same food in America. We thought of the maple syrup analogy - we're so used to the sugary maple syrup that real Vermont maple syrup tastes a bit odd or bitter at first. I could give dozens of examples of great/simple Italian food, but one was simple bruschetta which was made only with high quality fresh bread, tomatoes, basil and real olive oil. Better than any we've had in the US by far. They focus on simple food with a few high quality ingredients. PIzza usually has 1-3 toppings at most.
About the suing.... good luck with that in EU. You won't get far with that here... which, in my opinion, is a good thing.
😂😂 well said! You go to the gym and your brain needs to tell your eyes where to look and the rest of the body how to move! It's your responsibility! How fascinating! And we're not talking about if the roof falls on your head here. You make the wrong step and hurt yourself? It's your fault. Get over it! 😂
I was in Europe some years ago. I will never forget what the milk and Gelato taste like, it was unbelievable wonderful❤
Italy is NOT Europe. It's only one of many and very versatile Europen countries!!!
02:06 - sorry but it's incredibly easy to find meat, you just need to not go to the supermarket and go to the butcher instead :) In France, you'll find one within walking distance in most places you can visit.
Imagine thinking a whole continent doesn't have a chicken breast or a steak.
@@jimmyryan5880 it's not always obvious where to go though because in most countries supermarkets *also* sell meat it's just not displayed the same. But yeah...
Really interesting video picking up on the big differences that exist between US and European food. Here in Italy there is a big 'slow food' movement where the emphasis is on seasonal, local ingredients. Makes it easier to incorporate fresh, natural foods into the diet.
I'll agree and disagree with you by saying there's no slow food movement in Italy, they just continue to eat how they've always eaten (slowly with high quality ingredients) and the US and other countries have moved to faster eating, poor quality ingredients, etc. You make a really good point though on how they eat slowly.
@@dave5185man slow food doesn’t mean you eat it slow. It means it’s been cooked and served slowly. Not having shortcuts like the fast food does that everything is packaged and already made and you just need to heat them up m.
There is no “European “ food. There are more than 50 totally different countries each with their own culture, language, cuisine etc etc.
we do the same in Sweden. Many resturants only use food from lokal fealds and farmers
Food is better quality. Fresher. Less ingredients. Natural. Delicious. And amazing.
It really isn't, the difference is that the bad choices are taken away from you in Europe. Where as in the US for the poor, we have cheap subsidized unhealthy food. But the healthy options are still easily available in the US, they are just more expensive
yes it is mostly true, but you have to be picky even here in France ! around me there are imported bad tomatoes or very good ones, but I have to take care ! about smoked salmon, or salmon in general, this is becoming disgusting everywhere in Europe, because of the "sea farming" of the salmons in Norway (or other northern countries). The salmons are called Frankenfish, because they are fed with disgusting animal flours, they live in very small and polluted spaces, and it is recommended for pregnant women to eat this salmon as less as possible ! (sorry for my English, but I am French)
Your comment on yogurt was spot on. I've been living in Europe for almost 30 years and I remember the last time I went to the US feeling so frustrated that there was only (and sometimes not) only 1 kind of white yogurt--Greek. That was it.
And always low fat. If someone wants a real, thick yoghurt with high fat content, you won't find it.
Much less allergies here (in Europe) as well. And we don't use antibiotics for every little cold we might get.
I see diffrences between countrys in Europe, so I think you should change the title from Europe to Italy.
Let's say in Poland, where I live, we don't have shellfish. But we have for example a lot of pickles, like sauerkraut, that we eat a lot in mamy variations. So cousine will depends from latitude, seasons.
And about how food taste. Come to Poland in June, so you will know what really strawberry looks like and taste.
Polish strawberries are the best!!!
Sorry, don't speak about strawberry in Italy, we have better clima and better terrain!
A lot of countries in Europe are not allowed to fortify their wheat, ie spray it with folic acid, which around 45% of people don’t have the enzyme to break down anyway and which can cause gut irritation. That may have been why didn’t have trouble with the bread.
Gylphosphate not folic acid
Yes they spray all wheat with folic acid to supplement our diet in the United States.
Mediterranean people don't drink a lot of alcohol. Maybe a glass of wine with a meal.
Northern Europeans drink to get drunk.
Very true.
Not so sure. Ex yugoslav countries + Greece drink a lot and most of them are mediterranean.
The total amount of alcohol consumed isn't all that different. The difference is more that people in Southern often have a glass of wine every day, Northern Europeans (particularly Scandinavians) will drink all that alcohol in one go on Saturday night.
no, honey, we drink to get warm
@@SapereAude1490ex jugosllavia is not mediteranian no se.
I always come back from Europe looking slimmer and feeling great
how bout you stay there then.
Yes. You should stay here in the Europe. 🥳
As European i must say, you nailed it.
We like yogurt because it lovers your blood sugar if you eat it with cheese Burek and it tastes good. You should also go to Greece or Turkey. Thay have realy good food....Healthy and teasty...
We like eating lokal food from our farmers, not some big corporate "food" producers...
But corporate is very agresive here too....
I just checked: Burger patty at McDonalds Germany (and I would be surprised if it would be hugely different in France or Italy) is made of: 100% pure ground beef, salt, pepper. They would need to declare preservatives and other stuff if they put anything else in there.
Here in italy the McDonald's tv (also) promos says burger patty whit 100% italian meat
Same in the U.K. & Ireland. 100% locally sourced beef, plus a pinch of salt & pepper.
Same in Spain. 100% local meat
I’m visiting family in Italy, leaving tomorrow, and this video has me so excited to enjoy my family and the delicious and nutritious meals we will share ❤
Thomas, when my gf and I went to Europe (Barcelona and Southern France), I ate like a pig and lost 5lbs, why? Not only because of everything you are speaking of but also because the cities are designed for walking. I was easily walking over 20,000 steps!
Yah, Lisbon its the paradise for walking :)
People don't realize how much simply walking burns calories. Many Americans go from couch to car to office to car to couch to bed. Not enough walking. Swedes walk just to get exercise. It's very common here. Simply going out for a evening walk. Not a stroll, but a fast-paced walk.
In Europe we don’t sue for stupid 💩
If you did, you'd be filthy rich
yeah, you just migrate to america
Sadly is changing…
I imagine it's alot more tempting to sue knowing that the medical bill will cost you an arm in the US.
@@solypunto4928and someone who lives life never taking responsibility for their own actions. Because it's always someone else's fault!
Nice video. A bit more differentiation with the countries visited Europe would have been nice. People in Germany or Denmark go to bed earlier than the ones in Italy or Spain, usually.
Arthur Miller briefly visited post war Italy in the 1940s. So he would have been in his thirties. He bought a simple cheese sandwich. It was the most delicious food he had ever tasted!
I loved this video! Thank you for sharing, Thomas! I also spent a month in Europe and discovered so much about what’s wrong with our food and portions!
We received a canned ham from from USA. It was sweet after we opened it, so we thought it was spoiled. But we found there was like 14g of sugar per 100g lol. We were surprised and didn't understand...
I am so glad that you mentioned the gluten in Europe, because when I go there, I don't get nearly as sick as when I have the gluten here and people told me I was insane and made it up. Every morning I get up and I walk to Aldi's (fresh bread made daily)for fresh bread and I have meat and cheese for breakfast, and my stomach never hurt me!!!
and aldi is not even the benchmark. there are very good bakeries around. the secret is resting time of the dough. if you let the dough rest for many hours the yeast is eating a lot of the stuff in the dough that gives you allergic reaction or other poisonous reactions like from gluten. the industry does not take the time for resting the dough. but to have similar physical properties like the gas inside letting the dough rise in the oven, they have to add other bullshit chemicals to emulate that natural process.
all that is very unhealthy.
There are sometimes high levels of Roundup/Glyphosate chemicals in gluten and gluten free products. These chemicals cause tears in the lining of our intestines. It’s why so many people have problems digesting food in the USA. In France Glyphosate has been banned. My husband and I do not get sick eating bread made in France or beer made in France. Also, when eating food in Spain, Italy and Poland we do not get sick. Many people we know feel the same.
It's not just the glyphosate, it's the different type of wheat - hard red wheat high in gluten mainly grown the the US vs soft white wheat low in protein and therefore also in gluten in Europe.
@@YashoShashoGlyphosate is actually still in use in agriculture in France... But it is used very differently than in the USA (only before the wheat sprouts, to get rid of competition from weeds, whereas I think in the US they use it as a pre-harvest dessicant). So yes, there's no way to get glyphosate residue on the grain here - which is also why French farmers want to keep using it.
@@Cecily-Pimprenelle Good to know. Thank you.
We really needed this perspective, good work. People are not seeing how far we’ve fell off from healthy (natural) full life
Europe is much more than just Italy
Every country in Europe is very different
Not in terms of food quality. We have different food popular, we do a lot of things differently but most of our regulations in terms of food are EU level regulations.
I lived for some time in 5 EU countries (Lithuania, Czechia, Latvia, Cyprus and Poland) + was on vacations in some like Italy. Groceries shopping was different in almost all of them (except Lithuania and Latvia, they are kinda similar).
But food quality and products producted in different EU countries was a universal experience for all of them
@@stannumowl All you've said is minimum safety standards in food production are in effect amongst the EU countries. You havent added anything to the post you replied to.
_"Europe is much more than just Italy_
_Every country in Europe is very different"_
You state you have experience living in the EU; please stop confusing the EU with Europe.
@@kanedaku EU is more than half of European countries. + former Yugoslavia + some other countries have food standards harmonised with the EU.
And yes... I basically said "we have safety standards. Cry about it"
@@stannumowl The EU Vs Europe wasnt the point of my comment, so of course you would take aim at that, to avoid the point actually made.
Your comment was pointless, it neither agreed or disagreed with the post and added nothing to it.
And, I will say proudly that the origins of the EU safety standards came from the UK.
You go cry now, your beloved EU just copypasted from my superior country. And thats why you all were so butthurt when we left the club
😢😆
@@kanedaku I guess you should reading before writing in that case. I don't see how "yep, until it's not" + some examples are neither agreement nor something in addition.
EU was affected by one of our biggest members? Who could've ever think about that? What a shock!
And honestly... You left - good, have fun. You're still members of NATO and none of us need visa to visit each other. Just make sure that we wouldn't need to touch the Brexit bureaucracy once again
With regards to being a gym guest: we don't have the litigation culture that the US has. If you stub your toe, you will probably get a small band-aid. 😂 If you're bleeding profusely, they might offer to call an ambulance. You cannot get rich from having an accident on someone else's premises. We expect you to watch what you're doing.
@@koschmx I'd like to know what country you're referring to.
@@koschmx In no European country that I am aware of (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Denmark) can you sue someone for damages to the degree that you can in the US. Not even close. So if a British McDonald's had served a customer hot coffee and the customer had spilt it and hurt herself, she would not get 1/10th of what she got in the US. Hence my "You cannot get rich" statement. So unless you can show otherwise, I will stand by that statement. I'd be VERY surprised if any European country had laws accommodating US-type litigation.
@@koschmx Yeah, a ridiculous case and she got rich. That would not have happened anywhere in Europe.
@@koschmx I said "get rich." Yes of course damages are awarded. But receiving generational wealth over something stupid you basically did yourself does not happen in Europe.
@@koschmx Yeah that's totally not the reason. It's not just about hot coffee, which by the way gets served just as hot. It's about who's responsible for shit happening. If there's a wet floor, owner can be expected to put up a sign, and customers can be expected to watch themselves a little bit, whereas in the US, people apparently must be treated as toddlers with zero agency or responsibility.
Spent time last summer in Provence and Tuscany, was amazing. Totally agree with your point about our engineering of health, rather than making it more natural, effortless. There is a feeling that food culture is more important than commerce. The culture demands high quality food over price and convenience.
To answer one of your questions, in the UK the McD beef patty is 100%.
What quality beef is a bit harder to know.
We also ban transfats.
I should add that in the UK 97% of ALL beef is grass fed. It's the norm. Even winter feed is mostly grass silage.
That's definitely not true
@@po-lightsabich8855 I am from UK (Scotland) yes they are grass fed as they eat grass but grains are added to fatten they up sadly unless they are certified grass fed and grass finished
I go to a meat market for fresh, grass fed beef.
The difference between that and grocery-store meats... is obvious.
@OpenlyBritish bro no one said ALL uk beef is grass fed 😂 the main comment says 97% so you just stated whats already there ... because 97% is not 100% so yea not all beef is grass fed in uk ...
@OpenlyBritish They may get fattened up with grains in the UK but for most of the time they graze in fields or get fed hay or silage in winter (because it is cheap if the farmer has harvested/stored it) but I have no doubt things are getting worse. Not sure about it being as high as 97% though.
Your experience totally mirrors lots of my eye-opening experiences I had as an American who lived in Italy for 6 years. I always noticed the attention people spent on QUALITY of food, regardless of what food it was. Dietary pattern seemed to always come secondary to food quality. Inspiring stuff!
I live in Italy ❤ When I go grocery shopping I spend most of the time trying to choose a new yogurt and which shellfish/seafood I crave more 😂😂😂😂 Aww so happy you enjoyed and noticed so many things
When I went to UK and Paris in 2019 I agree to everything you said including phone usage. When I went to Starbucks and order coffee to be there, I got it on actual ceramic cup of coffee and my surroundings felt so refreshing people having conversations without their phones. I miss it..
Ir a Europa para consumir en starbuck, típico estadounidense 😢😢
We use olive oil. For instance today I made an ensalada malagueña which is boiled potatoes,olives,oranges,spring onions, cod (cooked for 4 minutos in the microwave) a little olive oil, vinegar and salt to taste. All cut up
It probable sounds horrible ,but it's so so tasty
I love that salad! Genius mix of salty and sweet and tangy.
😋😋😋 qué rico!
In Italy, they were great about having gluten-free options. The gluten-free bread, pizza, and noodles tasted wonderful. Loved it. And you forgot to mention smoking-it's everywhere.
I never went to a gym, I like to get my exercise walking outside, riding a bicycle and leaving the car as much as possible in the garage.
#5 yes, please stop eating dinner at 4pm in italy
if they serve you anything resembling a whole meal you’re either at mcdonald’s or eating in a tourist trap restaurant
Italy and Greece are true paradises.
If you have no money problems...
Greek food is tasty, but 1/10th as varied and sophisticated as Italy's. And "grilled" fish on the menu means fish fried to death in a sea of oil. Greek wines used to be undrinkable only twenty years ago. Now drinkable, but rarely more.
You described latin/ mediterranean Europe. Scandinavia, Germanic, Slavic and Anglosaxon Europe is way differnent. Closer to the US...
European countries are much more eclectic than US states. You have to accept that fact.
Slevic cuisine is by mo means closer to USA. In some respect it's even further away from it, since we len more to traditional, natural food rather than a mixture of chemicals.
italian dishes are far more popular in the US than any of Slavic Europe food :))))))) so idk who is really closer
I am lactose intolerant in the us but could eat dairy in Europe.also love the cakes that are less sugar and more butter with fruit or nuts.
Italy is wonderful for food (and great to take kids too in our experience).
As far as I know Dairy protein is mainly used in northern Europe countries. Mediterranean side use olive oil for nearly everything
Thomas, you're not imagining anything. Although I haven't been to Europe for 15+ years, the food, preparation, and feeling of nourishment are definitely superior. Food tastes SO much better. I will say that when I was in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, the portions were huge but very nutritious. And Italy... OMG! Thanks for another great video!
Also, (as mentioned earlier in the video), the yogurt is real. In the US, I only ever have a need for the plain, whole fat yogurt. The one that lists two ingredients: Whole milk, cultures. I almost always have to look hard for it. It's either on a low shelf in a corner at the grocery store, or on an upper shelf. There are half a dozen tubs, when lucky. Only one brand, sold as big tubs. Which is fine, it allows me to portion my own, and natural yogurt keeps longer than people think. The rest of the yogurt aisle is the ultra sweet, shiny, strange after taste stuff that kills you slowly over time. Funny story. I met an old friend recently at a conference in Milwaukee. He's from Germany. He was surprised to learn that what he had thought was mayonnaise at the breakfast buffet (and therefore not touched because that was a strange thing to eat with Muesli) was actually yogurt.
In Greece, any yoghurt that has more than milk and culture in it is called "yoghurt dessert"
A very common snack for kids in Italy is a carrot or, an apple or other fruit
When I lived in Italy, there was always Vino (homemade wine) available at the dinner table.
One main thing to notice is Thomas’ emphasis on ‘protein’ ‘whey protein’ ‘supplements’ ‘gym’ etc…in Europe, we just enjoy the food, the surroundings and taking the time to eat it too.
There is obviously so much engineering of foods in the US that has filtered down in to the way they actually eat!
We live to eat in Europe, not the other way around…
Different world over there when it comes to the culture of eating as a whole!!
i consider myself lucky in this regard. but when i am in italy i am always surprised about the higher food quality compared to austria. in austria you buy expensive bullshit olive oil in fancy bottles wrapped in gold foil. in italy you go with the supermarket's own kind of cheap noname olive oil brand and it is a wonderful experience.
a few years ago i was in tuscany with friends renting an house hundreds of years old and sometimes i made myself some food. so we went to the supermarket 4km away for shopping. i was amazed about the quality and the low price for the ingredients to make a Caprese with real mozarella di buffala and good pesto genovese and tasty tomatos and we had some extra fresh basilicum in the garden. it was awesome.
I think they have got it right.
My wife and I had a similar takeaway visiting Ireland and the UK. The food seemed cleaner and more nutritious. My wife eats gluten-free and did better overall and we are convinced that the ban on glyphosate (Round Up) is a major difference. Locally sourced dairy, meats and cheeses, in particular in Ireland, was noticeable.
I live in Ireland and I'm not aware of any restrictions on glyphosate here. I don't know about the UK. Perhaps farmers can't use it in a blanket way to kill vegetation prior to tilling and planting a field? I know it is used around buildings and with a sort of roller to control rushes on meadow and pasture land. I bought some this year and couldn't buy the larger, cheaper containers without a farm registration number.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay in Switzerland! It truly is a beautiful country with so much to offer. Hope you have more amazing travels in the future!
Reguarding salt, if you went to tuscany they have the tradition of not salting breads and pizzas, I'm from a close region and I had to get used to it too when I went there for vacation.
I think it originates from an embargo on salt that happened a few centuries ago.
We enjoy food. We sit down and talk, so we probably don't eat large portions. Furthermore there are far fewer additives in our food. Therefore we don't need so much salt to hide the taste of additives. I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Europe.
Just some remarks on the meals per day: Generally in countries like Italy, Spain or France, breakfast is light but sweet. Lunch is the most important meal of the day. It also easily takes an hour. After lunch, you have a restperiod (commenly known as siesta). Dinner is later (after eight in the evening) but also not as big as lunch, so a lighter meal. And yes, people tend to go to bed later (your nine o' clock is absurdly early), but they do get up early too. They just take a long break when the day is at its hottest.
So life in these countries tends to be a bit slower, at bit more at ease, but also enjoyed more. We work to live, we do not live to work. And btw, in more northern countries of Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavian countries) the ideas on meals are often very different.
As a german who has lived in Canada and has frequently visited the US, I also noticed the american obsession with "adding" things to your diet in order for it to become "healthy". For example, in America there will be isles upon isles of vitamins and supplements and I always wondered why I would need that, because I get all that stuff from my regular "european" diet. And vitamin D I get from the sun and dairy products. I get that as a bodybuilder you may need some extra whey protein or whatever, but if I'm not, I don't really need that stuff. Similarly with medicine, like you pointed out. I think in Europe there is a higher emphasis on trying to treat little things like a normal cold with home remedies and just resting, whereas in America you have a billion options of extremely strong over-the-counter medicines in the drug stores. For most of that stuff you would need a doctor's prescription in Europe.
Also the differences within Europe are very big like others have pointed out. For example, in Germany I don't eat a lot of fish and shellfish, because I live far from the ocean and I don't get great fresh fish or shellfish. When I visit the coastal regions of Italy and France I really indulge in that stuff and I feel great. Also the fruits and vegetables in southern italian street markets are just amazing.
Lastly, like you said, there isn't a great emphasis on alcohol in mediterranean countries, at least not in Italy. Wine is a special product that is supposed to be savoured and not to be consumed with the intention of getting drunk. Germany and England on the other hand are a whole different story. Getting drunk is almost part of the lifestyle, mostly with beer though.
Interesting video, especially when viewed as a European. You sure hit the right spot on the fact that many chemicals used in food in the US are illegal in the EU. On the same level where don't need to be very anti-diary, anti-gluten or pro-vegan, because the "original" foods containing gluten/diary or meat aren't as over engineered as in the USA (yet...!), so our guts are perfectly capable of digesting things that are used as food here for ages.
Just a few things where you miss the big picture a bit in this video (not meant as a nasty comment, but purely educational):
There is no such thing as "one Europe", sure, we work together on many fields, use the same currency (Most of us, for example the scandinavians use their own currency) , most of the time have no active border-control among other EU members (unless there is a soccer championship in Germany, and actually the non-border agreement is only for the Schengen-countries, but lets not get into details). And off-course within the EU (which aren't all European countries) we apply the same laws and regulations (sometimes a bit too many, agreed). But we still remain independent countries with own (food) traditions. On that subject:
- About the absence of seed oils; especially in the southern countries (Italy, Spain, France (southern part), Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, etc) olive oil is the main thing to cook with. They even eat it purely on bread with some seasalt, yum. The more northern countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, etc) are more butter minded and when it comes to using oil for cooking, they mainly use sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, pumpkinseed oil and other seed-oils. (And olive-oilsince the last 30 years or something)
- Same thing with dinner time, the southerns will eat late, like after 8 pm and sometimes after 10pm (Spain i believe), just because its tradition and the climate is warmer, more and longer light all year round. In the middle and northern parts, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany it's around 6pm all year round, and i'm actually uncertain how it is in the real north. (Early in winter, late in summer i suppose)
- Cured, salted meats, like hams, serano, iberico, salami, etc are also more populair in the South, but the main reason you can hardly find any precooked chicken, or meat is because most Europeans cook their own diner or go out to a restaurant/take-away. Not many people live from precooked foods from the supermarket.
- Loads of caffeine, since you where in Italy, thats Wahalla for coffee-lovers, pure delicious coffee, (Cappuccino-like the morning, dark and pure rest of the day) But other countries have other caffeine traditions, like the traditional blunt vending-machine coffee at the office with sugar (and milk) in The Netherlands, fortunately we are finally changing to real (italian like) coffee here. Oh, and the British are off course very tea-minded (very strong with loads of milk).
- Breakfast, differs per country. Italy coffee with and some sweet bread (they love and have invented Nutella), France bread with jam (or Nutella) and coffee or orange juice; Britain toast, beans and eggs; Netherlands bread with cheese or chocolate sprinkles and a glass of milk.
- Seafood and fish, you're are right that those sure are popular in the sea-side or lake-side territories like Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Scandinavia but in the more in-land countries like Germany, Austria or the east of France, those are such a big thing. There people are more game, pork and poultry minded.
All those different, great and pure/honest (food) traditions at just a few hours apart makes living in Europe the best (and makes it no problem something are a bit over-regulated :) )
👏👏👏 Very accurate and true!
France banned glyphosate/Roundup. So good quality bread and beer. We never get sick eating french bread. Also, we never got sick eating food in Spain and Poland.
Great video!
I can confirm most people here (Italy) consider wine just food. Like tiramisù, we are well aware that indulging in it isn't healthy at all. So we don't do that, or if we do, it's in moderation. Are we alcoholism free? Not at all. But it's relatively rare compared to the general consumption.
I was in France and turkey and Italy last year for 3.5 weeks.
My psoriasis arthritis only flared up twice! And I ate everything under the sun. Every pastry, pastas, meats, rice, bread, tomatoes, sooo many sweets.
Back home in CA, I have to eat a pretty restricted diet. There... idk what kind if preservatives and pesticides are banned there that are legal here, but it was amazing.
One flare up for sure was from Turkish delight. The other one was in France, and I still wonder what food did it.
For the rest of my psoriasis symptoms, the itchy scaly spots were actually going away too.
I need to move somewhere with EU-like agriculture and food standards
I’d say 80-85% of items in American supermarkets you can’t eat long term. It’s ironic that alcohol is pushed as European but it’s not really that big of a deal, people can drink or not.
EU has a lot of additives banned.
Loved this one Thomas. I've been to Europe a few times, and with the walking, and eating better - I always come home thinner.
Hey. You guys in the states now eat “edible industrial waste”. Industrial deconstruct everything to a cellular level then recombine it with flavourings, emulsifiers, vitamins to once again call it food. We don’t have GM foods at all in Europe.