Why are Europeans not fat and eat lots of carbs?

(Jane) #1

Is it because they walk (or ride bikes) everywhere and never become insulin-resistant?

(TJ Borden) #2

Which Europeans specifically are you referring to?

Many Europeans are on the same path as Americans, just delayed by about the same amount of time they were behind America in adopting the SAD.

The exception being Sweden, which has slowly been abandoning the SAD and returning to a lower carb higher fat diet.

Anecdotally, there’s too many people from the U.K. on this forum to suggest they aren’t having similar issues.

(Allie) #3

I’m curious as to where you got this idea of Europeans? :blush:

(bulkbiker) #4

You have a strange idea of europeans…

http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/obesity/data-and-statistics

(Jane) #5

I guess I should have been more specific. I was referring to my colleagues in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. I have traveled to those countries and obesity was the exception, not the rule like it has become here.

Germany… not so much. Haven’t been to the UK or Italy so can’t comment.

In rural China it was rare also and they eat a LOT of rice and veggies and much smaller amounts of protein than we do.

My question is… why can they maintain their weight eating carbs at every meal? Do they get enough exercise they never become insulin resistant in the first place?

Look at kids these days and pictures of school kids from the 60’s. What changed so drastically?

(Renee Slaughter) #6

For the answer to that question. You have to research the history of the dietary guidelines
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IlhL-WQ_X2Y. Here’s a start

(Renee Slaughter) #7

And here’s another

#8

It’s not exercise. Calorimic (energy expenditure) experiments have been conducted on modern tribal communities and they are not significantly different than couch potato communities. As a generalization, we burn roughly the same number calories.

What accounts for the fact that some societies eat a lot of carbs and don’t have an obesity epidemic? Gary Taubes and others postulate the culprit is sugar specifically and processed foods generally. Consumption of both have increased substantially in the US over the past 50 years, and are also relatively absent in societies that have higher carb diets (from rice, beans, tubers).

(Allie) #9

There’s carbs and there’s carbs. Rice and veggies are one thing, highly processed sugar laden toxic carbs are something else. I’m not up with the science but this could be something to do with it.

(Jane) #10

The Dutch eat refined white flour bread at every meal and as a society they are mostly thin. Never seen many beans in their diet. Nothing is ever fried. Very active. Bicycle and walk everywhere. They are very against HFCS.

Not arguing against a ketogenic diet - it has worked wonders for me! I travel a lot and just musing on my observations of other dietary customs and outcomes.

(Alan Williamson) #11

American processed food literally has sugar in everything. Other countries, not so much. I was in China a little while ago, most of the people there are thin even though they are eating lots of rice and noodles. They don’t eat hardly any sugar. Oreo cookies had to change their recipe to use 1/3 the sugar as they use in the USA. Chinese people would not eat them. They were to sweet. The key is insulin.

(Paula Green) #12

I’ve been thinking the same thing. I’m currently on a mini break in Austria staying with friends. They are both athletic and lean. For breakfast they eat muesli and fruit and bread, lunch is more bread and meats and cheese and dinner has been potatoes, rice, beans and protein. Every afternoon they sit down for coffee and cakes. We have been very active while we’ve been here, but I’m sure if I ate like them at home I would pile on the pounds.

(Jane) #13

Yeah, when I was in the Shandong Provence last year I didn’t have anything sweet the whole time I was there. All of their sauces were savory, which I preferred even before keto.

#14

They may well be “entertaining” you, my great grandfather use to weigh potato per meal, to the extent a 500g potato would have been X (I forget now) number of meals.
I’m European and have struggled all my life. I don’t think traditional carbs such as bread are the key issue for me, but processed food in general. With sugar, flours and seed oils, the bigger culprit. The problem now is that, I think, I’m “inflamed” and need to avoid it all, possibly for the rest of my life. Bacon, Stilton, Cornish Cruncher, clotted cream, go someway to healing the loss of the Cornish pasty, salt & vinegar crisps, dairy milk and all the other sugary treats.

(Dustin Cade) #15

I think it’s a mix of lifestyle, the types of carbs. Here in the US we wake up have sugary cereal, big glasses of OJ, fruit, granola bars, for lunch fast food with large sugary soda and dinner is probably the same with candy bars and sodas as snacks through out the day… I think that’s the major difference is not the amount of carbs but the total amount of sugar in the average daily Americans diet…

Once we become metabolically deranged we’ve gotta cut out all carbs…

#16

Here are a couple of articles to support comments made in my previous post.

https://peterattiamd.com/how-do-some-cultures-stay-lean-while-still-consuming-high-amounts-of-carbohydrates/

(Jane) #17

My humble opinion… we still have a lot to learn about how our bodies process food, stores fat, etc.

I weighed 115 in college and 118 when I got pregnant with my first son at age 25. Never had a weight problem - active, ate everything in sight… Hit 190 in the hospital when I showed up in labor… I was shocked, but figured once I had the kid it would “melt back off”.

BOY WAS I WRONG! It was like a switch had been flipped and suddenly no matter how little I ate I was still fat.

Hormonal changes, I guess. My husband could eat twice as much of the same foods, exercise half as much and I outweighed him by 50 pounds. Not fair!

eta: the 50 lbs was much later when I was in the 200’s… ugh

(Olivia) #18

I think one big difference between Europeans and US Americans is the amount of economic and work related stress. We have circa 30 days of paid holidays, a lot of employment protection rights, often an unemployment insurance and a well-fare system. I’m sure there is an indirect link between lifestyle-stress and bad nutrition decisions.

#19

Agreed. I have 30 days annual leave, plus public holidays.
I know that if I get ill, that help is available. That there is a safety net to catch me if I lose my job.
There is still the stress of workplace politics etc, family, friends, societal contracts. :+1:

(Sophie) #20

I think the food is superior due to more regulations. Every time we go to Germany/Austria I usually go off plan, have a knodle or two, definitely a pretzel or three, spaetzle, and all the wonderful brot! I seem to eat like a horse and never gain (during a 2 week stay). It’s amazing and if I do gain it’s not more than 1-2lbs. We do walk more than we do here in the states but I don’t know how much that really plays a part. I think there is a better mind set about food there, for example, we stay at an out of the way little hotel close to our German office and they have chickens. Every morning at breakfast there are fresh eggs from said hens. It’s just not a big deal, except for the rooster that can’t tell time, but that’s another story! :laughing: