Hi, All!
Ya know, in Finland they love their potatoes... and their butter, which is so heavenly that hubby and I actually packed a couple of pounds of it into our luggage to take home. You never tasted anything so GOOD, so rich and flavorful... it tasted like butter PLUS butter. Mmm-mm-MM!
Oh, and the pastries! More butter, plus flaky goodness, and sugar, and chocolate...
Lattes with fabulous rich Finnish milk, with Finnish whipped cream on top...
Potatoes with MORE butter! ... and sour cream, and oh my God amazing food with calories galore!
We were only there for 2 weeks, but we ate like pigs, like the Finns do... well, with excellent manners I mean, just ate plenty of rich, delicious food loaded with tons of butter and sugar and cream...
When we came home, my complexion was fabulous, the best it has ever been since I was a little kid. My skin was completely clear, and it GLOWED. I had roses in my cheeks, and I looked about twenty years younger.
And, oh yeah -- I had lost five pounds.
....
So, has it occurred to anyone here -- anyone at all? -- that American obesity might well be due to the hormones and chemicals the FDA has approved for fattening our cattle (adding 30% to their slaughter weight in the last three months of their lives) and preserving our food? Did you know that those hormones aren't destroyed by cooking -- they go into our bodies in the same form in which they fattened the cattle?
I gained 50 pounds the year after the FDA approved rBGH hormones for increased milk production in dairy cattle. I didn't learn about them until eight years later... but I remembered (you don't forget a disaster like that) that I'd gained 50 pounds that year.
How much weight did you gain in 1994?
Contrary to American mythology, Europeans DON'T eat leaner food or less of it.
For instance, walk into any British grocery store, and you'll find an entire aisle devoted to chocolate and other high-fat, low-nutrition sweets. (Ebon, am I right?) And fer Gawd's sake, their iconic national dish is fish-n-chips! Which is way more greasy prepared London style than the American versions. And let us not forget, Burger King is a Brit chain -- yes, it's British, not American.
So why aren't the Brits as fat as we are? Why aren't the Europeans as fat as we are? If it isn't virtue, leaner diets, or less food, then what IS the difference?
Why ARE Europeans so darned skinny?
I've been to many parts of Europe, and I can assure you, those people like food as much or even more than we do. Italy has its pasta and multi-course meals; Finns have their butter and potatoes; the Brits have their deep-fried fish-n-chips and aisles of chocolate; the French have their rich sauces and aisles of cheeses, wines, and ready-to-eat dairy-case mousses and creme-brulees...
The one thing they don't have in Europe is hormone-enhanced food. They don't allow hormones in their meat or dairy. None, nada, zilch.
And that, as far as I have been able to discern, is the only difference between the European diet and ours.
Love,
-- Claudia
