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OP works long hours and eats out in restaurants three meals a day. The conclusion I draw is that he has plenty of disposable income. If he wants to eat healthy and doesn't want to cook, I suggest that it would be cheaper to hire a cook/housekeeper for three afternoons a week than it is to eat out every meal.
Have your cook/ housekeeper do the grocery shopping and cook all the meals. Every other day, there would be a fresh cooked meal and every other day, there would be something good in the fridge to microwave. Good healthy food, no cooking, and no additional expense.
Don't want to offend Americans and America but USA food is crap. You buy ANYTHING in the grocery and it stays the same consistency and color for months!!!!!!!!!!! Even if it says organic its not! One thing Europe has that is way better than America is we have the best quality of food, no matter if you are rich or poor!
I wish we had more mom & pop dining establishments. Every shopping center here has a McDs, saimin place and Korean BBQ, and they are all chains. Also a Bangkok Express and China Express, I like there food somewhat.... at least it's healthier in general. My fast food is to pick up sushi in the supermarket on my way out.
It's why I cook 90% of our meals.
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Don't want to offend Americans and America but USA food is crap. You buy ANYTHING in the grocery and it stays the same consistency and color for months!!!!!!!!!!! Even if it says organic its not! One thing Europe has that is way better than America is we have the best quality of food, no matter if you are rich or poor!
From what I have heard you are absolutely correct. Somewhere we went that MORE is BETTER. I have a neighbor from Germany and he says they have to GMOs and meat is all grass fed.
One thing I have noticed is apples no longer brown when left cut open. That's weird.
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Don't want to offend Americans and America but USA food is crap. You buy ANYTHING in the grocery and it stays the same consistency and color for months!!!!!!!!!!! Even if it says organic its not! One thing Europe has that is way better than America is we have the best quality of food, no matter if you are rich or poor!
This is not accurate and it is in fact offensive. All food in the US is NOT "crap"! It may be true that if you buy Wonder Bread, hot dogs, and Doritos, those things may outlast you. But real food is readily available. If you buy fresh milk it will go sour, the fruits and vegetables will rot, and the bread and cheese will grow mold.
My apples turn brown when cut. I have to be careful not to cut them too early in the day, or a couple of my kids will turn up their noses at the "brown" apples.
And how do you know US Organic food is not organic??
This is not accurate and it is in fact offensive. All food in the US is NOT "crap"! It may be true that if you buy Wonder Bread, hot dogs, and Doritos, those things may outlast you. But real food is readily available. If you buy fresh milk it will go sour, the fruits and vegetables will rot, and the bread and cheese will grow mold.
My apples turn brown when cut. I have to be careful not to cut them too early in the day, or a couple of my kids will turn up their noses at the "brown" apples.
And how do you know US Organic food is not organic??
It's pretty much right. Personally, I wouldn't eat about 80% of the food in our grocery stores. I shop the outside where the fresh food is. I have started looking into buying grass fed meat from local butchers (studies have shown it is much healthier, more vitamin A etc.), but it is very expensive.
I have started moving over to organic and have only bought organic milk and eggs for awhile.
You trade convenience for healthier food, but I have always been very whole food oriented.
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It's pretty much right. Personally, I wouldn't eat about 80% of the food in our grocery stores. I shop the outside where the fresh food is. I have started looking into buying grass fed meat from local butchers (studies have shown it is much healthier, more vitamin A etc.), but it is very expensive.
I have started moving over to organic and have only bought organic milk and eggs for awhile.
You trade convenience for healthier food, but I have always been very whole food oriented.
Well, maybe you live in a very different area from me. I have no trouble buying grass-fed beef and organic milk and eggs, as well as organic fruits and vegetables, at any one of a number of local grocery stores. I can also buy those things (except the milk) year-round, at the farmer's market.
Pretty sure packaged and processed foods are available in European countries just as they are in the US. You don't have to buy those things, unless you shop exclusively at convenience stores.
If what we're talking about is some people's lack of access to real supermarkets, that is a different conversation. Not the same as a blanket statement, "USA food is crap."
I haven't read this entire, long thread, but I will jump in anyway. I am fortunate to live about three and a half miles from a Home Town Buffet (chain). Not all of their food is "healthy" but a lot of it is, and I love being able to choose fresh, cooked vegetables such as broccoli, green beans, carrots, and more. It is easy it simply pass on the mashed potatoes, white dinner rolls, and other less healthy choices.
Even the fast food places offer salads, and while they are not gourmet salads, they are not all that bad especially as occasional choices. You simply don't have to get a burger when you go there.
This is not accurate and it is in fact offensive. All food in the US is NOT "crap"! It may be true that if you buy Wonder Bread, hot dogs, and Doritos, those things may outlast you. But real food is readily available. If you buy fresh milk it will go sour, the fruits and vegetables will rot, and the bread and cheese will grow mold.
My apples turn brown when cut. I have to be careful not to cut them too early in the day, or a couple of my kids will turn up their noses at the "brown" apples.
And how do you know US Organic food is not organic??
Please don't get offended from my dumb little post...don't be so sensitive. It was MY opinion and my observation from living and friends who have lived and eaten in the US. In fact even the consulate has warned us about eating Italian food in the states, stating its not real and authentic LOL.
Please don't get offended from my dumb little post...don't be so sensitive. It was MY opinion and my observation from living and friends who have lived and eaten in the US. In fact even the consulate has warned us about eating Italian food in the states, stating its not real and authentic LOL.
I've lived in the US for all of my 68 years. And traveled to Europe perhaps 25 times (11 countries including Italy). Over the course of 4 decades. Most recently this year. I think the picture you're painting is one that might have had some truth to it 20-30+ years ago. And only when comparing certain countries to the US (the UK food scene certainly wasn't anything to write home about in the 70's).
But things have changed over the years. In many ways. The food scene is much richer in the US than it was back then. And - although various countries in Europe have certainly improved as well in some ways - they have become more like the US in others. With more US style supermarkets selling more processed and convenience foods. Even the famous French baguette is under siege:
After all - it's not like the most people in Europe are living in the 1950's. Many are as busy and pressed for time as the original poster in this thread.
Moreover - to the extent that this is happening in Italy - it's not only because people are busy - prosperous and successful for the most part (which isn't a bad thing). It's because many people are poor and parts of the country are in decline:
The negative impacts of the crisis are already wreaking havoc on small food economies. I saw this first hand last year when visiting my ancestral homeland. In Basilicata, many villages have supermarkets but do not have a single bakery, produce stall or butcher. Depleted populations simply cannot support these small businesses, so they shutter and corporate food production and distribution move in and take over. I think it’s officially time to set aside–and stop perpetuating!–the antiquated view of Italy as an idyllic nucleus of virtuous food production and consumption.
Finally - what is "real" "authentic" Italian food? Keeping in mind that what is "real" and "authentic" in one part of Italy is probably quite different than what is "real" and "authentic" in another part. Also - when I make something like bucatini all' Amatriciana - is it any less "Italian" because I buy my guanciale from an excellent US manufacturer. Keeping in mind that the US - like some other countries - restricts the importation of certain pork products. Robyn
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