To think if we eat and adopted some of the lifestyle of the europeans we would not be the fattest country in Europe.

[WonderWendy1]

I went on a med cruise two weeks ago we stopped in Portugal, Spain, South Of France and Italy.

I think of myself as a fairly fit size 12 (14 in some things). I would say i'm on the slimmer side in the Uk. I go to these european cities and the women (and men) are much slimmer then me and dh.

I was then in Paris for a few nights a week ago and I can only say my gosh nearly everywomen I saw had the legs of Taylor Swift.

Aibu to think we need to be doing what the europeans do to avoid becoming the American country of Europe.

I find it a lot cheaper to eat healthily when I am in Italy than in England, fruit and veg are cheaper and often better quality and crisps/fizzy drinks/ etc. are relativly expensive.

Plus there is a lot less 'eating on the go'. Also, I think people's commutes tend to be shorter which means they have more time in the evening. My 1h pretty ave commute is always met with surprise by friends/relatives in Italy.

Having said that people smoke a lot more than they do in England.

Why would you want the legs of Taylor Swift?! She always looks like she could do with a good square meal or 6.

Do they still have slightly shorter working hours than us? And time for a proper lunch break?

Long working hours and eating a junk food lunch at the desk is so common here. I'm one of a tiny number of people who always has a short walk at lunch, rain or shine.

Don't get me started on protein shakes for non active people. In a sedentary job . I bet they don't do that in France.

I lived in southern Italy for a few years. I lived with my aunt/ uncle and family for a month before I found my own place.

There was little to no pasta served at meal times. Mostly some form of meat/ fish/seafood with vegetables. Sometimes a brodo to start which may have had some form of dumpling in it. Little to no pud, we'd go out for a walk( passigiata) and get an ice cream en route.

The menus in the Italian restaurants here bare little to no resemblance to the restaurants where I lived.

The pizza take outs were the equivalent of fish and chips here.

But OMG the "bakeries" had the most amazing stuff!

'Generally' (well from relatives etc. i know) in office jobs that say 8-4, 9-5 those are the hours you do and you take your lunch hour.

Where I'm from a lot of people work in the tourist industry and there you do LONG days, but a) you're on your feet all day and b) you usually get your lunch made for you and all eat together - thinking of restaurants.

Why would you want the legs of Taylor Swift?! She always looks like she could do with a good square meal or 6

See to me, she just looks like a normal slim woman.

Perhaps you're just used to seeing so many overweight people, that your view's become a bit skewed?

I had to Google Taylor Swift, but I agree Worra, she doesn't look exceptionally thin to me.

Why would you want the legs of Taylor Swift?! She always looks like she could do with a good square meal or 6

I would love to have her legs, she looks fantastic.

Overall I think most of us all agree that we should adopt some of what they do.

Since moving to Europe I ditched the diet foods I thought were helping me.

If I want a soft drink I'll have a glass off full fat coke. Not diet. But I'll sip it in the cafe.

I now eat butter, and full fat milk and cheese, bread with dinner.

I eat a lot less volume and feel naturally fuller. I've lost 15 kilos.

I think diet and fat free foods are a hiding to nowhere. They don't satiate the normal body need for some fats.

We eat a lot more volume in the UK, and a lot of people really don't seem to know what they are eating in terms of prepared food.

Exercise isn't part of life like it is for a lot of people like the Dutch and Swiss for example.

I have to laugh at the thin Germans though...come to Bavaria!

I think cities are never representative, London had a lot of thin people, however I was in a seaside town last week and I was pretty shocked at the number of morbidly obese holiday makers about.

That's true Wally. I worked in London for a couple of decades and my friends at home were mostly people who also commuted into London.

When I became a SAHM, the BMI of my new social group, in the suburbs must have doubled!

I walked everywhere in London. It was too busy not to, and easy when you knew your way round.

When I moved to the country I had to drive everywhere, there simply weren't bus options!

Yeah agree Paris isn't really representative. Walk round the City at evening rush hour and people are noticeably thinner than if you wanted round Kettering or Lancaster high street on a Saturday.

But why copy Europeans. In France obesity levels are 15.6% and rising. In Japan it's 3.5% and the number is falling. Some of this is about portion control and attitudes to food. There are also strict government policies that monitor waist size and put in place compulsory counselling and support if your waist size gets too high. Not entirely sure I like the idea but it seems to be working.

Taylor Swift is apparently 5'11 and 119lbs. That's a bmi of 16.6.
I think she appears to be "averagely slim" because we are used to our celebrities being super skinny.

I promise I do know what a question mark is

I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with her body shape but it is "exceptional".

DH works for a Japanese company in London Fuzzy. When Japanese staff first come over they have terrible trouble with the change of diet, chocolate makes them really ill because they simply don't have it at home. Give it a couple of years and they put on a lot of weight.

According to Google she's 5ft 10 but how anyone would know her weight (unless she regularly announces it) I don't know.

I was in the South of France last month and lots of the French people I saw were overweight, including some children.

Where I live now (leafy, green area) has lots of overweight people that I've noticed, more so than in the deprived inner London borough I moved from. I was quite surprised about that as had always read that obesity was linked to poverty.

No idea worra but I don't see how you can say she's not objectively thin. Not "too thin" or unhealthy, but much thinner than average for someone of her build.

Maximise- The thing I really noticed is the absence of dairy! I can imagine our high dairy fat chocolate and high dairy diet in general wouldn't agree with them at all.
Their main dishes didn't strike me as being what we would think of as particularly healthy- lots of pork and dark poultry and they aren't afraid of a bit of deep frying... Fresh veg wasn't massively abundant either but portions were much smaller, everything always served with a bowl of rice and some pickles and miso soup. Butter, milk and cheese were almost entirely absent... Though this was about 7 years ago though and I've read they're drinking a lot more lattes now.

The European mainland is quite a big place, I'm not sure how all of us can try to be like all of them.

In parts of Spain I see toddlers with huge donuts at 9pm.

Don't know about the French but Germany has a fair amount of overweight citizens. I've got family there (Bavaria), and they don't eat much junk food but seem to get through a phenomenal amount of cheese.

DH says they really know how to drink though Fuzzy. He was astounded just how drunk they got when he worked in Tokyo. (and this is a British ex-squaddie!)

Yes, I think the way our diet has become so dairy based has a lot to answer for but I don't think pork, dark poultry or even fried food is "bad". If we ate real food at regular meals we'd all be fine, no matter how it was cooked or what it was IMO. It's the constant stream of sugar that's really done the damage.