I had a preconceived idea about how Europeans ate. After a couple of days, I realized that most of what I thought was wrong.
I knew that Europeans are much more serious about recycling than we are in America. I knew that Europeans are serious about fuel economy. They drive smaller cars; they ride bicycles to school and work. I had assumed that these interests would translate into healthy eating, but I guess I was wrong.
From what I observed, Europeans consume mostly bread, pork, cheese, beer and wine. These five foods dominated nice restaurants, cafes and outdoor food carts. Everywhere we went this is what we saw local people eating. Every time our tour director was directing us to places for lunch he would say things like “go here for the best sausage,” or “the local beers here are …”
Our first day we were in a medieval walled city called Rothenburg. We had a wonderful time exploring the old streets, listening to the organist in the cathedral, and browsing in the shops. We needed to eat lunch before we met the group at the bus. I wanted a salad and HH wanted a sandwich. We could not find a restaurant that had both! I could find a 28 euro salad in a fancy restaurant, but they didn’t serve sandwiches. He could find sandwiches with a little ham in a huge bun, but those shops had no salads. It was getting close to time to leave, and we were hungry. We walked past our tour director who said, “Are you having a good time?” We described our dilemma and he walked us to a shop that he knew about. We had a good lunch – tuna salad for me and chicken sandwich for him – but it was hidden away several blocks from the main square where the other restaurants were located.
In Salzburg we were in a market with dozens of kiosks. They all served bread and sausage. There were no other choices. We bought bottles of sparkling elderberry juice were thankful I had granola bars and fruit in my back pack.
We are used to salad bars in America. We only saw one salad bar at a public restaurant the entire trip.
Though I sometimes had to search for it, I did find BTD compliant food everywhere we went. I made a few compromises and sampled many local favorites. I will do one more blog about how we ate delicious and healthy food in the Alps.
But my mental image of health conscious Europeans is forever shattered.
If bread, pork, cheese, beer and wine dominated my diet, I would be overweight, sick or both. Yet we saw very few overweight Europeans. I don’t understand it.
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