Just got back from Rome...
 

Just got back from Rome and there's hardly any food that is not high carb (pasta, lasagna, risotto, pizza, bruschetta, ice cream, cakes) - why is Italy low on the world ratings for diabetes and obesity?

Is it another French paradox?

How much nut and bean oil is used over there? - I'm guessing olive oil is plentiful ;)

They eat like my mother, like a bird but all carbs. And they don't have as much metabolic disturbance from other factors.

I have heard that the wheat used in Italian cooking is different from the wheat used in the USA. Either a different processing or is not genetically modified.

Have no idea if this is true or not, but a friend with severe reactions to wheat in the US, had no symptomotology at all in Italy and ate wheat products without any reaction.

Where were you eating? In any city full of restaurants, it's not necessarily reflective of how citizens actually eat at home.

If Italians have gone the Western way with tons of processed carbs and convenience food, then it's just a matter of a time lag before they see the same obesity and T2D stats that we do.

I hope that's not the case. A while back, the Eades wrote a blog post about a trip to Italy that really stuck with me. Check out their meal. Turns the Americanized idea of that HeartHealthyWholeGrains Mediterranean diet on its arse.

Here's a more recent post: Low-Carb Eating In Italy

For one thing, from my many family meals in NYC in people's homes, the pasta is a SIDE dish, not the whole meal. Or if they have spaghetti and meatballs, it's meatballs the size of a golfball, and lots of them.

"Unlimited breadsticks" is an American invention for profit.

From friends who spend time in France, their sandwiches are snack sized and they all live on the tenth floor with no elevators :)



It could be the Roundup they use routinely on the crop in North America. Canadian laboratories have found shocking levels in the breakfast cereal there.

I don't think you can predict a country's obesity rates by their carb intake at all. Maybe sugar intake, not sure. At any rate--which country is it where carbohydrates isn't generally the lion's share of the day's calories? I have trouble thinking of one. Not that geography is exactly a strong subject for me.

http://chartsbin.com/view/1154


This gives Italy's carb intake around 50 percent of calories--looking at other countries, while that looks enormous to us low carbers, in comparison to other countries, that's towards the low end.

I don't think 50 percent carbohydrates is less fattening than 70 percent carbohydrates. I think around 10 percent or less carbohydrates is less fattening than 30 percent or more.

I also don't think those higher carbohydrate intakes are in themselves fattening--whether it's a high variety of yummy packaged foods, higher presence of sugar and omega 6 fatty acids, more french fries versus potatoes with added butter (I'll eat way more calories as fries or potato chips if I let myself, versus potatoes and butter), or whatever. It is the carbs, but it's also the fat, but it's not the carbs or the fat so much as in the particular context in which we consume/are exposed to them.

Lowering insulin works... in mouse and rat studies of obesity, animals fed low fat diets have lower fasting insulin, and are leaner, than animals fed high fat diets. Not ketogenic, just higher fat with a bit of sugar kicked in. Adding fat to a diet doesn't even necessarily mean you'll eat less carbs. It's not an antidote, it's an alternative calorie source.

Yes, I have experienced this myself. What I've had served to me in Italy was on a small side dish with only tomato sauce.



Yes, much smaller quantities and they walk everywhere. Our servings in the US are 2-3x the size. At dinner in several homes, I've seen that their diet is very low carb. Those slim French ladies are not eating the bread or desserts in the way that we would on a regular basis with the SAD.

As others have already said - Portion size!

It really amazed me that US portions are like European serving platters and that is no exaggeration.

Normal plates in the Eu and Aus are around 20-23cm - In the US I have seen plates as big as 34cm across and they are piled with food. I don't know how someone eats 3 x meals a day at that size.

Asia is another good example - They do eat noodles/rice but the portion is much smaller and the ratio compared to meat and veggies is different than say if you went and bought Japanese take away in the US.

Yes, DH used to live in DC which has authentic Chinese cooking. Not only are the Americanized portions nestled on a queen-sized mattress of rice, the meat is breaded inch-thick, and the sauces have been thickened with starch.

Portion size, yes. But that's the problem--what makes the portion size? Noodles and rice have been dirt cheap to Americans for a very long time. Why do we even eat such large portions? If I overeat pork chops and heavy cream--yes, I can do this--next day, I'm barely hungry, I'm eating less. Do the portions of starchy, fatty foods at restaurants dictate our appetite, or just match it, for these foods?

Variety might be a bigger problem than portion size. Anybody who's eaten at a buffet, or had a bag of halloween treats has experienced the effect of that on consumption.

I find satiety is hugely different with a meal of mostly protein and fat vs. the typical starch fest from a buffet.

Yes--but a buffet of various on-plan meats, I'll eat way more than if I just had a pork chop at home--and I'd be perfectly satisfied with the pork chop. I also know, by experience--if I had a fridge full of pepperoni, various cheeses, salami and other lunch meats, various lower carb nuts, etc. around all the time--I'd probably weigh a good deal more. Even with keto, I do better with simple, unprocessed meats, butter and heavy cream than I do with greater variety. I've done fine with anything on that list as a staple, but if I try to have it all around at the same time, I will eat more and do worse.

I remember traveling in Europe for work. I was gone for two weeks, ate well and had bread and tarts at meals.

I was eating breakfast and a later evening meal. I didn't eat outside of those two meals/day, was never hungry, and never had cravings or my usual bread eating appetite.

When I returned home I had lost over 10 pounds and inflammation/puffiness was way down.

I think it's the flour. Europe doesn't allow the additives and conditioner's that are routine in the US.

There is some truth to the idea that the wheat is just different over there. I think Dr Davis has talked about it, crediting the fact that it's an old-school strain of wheat, not the newer selectively-bred stuff with a different number of chromosomes ( :exclm: ). I also remember from years ago lurking on a celiac forum that many full-blown celiacs get away with eating European wheat products.