Well, when I was in Italy a while back, I sow people eating like pigs. The person eating the least in a restaurant was me LOL, yet I was the fattest in that restaurant, and by US standards I’m in pretty good shape. Actually, the first thing that I noticed when I arrived there was the fact how tinny people were. You would walk miles and couldn’t find a fat person, unless they were American tourists LOL.
So, there’s got to be something else (other than family connections and brothers calling each other ciao bello, true story btw which at first I thought it was weird LOL) why it is so. My hunch is that our food supply is actually poison, not really food. Heard somewhere that there are over 100 chemicals that are freely applied to our food supply, yet they are all banned in Europe. I could even recognize the taste as being better for staple foods, like milk, meat, bread etc…
Absolutely NOT true about portion sizes at least my experience there. Everywhere I went in restaurant, in bars, and even couple of Italian families (home cooked meals) they ate a lot. I’m not exaggerating saying I ate the least at any table and I love food. They have a different menu all together. They’d start with pasta (couple sometimes three different versions of it), while always having some meat and cheese snacks i.e. prosciutto, salami and/or caprese salad (fresh unsalted cheese, and couple other cheeses) then soup and then main meal, then the desert and at the very end salad (no dressing other than oil and vinegar btw). And yes, always house wine served with food. I was told wine was cheaper than water over there. You could buy a decent bottle of wine for 5 euros (that was 10 years ago though, haven’t been lately) equivalent of what would probably cost $15-$20 here in USA at the time.
I really think the main culprit is the quality of food and the second main one they move a lot. Every evening after meals they walk their piazzas like crazy.
The next thing that caught my attention was how well-dressed people were. On their evening walks they looked more like they were going to a weeding or something LOL.
Oh, yet another thing that was different there were literally no junk food places, with a McDonalds maybe every 150 miles or so. I think in the whole of Milan was only one MCd’ when I was there. Also, another thing that was different there it was the fact that they rarely go out to eat, but they do go almost daily in late afternoons for what they call aperitivo (drinks and light snacks) which bars served at very cheap discounted prices during such time.
Without looking at the details I cannot say, but I have switched to fasting 3 days a week (unless someone invites me to the pub). This enables eating quite a bit on the non-fasting days.
In the end energy in and energy out are important issues.
Your experience on portion sizes conflicts with mine, especially regarding pasta. if they were really large I think you would find more obesity, which you didn’t. Another factor I forgot to mention is the Italian diet is much more focused on fish and seafood than beef.
It’s beyond disgusting. Basically, that is poison which at small doses doesn’t kill you (with one use) but as it accumulates in our bodies it definitely destroys our metabolism and immune system and we end up a 500lbs whale with diabetes, CVD, Cancer and on dialysis LOL. Nothing disgusts me more than this issue about our government.
It is fascinating how our tastes vary and the progression over time. Now to be condescending but cola is a very simple taste that plugs a very basic reward center which is why even a child likes it.
Beer, wine, liquor are in the acquired taste arena and are forever associated with intoxication. I like them all despite disliking them the first time I had them. Others humans vary and never really like any of them - or only like one.
Coffee is similar. My sister drinks it every morning but doesn’t really like it. I’ll drink decaf by choice - not worth the trouble most of the time but with a dessert…
It is amazing to me that we as humans have mostly the same need for nutrients but our taste is so wildly different. I guess it is good but makes nutritional studies so difficult.