Overseas Observations Food & Health

Antecdotal Annotations While Flying Across the Atlantic

We’ve been in Europe hitting a few of our teenager’s favorite spots for Spring Break. He prefers big cities to our off the beaten path mountain adventures. He should be outvoted due to age and vote count, but technically we only have 3 more Spring Breaks with him and we prioritize experiences as a family, even the not so magical ones, so we went with his picks - London, Florence and Paris. Yes, it was a little much for a week, but it was still EUROPE. All that being said, you didn’t come here this morning to read a travel blog…

I didn’t plan to think about “Food Is Health” on holiday but it was in my face from the moment we stepped above ground from the tube in London the morning we arrived.

Everyone talks about how different our food is in the US and now that I co-author a substack on “Food Is Health” writing almost daily about the topic, there was no way not to take some pictures and observe some things that perhaps we could contemplate in a systemic redesign of food and health.

Spoiler alert - none of this will come as a surprise for anyone.

“Healthy” Is Embraced Not Shunned

The first thing I noticed were the number of restaurants that included “health” in their signage. It started when we set out for some coffee after a red-eye and stumbled upon a sign that read “itsu eat beautiful.” I stopped in my tracks and stared in disbelief. We walked into this clean, brightly lit, store with a sign on the wall directly in ahead of you as you entered the store that said “itsu is health[ier]” surrounded by illustrations of leafy greens and veggies followed by the phrase:

“we prepare fresh Asian-inspired, nutritious food on the spot, which is steamed [not fried] & packed with wholegrains, fibre, protein & greens”

To the right of the sign was a perfectly organized cold case full of pre-packaged individually sized fresh asian dishes from sushi, salads and sides as well as a small hot rack with a few grab and go items. To the left of the sign was the cook line where other hot options were freshly prepared. You ordered your food from an unmanned kiosk. It was set on a prime corner of real estate.

But it didn’t end with itsu (more on them later. A block later, in another prime spot was a circular sign with the word “Pure.” in the center with “Deliciously Good” above and “Refreshingly Fast” below. Their offerings included “40 protein packed and flavour full options to keep you going throughout the day”. Not a french fry in sight.

Once we got to Florence the next day on our walkabout I was once again stopped in my tracks with a bright yellow sign that said “We Create Healthy Food.” with small print above that read “Gelato, Pastriesm Chocolate, Croissants, Coffee and Cappuccino with ur own Fresh Almond Milk.” The store was Cortese - The Raw Patisserie. On their window by where they prepared their chocolate the glass had the following printed in oversized lettering

“WE GIVE: THE BEST FOOD EXPERIENCE THAT RESPECTS YOUR HEALTH AND REWARDS YOUR TASTE”

On the other side of the same glass pane it read “WE ARE: RAW, VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, ORGANIC AND PLASTIC FREE.” and finally it read “WE LOVE: OUR PLANET, FOOD, PEOPLE’S HEALTH.” And the cookies and chocolates were divine, they didn’t leave you in a sugar coma but instead had just the right amount of indulgence with the same texture and mouthfeel you would expect.

I mean what isn’t to love about any of these messages? Apparently a lot in the US. My only vestige of this type of message - Sweetgreen, in the US, just launched French Fries! this month.

And what about corner store type food markets? Fruits and veggies greeted us as the centerpiece of the store when we walked in all seemingly touting “Agriculture biologique”, not a paltry wilting selection stuck on a small sidewall of the store.

Healthy and chemical free was clearly in demand and embraced, not scorned and scoffed at as “untasty, nutty crunchy” food. More support for the need for Carter’s proposed “A Real Food campaign” (see his full substack piece from last week) suggestion to shift consumer preference and market share away from UPFs toward whole foods by coordinating industry efforts and marketing investment of over $1 billion across three years.

A “Fried Junk” Fast Food Desert

Carter Williams

regularly hypothesizes that if we made it hard to eat unhealthy and frictionless to eat healthy we would see a natural shift. I’ve always agreed, but after being in Europe and experiencing it firsthand, I’m doubling down. We were in the city central of two MAJOR European cities and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I only saw one McDonalds and it was prominently advertising it’s new vegetarian offerings - “Gamme Veggie Nouveau” with Veggie McPlange Nuggets, McWrap Veggie and the McVeggie sandwich - sadly all still fried.

I was curious about how the top fast food brands in the US compare to the UKs top fast food brands to see if it was just my imagination that European cities were fast food deserts. No that isn’t a typo. Unlike the US where we have food deserts with nothing BUT fried fast food, in Europe it was the complete opposite. Low and behold, the UK’s top fast food brand is Greggs which offers everything from sandwiches to salads to sweets compared to McDonald’s in the US which is a fried festival. And while top fast food brands abroad may largely mimic the names found in the US, they are vastly outnumbered by Boulangeries, Brasseries, Coffee Shops and Cafes in these urban cores.

In fact in Florence proper, we never did stumble into an actual fast food restaurant although I’m sure there are a few. And Paris was much the same. The closest we came to a fried fast food joint was a Five Guys not far from our hotel. Airports? Same thing, Pret A Manger was next to itsu in London Gatwick surrounded by a few cafes and sit down restaurants, downstairs was a Joe the Juice and a bunch of other healthy takeaway brands I’d never even seen before. And again, I never did see a McDonald’s or Burger King. Same thing in the Florence airport, same thing in the Paris airport and same thing in the Madrid airport.

Portion Sizes Are Different

I’m going to jump back to my new favorite brand itsu. Oh and if you happen to know their CEO Julian Metcalfe (incidentally he’s also the co-founder of Pret A Manger), we want to have him on the podcast - I also think itsu should join the Tufts Food and Nutrition Innovation Council

Katie Stebbins

! When you walk by their stores, they have in big bold letters “hungry for less?” - The sign goes on to say:

“health yourself to our new little rice bowls, less is more from 4.99”

Now that’s how to execute on the concept of AFFORDABLE NUTRITION. Nutritional density and price point are prioritized, NOT portion size.

And it wasn’t just itsu. It was Europe…so much so that my son complained. Portion sizes were just plain appropriate pretty much everywhere.

• The gelato - a large was the equivalent of maybe 1.5 scoops in the US

• The pastries - they were decadent and beautiful, but petite

• The meals - they were protein centric (even in Italy) and small by US standards

• The coffees - single and double espresso shots reigned supreme only if you were in the vicinity of a Starbucks or boba tea joint did you see a 1600 calorie Venti latte in someone’s hand

A Few Additional Observations

I could go on and on about the differences, but it’s Monday and we all have work to do so I’ll keep the final points brief…

• Socializing Reigned Supreme Over Cell Phones - it was rare to see people scrolling on cell phones at restaurants or really anywhere for that matter.

• Food Is Enjoyed, not “Consumed” - takeaway was harder to find than a sidewalk cafe, making it much easier to be in tune with satiety than consuming calories mindlessly. Back to the above point.

• The Food Doesn’t Weigh You Down - from the bread to the wine to the pastries, between the absence of chemicals/toxins, additives and overly processed ingredients, the simple flavorful whole food preparation in meals and smaller portions, a nice meal out didn’t leave you feeling overly full and sometimes sick.

• The Food Tastes Better. Period. You can taste the difference of fresh nutrient dense food void of chemicals and additives.

• Obesity Was the Exception Not the Norm - it was more uncommon to see an obese person than it was to see a person of normal weight, there were more mediums on racks than L/XL and the sizing overall was smaller. Even Blue Zones points out that healthy behavior can be contagious. Some research shows that social influence can affect your choices and actions. Forging relationships with healthy individuals or joining groups focused on good health may help you develop healthier habits.

• Everyone was MOVING - running, biking, walking, strolling, we never saw a mobility scooter, very few people were hailing cabs or waiting for Ubers and even fewer people were in cars. More support of the point above.

• Food Is Enjoyed, not “Consumed” - takeaway was harder to find than a sidewalk cafe, making it much easier to be in tune with satiety than consuming calories mindlessly. This also ties in with the social aspect noted above.

• Green Farmland, Small Farms & Natural Disasters - I had a window seat that allowed me to look out as we ascended and descended into 4 different European cities and I noticed the contrast of small farms with seemingly fertile soil to the large dirt plots of the midwest. And yet much like the US, natural disasters seemed to be more the norm than the exception with unprecedented flooding in two separate regions in a matter of days visibly affecting some of that very same pristine farmland.

• Oddly Smoking Is Still Acceptable - nothing is flawless, and Europe has plenty of the same struggles as the US. One that stood out regardless of what we now know about the health effects, is the prevalance of smoking. It certainly made finding the perfect sidewalk cafe table more challenging as a non-smoker who isn’t a fan.

All this to say, I still ate more than I normally do, indulged in foods I normally abstain from and took more leisurely walks versus vigorous workouts. It was still vacation and it’s time to get back at it. BUT with a first hand reminder of just how much opportunity we have in the US for Food Is Health and system change.

And in the spirit of the inadvertent travel blog I just wrote - here are some pics of us playing tourist…Just don’t tell the teenager he made an appearance…