Arwa Mahdawi's opinion in The Guardian
Americans have a new theory that has been circulating on social media for a long time and is now entering serious food debates: when they go to Europe, they eat bread, pasta, cheese, sweets, drink wine, and yet they feel lighter, bloated less, and often lose weight.
At first glance, the most tempting explanation is food. Europe is seen as a continent with stronger food safety regulations, stricter standards and less tolerance for some ingredients that are widely used in processed foods in the US. In America, in recent months, there have been increasing alerts about contaminated foods: salads, frozen fruits, seeds, products with salmonella risks, and even products where dangerous contamination has been reported.
Europe is not immune to these problems. There are outbreaks of foodborne infections there too, recalls The Guardian author Arwa Mahdawi. But the general perception remains that the European system is more protective of the consumer than the American one. That is why many Americans say that bread and pasta in the US "ruin" them, while in Italy or France they eat them without a problem.
Public figures like Joe Rogan have also entered the debate, saying that bread and pasta are bad for you in the US, but not in Italy. Some attribute this to the processed flour, additives, the way American food is produced, or the fact that many products in the US are more industrialized.
But Mahdawi offers a more down-to-earth explanation: maybe the problem isn't just the bread. Maybe it's the fact that in Europe, Americans walk a lot more.
In most European cities, especially when you're a tourist, you spend your day on foot. You walk from hotel to café, from museum to restaurant, from station to historic center. In the US, outside of a few big cities, this is often impossible. American infrastructure is built for the car, not the pedestrian. There are neighborhoods without sidewalks, long distances, streets hostile to walking, and a culture where the lack of a car is seen almost as a surprise.
The author also recalls the history of “jaywalking,” laws against crossing the street in unauthorized places, which were instigated in the 1920s by the automobile industry to present the pedestrian as the problem rather than the car as the danger. In other words, America didn’t lose walking by accident. It was gradually designed to make walking difficult.
Prandaj, kur amerikanët shkojnë në Europë dhe “dobësohen”, nuk është e sigurt se trupi i tyre po reagon ndaj një magjie europiane të miellit. Mund të jetë thjesht se për herë të parë pas shumë kohësh, ata po bëjnë atë që qytetet amerikane ua kanë hequr nga përditshmëria: po ecin.
Dhe kjo e bën debatin më interesant. Sepse nuk është vetëm histori ushqimi. Është histori urbanistike, politike publike dhe mënyre jetese. Pyetja nuk është vetëm pse makaronat italiane duken më të lehta se ato amerikane. Pyetja është pse një qytetar amerikan duhet të udhëtojë në Europë për të zbuluar se trupi i tij funksionon më mirë kur qyteti e lejon të ecë.
