Cardboard Nutrition

I'm back in Switzerland visiting my family and one of the very first things I notice is the difference in food.  The taste, the quality, the very feeling of fullness that you get when you eat food here.  Back home I buy organic for most things, but I have to tell you that I had forgotten what onions REALLY smell like until I was here in Switzerland.  But the thing I notice most of all here is that I'm not that hungry.  I can eat a small portion of anything, and feel full fairly quickly.  At home, I feel like I'm hungry a lot, and even when I eat, I feel like I want to eat more? Why this rather bizarre difference?  Nutritional density.  I swear I believe that the vegetables, fruits, grains, meats are all much more nutritionally dense here.  It makes me feel as though I've been living on cardboard back home.  What has happened to our food supply?  Why have we allowed ourselves to be drawn into the laziness of processed foods?  I don't even crave anything while I'm here.  Want some creme brulee?  Not really.  Interested in a gorgeous chestnut torte?  Nope.  How about an incredible Pear Helene while sitting in a 16th century chateau with glistening crystal chandeliers and huge armchairs at the table and two very attentive waiters?  I don't think so, danke schoen.

Well, mein herr, let me tell you that we really need to pay attention to what we are eating.  It truly makes a difference.  Not to mention the fact that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, walks here.  They walk everywhere.  And everyone looks so fit.  Since I've been here this time, I have not seen an obese person, a person with a walker, a person with a cane even!  In fact everyone carries walking sticks so they can easily do a 2 hour walk before lunch!  I've seen a 90 year old woman weeding her garden, a man in his 80's hiking a practically vertical trail, and I took a photograph of a 100 year old man who had just walked three miles into a small village to have a glass of wine.  He claimed the wine was what gave him not only his amazing strength and longevity, but his handsome looks as well!  European men ... hmmmm.

Anyways, the fact is that food really is the key to health, longevity and our body shape.  You can exercise 'till the cows come home but if you continue to eat fake food, empty nutritional calories, they will do exactly what empty calories should do - sit in your butt and walk with you every step of the way.  Can I tell you that the largest clothing size here is a 12-14.

This even explains why there is so much "gluten sensitivity" in the states.  They don't have gluten sensitivity here.  They would laugh at you if you even mentioned that.  In point of fact, it is obvious here that it isn't gluten at all.  It's the fact that the wheat we have now isn't really wheat at all.  It's not the plant that has been consumed since biblical times.  It's not even a complete grain.  And our body knows it.  That is also why so many people who are "gluten intolerant" still can eat barley (which also contains gluten) or couscous (more gluten).  It's the fact that we are eating "created" foods instead of "grown" foods.

So pay attention to your food - its source, its nutritional density, how it makes you feel when you eat it.  If you choose more wisely, then not only will you not have so much cardboard to throw away, you won't find yourself an hour later being hungry enough to eat it.