The whole article is just too many words to say
Because our legally mandated food standards are better
Why use more word when few do?
European food is better.
even less:
Europe is better
Legally Mandated
Rrrreeeeee COMMUNISM!!!!!!!!!!
-- Average American
Food Is Better In Europe Than In The US
This was 96.4% true until the UK left the EU. Now it's 100% true.
The UK is still part of Europe.
It's part of Europe the same way a divorced dad who moved out is still part of the family.
The EU does not define Europe. Istanbul is in Europe. Moscow is in Europe. The UK is in Europe.
The UK refuses to admit they are Europe. And, consult a globe, they are an island off of Europe.
They're a series of islands in Europe*, most of them pretty close to the European mainland. I'm from another European island, a bit further out. The next landmass over is North America.
Ignoring e.g. Falklands for this.
It literally is.
I only skimmed the article, but I am in Europe frequently. I go to the grocery almost every single time and rarely eat out. The food is better in Europe than in the US with the qualifier that it’s better at affordable prices. You can get decent stuff in the US but you’ll pay more and the variety is limited.
The overall average food is less fucked with, less processed, and fresh foods are generally of better quality.
Well, except maybe the UK. I find it harder to get decent stuff there, a lot of the store is full of packaged carb-y junk like the US.
I'll never forget ordering a salad at the only place open late in the off season in the south of France (they served "american" food) and receiving the most delicious plate of chopped greens and vegetables I've ever had. It wasn't even my first meal in France. I don't think it would have been special to a local, it just tasted like food, not like the tasteless papery stuff I was used to.
Raw ingredients are just awful in the US, unless you shop directly from farmers, and every place you might eat out is supplied by the same very low quality company. Its honestly a bit of a nightmare and I think most people just don't know or try not to think about it.
There's a makeshift farmers market in a parking lot every Saturday near my mom's house. I text her a week in advance if im coming over to visit to get me veg and fruit. It's the only time the kids really eat their veggies and they love the fruit.
It's crazy how much better it tastes.
Having moved from the US to the EU recently (but having visited for 25+ years). Yes, the food is better in the EU.
The US food is over processed sugar infused sawdust unless you work hard to get specialized and direct from small farms sources.
Here in the EU I walk to any corner store or street vendor and it's consistently amazing.
Because European laws prevent food from containing chemicals that are toxic to humans
Because food is better in Europe than in the U.S.
Wish I could get affordable smoked salmon, comté cheese, and real baguettes in the U.S.
I just want unsweetened sandwich bread. Only Aldi seems to have it at a good price here, and they aren't everywhere
Because it's true?
Shoot, food in Canada and even in South America is better than the USA. You have to really put effort into being healthy in the USA, especially when eating out.
I mean the typical American argument is that they don't want to eat healthy they want to eat a 3500 calorie cheeseburger
Restaurant food is not designed to be healthy. It's designed to sell more.
The US could learn something from Europe and Europe could learn something from Japan when it comes to healthy food.
In my experience I found that not only in Europe, but also in other continents the food is better than in the US. The reason? US people put too much cheap cheese on everything.
l guess a factor are also the different local habits for doing groceries.
Here in our home town in Germany we have three mid-sized full-range grocery stores within walking distance, so typically do shopping 3-4 times a week.
Makes it much easier to shop fresh products and stuff with more limited shelf life (this demand causes easily availability for these).
As I understand shopping in the US, it seems to be more typical to go shopping only once a week or so to the far away mega-store, making it less viable to buy much fresh stuff and also increases the need for products that have been treated to ensure longer shelf-life.
In the US (for us) it was big shopping every month (Costco warehouse type shopping, I would typically go to the restaurant supply stores because I couldn't handle the Costco/consumerism frenzy), then once a week for smaller, fresh products. Plus shopping available all day, every day.
Here we have 2 supermarkets, a local Mercado (town center market stalls, open from 8am-3pm) within walking distance, plus 1 vegetable & 1 general convenience shops. Only the last two open Sundays. There is also a fish market/auction in the afternoons when the boats come in, and I almost forgot 3 bakeries (plus 2 french run pastry shops a little further, but that's ok, I'm getting fat and need the exercise )
I've been cooking a long time, in and out of the US (left it the first time when I was 18) and there is no comparison to the flavor of food in the EU, and not just because of the standards and regulations, but because it is still mostly SEASONAL.
Sure you can get some berries in the winter but they are not fully stocked like the summer, and you know the flavor is not going to be the same, but in the US the flavor is so washed out you get the cardboard taste all year long (but they look amazing !).
Lamb in the US 30 years ago used to taste like something, but the preference for milder flavor forced a change in the market. Lamb has flavor here...it tastes like lamb.
Salmon, in the US is 95% farm raised Atlantic Salmon, a shitty invasive species that tastes like water, and has no fat.
Chicken? The most basic of meats? First of all the preference for breast meat is ridiculous (due to heavy marketing way back when), prices for breast meat in the industry cheaper than leg/hind qtrs because of the butchering/human interaction is more time consuming. The color of the chicken in the US doesn't exist in nature. Growing up, a housewife in my home state campaigned on passing a law so that our state grown chicken would be labeled as such in the supermarket because it was flooded with out of state/cheaper alternatives. She won....and is still in the US senate (lol, no term limits & goldfish brained voters) AND the chicken still looks & tastes like nothing.
Olive oil? Sure, it's 'store brand ' olive flavored oil (or some marketing trick like Ooolive or olOve oil ....every once in a while a company gets a small fine for cheating it's consumers but that's just the cost of doing business).
Heirloom tomatoes, when they first got onto the market we had a farmer who shipped exclusively to high end restaurants & catered to them, and when you opened the box it smelled like you were in a tomato field...now they taste as bland as any other. Here, we locally have a contest to see who can grow the best flavored tomatoe in the community (had our neighbor win a couple years ago and she dropped some off at our restaurant just because!). Even the supermarket tomatoes still taste like they should.
All in all, there is no comparison. Commercialism, marketing, corporation consumption of the industry killed the American bread basket.
Since 1977 the US federal government has had to require many grocery stores to sell produce. The margins are lower, the labor is higher, and they use a lot of grocery floor space. Without that intervention there probably wouldn't be access to any produce at all for most Americans. Capitalism is very much the center of this story. In Europe the varieties of produce being grown are being mainly dictated by flavor and taste, in the USA resistance to insects, cheaper to harvest, size of product are the main criteria when the varieties of seeds to plant are being selected.
Yep exactly this. Even though the grocery store is extremely close to my house, it’s the only one, it’s still not a reasonable walking distance for trips 3-4 times per week, and the food is exactly like you said, mostly treated.
I’ve been to several places in Europe and the grocery situation there is so much better, it’s honestly astounding.
Cause we have actual nutrition lessons in school
Why some people think food is better
Some people? Don’t you all think that?
I've heard French people telling me they couldn't wait to go to the US so they can "finally" eat great food, citing novelty mcdonalds and ice cream
Think?! It's a fact, isn't it?
you take me from stew, polenta, sarmale to eat burgers and overly sweet fast-food? Ofc European food is better, because it’s so diversified, US is only dreaming of what we have here
they might have better food regulation on some things.
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