So begins "Why Aren’t Germans Fat?" by Liv Hambrett, "An Australian Writer in (North) Germany." I like this illustration with the caption "Stumps of chocolate coated whipped marshmallow":
February 26, 2018
"Back in Bavaria, after four days of fried fish, moorish soups , bread, cheese and, obviously, chocolate, I am forced to contemplate an issue that has haunted me since I first shoved a brie brötchen down my gullet many months ago."
"Why aren’t Germans fat? This is a question I give, at intervals, a great deal of thought to, not only because I managed to stack on 9kg (of which 7kg remains) when I moved here, but also because I am genuinely enamoured with – and have subsequently adopted – the German appetite and want to know how they eat what they do without being completely enormous."
So begins "Why Aren’t Germans Fat?" by Liv Hambrett, "An Australian Writer in (North) Germany." I like this illustration with the caption "Stumps of chocolate coated whipped marshmallow":
So begins "Why Aren’t Germans Fat?" by Liv Hambrett, "An Australian Writer in (North) Germany." I like this illustration with the caption "Stumps of chocolate coated whipped marshmallow":
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77 comments:
Fast food, junk food and processed food. Give those up and you'll be amazed at what happens to your body, even if you still eat lots of sweets, fats and carbs.
I have this crazy theory that different bodies respond to food differently and regions developed food habits that works for the bodies in them.
As a 1/4 German, I can divulge the secret. We have such massive back, shoulder and thigh muscles that we simply aggressively weight lift our way to health. Not that we are bullies, unless you don't get out of our way quickly enough. IIR our Fuhrer had no trouble convincing the 1930s German people they needed lots more room.
processed food and fast food aren't really things. A hunk of cheese is both fast and processed, but it is healthy and delicious.
I used to eat brotchen (crusty, chewy roll) with cream cheese, or pb&j, or any manner of meats and cheeses. Best bread ever, and I've never found a close substitute here in the States. I looked up how to make it, and it requires a couple days of prep., so I haven't tried yet. Maybe for Easter I'll give it a go.
According to Mann's Bundenbrooks, the German middle class was quite fat, at least in his day.
Maybe it wasn't fat-fat.
Would you care for a bite of my Vengelerstrasse bar? I also have a bag of marzipan JoyJoys! (mit Iodine!)
I didn't read the answer to why the Germans are not fat. I think the reasons are several: smaller portions, and more walking. People walk more in Europe because cars are very expensive to maintain, parking is unavailable, and public policy forces them to use mass transit. In Barcelona, the people love to brag about their charming culture of going out in the evening to dine and walk. Later, they mention that they do this because their apartments are too small for entertaining as well as wanting to get out of their cramped quarters. I am not sold on the European way of life. I prefer to be fighting my weight and enjoying all that this country has to offer.
What I really miss is Spiesbraten.
It's the marching.
Only two of the five foods mentioned in the header are particularly fattening, so Hambrett pretty much answers her own question before asking it.
German food used to be a thing in the US. There were a lot more haufbraus in the 1960s. You'd eat wienerschnitzel and drink Liebfraumilch.
I wonder what happened.
She should try lessish soup.
The local mall briefly, very briefly, had a "Der Schnitzelhaus" franchise, but it closed before I even knew it was there. I'd love to be able to grab a schnitzel for lunch.
Carol: craft beers and fewer Americans serving in Germany?
Walking. I've lived in Singapore for 6 years and walked everywhere or took the subway (i.e. more walking). I did not own a car for 6 years. Saved me and my employer $1000 by walking, using the subway and on rare occasions taking an affordable taxi.
Walk every for nearly every task and you burn calories; especially if navigating flights of stairs is involved.
Secondly, portion control is helpful in maintaining and reducing weight.
Thirdly, Germans do exercise out of doors in their mountains and at the beach(es) of Germany and Europe. Sometimes they invite their friends and they all walk towards France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The German Foreign Ministry calls these escapdes "get acquainted" tours. The french have another word: INVASION!
I lived in Germany for 4 months back in the mid 90s- loved the food, too. However, the author probably misses the fact that Germans are not overeating their food as much as a visitor or someone new to the country might. Also, I noticed and did a lot more walking and cycling than I would have in the US with a auto.
I spent two weeks in Bavaria on a business trip. Ate plenty, including a good dinner out every evening, and little exercise. I was quite surprised when I got home and found I had lost a little weight.
Anyone who thinks there are no fat Germans has not watched any Die Twinnes polka videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGlJCk0TaUs
When I was in Italy, I wondered the same thing. I saw a few retirees who had a few extra pounds, but no one was obese. I came to the conclusion that there is no "fast food culture" in Italy - you're supposed to sit down with your family and actually eat a meal - and they walk, as opposed to driving everywhere.
Carol: WWI. There were entire communities that spoke only German. Laws during WWI made that illegal. Lots of German things got destroyed at that point.
The German owned restaurant nearby has a German dishes Menu printed on the back of the American dishes menu.
The first thing you notice is that Germans have 20+ ways to cook Potatoes.
The most likely factor is that they are so aggressive. Evan passive aggressive must burn extra calories inside.
".. after four days of fried fish, moorish soups , bread, cheese and, obviously, chocolate, .."
I don't know about the fat but constipation could be a real problem.
If you're wondering what the German label says, 'DICKMANN' is not obscene - get your mind out of the gutter - it's "SUPER FATMAN'S - super big with crispy chocolate". (German 'dick' is cognate to English 'thick' and means 'thick, heavy, fat'. Whatever English-speaker first called his penis his 'dick' was bragging.)
San Francisco still has a Hobrau, Shroeders.
Downtown across from the Royal Exchange pub.
Both are landmarks and popular for business lunches, etc.
As for fat, corn syrup may have something to do with it.
Germans are fat. But not USA fat. With all the walking they do; it is rare to see one morbidly obese.
Public schools do not provide athletics (or music or drama)in Germany. Those are functions of private clubs. In fact, to do something recreational in Germany, besides walking or riding a bike, you need to join a club. Want Dietmar Jr. to sing in a choir? Gotta join the Gesangverein. Young Elsa wants to learn to play soccer? Gotta join the local Fussball or Sport Club - and hope they have girl's team. When you join a club it becomes your lifestyle and a real commitment in both time and money. Do you simply want to go fishing? First, apply to an Angler Verein, pass their competency/knowledge test, undergo a period of probation, and boom! - you get to go fishing.
All of the above require fees and dues of some sort, so a lot of Germans don't make the effort. But they have always been a culture that worships the out-of-doors and the country is built to support that. There are forest preserves everywhere, free to the public. And the Sunday tradition is a long walk somewhere after services and then Kaffee und Kuchen around 3pm either at home or in a Konditori (confectionary cafe).
It's very social to go walking.
The food plays a role. As we learn more about fats(better for us than previously thoght) and carbohydrates (much worse for us than previously thought), the German diet doesn't look so bad. Plus the food is satisfying. You don't find yourself sticking your hand into a bag of 'Extra LDL Doritos' 30 minutes after lunch. Lunches are also still the main meal of the day. A light supper is a common thing. Not every day, but a couple times a week.
To illustrate the German love of nature... took some visiting Freunde up to Tahoe to see the kokanee (landlocked salmon) spawn. Fascinating.
Although October, the area was still jam-packed with tourists. We drove to Emerald Bay and picnicked on the beach there. IIRC the beach is about 1/4 mile long. There were only eight other people on that entire beach comprising three separate groups. As we walked past each group...yep. Speaking German.
Cross country skis!! In the winter, that's how you move across the fields.
Germans eat lots of fats and carbs, but don't eat as much sugar as Americans. At least, my in-laws found an American-style chocolate cake to be much too sweet for their taste.
Obesity in Germany
Obesity in Germany has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent years. The federal government has declared this to be a major issue.[1]
Data released by the World Health Organisation in 2014 showed that while an issue of growing concern, within the European Union, Germany had a higher incidence of overweight and obese adults as a percentage of the total population at 98.7% in comparison with France at 60.7%, Spain at 60.9% or the United Kingdom at 63.4%.[2]
German men frequently are fat, by NYC standards. The women (in UMC business circles, the only kind I know) are usually not; I have always presumed that they don't actually eat all that food or drink all that beer.
It may be, however, that the writer is not applying NYC standards, and only means that Germans are not as fat as Americans in flyover country. If that is true, it's probably because the Germans don't spend all day sitting in their cars eating junk food, which is the primary American life activity, so far as I can tell.
To Carol and DougWeber,
I notice the same thing about German restaurants in SoCal. Over the decades they've gradually disappeared, which is a disappointing for me. I ascribe the change to the huge increase in Mexican and Asian population here.
There's a German restaurant about forty minutes from my primary residence that serves incredible sauerbraten. If it were ten minutes away I'd be fat.
Germans are not as fat as Americans in flyover country. If that is true, it's probably because the Germans don't spend all day sitting in their cars eating junk food, which is the primary American life activity, so far as I can tell.
Americans in flyover country are not as slim and athletic as such coastal sophisticates as Harvey Weinstein, Rob Reiner, or Michael Moore.
In German "dick" means thick or fat or chunky. Not the male organ. So somewhat less funny.
As to the question, Germans tend to eat smaller portions of what we would consider unhealthy food, and they generally move quite a bit. Public transport is widely used, which paradoxically induces a lot of walking, bikes are very common, and Germans tend to join up for sport leagues or head out to the country most weekends.
It seems to me that in the US many are very, very sedentary, in a way that's difficult to compensate for with diet alone.
Blogger MaxedOutMama said...
"In German "dick" means thick or fat or chunky. Not the male organ. So somewhat less funny."
No. It's still funny.
Also, I forgot to say this - many people in the US eat an extraordinary amount of sugar. Yes, carbs do turn into sugar, but Americans often eat tons of carbs WITH sugar, and I think that is very exceptional. Also, they tend to really load down the carbs and sugar at night, which is the worst possible way to do it.
Carbs and some sugar don't make you fat if they are eaten in quantities closely allied to your current energy expenditures. But eating that stuff at night with a couple of hours of couching and then off to bed makes your body secrete a bunch of insulin, and once your fast storage in your muscles gets filled up, it's pretty much off to the fat cell.
Europeans, on the whole, seem to eat and drink less high fructose corn syrup.
many people in the US eat an extraordinary amount of sugar.
Or just an extraordinary amount period.
Eric Landgraf - there is the theory that Germans are so attached to Schengen open borders because sometimes they just need to migrate en masse. Anyone who's ever seen the young ones flocking to Spanish beaches might wonder if it's not just nature.
Anyway, Juergen the German might have his own ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doPR-6X9h7c
Never gets old.
Livermoron said:
"But they have always been a culture that worships the out-of-doors and the country is built to support that. There are forest preserves everywhere, free to the public."
A common middle class German summer getaway consists of a trip to the Alps to hike the mountain trails. In winter they strap on cross country skis. The moderate German weather accommodates both activities.
So take a morning hike for 2 hours and then drink a beer and eat a wurstsalat at lunch. You'll stay fit.
Or just an extraordinary amount period.
I'd like to see another plot of the cost of food in each country.
A lot of us Americans are descended from European peasants, who developed a habit of porking out in good times in order to survive the next famine. A few thousand years of this might account for some gluttonous habits in their descendants.
MaxedOutMama said...
Also, I forgot to say this - many people in the US eat an extraordinary amount of sugar."
I know a guy who lost weight when he gave up drinking regular Coke. That was the only significant change he made to his diet.
Bread is only problematic food in writer's list, fat is actually good for people while carbs lead to all sorts of health issues.
Surely it is moreish, not moorish, unless Germans eat Arab soups.
I was just in Switzerland and wondered the same thing.
Bread, cheese, cheese, bread, pastries, other pastries, butter, bread, cheese.
I suppose it's because everything is fairly fresh and they probably do little to no snacking on processed stuff.
"I know a guy who lost weight when he gave up drinking regular Coke. That was the only significant change he made to his diet."
Men can do that. Women, on the other hand ...
So the Germans don't eat much processed food, just sausage right off the tree.
I have a whole bunch of fat German relatives who would disagree with this premise.
As young people they ate this way and stayed thin. Now they are middle aged and above, and fat.
I sometimes wonder whether the North American fixation with diets and what is supposedly good and bad for you ends up rebounding on us and messing up some internal metabolic balance or something. I'm now old enough to have gone through periods when sugar, fats, carbs, meat, dairy and even fruit have been seen as bad guys, with no end of diets trying to do without them. Everything but vegetables. Never the goddamn vegetables.
We have a whole huge industry of dietitians who delight in nagging and making us feel guilty. We could do without most of them if we just followed a few basic rules: A) Eat moderately; B) Be very sparing with junk food, fast food and processed food; C) be judicious with sweets and fats; D) Eat a balanced mixture of meat, fish, dairy, fruit and carbs; E) as Grandma said, eat your vegetables.
If that's too hard to remember, try this. Beware of anything that tastes really, really good. Be judicious about what tastes pretty good. Be moderate about what just tasted plain ol' good. If it's bland or insipid, go crazy!
Seems like every couple years there's a story in the news about the rising number of overweight and obese soldiers in the German army.
Viva tofu.
Per wikipedia, and elsewhere on the Internet, Germans are the fattest people in Europe. One in four Germans is obese. About 70% of Germans are overweight or obese.
My wife and I were in Alsace about thirty years ago and went for lunch to a nice "traditional" café and ordered, to share, the specialty Choucroute plate for two persons.
It was a mound of sauerkraut and sausages that filed a turkey platter from side to side and front to back and was heaped up about 6" high.
Only lunch in my entire life I couldn't finish. But I surely did try... (My wife wasn't much help.)
This is not my experience. Middle-age and older Germans are now and traditionally have been portly/overweight, i.e. fat. The "prosperous burgher" and "stout hausfrau" look, and all that. If you were a man and you were considered a successful well-off member of the middle class unless, you had a stomach and your frau was portly.
Think of hefty/saftig frauleins carrying multiple huge steins of beer in both hands in the bierstubes. Think of Hermann Goering (nicknamed, behind his ample back, "Der Dicke," or "fatso".) Okay, don't think of him. But you get my drift.
It used to be, up until about the 1980s, you could tell, when traveling in Europe, who the Americans were because of their size and what they wore. Then, sometime in 1980s that began to change. Now everyone wears jeans, baseball caps, polo shirts, and running shoes; and the Germans and Germanic people (including the English), being big people, came look like Yanks.
More walking. More smoking. Smaller portions. Food is expensive relative to the US.
Tommy:
Yep! I've hiked the alps with my German wife 5 or 6 times. Usually a couple weeks each time.
I recall climbing a glacier in the Dolomite Alps. Just a steep trail chipped out of ice. We were in a log chain of climbers. The man in front of me was an old, fat, German...Tiroler Hut, Lederhosen and all. He would've wiped out a dozen people if he had fallen.
I'd never felt so alive.
Tcrosse: I take my country glutton-free, please.
Less soda. Another comment touched on this, but when I stopped buying soda for myself at home, and switched to just water and unsweetened tea, I immediately began losing weight. I didn't even drink much soda - a 2-liter would last me five or six days, easily. But cutting it out still made a difference. I used to still order soda at restaurants, but eventually stopped doing that too. Not many soda fountains get the mix entirely right and it ends up tasting off to me, so I get water there too these days.
Back in 2004 when 'French Women Don't Get Fat' was a big seller, there was a New Yorker cartoon showing the Gendarmes making midnight raids to arrest fat Frenchwomen and haul them away in the paddy wagon.
I was there from 91-94. There was an influx of former-East Germans. Not a lot of extra pounds in that crowd.
Livermoron: I take my country whole-grain, organic, free-range, and gluten-free.
freakin' hippie.
Thanks to Althouse for the idea -
I just took some of the fellows out to lunch at Schroeders.
http://www.schroederssf.com/
Schnitzel and Bratwurst (half off!) and red kraut and beer.
Its been years since we've gone to Schroeders.
Glad to say it hasn't changed.
Recently I visited my first German restaurant, in New Braunfels, TX, whose shtick is its Germanness. I mean, the newspaper is still called the Zeitung for goodness sakes, and the water park is named Schlitterbahn. I expected to love it as I very much like A. pork, B. potatoes, C. cabbage, D. breaded things and E. gravies, and it was ..... meh. Highly rated, in a lovely historical building, the best German food for miles around in a German town, etc etc .... and it was just forty variations on mashed potatoes swimming in bland sauces. Was disappointing.
Even though I haven't been there in nearly 25 years, I still recommend a visit to my away-from-home home in Idar-Oberstein to everyone I know when they travel in Europe. It's a great place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idar-Oberstein
> In German "dick" means thick or fat or chunky. Not the male organ. So somewhat less funny.
When I visited Koblenz, the man who ran the hotel I stayed at was named Volcker Dick. The name of the place was the Hotel Hamm. And yes, he was a pretty large guy. And they had a damn good breakfast.
THe Germania in SJ is pretty popular. There is/was a German restaurant in Alameda...the somethinghaus. The food was pretty spot on.
I remember buying sausage out of the trunk of a car in California. We were jonesing for sausage, i.e. leberwurst and blutwurst. Somehow my German wife found a local 'sausage mule' via the underground network that somehow connects them all together. This guy would drive to socal and buy a bunch of stuff direct from Saag's, a regional producer at the time, and then freeze it in dry ice for the drive up to the East Bay.
Now you find Saag's everywhere.
And people think the iPhone is a miracle.
Last time I was at Schroeders it was run by a bunch of Czechs, or at least the waitresses were all Czech. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
There's also a good German store and restaurant in Redwood City, Gourmet Haus Staudt.
At a so-so German restaurant in St Paul I looked across the room to see a big fat guy putting away a Schweinshaxe like I would eat a chicken wing. I love me some pig-meat.
I am genuinely enamoured with – and have subsequently adopted – the German appetite
You are actually enamored OF the German appetite. No educated German speaks English as poorly as an Amerikan does.
No educated German speaks English as poorly as an Amerikan does.
Someone who spells 'enamoured' with a 'u' is apt not to be an American.
Karl don't snack.
(Like Charlie don't surf)
Livermoron: Have you tried the sausages at Coralitos Market? Their bacon alone is worth the drive.
https://www.montereybayfarmers.org/markets/aptos-farmers-market/aptos-vendors/corralitos-market-and-sausage-company
a) Germans are as fat as the rest of the developed world;
b) there's no "healthy" or "unhealthy" foods, there's healthy/unhealthy proportions and quantities of foods.
Mostly it's because at the end of a hearty dinner, the traditional German feels so good that he's just got to invade Poland.
I am suddenly disturbed to note how many Althouse commenters are near me,and apparently aware of my dietary choices.
(Also, for weight management,I recommend scuba diving. Advice gratis and free of charge.)
Howard:
Thanks for the tip. I have become adapt at curing meats and making charcuterie and sausages, so I've been able to fill in that part of my life. Local markets carry a decent assortment of stuff as well. Heck, I can even get a portugese blood sausage right off the shelf these days.
It is ironic that Althouse posted a picture of something most Germ,ans would call a 'Neger Kuss' (Negroe's kiss).
Where is the missing picture of Darky toothpaste, Ms. Althouse.
When did this place become StormFront?
Was stationed in Germany back in the 90’s. Even though stores were closed on Sundays the downtown areas were always crowded with people out for a Sunday stroll no matter what time of the year. We went last December and was astonished to see a family hauling an elderly woman up the steep climb to Neuschwanstein. She was well into her 80’s and didnt seem very happy about it, but she was soldiering on the best she could.
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