Staying Slim and Healthy: 2 Lessons Learned from Europeans

By Scott Brundage, TPC.com Manager

My little brother recently traveled to Italy for Worlds Duathlon.  As his biggest fan, fellow athlete and manager of Health-FX.net, I figured I could help him.  So I followed him across the world to offer support.  Admittedly, I was more excited about tasting the wine, the food and checking out the women.  Doing so, I witnessed two lessons from Europeans that most Americans could benefit from.  I want to use them to explode two health myths.

Most Europeans aren’t fat.  This phenomenon may dumbfound the Americans parroting the health news media, magazines, and talk shows.  These media sources suggest that fatty foods and too much coffee can cause a host of diseases such as diabetes, heart ailments, high blood pressure, and ultimately death.  It’s bogus.  Americans could learn quite a bit from the Europeans about living a slender, healthy, and happy life.

Here are a couple of myths and facts:

Myth 1: Eating foods high in saturated fat like butter will make you fat and clog your arteries.

Fact: Butter (not margarine) is a saturated fat (not a Trans fat or hydrogenated fat), and is a large part of the diets of some of the world’s healthiest and most slender cultures.  In an effort to seek a longer shelf life, the manufacturers of margarine (largely a trans fat) have hydrogenated its constituents to create a polyunsaturated fat.

The by-products of polyunsaturated fats include a staggering number of chemicals, to which the health ramifications should keep it far from the “edible” category.  Just one of the effects of consuming trans fats include a marked increase in blood pressure, blood clotting, insulin production and inflammatory response—to name just a few.

For too long butter has been given a bad rap while it actually has a number of health benefits, such as increasing absorption of fat soluble vitamin A and many more. Vitamin A is responsible for a slew of processes that increase health, such as preserving vision, reducing the risk of heart disease, and cancer, as well as aiding immune function, boosting gene transcription, and ensuring healthy-looking skin. Butter is also a rich source of lecithin, which assists in the proper assimilation of cholesterol and other fat constituents, and is a rich source of selenium, a powerful anti-cancer nutrient…Duh!? 

Myth 2: Drinking coffee will give you cancer and is the cause a number of other heath dangers.

Fact: Americans have the reported highest incidence of malignant tumors (cancer) per capita in the world.   Meanwhile, the chemical metabolites from coffee have been proven to be non-carcinogenic. Also, caffeine has been proven to block the production of neurotransmitter and sympathetic nervous system down regulator adenosine, thus increasing thermogenesis, lypolysis (fat burning), and maximizing focus.

IMPROTANT NOTE: I am by no means advocating DRINKING YOURSELF SILLY with coffee and using it to replace a meal or as an energy crutch, but an espresso (or small coffee without sugar and other nasty shit) after lunch or dinner certainly isn’t going to kill you – as some health gurus insist.

Because Europeans don’t fall victim to these health myths, they live much healthier and happier lives, shown by world health reports. Looking around, you can see it in the faces of the people—all smiles, relaxed, and at ease.

For three hours in the afternnoon, shops close and people walk home to take a nap, relax over a glass of wine or perhaps get some exercise. 

A note on napping; sleep deprivation and irregular sleep patterns have been shown to increase food cravings and cause spikes in insulin, thus causing you to store fat.

It seems too many people today are on the go hustling and bustling ‘til they crash as soon as they get home. When you do away with these health myths and embrace the customs of other countries that have proven that their lifestyles aid health, you too can then start living a more slender and fulfilling life.

Salute’ to adding years to your life and life to your years!  And long live the laid-back, healthy, Italian lifestyle.