Sorry USA, Europeans have better food and here's why.

T

here

seems to be an almost universal experience: when Americans visit Europe for an extended period, they begin to feel

better

, and although a good part of this feeling of health is due to exercise and lifestyle, many people

have

argued that t

here

seems to be something different. Continuing with the

food

, is there any truth behind this? Is the

food

here in Europe really higher quality than the food we get in the United States or is it more of a fixation than a fact? To understand this question we

have

to look at what quality really means, take a look at things like access to food, the importance of seasonal foods, food production, food regulations and finally the taste of food , because well, quality food should taste good too, so let's get started.

To be honest, the comments section of many of my YouTube videos might suggest otherwise. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to make blanket statements like food in Europe is universally

better

than food in the United States or vice versa, in fact the quality of food in both regions can vary widely depending on several factors, including the specific country or region within Europe or in the United States, the type of food product, production methods, regulations and of course individual preferences, regardless of the region you live in, you can find bags of Extraordinarily good food. and exceptionally bad food, but if we are going to try to understand the differences in food quality, I think the best place to start is to simply look at who has access to quality food, something that is actually surprisingly difficult to find in many regions, many of You may be familiar with the term food deserts.

A geographic area where residents have restricted access to healthy and affordable food options, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, or are nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance when a person lives in a food desert. This generally means that a supermarket is more than a mile away in an urban area or more than 10 miles away in a rural area. Of course, this may be manageable if your family has a car, but 2.2% of Americans live in food deserts and I don't have a car or access to public transportation, making it nearly impossible to achieve food security and you might be thinking about Ashton, that's only 2.2%, but that's about 2.2 million people, that's the entire city of Chicago, but access to food is not enough.

It's not just about proximity, it's also about access to healthy, affordable options, and when we don't have healthy options around us, this is actually something called a food swamp, places where there are a lot of unhealthy food options. regarding healthy food choices and this link between food swamps and diet-related behavior and obesity has been well documented in many studies. People's choices about what to eat are severely limited by the options available and what they can afford, and many food deserts contain an overabundance of fast food chains selling cheap meat and foods. Dairy-based foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt, processed foods such as pastries, chips and sodas typically sold at Corner Deli, convenience stores and gas stations, are often just as unhealthy and, Again, this is something that both Europe and the United States actually have in common with each other, however, the United States is an outlier among other equally wealthy nations when it comes to the prevalence of food insecurity: one in six Americans report running out of food at least once a year, while in many European countries this figure is closer to 1,120 and the growth rate of food insecurity in the US is much higher than that of many Other developed nations in the late 1960s, the United States had 9.6 million food insecure people by 2021, this number had increased four and a half times to 44.2 million or about 13%. of the total population in 20120, for comparison, 8.6% of the EU population could not afford a meal with fish meat or a vegetarian equivalent every two days and the fact that there are more Americans than Europeans with Food insecurity should surprise us all after The United States has twice as much farmland as the EU, more than 1 billion acres versus 418 million acres respectively, but here's the kicker: the EU has five times as many farms with 10.6 million with an average size of 39 acres compared to just 2 million.

American farms averaging 485 acres in the United States Federal agricultural policy has traditionally focused on price or income support programs concentrated on row crops, including grains, oilseeds and cotton, as well as sugar and dairy, but in contrast, the EU, under its common agricultural policy, provides broad support. Regarding a broader range of agricultural and food products, including livestock products and fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, the EU tends to place greater emphasis on rural development and allows frequent exemptions for identifiably small agricultural units from certain cross-compliance restrictions and payment limitations and, ultimately, This means that fresh fruits, vegetables and meat are not only more readily available from local farmers to local consumers, but they also tend to be cheaper.

It is clear that food quality depends on food quality, but access to quality food is not simply about Once again, much of this also comes down to consumer choice and preferences over types. of foods that they want to have in front of them and, for me, one of the biggest examples of this is the preference of consumers here in Europe for seasonal foods. Top chefs often consider cooking with seasonal produce to be the key to tastier meals, but whether for financial reasons or time constraints Americans seem to want their produce available every month of the year, there are virtually few changes in the vast majority of Americans.

In supermarkets all year round you will find exactly the same product, whether in July or January and this ultimately affects the taste. Buying out of season means that the produce must be picked long before it ripens and then shipped very long distances from the southern United States, Mexico, or Central America, such travel can eliminate the flavor of fresh fruits and vegetables, for example. So when you hear people from older generations say things like food from 5050 years ago used to taste better, they might not actually be wrong, maybe the best example is tomatoes, they are incredibly popular and are often considered the most valuable vegetable crop in the world.

The flavor of tomato is determined by sugars and acids that activate our taste receptors and a set of volatile compounds that activate our olfactory receptors, the combination of the two creating the unique flavor that makes a perfect fresh pasta sauce or, hey, my favorite of BLT, so delicious nowadays. Tomatoes are bred to travel long distances without bruising and remain in storage without spoiling, according to a study 207 published in the Journal of Science. This genetic change has led to a significant drop in the volatile compounds that contribute to tomato aroma, meaning we are now getting a less flavorful product, while the tomato certainly gets a lot of attention.

It is not unique, there are many crops. They have been bred to adapt to modern farming methods, which also means they have most likely lost a lot of the flavor they once had, but don't get me wrong, Europe definitely still has their produce year-round in their supermarkets too. . I can still buy oranges and bananas every month of the year, but the difference is that locals generally demand and pay for better quality and, ultimately, better taste. Right now it's one of my favorite times of year because kale is in season and I can Buy it in bulk from local growers here in my region and ask any German about their passion for asparagus season.

There are entire festivals dedicated to this seasonal vegetable and local grocery stores put out special white asparagus peeling machines so you can enjoy this delicacy. At Peak Freshness and it's not just Germany, the Italians are equally passionate about the tomato growing season and the French have incredibly high standards for their cheese and there are few compromises when it comes to olive oil consumed along the coast of the Do and the Sea of ​​Aan and the purchase. Foods that are in season not only mean that consumers can enjoy the flavors of that particular time of year, but they are also more likely to support local producers and farmers, which brings me to my next investigation.

Point shows that approximately 12% of Americans shop at farmers markets regularly and, despite the growing number of fresh produce markets available to American citizens, 93% of organic sales in the United States still occur in a conventional supermarket and there really is a very important connection when we talk about the quality of food. When it comes to the supply chains that give us access to those quality foods, there's a guy named Henry CLE who's a professor of horiculture at the University of Florida and he spent years developing a nutrient-dense tomato that also tastes great. Well, that's what a panel of 500 experts called one of the most delicious tomatoes on the planet and it's not actually grown in the foothills of Mount Vesuvius like Italy's famous San Marzano tomatoes, but rather it's grown in Gainesville, Florida.

Tomato CLE, the jewel of the garden is durable and has an excellent shelf life and history of disease resistance properties that growers are concerned about, so why is it not available on store shelves nationwide? Unfortunately, the garden jewel is too small - about half or a third the size of an average supermarket tomato - and that means more labor would be needed to pick and therefore a bit more cost. Yes, that's right, the tomatoes Americans eat in Mass have been bred for things like durability, yield, high yield, and disease resistance. Frankly, delicious doesn't count for much, which is why you see giant strawberries and fist-sized apples on store shelves, since Americans like their produce, and large fruit is more efficient to grow.

Growers go to great lengths to increase the size of their fruit, even at the expense of flavor, but that's not necessarily the consumer preference here. By comparison, in Europe, on average, 15% of all EU farms sell more than half of their production directly to consumers, with the highest proportion of farms involved in direct sales located in Greece, Slovakia and France, where a huge 50% of farmers who sell vegetables and/or honey do so within what are called short food supply chains (abbreviated sfsc) a supply chain involving a limited number of economic operators committed to cooperation and The close geographical and social relationships between producers, processors and consumers for farmers who sell agricultural products through these short food supply chains allows them to retain a greater proportion of that final sales price, which can represent an important source of income for them, allowing them to reinvest it in their farm or modernize their production processes.

There are also benefits for consumers who get traceable fresh and seasonal products. known by a producer, they can reconnect the food they consume with the agricultural process. Additionally, such local markets and SFSC allow low-income people to purchase healthy foods at an affordable price more generally. They create a better understanding and trust relationship between Producers and Consumers Plus products sold in local food systems are generally produced in an environmentally sustainable way using fewer inputs such as pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, animal feed, water and energy. They require less packaging than supermarkets and less energy for storage, as they are fresh and Less seasonal transportation also means energy savings and reduced environmental impact.

I'm going to preface the statement by saying this is 100% my own perception and opinion, but I would say that consumer preference for seasonal foods produced by local farmers is much higher. stronger here in Europe and thisComing from someone whose father is a farmer in the United States, whether shopping at a farmers market or displaying and marketing regional foods in a traditional supermarket, in my opinion, consumers in Europe have a much stronger preference for supporting farmers. local farmers and shorten food supply chains for their food. I've done a lot of videos in the past where I talk about things like food additives and chemicals that might be banned in one region but allowed in another, and part of that discussion is also how different the regulators are between the United States in Europe, specifically in how cautious they are about new additives and chemicals, and if you want to see more, I'll go ahead and link those videos down below in the description, but the bottom line is that in general, food in both Europe and the United States is incredibly safe to eat, but what is extremely interesting is that when it comes to food quality, Europeans and Americans seem to ask very different things from their regulators.

In the US, the main concern of regulators. it's security and tax revenue rather than quality, but in the EU there are Bordeaux, Burgundy, Schwarzfeld Tuscany subregions and each has rules on actual production practices and, most importantly, a legally regulated designation of origin certification protected. This European regulation aims to guarantee reputation. of regional products and inform consumers that products bearing the logo of the protected designation of origin comply with the conditions of production and origins specified by the designation and this regulation applies to a whole series of agricultural products where there is a link between the product itself and a specific geographical location things such as wine cheese ham sausages olives beers fruits vegetables and bread foods such as parmesan cheese regano gorona asiago and champagne that can be labeled as such only if they come from the region designated, for example, to be marketed under the rork designation of origin a cheese must be processed from raw milk of a certain breed of sheep and the animals must be raised in a specific territory and the cheese obtained must be refined in a very specific cellar in a very specific French department where it must be sealed with mold spores prepared from traditional strains endemic to these same Sellers and listen, I understand that many of these rules seem extraordinarily complex medieval and perhaps a little bourgeois, but the truth is that these people really take this stuff seriously because these Foods not only have inherent cultural value but also a tradition that is deeply rooted. in the flavor and the production and that's a heritage that they want to protect and that sense of food tradition and heritage, although it doesn't really seem to be that strong in the United States, frankly, the only thing I can really think of is that it could be something applicable is Kentucky bourbon, but I think ultimately if we're trying to get to the bottom of whether or not European food is higher quality than American food, I think we also need to talk a little more about taste . and yes, I know it's really difficult because taste is subjective.

Taste is just one component of what is known as flavor, which is an incredibly complex mix of what the tongue literally tastes, what the nose smells, things like texture and how all of that comes together to determine our perception and, Ultimately, I think it's really difficult to paint the entire region with one brush when it comes to flavor. I mean, you can find incredibly tasty foods in both the United States and Europe, but I will say that as an American, I would generally agree with the statement that Americans tend to care more about convenience and size than they do about size. flavor and, if tomatoes are a sure indicator, European tomatoes, especially this type, simply taste better because they were bred and harvested with that as a top priority and you know, I've been very lucky to have traveled to about 15 European countries different, which I know definitely leaves me with a lot of places I still have to go, but one of the things I found What is universally true is that the food here in Europe tends to be a little simpler and more focused on the individual flavor of the ingredients and that's quite different from the highly processed foods that dominate the American landscape and I can't help it.

I think having tastier base ingredients is probably also a contributing factor to the European approach to food and health. You know the average amount of ingredients in a salad or pasta in an American restaurant is 8 to 10, while in Italy the average salad or pasta only has four or five ingredients and listen, I'm a Midwestern girl at heart. who loves ranch dressing as much as the next person, but I can totally understand that if lettuce and tomatoes taste so good, why would you want to cover it up? with a strong dressing and maybe that's why there is a much more dominant use of simply oil and vinegar to dress your salads here in Europe than in the United States, but I would also bet that maybe one of the biggest differences between Europe and in the United States, all kinds of Coes, even the consumers themselves, the culture of convenience is a real thing in the US and often, again, the taste of these super seeds, maybe the products delicious foods are more easily and widely available in Italy because Italians will not tolerate anything less.

Maybe French producers get more excited about their microclimates and soil conditions and the impact that that has on food and wine when interacting with local traditions than maybe American food producers do on average, but here it is where I would love to hear from you. in the comments section again, taste is inherently subjective, so what do you subjectively think about the taste of food you've experienced in Europe or the United States? Was there a particular dish that caught your eye and really blew your mind? perspective on taste and flavor and how you think it ties into how that particular food or ingredient was produced, let me know in the comments section below and as always guys, if you enjoyed what you saw today, be sure to hit the thumbs up button and For more content from Typ Ashton, hit the subscribe button, so see you next Sunday, cheers.