And have a look through your employer; many have agreements with gyms. In fact, if you want more info on gyms, I suggest a new thread asking
real terms? About the same....
Quite right Lob - though I gave up on getting upset about spelling errors / grammar errors in the subject lines a while back - talk about fighting a losing battle... Maybe you are just trying to pick on your fellow mod? Mind you - Litespeed's writing skills are definitely above average around here you must admit!
Anyway - to get back on topic I found this thread quite interesting - especially to see that so many answers came in on both sides of the fence. I think how you answer this poll depends very much on which country you come from and what your lifestyle was like before. If you come from a country where it is normal for the average person to eat a lot of crap then the lack of choice and the fact that you now mostly eat at home probably means you eat slightly more healthily than before. If you come from a country where awareness of one's diet is a little more usual then you are probably frustrated by the lack of access to good/cheap sources of protein (or perhaps even awareness of the fact that it exists). Someone else mentioned MSG - something which ticks me off as well - especially since if I ask about it at a Chinese restaurant they just look at me like I come from the moon.
Generally the Swiss seem to much slimmer than many other countries which we may be able to mention, but I'm not sure if it is because they are more aware of diet - I think it also has a lot to do with portion sizes - I think we'd all agree that they are sometimes very small. I've left restaurants on more than one occassion feeling hungry and cheated. Then of course there's the fact of less choice / lack of convenience that others have mentioned. I'm sure we've all been in those situations where we come home too late from work, all supermarkets are shut and it comes down to trying to find something at a service station or making do with the cornflakes in the cupboard...
Those of you who may have food intolerances (well those of you who know about them that is) may have also noticed that it can sometimes be hard to track down certain items such as gluten free products, etc. Ever seen GI/GL numbers on a product in Switzerland? In some countries it would be common to see many products with such labelling (and a population which is also reasonably aware of what such things mean).
I've often wondered what life is like for vegetarian is like here (Evilshell - why not start a thread on this? Someone did before, but it was so stupid that I had to kill it - you can do a better job). A few years ago I had a Swiss vegetarian girlfriend. I was amazed at what a poor choice she had in restaurants and hearing things like "But we have chicken/fish". I think vegetarians would surely have a good axe to grind in this country...
Litespeed's fair game and I hope he'd return the compliment
The Swiss are a bunch of smokers who are vain, especially single females. Correct me if I'm wrong?
Certainly around Zurich there is a tendancy to be skinny and wear black clothes. I must go past the Kauflauten too often?
Self-obsessed and materialistic? Unlikely to want friends who are: fat, poor, foreign....?
Personally the veggies here go off too quickly and are not best-quality. My ol' lady prefers shopping in Italy or France. But Swiss stores have improved in the last 10 years - with regards to niche products and variety.
Oooh, who's not had their nap today?
Female people all over the world tend to have a higher regard for their appearance than Male people, even the single ones. However, I agree with you about the skinny in black thing... who wants to chat up a corpse?
Don't shop at supermarkets. Try your local grocer - they always have superior fruit and veg and are often CHEAPER for the everyday varieties. I can only speak as a Zürich resident, but there are loads of grocers dotted around town, as there are bakeries, butchers, candlestick makers...
Mark, you are right, it depends where you come from. Having arrived from Australia myself, I find the quality of 'fresh' produce disappointing, but what is hardest to get used to is the seasonality of veggies, fruit and even some meat here.
Oh, and the lack of affordable, fresh fish, let alone fresh prawns such as Gambas!
What amazes me most is the food labelling, it hardly is worth the trouble of reading. No info on saturated versus poly/mono fats, let alone transfats. It seems the Swiss have not heard of these or do not care. (Note that a 1.5% of increase of transfat in the Western diet is responsible for 23% of the rise in cardiovascular disease, an astonishing contribution!). Sometimes sugars are not even mentioned (just carbs), and the amount of fat in dairy here is also amazing.
But then again, if the Swiss are on average thinner than many Europeans, the reasons they are thin despite a seemingly unhealthy diet are obviously complex.
I still feel the country is about 5 to 10 years behind though on general awareness about diet, both amongst the public and manufacturers.
I was once told the Swiss are very 'bio' oriented and therefore tend to avoid preservatives. So DaveA, are you saying the Swiss use more rather than less? Is this mostly in marinated meat or in other things as well? Thanks...
Ok, try an experiment. Go to a chinese take away and ask if they add MSG. I suspect answers will almost always be "what's that" and "yes". Then ask your Swiss friends if they are concerned about eating things with MSG - see how often you get an embarassed "what's that?".
Sure they might be keen on bio stuff - but in reality they don't really know what it means (I mean REALLY means). They probably also buy max havellar bananas because they think they are making a difference in the third world.
So preference for bio and knowledge of diet and nutrition are two very different things... Lack of knowledge in this subject is not just restricted to Switzerland, but some countries have better awareness about certain things than others.
Yes, but that was the same when I asked shops in Perth. They know what it is once you get passed the language barrier, but they reacted more like, of course, what would Asian food be without it?
And that is true in a sense, even though there are healthier and nicer alternatives, MSG provides the fifth sense of taste. So from their perspective, it is a cheap way of improving the taste of their meals.
Somehow, I am less worried about the occassional bit of MSG than about pesticides, preservatives in every day food, let alone the amount of antibiotics and hormones in milk, cow's meat, chickens and pigs. It is these hormones which increase many kinds of cancers.
Well, food IS seasonal. Why do you think that's so? We're used to having wine, fruit, meat, you-name-it flown in from all corners of the planet and thus forget the cyclic nature of our food.
Lamb is traditionally eaten in Spring; Strawberrys taste yuck in December. There are reasons for this.
I don't purchase wine / meat / fruit from outside Europe (ok, maybe the odd pineapple) - not for snob reasons - because I think it's NUTS shipping from California / South Africa / Chile all those resources I can readily find from my own neighbourhood, season permitting.
If it's out of season, I generally don't buy it. My diet is non-the-poorer and the goods have travelled a relatively short distance.
Not to mention the bloody environmental damage 365 day availability causes. Carbon footprints are real, but nobody cares (I know, I'm ranting, allow me) so long as it's cheap and convenient. Meat is expensive here and that, to me, is reassuring.
(I'm NOT a Troll!!!)
Go to a steak restaurant here and ask for a naked steak. Report back.
dave
Would love to have a steak. Should anyone be interested in finding out the results of ordering a steak, naked (was that right?) and would like to contribute the expenses, I'll go...
I think you'll find, clothed or not, the steak will taste nothing like God intended. Which is more than you can say for a turnip.
dave
ps: Kings Cave is worst culprit IMO
My wife said this to me today whilst driving in zuri, I was telling her about the jabbas of england and added not many here that i have seen ..... she replied exactly your comment hahaha
For those who need reminding, a picture, which has quite a place in the hearts of many of us, I'd like to presume.
"That's no Star..."
Yes I know it is seasonal. I am saying that if you live in Oz, you are spoiled because the growing season is firstly so much longer, secondly, we in the colder parts get fruit from the more tropical areas where they grow continuously.
But yes, I agree with you, Coriander is flown in by plane from Thailand and ends up here in Asian stores, and emu steak is flown in from South-Africa, and our kiwis come from New Zealand. Quite insane.
Mark, can you explain why Max Havelaar is failing? By the way, are you aware of the origin of the term? It would be quite sad if it is not working, considering where the inspiration came from (read the novel by Multatuli if you haven't yet).
See the following article: http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/...81&sid=6936668
Is it not better to buy Max Havelaar labeled products (they seem to be doing something about fair trade) thant normal ones?
I find the vegetarian food choice in CH much better than in UK. Mind you I don't eat in restaurants.
Tetra-pak egg? Good grief indeed. Makes me feel a bit ill!
I'm eating healthier in CH because I'm older and not because of what they serve here although the salads are very good here
Phoenix threads are hardly anything special these days, but this one beats most... nobody replied between 2006 and today!
what's a Phoenix thread?