Switzerland: Are you eating healthier?

Oh, ha. Perhaps Tetra Pak eggs are now all the rage since it's been five years...(although, I've never seen them!)

An ancient discussion that rises out of the ashes like a phoenix...

I'd make a bet that you did eat them... they are totally normal in the lower end of gastronomy. Or have you never wondered why the egg slices on a supermarket sandwhich are never the "white only" ones you get when you cut a normal egg? not only the ones in the supermarket fridge but also the one sthe prepare at the snack counters... look closely at them...

I'll give you a hint:

I had no idea!!

Ha, yes. I knew they were used in the supermarket, I meant I've never seen a Tetra Pak of either just egg whites or yolks in Coop or Migros etc.

M old mother back in SA also said that. But there, there was/is the poblem of "irradiated" foods (longer shelf life, nutrients are "locked in")

Ever noticed the size of those shoppers whose trolleys contain "diet" drinks and foods? .... I`ve never seen a slim person partaking of them.

those eggs are amazing, where can I buy some in CH?

I tend to eat less healthy because my preferred healthy food options are not available ehre in Switzerland. Therefore, when I'm on the road it's down to nasty Bratwurst, Rösti and all the other common Swiss foods.

I'm sad to say I drink wayyyy more than I ever did in the UK, and also find I eat takeaway slightly more than back home too.

With the higher cost of fruit and veg and just the lack of choice, I must say I miss UK food!

I'm curious - what fruit and veg can you get in the U.K. that you can't get here?

I definitely eat healthier here than back home. Was never a fan of veges at all sadly but I am so happy things changed when i moved here from 0 veges to not feeling complete if meal doesn't have any sort of salad.

I just find the choices ( of food in general) limited unless you go to a mega big supermarket, which is not usually possible for me.

Guess I miss Marks and Spencer

ditto

lack of choice. means i have a less varied diet

limit hours to shop. means instead of buying food every day, i now buy every 2-3 days and eat out on the days i don't manage to buy food.

shelf life of food here is appalling. with the exception of salads.

ones that aren't rotten.

Most likely in a Japanese food shop.

I think the answer is yes I do eat better here, but it's due to a number of factors rather than just being in Switzerland.

For example, it has a lot to do with your lifestyle, what kind of food you eat. I eat more healthily if I have the time to prepare meals and plan a shopping list. I'm sure that if I was working in a big city, with long hours it would be very easy just to pick up a burger for the train ride home. But this lifestyle can be converted if you take some time to make a sandwich or some snacks in the morning to take with you.

Here I tend to eat salad almost everyday, with homemade dressing; whereas in the UK, people I know see salad as a piece of iceberg lettuc with an orangy coloured tomato, and some dried out cucumber, maybe served with a Heinz sachet of 'salad dressing'. Not really appetizing.

I love that there isn't as many takeaway options as in the UK, infact when I was living in Birmingham, we had over 30 different takeaway leaflets through our letter box in just 5 months. Here the nearest place to get takeaway is the next city 20 minutes away, and even then I'm sure they close around dusk.

However, saying that, I eat way more cheese, cream, milk here than I ever do in the UK. Traditional Swiss food is far from 'healthy' but I think that the way of living is generally healthier.

Are they actually eggs or "eggs" as in some chemical paste manufactured to taste like the original? I have seen these, and am realizing how many times I've eaten them on my Coop sandwiches. Does that mean the egg salad isn't actually from cooked and chopped eggs?

No idea about the Japanese ones

But the "factory slices" you get here are most likely "real egg material" put together in a way that the manufacturer think you prefer to buy... but I am no specialist and after the 2010 discussion in Germany "if you are only allowed to call something ham if it actually includes ham"... I would not dare a bet.

You can buy them at the Aligro near Lausanne. Don't know if you have an Aligro near you. They are really gross though.

Yes. They are eggs. Apparently, they separate the yolk and the white and cook them in some tubes. We got them once to make egg salad. They were really really disgusting though. The few slices you get in the sandwiches are fine (I guess) as you don't really taste them. But the whole thing together in an egg salad was vile. We threw it all out.

What some people seem to forget with processed food is that usually the quality of the raw ingredients is really poor to begin with and so whatever you try to do to it, the end result is still going to taste bad.

The eggs used in these egg rolls aren't your Grade A free-range eggs but probably come from some massive battery operation in the Netherlands.

Food manufacturers try and do something about the bad taste in these products by adding flavour enhancers and far too much of salt and sugar and fat.

To bring this back on topic, the fact that there really aren't so many heavily processed foods and ready-meals in Switzerland means that, in reality, most people are eating healthier food than they were before they came here.

They're made of real eggs (I used to know someone whose husband worked for a company here in CH that made them). The eggs are/were imported from China in huge amounts, the yolks and whites separated and filled into two tubes where the thinner tube (for the yolks) fitted inside the larger tube (for the whites), then cooked.