Americans Who Traveled To Europe Share 40 Culture Shocks That They Experienced

I lived in America for a while and got used to the food. Now if anyone brings me a snack I used to love I can practically feel the cavities forming in real time

Oh, definitely! American bread to me is weird. So sweet! I must admit that it's good for some time, but quickly gets a bit meh for me (personal opinion!) I'm always flabbergasted when I see how much sugar, salt (and food colouring) etc is in ... everything in the US. And I'm under the impression that the more unhealthy (and cheep) ingredients, the more processed, the cheaper it gets. ^^'

With "junk food" I meant the highly processed stuff that is just everywhere (sorry ^^'). Because yes, everywhere is sugar, or corn syrup added. And in most stuff a high amount of salt (to the point where both acts contradicting eachother enough so one could just leave most of both out and would get a richer taste) and than fat. In Europe most families have two working parents/partners too, but it's usually a 37 hour week, with a lot of holidays. And because cooking at home, from hole food, is common it's not a chore to most, it's even fun for a lot of people. Of course some don't cook (and even those who do don't to it always) but instead throw a pizza in the oven, or make some canned stuff, but even that stuff is more healthy than the US equivalent. Otherwise people often Wouldn't buy it and it would taste even less "home made". Long story short: We cook way more and whole food is more of a standard. And way cheaper too (which was my initial intention to say with my comment).

I know. ^^' We had to search for juice without added sugar and when we found one it was expansive and proudly said "no added sugar". And everything was unnecessarely sweet (A friend joked that they were surprised that there isn't sugar in the salt. :P). And than corn syrup. There's this episode of Supernatural, where they can't eat anything with it (for reasons) and had a hard time finding anything without. Though a bit exaggerated it feels like not far from the truth. The thing is, that it's far more common in Europe to cook at home from scratch, to simply use whole food. For example: Today I had grilled salmon with Potato-Cucumber salad, the dressing was yogurt with herbs, a bit of salt and lemon..."skin" (what's the word? xD), some sweetness came from slightly browned onions. It's not expansive, easy to get and make.

S**t food is subsidized in this country, therefore cheaper. Preserved food is easier to transport and store, therefore cheaper. Money is at the center of this and Id even go as far to say that the for profit medical system-big pharma-in this country is reaping the rewards of a sick nation, they don't want it to change, and they pay off the people in the government who could change things. But really, we don't need to rely on the government but we don't care enough to pay attention to what we're eating, to support local, or to garden. So we but overly priced veggies in Ohio that were grown in depleted soil in California and we wonder why we're all sick and the earth is dying. Sorry, my rant is over.

Because sugar is one of the cheapest flavor enhancers available to food manufacturers.

Sugar is cheap, corn syrup even cheaper, salt and fat aren't expansive and if you mix it together right and get people used to the taste early on, it's addictive, simple and easy to sell.

And fries with mayo

And one from Antwerp too, hi there!

LOVE Liège! and Dinant...and tiny little places in the middle of nowhere. one of the best pics i ever took was of a cow standing outlined in morning sun in Ham.

When I first went to the UK (in 1971) I lived in a 400 year old thatched cottage in a small village near Winchester. I visited an olderly lady in an even older home who still had a dirt floor! Many homes still only had the fireplace as heating. There are many ancient buildings in the UK and Europe (there would be more if so many hadn't been bombed out during the war).

They had burning parties and destroyed all the electric rail systems that were built as well.

Interestingly, if you look at old pictures of many American downtowns (I'm thinking of Houston), they were actually walkable and were destroyed to be more friendly to cars.

It's more complicated to make narrow streets usable for pedestrians AND cars, when they were built for pedestrians only thought. Instead of planning it for both to begin with. Still we can walk AND drive almost everywhere, whilst in the US the possibilities for pedestrians are quite... limited. The more space is true, of course, but I guess you're not always going hundreds of miles to the next supermarket. It IS simply not very pedestrian friendly. Sadly. (Also, even in the US most people wouldn't have had a car/vehicle not sooo long ago.

Oh, definitely! I'm talking about overall US, not every single place.

I did a lot of walking in NYC and in Boston.

That's really how it seems someplaces. At least to an "outsiders". ^^'

I love his books!

Had to google the book. Looks intriguing. And yes, the space is a thing. When I was in the US the first time I was really puzzled about the not quite ideal public transport and the lack of a sidewalk on many places I'd expect one to be here.

Absolutely moronic too. Not only do you make it harder to go somewhere (even to buy things, as you said) but it also makes everything seem less...nice. If you know what I mean? Not that it isn't nice, it just has a more uncomfortable vibe to it.

That just reminded me of this song from Hadestown, called "Why We Build the Wall": https://youtu.be/Q1VDxMe54Og (which a lot of Trumpists took seriously and applauded, sigh).