Ang

I was just curious if it is possible to not gain weight while on vacation in Italy and Greece. I know with all the walking around that should be plenty of excercise. But I am still concerned about all the cheese that is used in their cooking. Are there plenty of healthy choices on the menus?

Patrick

Greece is really pretty easy. Wonderful grilled meats and fish, lots of vegetable, often grilled, and great salads. I find the desserts there (including baklava) just awful, so they are easy to pass up. Italy is a little more difficult. One of my favorites in much of Italy is a tagliata (varies with area), but great as sliced grilled steak served over a big bed of arugula (or rocket, if you're English), drizzled lightly with olive oil and some thin slices of good dried cheese. I eat it a lot, and don't feel too guilty if I precede it with a nice simple pasta according to the region. I am on sugarbusters and a border-line diabetic, so these things really work well for me. Now if you can lay off all that great bread and the gelato, that's the hard part. As to the gelato, it is so good, reward yourself with a very small simple scoop of some intense flavor in a cup, not one of those horribly fattening cones. I ate VERY well in Europe for the entire summer, did an incredible amount of walking and came back the exact same weight as when I left! Of course I also think all that red wine I drink there instead of my scotch robroys I drink at home helps too.

cmt

Both countries have an extremely healthful style of cooking -- lots of fresh vegetables cooked in a way that doesn't destroy them, olive oil as the primary fat, great variety of foods in Italy, very good fresh fish in Greece and coastal Italy. There are heavier choices as well, e.g., sausages of all sorts in Italy, lamb stews in Greece, but you don't have to eat large portions of those foods daily (or at all, in fact). The food is basically very well balanced, and there are plenty of "healthy" choices. That's assuming, of course, that you don't try to subsist on cannoli and baklava (both of which are loaded with protein and therefore at least nutritious for all their calories!). There is a lot of good cheese in Italy, and cheese is common in light lunch foods in Greece, but you don't HAVE to eat a lot of cheese; many (most) things are not cooked with cheese incorporated as part of the dish. (I usually lose a little weight on vacations to these places even though I eat more than usual. Just shows how important activity is.) Also, if you're getting lots of exercise and it's warm, you might not need to worry so much about eating too much salt.

Pat

Epidemeologists list the Greek diet as one of the healthiest on Earth. It's full of low-fat broiled meats, lots of fish, olive oil, vegetables.

Miles

If you are anything but American I apologise in advance for my following comment. If you are American is your statement about "healthy eating" a little hypocritical? I believe that it is - after all countries in the Mediterranean are noted for their healthy lifestyle and eating.

ethnic cook

Miles, that is a dumb, obnoxious comment, and you've already reached your quota of those today. We in USA do not have one single diet. Some people don't eat out much and don't buy prepared foods. So if we come from families of good cooks, what we now cook and eat is influenced by the kind of food our parents and grandparents and our friends' parents and grandparents prepared, that is the food of our own and our friends' ethnic backgrounds, which might be Japanese, Chinese, Indian, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Greek, Syrian. This in most cases is the food of the poor, but prepared in ways that make it interesting. Because we are not poor ike our ancestors, we probably eat more meat we can afford to buy ingredients that were ordinary in other countries, but cost a lot here because they're imported. And we do make some adjustments because of what fresh ingredients are or aren't available where we live, which can also vary according to our particular geographic area of the US and our neighborhood. So for all you know, Ang may have the world's healthiest diet at home, or maybe she learned the cooking of one little part of the Peloponnese or of Sicily from grandma and knows that must be very different from restaurant cooking of Rhodes or Crete or the Veneto or Tuscany. So don't be so snotty.

wendy

Miles, do you really believe that all 280 million Americans eat the same? Did you know that about half of Californians or their parents come from another country? That alone should make you think we have varied diets.

Anyway, I was in Italy for a month and I wouldn't worry about gaining weight. You'll be walking and most of what you eat is whole foods, so it's not necessarily unhealthy. Drink plenty of water too.

xxx

Short answer is YES, DEFINITELY.

foodie

Wendy, aren't you supposed to be in Morocco now?

Susan

I think Greece is relatively easy. My husband eats a high protein diet, with very little carbohydrates. He had no problem getting what he wanted in Greece. I, on the other hand, eat more carbs than he does - more of a balanced diet (in my opinion) with pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. as well as fruits. Again, I had no problems. I really enjoyed the food in Greece.

To Miles - I noticed in another post that you're living in Britain. Any comments on how they eat in Britain? What about all the smoking over there? People in glass houses ..........

cook

I love Greece (and England too for that matter) but Greece was among the worst for smoking. Maybe Miles thinks we all eat British food in the USA, just because we were once British colonies.

Gina

I found myself eating more salads in Greece than I ever do at home. Greek salads are *delicious*, and Greek salads made in Greece struck me as a lot yummier than Greek salads I've had here at home. So I for one ate more healthily in Greece than I do at home in the US.

eater

Also the fresh fish. Grilled whole fish. Fried tiny whole fish. The cooking may not be as interesting as Italian but there are a lot of healthy, fresh, delicious things to eat in Grecce.

Not Miles

The US does have the highest rate of overweight and obese people so Miles does have a point, however varied the food is there does seem to be a problem, don't you think?. The UK has one of the lower levels of smoking in Europe though, so Susan does not have a point.
ps you may think UK food is bad but at least it keeps us thinner.

American (eat diet, unhealthy inactivity)thy

We sit too much in the US. We drive everywhere, so we don't burn our food. England has better urban planning, with cities being cities and the rest being country, more or less.

Susan

I don't think I expressed myself very well. I wasn't saying that the UK has a high rate of smoking compared to other countries in Europe. I based my comments on my personal experiences - I've met a lot of British people who seem to smoke a lot. Secondly I didn't say that British food was bad (or I didn't think I said that). A lot of those smoking Brits didn't exactly look healthy (although maybe the tea & cigarettes helps keep their weight down).

And, by the way, I am neither British nor American. Nor Greek.

Thyra

OK, everyone might think I am insane, but I actually like UK food. I am a vegetarian and have had some really great meals there... veggie pasties in Cornwall, veggie pub food (yes, most pubs have at least 1 veggie meal) and of course, goodies at the corner sweet shop....wispas come to mind. In Greece I found myself eating lots of Greek salads, yogurt and honey for b-fest (best in the world!), but honestly I don't care for lamb and everywhere that I walked in Greece there was a corner Gyro shop with a fan blowing the scent of cooking lamb out into the street, if you don't eat or like the taste of lamb it kind of gets to you after a while, at least it did for me.

I never gain weight on vacation even though I drink and eat WAY more then I do at home, I believe this is because instead of spending 9 hours working at my desk at the office I am spending 8-10 hours a day strolling around, catching trains and seeing sights. I usually come back about 5 pounds lighter thanks to my level of activity.

foodie

Canadians ARE American. Feel free to say British food is bad. Most of us have probably experienced it. But the Brits don't smoke as much as the Greeks. Nice people in England (and Greece and Italy), but would rather eat in Greece, or better yet Italy.

sandi

Even though we ate pasta more than once a day, we still lost weight. I feel that's because we had no fried foods (fast food) and no beer..and we walked many miles a day. So, it is possible to not gain weight and eat like crazy!

xxx

Ang, are you surprised how many responses you got? I guess food, the thought of travel and issues of ethnicity bring out the chatter. Add a few insults and the mention of smoking, and we'll produce a tome in no time.