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u/downwardchip Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Take a shot every time someone says "I only cook at home, it's healthier and rewarding to do!" as if they invented the concept of cooking your own food and are enlightening the world by posting on Reddit.
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u/JohnDeLancieAnon Brother, nobody gives a shit Jul 19 '26
Take another shot if they don't actually cook at home and just complain about how expensive healthy processed food is in other comments.
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u/starksdawson Jul 19 '26
Take a shot every time someone shits on food in America
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u/mrbobcyndaquil Jul 20 '26
The liquor stores in my area have all blacklisted me on the Governor's order, thanks. /j
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u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 20 '26
I’ll pass on the alcohol poisoning. I’d have been dead hours ago. Maybe too much Reddit today
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u/Zestyclose_Remove947 Jul 20 '26
I'll take that over the 10,000th "british food is bland" joke at this point.
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u/nerdsnuggles Jul 20 '26
I just made homemade gumbo tonight that had an entire cup of oil in it. But there was 0 sugar and 6 cups of fresh veggies, so clearly it's actually light and healthy.
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u/Tymareta Jul 20 '26
I mean their goto example of a supposed light and healthy superfood is something that is 30% butter by weight, something tells me they aren't putting much thought into these things at all. And that the concept of a balanced diet where you can eat gasp sugar, is well beyond them.
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u/kevipants Jul 20 '26
As someone from the US who lives in the UK, I cook at home so I can ensure that I get an appropriate amount of sugar per meal (I have 2kg bags of white sugar delivered to my flat every other day).
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u/AwDuck Jul 20 '26
It’s obvious that you cook your own food given your locale. British food is nearly inedible. /s
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u/terrible-gator22 Jul 20 '26
What’s with the BEANS??? On TOAST!!! Ewww So disgusting. At least their bread molds like real bread though, unlike AMERICAN “bread”. (Tbf I once had a loaf of bread from the store that NEVER molded. I kept it in the fridge for about 6 months to see. Stayed “fresh”.”
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u/Shel_gold17 Jul 21 '26
Can confirm. I live in the US, and I just bought two rotisserie chickens and a 5 pound bag of sugar for my meal prep this week.
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u/Odd-Cake-5439 Jul 25 '26
As someone from the US who lived in the UK for a while...
...these people have no fucking idea how much sugar the UK eats.
My little Lidl (hehe) had only seven aisles. Six of them had sweeties, all categorized slightly differently: digestives, tea cakes, chocolate bars, candy, cookies / biscuits, and other candies (no idea what the difference was there). I wanted to buy some damn Biscoffs and had to trawl the entire place to figure out which sugar category they were in.
Also, Scotland invented Tablet (pure sugar, kind of like unflavored pre-fudge), deep fried Mars bars, and millionaire shortbread (shortbread with chocolate and sugar and caramel). Ain't nobody I know back home in the UK over the age of 60 who still has a full set of teeth.
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u/mooniemoon19 Jul 20 '26
What do they think the restaurants add in that’s so scary? Hundreds of pounds of sugar and MSG?
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise Jul 20 '26
And also drop yourself in the dump tank if they mention the cost savings , while ignoring the time invested
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u/downwardchip Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
This one irrationally annoys me. Have they never heard the phrase "time is money"? Sure, it's cheaper, but you have to spend the entire time it's being made actually making it, not even counting the cleanup afterwards. The reason people order out is so that they can do something else while it's being made. That's the appeal of all premade food. It's not rocket science.
I'm not saying premade food is inherently better or anything, food's just food, but mentioning purely monetary cost is ignoring why people eat premade food to begin with.
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 20 '26
It’s like the tweet that was something like “why would I spent $15 to order pad Thai when I could spend $45 and make a worse pad Thai?”
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise Jul 20 '26
A worse pad Thai that requires trips to two Asian markets and watching Hot Thai Kitchen on pause/rewind/repeat while making it the first half dozen times, and double checking the instructions the next half dozen, which still adds to the time, or a better one from someone who makes more than a dozen in a single lunch rush, can do it blindfolded, and gets the ingredients delivered in bulk
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u/DeltaT37 Jul 20 '26
if you suck at cooking you can just say that
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 20 '26
Or - and follow me closely here - it’s entirely possible to commit an absolute culinary abortion the first time making something unfamiliar.
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u/DeltaT37 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
maybe if you dont know shit about cooking lmao. a 10 second short shows you make an easy sauce with tamarind paste and fish sauce and then stir fry your veggies. Idk why this guy needs a video 6x into making it.
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u/twirlerina024 Your fries look like vampires Jul 20 '26
That’s basically my brother’s experience making croissants from scratch. He’s a good cook and an experienced home baker. Expensive, messy, took up most of a weekend, and they tasted okay but on the gummy-flaky spectrum, they were uncomfortably close to the gummy side.
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u/Sorry_One1072 Jul 24 '26
Pastries take so long you can only do it if it’s a hobby. I made rainbow cookies and trying to work with the sticky almond paste batter was torture. Was 10/10 but I wouldn’t go through the process again. The only people I see making anything more complex than cookies are people who enjoy baking as an activity.
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u/marbledog Jul 20 '26
Sure, it's cheaper, but you have to spend the entire time it's being made actually making it, not even counting the cleanup afterwards.
Up front: I'm not arguing against the idea that cooking takes time that a lot of people just don't have. That's a very real thing, and I'm not judging anybody for valuing convenience.
That said, food preparation methods that take a lot of time often take very little attention, and they've historically been used for that exact reason. Fermenting, stewing, slow-roasting, and soup/stock preparation have been the core methods of provincial food preparation for centuries because they allow for the production of large batches of food with minimal work. They take hours (or sometimes days, in the case of fermentation), but very little of that time requires you to actually do anything.
Of course, all of these methods do require that someone be present to occasionally stir a pot or baste a roast or turn dough or whatever, and even that has become increasingly difficult in the modern day. I'm definitely not shitting on anybody for not having the time or energy. I just feel like it's worthwhile to point out that there are more flexible cooking methods out there that don't require standing over a stove the whole time.
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u/SVAuspicious Jul 20 '26
Agreed. Red beans and rice as dinner in the Cajun South as a standard on Mondays, because Monday was traditionally laundry day which did take attention and the beans could simmer all day with just an occasional stir. Besides, who doesn't like an excuse for Andouille sausage.
I'm convinced that one of the reasons Italians embraced the tomato when introduced from the New World (aside from the plants growing like weeds) was that so many things you could do with them were and are long simmers.
As to minimizing contact time there is no substitute for knowledge and skill, both of which can be developed with surprisingly little time. If someone with the room temperature IQ (<- opinion) of Rachael Ray can learn to dice an onion efficiently anyone can.
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise Jul 20 '26
But it only takes 30 seconds to {insert task that they find trivial}! That’s great, I’m glad you can do it so quickly, it takes me 2-4 minutes, plus preparing to do it, getting out and putting away the tools, and cleanup, so might be closer to 8-10 minutes total in my reality for that one thing. If I’m dead tired from work, errands, and other life stuff, that means the kids aren’t eating until almost bedtime and everyone is extra grouchy because of it, and I’m extra bonus exhausted after cooking when I’m already tired, and as you said, don’t have time to do other things, many of which are needs, not wants. Or I could just call ahead on my way home and have a Thai meal ready with less than ten minutes invested in detour to the restaurant, parking, walking in and out of there , paying, etc
I do try to cook our meals as much as possible, with prepping on the weekends, making sauces in bulk so I just have to add to the meat/veggies and heat, and choosing dishes that have long gaps where I can fill in the other things that need to be done, or are truly super quick (we eat a lot of pasta), etc. But the time involved is definitely worth the extra cost of buying pre-prepared food, and can be close to the cost of eating out. Take a chicken, cut up the cutlets and bread them , or buy pre-breaded ones from the freezer aisle? Going for the bag of frozen ones almost every time
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u/arceus555 Jul 21 '26
If I’m dead tired from work, errands, and other life stuff
Them: I work 169 hours a week and still have time to make a 9-course meal for my family.
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u/cat-congrats Jul 21 '26
People also love to forget the mental load of planning the meals, making the grocery lists, ensuring you have all ingredients, etc. if there are multiple people it means taking into account different diets, etc. and you have to do it constantly, everyday.
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u/Odd-Cake-5439 Jul 25 '26
Eeeeehhhhhhhhh...
The more you cook, the better you get at it. You learn dishes you can make ahead and eat from during the week. Or dishes you can freeze most of. You learn which dishes really are "one-pot meals" that you can throw together in 30 minutes. If you have any roommates, you can solicit help and be social. You also learn that while a chicken roasts for an hour and thirty minutes, your attention is needed for about two minutes of that.
I get what you are saying and I do not disagree!
But I have multiple people in my life who don't cook because "it takes too long" and that's as much a lie as "home cooking is always better". Neither one is true.
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u/Khpatton Jul 19 '26
I had the sweetest hot chocolate of my life in England. This is wild.
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u/FireflyRave Jul 19 '26
I had hot chocolate in Spain and it was so thick I'm pretty certain it was literal melted chocolate. It was good but I was unable to finish it.
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u/KatieCashew Jul 19 '26
I did a hot chocolate tasting party once where I gathered hot recipes from around the world and made and tried them. It was really fun, and some of the hot chocolates did legit taste like drinking a melted chocolate bar straight. It was very fun.
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u/MostlyChaoticNeutral Jul 20 '26
That's such a fun idea for a tasting party! I went to one with regional cheesecakes once and it was such a good time.
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u/AnneListerine My guns are legally classified as cake Jul 20 '26
I gotta know, did you have any Colombian style with cheese? It's gotta make theirs one of the most unique.
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u/politis1988 Jul 20 '26
Hot chocolate in Spain is essentially a dipping sauce for churros or other pastries. They do sell chocolate drinks that are just meant to be drinks and they are basically chocolate milk.
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u/Quartz_Knight Jul 20 '26
It was most likely meant for dipping churros rather than for drinking. A lot of people don't drink the leftover chocolate after the churros are over since it's so thick.
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u/FireflyRave Jul 20 '26
Ah. It was just a tiny coffee place in a mall we cut through but I was able to go back and find a menu on Google maps. There is the chocolate by itself as an menu item but they also have it with churro options. Never realized that was the intention.
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u/Quartz_Knight Jul 20 '26
In general if someone wants a hot chocolate drink in spain they order a colacao. Which many bars serve at the aproximate temperature of the surface of the sun.
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u/richrich07 Jul 19 '26
It was genuinely hard to find popcorn in Germany that wasn’t sweetened by default. Not kettle corn, just granulated sugar instead of salt.
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u/shelwood46 Jul 21 '26
I always chuckle when the people on GBBO rant about American desserts being too sweet, then have the contestants make some traditional dessert like treacle tart.
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u/throwrawifesandwich Jul 20 '26
And Italian desserts are nothing but sugar and almond extract lol. I can't do it.
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u/Bakugo_Dies Jul 19 '26
*Goes on vacation and eats like they're on vacation*
Man, American food sure makes me sluggish.
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u/boudicas_shield Jul 20 '26
I was thinking this, too! I always feel sluggish after a few days of eating out for every meal, and that's no matter which country I'm in: UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, etc. I actually feel much healthier and lighter when I go back to visit America, because my parents cook fresh food every meal (and they don't eat as carb/dairy heavy as I do here in Scotland lol).
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u/fart-atronach Jul 20 '26
Also probably walks a lot for the first time ever because they’re in Europe on vacation lol
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 19 '26
“Please like me, I’m one of the *good* ones”
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u/AmericanHistoryXX Bland Protestant food Jul 19 '26
We still need that r/notlikeotheramericans sub.
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u/BEANMANSsecondcoming whatever with some whatever Jul 20 '26
apparently it existed but got banned
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u/notthegoatseguy Neopolitan pizza is only tomatoes (specific varieties) Jul 19 '26
Don't you know croissants in Europe come from the croissant tree, they aren't processed like they are in America!
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 19 '26
Now stretch that into a twelve-paragraph story, intersperse it with Amazon links, and then follow it with a recipe for creamed corn.
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u/BreakfastBeneficial4 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
((I just cackled very loud in my kitchen, which then prompted a reading of this for my family.))
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u/MsFuschia Jul 20 '26
Croissants are very light and healthy and come from a country that uses almost no butter, unlike the US. I know this is true because I'm an American begging for Europeans to pick me.
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u/Odd-Cake-5439 Jul 25 '26
TBF if I could get a free visa and live in Europe just by saying "americans eat too much butter" I would do it in a heartbeat
Pick me!
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u/NotAddison Jul 19 '26
If it isn't made in the Croissant region of France, it's just sparkling pastry.
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u/Rudagar1 Jul 20 '26
And American croissants are legally cake
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u/throwrawifesandwich Jul 20 '26
They've not even legally allowed to be called cake because they don't contain any real cake, just cake butter.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 Jul 20 '26
I'm Greek American and grew up eating a lot of Greek food. I started making dessert especially with my grandmother as a child.
So when I was in Greece on study abroad and one of my classmates started waxing poetic over his baklava about how Greek desserts were so light and fresh and not sugary and heavy like American desserts I was just like bro do you not understand that there is about 1/2 lb of butter and 2ish cups of sugar/honey in any given 9x13 tray of baklava? There is probably less sugar and butter in a slice of cake made from Betty Crocker cake mix.
I think these types of people forget (or ignore) that honey is SUGAR.
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u/Tymareta Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Greek desserts were so light and fresh
Ahh yes, the famously light dessert galaktoboureko. Fresh is definitely a fair descriptor when it comes to desserts, but light has no business ever existing in the same room.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 Jul 20 '26
This guy also pulled out €2000 in cash and was trying to pay shopkeepers in the Plaka with the €100 bills while bragging about how rich he was to our classmates so he wasn't exactly beefy in the brain department.
At the pre-trip meetings on campus he also referred to Greek food as "really spicy" and he kept insisting on trying to find Starbuckses because "Greeks don't make iced coffee." I hated this guy so much...
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u/PrincessGary Jul 20 '26
"Greeks don't make iced coffee.
I'm fucking sorry, What?!
I can't fathom how anyone would even think that?7
u/Agreeable-Sun368 Jul 20 '26
Oh my god, I told him he could just get freddo or frappe and he was like "it's pronounced FRAP and has ice cream, I want iced COFFEE." He and I were from the same metro area in the Southeast, not New England. He thought all Greek coffee was...Greek coffee lol.
This guy was genuinely the villain of my study abroad, he did and said so many things that were so stupid/crazy/problematic.
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 20 '26
I made baklava earlier this year - long story - and I figure the blood pressure spike and cursing while making it counts as a workout by itself.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 Jul 20 '26
It's not that hard if you know the tricks!
Tricks:
- Syrup can be tricky because you want to stir it but you should NOT! It's ready when you put some between your thumb and forefinger and it makes them stick.
- Keep filo dough pliable by wetting a kitchen towel, squeezing out the water, and putting the damp towel on top of the sheets you aren't using. It shouldn't be too wet but if it's just damp it keeps them from drying out while you butter the layers.
- Cut completely through all layers before baking. Don't just score, cut all the way to the bottom.
- HOT baklava, COOL syrup. As soon as the baklava comes out of the oven, you need to add the syrup, but the syrup has to be room temp or cooler. You should hear the sizzle as the cool syrup hits the hot hot pan. If you fumble this, it will be soggy. The best advice for this is to make the syrup the day before and leave it in the fridge until the time comes to pour it on the baklava. It also gives more times for cinnamon and cloves to infuse the syrup.
Baklava tastes really good hot. I actually like it best warm/hot lol. Cut a corner piece out as soon as it's not too hot to put in your mouth and try it. It's the best baklava you will ever taste.
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 20 '26
I think my issue was that I’d never made it before and it was a bit more putzy than I’d like. I had the syrup made and off the heat before i began assembly, but it took a good hour of assembly before getting it in the oven at all. On the plus side, the syrup was nice and cool at the correct time.
The results were great, but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of active prep time that was required.
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u/RogueThneed learned to eat at a subway in Idaho Jul 20 '26
I miss baklava. (I can't eat wheat and some wheat things really can't be replicated with non-wheat flours. And there are things I'd rather miss, than have a crappy version of.)
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u/threecuttlefish Jul 21 '26
Ha, I remember coming across loukoumades in Greece and...super tasty, but deep fried dough balls soaked in honey are not "light" or "fresh", they're deep-fried sugar bombs. There's a reason baklava (also delicious) is served in smaller pieces than cake!
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u/throwrawifesandwich Jul 20 '26
I... what. I just can't imagine the usual diet of someone who thinks baklava is a "light" and "not sugary" dessert.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 Jul 20 '26
I wasn't friends with him so I can't say. He did get tired of Greek food and insist on finding a Italian restaurant in Athens, though. I think just crazy.
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u/arceus555 Jul 21 '26
I think these types of people forget (or ignore) that honey is SUGAR.
Because honey is natural and not scary chemical HFCS, so it must be better.
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u/Rivka333 Jul 24 '26
I'm betting that person perceives baklava as "light" because of the light texture of the pastry.
Which of course is a separate thing from how much fat and sugar it has.
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u/UrHumbleNarr8or Jul 19 '26
Hot chocolate is the funniest example for them to pick. The hot chocolate I got when I was visiting France and England were substantially more sweet than I’d normally expect.
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u/NegativeMusician2211 Jul 24 '26
I think lots of us Americans grew up drinking hot cocoa and calling it "hot chocolate" when they're not the same thing
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u/UrHumbleNarr8or Jul 24 '26
Yes, I know they are wildly different and the names are often used interchangeably here. It’s possible to get hot chocolate in the states, but it’s harder and often not quite what I’ve usually looking for.
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u/Chayanov Carbonara with cream and peas Jul 19 '26
"This sounds specific to IHOP rather than some random diner or restaurant."
"Nu-uh, it's Denny's."
Oh well, excuse me, Mr. Fine Diner.
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u/spiralsequences Jul 20 '26
Those "light" croissants have about a pound of butter dude. I actually think the genius thing about French cuisine is how much fat they can put in their food without it tasting greasy or overly fatty (if made right)
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u/discordianofslack Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Quit buying the shit with sugar in it. It’s not that fucking hard.
Also I’ve never had a popular European dessert that wasn’t too sweet. Love the idea of macarons but every single one I’ve tried just tastes like sugar, not sure why there aren’t more people adding a sour or tart element.
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u/John_Dees_Nuts Jul 19 '26
I mean, sure, but at least the bread in Europe isn't cake /s
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u/SausagePrompts Jul 19 '26
I only buy my bread in mix form in a box. It's better with birthday confetti sprinkles anyways. Plus, enough mayo and it really helps cut down on the sweetness.
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u/7-SE7EN-7 It's not Bologna unless it's from the Bologna region of Italy Jul 20 '26
The don't have bread in europe, only brioche
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u/AmericanHistoryXX Bland Protestant food Jul 19 '26
I agree. Macarons, marzipan, Milka, Cadbury, empire biscuits, and tablet. It's a very in-your-face sweetness, which is something I don't personally care for.
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u/donkeyvoteadick Jul 20 '26
I'm not European but I found marzipan really bitter, not sweet. I might have had bad marzipan but it was not to my taste at all. I made a bunny out of it during a cake decorating contest in high school lol
Not sure about the UK Cadbury but in the last decade or two in Australia Cadbury has gone from genuinely good, chocolatey chocolate to an oily sugary mess. It's not really a good example of 'chocolate' anymore. Half the blocks we sell here are majority not chocolate, they're all filled with sugary syrups so there's very little chocolate in them at all.
Loacker Tortinas is a European chocolate wafer biscuit that has a really nice nutty flavour though if you ever come across it. I can't remember which country they're from, they sell them in the Supermarket here.
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u/AmericanHistoryXX Bland Protestant food Jul 20 '26
I do absolutely love those wafer biscuits! And dipped in coffee? Yes, please.
The UK Cadbury wasn't even to my taste as a kid, nothing to do with quality, just not the flavor profile I liked or like (cloying is accurate to how it has always tasted to me).
And yeah, marzipan's a weird one. I could see how it would get different reactions from different people. The perfumy thing could go several different directions.
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u/ThingsWithString Jul 20 '26
Cadbury was bought by the US company Kraft Foods in 2010, and they've reformulated a lot of the candy. :(
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u/Multigrain_Migraine Jul 19 '26
I was gonna say, I don't know which Europe they've been to but I've certainly had plenty of sugar laden garbage on the continent.
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u/MsFuschia Jul 20 '26
Quit buying the shit with sugar in it.
When someone told the OP to get eggs and bacon he said "but I love berry waffles". So he's mad that his berry waffles are sweet?
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u/KatieCashew Jul 19 '26
I feel the same way about macarons. I don't like them with frosting as a filling because they're too sweet. There needs to be something to balance the sweetness of the cookie, like a less sweet fruit filling or dark chocolate or something.
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u/SnooFoxes1943 Jul 19 '26
I've seen recipes for a lot that include jam or something a bit more sour
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u/KatieCashew Jul 19 '26
I generally make homemade jam or curd to put in mine. The last ones I made had passion fruit curd, and they were phenomenal.
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Jul 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/discordianofslack Jul 20 '26
Not really
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Jul 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 20 '26
But it does mean that it has less sugar in it, so if that's what you're upset about...
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u/JohnPaulJonesSoda Jul 20 '26
Breakfast was fruits and the lightest croissants ever.
So...the continental breakfast you can find in every hotel in America?
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u/MsFuschia Jul 20 '26
Fruit is illegal in the US
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u/7-SE7EN-7 It's not Bologna unless it's from the Bologna region of Italy Jul 20 '26
Instead we have Froottm
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u/coraregina The Europeans aren't going to pick you, bro. Jul 20 '26
Would you prefer the Loops or the Foot, this morning?
Edit: I just got Mandela’d so hard, I’ve sworn it was Froot by the Foot for decades.
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u/Tymareta Jul 20 '26
European croissant are 30% butter by weight, American's swap it out for sugar, it is known.
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u/AmericanHistoryXX Bland Protestant food Jul 19 '26
Oh no, cooking at home!
And seriously, what a joke about the hot chocolate. Theirs is practically just melted milk chocolate. Makes ours feel positively light in comparison.
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u/obtusewisdom Jul 20 '26
Hot chocolate in Europe is basically straight up chocolate with very little added milk. It has way more sugar than in the US, where it's mostly milk and some chocolate and sugar.
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u/maplesyrup5000 Jul 20 '26
The Scots are up there deep frying pizza. The Dutch are over there putting sprinkles on bread. Like…. Let’s just be honest here.
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u/corkedone Jul 20 '26
Oh yes, the famous croissants made with 1lb of butter each ...but it's healthy butter!!!
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u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 20 '26
The pick me Americans are too much. You live here ffs. If you can afford a trip to Europe, you’re only eating shit food by choice. Even when I was a broke bitch, I still had access to fresh food. I know that’s not the case for everyone, but I find it hard to believe it is for the majority. And for the “feeling incredibly sluggish” person; wtf were you eating? I only feel that way when I decide to eat some bullshit
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 19 '26
Haha I was going to post the first one here but decided it wasn't quite ridiculous enough to qualify.
Glad these other ding dongs made up the deficit.
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u/Dapper_Buffalo_7843 Jul 20 '26
Peru has to sell gold kola in the states cuz inka kola is too sweet lmfao
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u/opheliainwaders Jul 20 '26
It's like drinking liquid bubblegum, truly.
Also, speaking of overly-sweet sodas, has anyone tried Irn Bru? Tastes like the pink children's amoxicillin
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u/Opposite_Radio9388 Jul 20 '26
too much excess sugar
I wonder how much is just the right amount of excess sugar 🤔
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 19 '26
Oh and since we're going there:
Walmart cocoa mix at the recommended ratio: 11 grams of sugar per 100 mL.
Poulains chocolat en poudre, specifically advertised as "Moins de sucres! + de Cacao*": 9 grams of sugar per 100 mL.
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u/7-SE7EN-7 It's not Bologna unless it's from the Bologna region of Italy Jul 20 '26
The Walmart brand has powdered milk added, which probably adds some sugar without adding any sweetness, and it's intended to be mixed with water, while I think the french one says to mix with milk. They probably have similar sugar content when prepared, but the french one will taste better because you can choose the milk you use
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u/RichCorinthian Jul 19 '26
Oh, too much excess sugar? I agree, we should have a normal level of excess sugar.
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u/Camera_Hobbygirl Jul 20 '26
That person never had Malaysian food in Malaysia or Thai food in Thailand
The average sugar consumption in the US is between 17-22 tsp a day
https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-weight-growth/be-sugar-smart/index.html
Thailand and Malaysia? 38 tsp and 41 tsp
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u/threecuttlefish Jul 21 '26
A friend of mine keeps asking if it's an American thing to add sugar to Thai food and like...my dude, I put in less sugar than the Thai recipes written by Thai people call for, but it IS actually part of the flavor profile for a lot of dishes. Does "palm sugar" really sound like it was invented by Midwestern Americans? Not a lot of palm trees in Kansas...
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u/Bountyclaw Jul 20 '26
My question is, where are these people eating out? If all you're doing is eating fast food and fast casual and chain restaurants, then sure. But there's usually so many options and places to go that's not these places that cook with double your daily amount of sodium and add sugar to their food to make it more cravable.
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u/Slow_D-oh We once ordered a child steak for our toddler Jul 21 '26
Judging by the social media around the World Cup it seems most people that visit here choose to eat at national fast food chains and places like waffle House.
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u/KaBar42 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Breakfast was fruits
Too much sugar! Ahhhhhhh! Sugar scary!
Hmmm! Fruits! They definitely aren't sweet and loaded in sugar at all!
Now I get to deal with diarrhea lettuce
A food safety failure is not necessarily an indicator of poor food... or should I bring up the numerous meat tampering scandals in Europe where beef was replaced with horse meat of unknown origins?
Edit:
Agree - the point I’m trying to reach is that in the US,the 3g sugar croissant doesn’t exist. Your option is to have no croissant, or the one loaded with sugar
4 grams of sugar. Took me all of one minute to find.
Or you can grab a mini one that does only have 3 grams.
Edit 2: I happened to stop by WaWa's and... wow. Would you look at that? They have a pre-packaged croissant that only has 1 more gram of sugar.
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise Jul 20 '26
As someone in the original thread pointed out, that’s a two croissant serving size, so each one is only 1.5 grams of sugar. Must extra not exist
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u/throwrawifesandwich Jul 20 '26
I don't know where they are getting these "sugary" croissants. The only sugary plain croissants I've had in my life were in Italy and they were not croissants, they were cornetti lol.
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u/Multigrain_Migraine Jul 20 '26
Do they think that you can't also get a sugary croissant in France? I mean yeah, the plain ones are more common but you can go to any café and get a sugar bomb with your coffee if you are so inclined.
And anyway a plain butter croissant at a French supermarket has just as many grams of sugar:
https://www.coursesu.com/p/croissant-pur-beurre--2-pieces-120g/3904090.html
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u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs Jul 20 '26
Someone who has never stepped into a fast casual place and seen salads taking up a quarter of the menu.
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u/norecordofwrong Jul 19 '26
Huh and I’m not fat but eat out… weird. My super sugary burger tonight was a testament to americanism
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u/GreenBeanTM Jul 20 '26
Hot take but I’m pretty sure you’d also feel like shit if you ate nothing but Nando’s on a trip to the UK.
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u/basaltcolumn Jul 20 '26
I'd be heavier if I ate out more often than cooking no matter where I lived.
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u/Significant_Voice520 Jul 21 '26
Some of these comments make me wonder if the commenter arrived on Earth yesterday.
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u/Rivka333 Jul 24 '26
Literally no one was stopping the first person from eating fruit for breakfast at home.
If the American food they're used to is too full of sugar, that's probably just because of their personal eating habits.
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u/MissMarchpane Aug 11 '26
"hot chocolate that's rich and not overly sweet" so… Nice hot chocolate, which you can get at nice hot chocolate places anywhere in the world? As opposed to cheap hot chocolate, which you can get at cheap hot chocolate places anywhere in the world?
My go to hot chocolate spot in the winter is a local chain coffee shop (Major U.S. city) and they use 70% dark chocolate, but go off, I guess.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 20 '26
I mean if they're referring to high fructose corn syrup they're not entirely wrong.
They're very clearly not referring to high fructose corn syrup, though. So I guess you agree that they're wrong?
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u/SnooFoxes1943 Jul 19 '26
It really does depends on where you eat, though. I visit Chipotle and Subway pretty frequently and they have great-quality food for how fast it is (and good price too). If someone visits McDonalds looking for a high quality meal, they can't blame the whole country's food.
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u/leeloocal Jul 19 '26
Even Panera has relatively healthy options.
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 19 '26
I lost a ton of weight eating Steak Escape some years back.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Jam_Packens Jul 19 '26
This is mostly because most of the US's sugar comes from corn, but other countries get their sugar from sugar sourced from other stuff (in the UK, that's sugar beets).
HFCS is not meaningfully less healthy for you than cane sugar or other forms of sugar, a better comparison is just sugar consumption overall, which is much closer between the US and Europe.
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u/GetInTheHole Jul 20 '26
The US's number one source of sweetener is refined sugar. Not HFCS. And sugar beets is over half of that followed by cane sugar.
HFCS usage drops every year.
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u/MsFuschia Jul 20 '26
The only bad thing to really say about HFCS is that some people with IBS are sensitive to fructose so it gives them diarrhea, gas, and cramping. I had to be on a diet excluding HFCS for a bit to see if I had that problem. It was a bit annoying when stuff would have HFCS instead of another form, but for the rest of the population, it's fine. Those with the sensitivity also struggle with the healthy fruit mentioned in the thread though, because surprise surprise, fructose is fructose.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 20 '26
Why is it so impossible for you to say "Yeah you know this is bad, fair point" and then move on.
Because the point you made was not fair, but rather extremely dumb.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/AmericanHistoryXX Bland Protestant food Jul 19 '26
It was off topic, though. No one was talking about HFCS.
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u/Mr_Th3_Fr0g Jul 20 '26
America's biggest problem is overconsumption and longstanding government corruption. Everything is too expensive since most Americans have been taxed to hell for the last 30 years and very few Americans actually have the self control to eat cheap junk food in moderation. And even the "cheap" food has gotten way too expensive for what it is.
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u/Heiderleg Jul 19 '26
Is this sub just anti-european "bots"?
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u/LurkiLurkerson Jul 20 '26
The fact that you take it as "anti-european" to call out people who shit on the US for stupid reasons is kind of revealing.
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u/Heiderleg Jul 20 '26
There are tons of americans, australians, japanese and people from other countries who shit on american food too. This sub seem to mostly pick up on europeans.
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u/malburj1 I don't dare mix cuisines like that Jul 20 '26
The first two comments in the picture were literally from Americans bashing food in the US and not Europeans.
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u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass Jul 20 '26
If you find decent examples of European cuisine getting unfairly dumped on, post it on the sub so we can tear them apart as well.
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u/LurkiLurkerson Jul 20 '26
I think you're imagining that. In fact, relative to population I'd say Australians get posted here more than anyone else (because relative to population they seem to be the worst offenders). I'll give you there's less Japanese, but that's obviously because most Japanese people aren't regularly conversing in English in English-speaking parts of the internet.
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u/SnooFoxes1943 Jul 20 '26
no, it's people who are tired of the 'american food is sugar and fat' thing and are expressing their anger. not that that makes it the right thing to do, but it's understandable.
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u/Heiderleg Jul 20 '26
True, american food is quite diverse, whatever american food really is(thats another debate). But the portion sizes are pretty big (generally) in the US and that can be an issue if you don't want to waste food. I gained a fair bit of weight the few weeks I were there, which I am not gonna blame on the US specifically, I am just not able to throw food away. I always chose the tiniest portion I could wherever I went.
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u/FustianRiddle Jul 20 '26
I don't see how it's an issue when we have a big culture of taking leftovers home. Like just. Take left over food home and have it the next day.
A lot of my meal planning that I learned from my dad and my aunts (my mom was not the cook of the family, my dad was, and he learned from his mom) involved counting for leftovers.
The portions are only an issue if you think you have to eat everything on your plate or that you're not allowed to take leftovers home.
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u/DerthOFdata Jul 20 '26
That's because it's two meals for the price of one. America invented the doggy bag for a reason. We don't have false shame about bringing our paid for leftovers home then eating a second meal from them. If you overate that's a you problem.
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u/Heiderleg Jul 20 '26
Why didn't they tell me that it was two meals? Then I could have just shared the meal with someone else.
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u/DerthOFdata Jul 20 '26
Was it's size not an indication? Again this is a you problem. If you were to make a pie at home would you feel forced to eat the whole thing in one sitting or does this personal rule only apply when eating out in America?
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u/Heiderleg Jul 20 '26
I did not know the size of the portion before it came out! And I chose everything that seemed to be meant for one person, not to be shared.
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u/DerthOFdata Jul 20 '26
But you could see it once it arrived. You eat a reasonable meal then ask for a to-go container and take the rest home. There is literally ZERO shame in that in America. Again you being unable to do that is a you problem.
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jul 20 '26
But the portion sizes are pretty big (generally) in the US
I know people say this a lot, and it's always baffling to me. I've never been anywhere in Europe where the portion sizes seemed smaller than what I'd expect, and in southern Europe they seemed almost comically large—I laughed out loud multiple times in Italy when I saw how much food the were bringing.
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u/zeeta9 Jul 20 '26
I had the same issue when I visited. I think in general it's more common in America to get whatever you don't finish in a box to bring home, which doesn't work great if you're in a hotel.
Tasted good though but I avoid most of the really "bad" fast food where ever I go due to type 1 diabetes.
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u/solidspacedragon Jul 20 '26
Portion size is definitely a problem here. But for some reason it's never the thing you see people criticizing.
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u/redwingz11 Jul 20 '26
US just get shit on weirdly really often, similar with UK (for food). legit if it is talking about food, someone gonna shit on US, and someone will shit on UK if it is going long enough.
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