That was my why are they so miserable its cos they're always hungry, always smoke and don't get fat cos they can't afford food thread.

The Swiss guys you talk about don't eat enough pies yeah they need to upsize

Not with those prices. No one can afford it. If you saw a fat Swiss person, he'd be the richest one here.

Thats why they keep the price of fags so low. Hunger suppressants

but what about some logics ? If you are right, why then do USsers, Brits etc feel so miserable that they always are hungry ? and to repeat, a 70% of Swiss does NOT smoke. And the smokers ? Many of them do NOT always smoke .

I have to admit, the Swiss are definately better at being motivated to exercise but I find they think a little too highly about their "quality of food" (have heard them often saying it's better quality than Germany). In the beginning I didn't pay too much attention to the ingredients but after a few unpleasant surprises and quickly turning to the package ingredients... I realized in many ways the products here are chalked full of way more chemicals and crap than when I lived in Germany. I was astonished to find aspartame in everything from normal fruit beverages to yogurt... and Aromat is pure MSG... what's up with that?! I dunno... if the food is such super quality, you don't need that kind of crap in it (just my opinion) I'm a lot more careful now. I do have to give the Swiss Kudos for their health food stores. The one here in Chur is by far better than any store I've visited in my old area of Germany.

You do if you are sitting next to me in a plane! If you refuse to keep the arm rest down in between us because it's more comfortable for you. The guy was overflowing onto me and my seat.

Happened to me in January - then the guy fell asleep and snored and breathed all over me........not that a skinny person couldn't snore and breathe all over me.

Quite brutal!

My swiss neightbour has a huge belly. He eats meat on BBQ every single day during summer.

Meat is good, but that much? I don't think so.

"better than in Germany" ? I mean what comparison ! I have eaten most excellently in places like München, Lindau, Friedrichshafen, Konstanz, Freiburg/Breisgau, Stuttgart, Bonn, Köln and Leipzig. Just to name a few. And the products ? The agricultural products not just are usually cheaper, quite many really are excellent. Look closely at what you get in shops overhere. How many German products are on sale.

If you so care about chemicals, you however have to stop on soft drinks and even on orange juice. Most such products are pepped up by products of Givaudan and Firmenich. I once on a visit to Tel Aviv saw the slogans of a company selling orange juice and proclaiming in English "directly from the Kibbutz", while I just the week before have had an airfreight shipment of Givaudan to exactly this company

Am I the only one that is against a smoking ban ? I don't smoke (never have) but I really enjoy the smell of a good cigar/pipe being smoked in my immediate surroundings. When I was still in NY once I followed a guy all the way along 5th avenue just to enjoy the 2nd hand smoke from his cigar, the smell was devine...

I honestly don't know what the Swiss mean by "better"... Could be all the Swiss food advertising for "Swiss meat, Swiss produce, Swiss dairy" Somehow many of them think the quality here is just better than across the boarder because it comes from here. I personally find nothing wrong with the food in Germany... I still shop at Aldi here in Switzerland when I can.
I do care a lot about the hidden chemicals and crap in my food and you will never see me with a softdrink in hand (except for maybe an Apfelschorle ) haha wonderful info about Tel Aviv! Thanks for the tip

I just count the number of takeaway kebab and pizza shops which have sprung up in the 17 years I have been here.
From 0 to very many in our local town.
I have two (fat) friends who work all the hours God sends and use these places
as legitimate sources of meals.......

Some "quality" indications are simply ridiculous
- Swiss eggs are laid by same kind of chicken as in Baden-Württemberg
- Beef is imported from Poland (+ Hungary etc)
- Lamb is imported from New Zealand

Kebab, Pizza, Spaghetti are not necessarily "fattening" if consumed in decent quantities. The trouble with the Italian places is that they tend to hand out enormous portions. The problem with the takeaway kebab places is the often strange sauces, beside the point that many of them even go as far as to replace lamb and beef with (cheaper) chicken. And instead of rice they serve it with heaps of ugly bread

You may be surprised at how many people eat these items every day and think of it as a balanced diet!!!!!

My Swiss grandfather smoked a pipe, but we only saw each other once a year, so I took it up myself so I could enjoy the aroma more often.

Back to the topic, I was really surprised at that article, and wonder whether the definition of "obese" has been changed somewhere between the before and after statistics (stranger things have happened).

One of the things Mrs Texaner commented on after she visited CH for the first time last year was that she didn't see hardly any fat people, compared to in the US (where they're everywhere). Was she just sheltered somehow, or does one really observe so many fat people in Suisse, and we just managed to miss them all?

There are millions of Arabs and Turks who have Kebab every day, but without that kind of "bread" and with decent sauces. And there are millions of Italians who have spaghetti and pizza every day, but in decent quantities. And the cradle of the modern fitness enthusiasm rather was NOT in the Mediterranean.

This is just in german switzerland though, and I guess in germany too (perhaps a german can confirm or not). It's in their culture that when you go to the restaurant you usually consume the whole meal in a dish only.

Therefore where ordering spaghetti expect a huge dish of pasta... they don't understand it's just wrong. And after that you can't consume anything else because that much pasta will make you feel stuffed..

In Italy we eat a lot of pasta but in much smaller portions, because after that there are usually another 2 dishes to come.

Suggestion: avoid italian restaurants in german switzerland.. apart from a few exceptions they are at the level of the worst italian trattoria and very overpriced. I once asked the owner of an italian restaurant why didn't they offer the food to the italian standards and he replied that the locals "want it that way". I said ok... restaurant will be my own house since now on

I'm not criticising the Mediterranean diet, which I see to be rather healthy and includes lots of fruit, veg, fish and pulses.
Am rather criticising the fast food culture here.

A) Yes, in German speaking lands, it is part of basic education that you have "to eat up"

B) But Italian restaurants in Zürich offer a nice (but exorbitantly expensive) salad as starter, and a dessert at the end, and many people DO eat through

C) Portions in Italy tend to be normal and in accordance with local culture

D) Italian restaurants in Zürich ? Overpriced yes, but in fact rather good. I had a colleague in office who had the citizenship of both Roma and Zurigo and she had the opinion that the Italian restaurants in Zurich were better than their Rome counterparts

E) I however see that the owners and managers of the Italian restaurants and their personnel are "Swiss-ised" quite heavily

F) and I am very sorry that this owner cheated on two counts
----> it is NOT "wanted that way" by the locals
----> he himself has become "Swiss" to a wide extent

Many Italian restaurants in the Zurich area in fact offer "small portion" of Spaghetti, which are really in heavy demand. Not yet in regard to Pizza. When, usually out of lack of alternatives, ordering a pizza, I shove all the "goodies" on it to one side, and leave the emptied side to ...... the personnel is shocked ...

I btw. have been in Italy in most summers between 1954 and 72 for 2 weeks and later on again and again on smaller "excursions" for many years and know things in this regard

Italian restaurants only in one place were miserable and that was in London in the early 1970ies (lousy stuff, mediocre service)

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oh, and yes you may know what I mean. In Liguria, more preciscely Varigotti, I enjoyed those small 2cm long little fish fried in big "tanks". My older brother was lead to such a stand his grandmother had by a local friend of Bergamo origin, just beside our hotel, but he hated fish. And then the old women (also from Bergamo) told her grandson "but there is that smaller boy with him" .. and so, her grandson came over to ask me to come to his grandmother, and I did enjoy that stuff very much. I for two weeks had them free-of-charge very often and there learnt my first bits of Italian !

Yes, the fast food "culture" you mention is a tragic thing indeed ! Fish btw is not part of "diet" in the Arab World and Turkey, while it of course is important in Italy and Spain and Portugal.

I don't know what you mean with "eat up" but I was saying that the difference was in having a single big dish rather than different ones. While you can get easily sick of a big portion of something, it is much more tasty to eat a little of this and a little of that..

Swallowing 200g of pasta is not what I call a nice meal, it's rather stuffing your stomach to not feel anymore hungry..

In Italy salad is never offered as a starter and usually it is served as a companion to the second dish, usually with meat. So this is another swiss thing that has nothing to do with italian food..

Your colleague must have been on drugs on that day.. saying that italian restaurants in zürich are better than those in rome is a blasphemy to say the least..

1954??? o_O

I wasn't even in the thoughts of my mother's mother at that time

I think you are talking about frittura mista but I don't remember how those little fishes are called. Too much time spent in switzerland I think