BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?

Subject: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 31 May 00 - 10:58 AM

[Didn't want to start a new thread but the gremlins won't let me post to the other one]. Well, we Brits aren't all thin (says he sucking in his stomach) and I'm sure Wolfgang would agree there are some large Germans as well. If it is a matter of poverty diet are Germans from the old East fatter than those from the more prosperous West?
I've been accused of standing next to Germans or Americans on holiday in the hope that I'll look slim by comparison! Doesn't work! (Sigh) I was ten and a half stone from my late tens to late 20s and then I got maried to a good cook. Now, I think I'm doing well if I keep under 12 stone. Actually, my weight is OK, if only I were 6' tall!
RtS (built for comfort, not built for speed)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:20 AM

Ye cannot turn a Bulldog into a poodle. (yet! but I'm sure some stupid shit is trying to find a way) Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: TerriM
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:22 AM

I always maintain that I am merely underheight and at 5'1' few would argue with me!

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:30 AM

TerriM, my sisters, who are 5'1" to my 5'2", always said "dynamite comes in small packages." It has served us well, all four of us!**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Peg
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:32 AM

Terri: very funny! I grew a couple inches in my 20s (to a whopping 5'4") but sadly my bones also grew so I did not get to keep my petite size 5 frame I had at 5'2"...it took me a while but I kinda like having shoulders!

A better question; why are the French and the Italians so thin??? with all that buttera nd pasta and cream etc.

answer: they aren't! only some of them...

But studies have shown drinking red wine with cheese or butter helps the body digest fatty foods and lower cholesterol...

Has anyone heard the recent news that obesity is now a huge problem in China!!??? and it was determined a few years' back that schoolkids in Japan were growing larger by the year (desks were suddenly too small in schools) at precisely the same time American beef (i.e. hormone-laden) was added to their school lunch program...go figure...

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:44 AM

Its obvious that these folks eat their TV's and are thus stuck with dreary outdoor activities which does keep them fit and trim. I remember all those old Italian guys playing bocci ball when I was a kid. They were ........ uh, wait a minute.......they were all fat guys.........Not a good example..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Peg
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:54 AM

'Spaw--the bocce games!!! Yes, my Italian and Sicilian male relatives all played this endlessly at family reunions when I was a kid...and yes, some of them were chubby. and some of them dyed their hair and wore flashy clothes..come to think of it, some of 'em were in the Mafia! but the mellower circles, the pizza joint owners and entertainment backers (like Neil Sedaka), not thugs...

I remember once I told my grandfather (my dad's father) he was fat (I was only 7 or so). He invited me to punch him in the stomach and needless to say it was hard as a rock...not all fat is created equal. I think of that when I see a large, round person who is clearly healthy and has good muscle tone and coloring, as opposed to someone whose skin is doughy and whose body is strangely lumpy...

exercise, exercise, exercise...whether it be jogging, gardening, cooking or playing bocce...

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: TerriM
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:59 AM

actually I lived in Germany for a lot of my life, seemed to me lots of people there stayed slim for as long as it took to marry and then, let lard be unconfined! Certainly they take eating very seriously...you just try passing on cake at a german person's house...they send for the doctor! Not in my case of course, I never passed on cake in my life!

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Melbert
Date: 31 May 00 - 12:34 PM

I was looking at some Calvin Klein underwear recently...
Looked nice.....
Anyone know if they do Calvin Grosse?

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 31 May 00 - 07:05 PM

I'm 6'4" and BIG with it. Partly congenital (most of my antecedents were also what would be called "obese"), partly because I married a superb cook, partly because I'm lazy (the car should never have been invented), but mainly because a back injury a few years back reduced my mobility, so I quit moving, put on weight, which further reduced my mobility and so on ...

Having a bending radius worse than IBM type 2 cable has many disadvantages, especially when I'm in my boat. Seats on public transport, especially trains and airplanes, seem designed for midgets. The last time I ran for a bus, it was horse-drawn. But, hell, I'd like something to get me before Alzheimers sets in!

I don't eat any more than my smaller brethren, nor drink to excess. I like a curry, though ... all that ghee. I cannot stomach MacDonalds, though I occasionally tolerate a Burger King.

Sod it, a hundred years ago I would have just been described as prosperous, but today ??

O TEMPORA, O MORES.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 31 May 00 - 10:09 PM

They are not.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Fadac
Date: 31 May 00 - 10:18 PM

Anybody tried to eat English food? That's why the took over most of the world, they were looking for something to eat. Boiled steak. Egad!

-fadac

With the notable exception to Haggis. (Yum!)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 08:08 AM

I think it goes back to Oliver Cromwell's Self-Denying Ordinance.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: GUEST,Crazy Eddie
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 08:19 AM

Fadac, Haggis isn't English, it's Scottish!

But there's not much wrong with Roast Beef & Yorkshire pudding, Steak-and-Kidney Pie, or Fish-and-Chips with Mushy Peas!

But,if you like Haggis, you ought to try a nice plate of liver-and-bacon, with black pudding and bubble-n-squeak on the side, followed by a bowl of spotted Dick with custard. Available at any transport cafe. Guaranteed to fatten anyone if eaten regularly! Eddie :o)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Melbert
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 01:20 PM

Faggots & peas is quite nice, but I got some WEIRD reactions when I asked for it in California last week!

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 01:59 PM

English food? In the pub: "You'd love it on holiday in Marbella, mate - it's all English food, you know, curries, chinese - none of that foreign rubbish!"

We had the former King of Tonga on a State Visit in Harlow one time. Very impressive. Out there you'd count as a bit in need of feeding up I reckon Alan.

There's solid fat, and there's flab. Noone laughs at Sumo Wrestlers. You can call them fat (providing of course they didn't object), but you couldn't call them obese. All done on Fish Stew and exercise.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Bert
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 03:08 PM

Fadac, where did you get 'boiled steak'? I've never heard of it.

Now you started on English food you've got me going. Here's some for starters...

Fish and chips, kippers, bloaters, buckling, REAL shrimp, cockles, whelks, jellied eels, eel pie, rabbit pie, back bacon, Lancashire hot pot, Yorkshire pudding, Stilton, Cheddar, Cheshire, Sage Derby, Double Gloucester, Banbury cakes, Eccles cakes, Chelsea Buns, Simnel cake, Pork chops (with the kidney), scarlet runners, purple sprouting brocolli, plum crumble, Gooseberry fool, Rhubarb pie, Scones, clotted cream, Apple pie (Yes that's English), Bramleys, Cox's Orange Pippins, Blenheim Orange, Charles Ross, Beauty of Bath, Worcesters, Russets, Pontefract cakes, sugar mice, and so on and so on.

Bert. (and that's not mentioning the beer)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: GUEST,fadac
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 06:36 PM

Bert!, Sounds GREAT! Lets go! Yes, I never put curry on my haggis. I stand corrected, Haggis is most Scottish! However here (in SFO, California) you'd best not ask for faggots in anything. I do belive that you get better sausage in the UK (pudding) than Germany.

Now however where I was raised, Itilan ment pouring a can to tomato past over what ever was going to be Itilian. (pork chops, noodles, tuna cassarole, etc.) To make it Mexican, you add a 1/16 teaspoon of chili powder. Then some of that spicy ketchup. Gad it was awfull.

Steak, salmon, crab was OK.

I never had boiled steak in the UK. I did eat something called a "mixed Grill" that wasn't so bad. But you could have killed a buck with the peas. About the same size and hardness of 00 buckshot.

-fadac

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: MarkS
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 07:51 PM

Melbert and Fadac
What exactly is a faggot? Heard of it (them?) but really do not know what they are. Other than non PC SFO speak, I always thought faggots were a bundle of sticks or twigs used to start a fire. Don't think our UK friends are reduced to eating wood yet, but who knows!

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 02 Jun 00 - 06:42 PM

A faggot is a mixture of offal (liver ,sheeps dangly bits etc) onion and herbs served in large rounded balls usually in a savoury gravy-in yorkshire they are called savoury ducks- even though they have never been near a duck , in the midlands they can be served in a bun with mushy peas and chips and are referred to as a 'one allin'-excellent post nightclubbing fodder- they are quite quite revolting.

From Ickle dorritt who used to be very thin, but is sadly no longer.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are Brits and Germans so thin?
From: GUEST,Penny S. (elsewhere)
Date: 03 Jun 00 - 08:46 AM

Faggots are a sort of meatball, wrapped in a sort of netlike fatty-skinny layer from somewhere inside a pig which may be called a caul, but it isn't the one from round young at birth. I disagree about the revoltingness, but I don't go out of my way to find them.

The peas are commonly known in schools as bullets. They are unreconstituted dried peas. But in a mixed grill! Yercch!