British Expatriate Network

How has it coped with the change in food and water from one country to another?

Just making some bacon butties for breakfast (homemade bread rolls I might add are going with it) and it got me thinking. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get hold of any Irish bacon for a while so we are having to make do with the greasy American stuff. British food seems to still have the image of being fatty and greasy and yet I have found that the American food is far more fatty and greasy that my stomach can't cope with it!

And let's not mention the state of the bread! wink

So, how has your stomach coped with the rich sauces, loaded potatoes and other foods here.

It got huge. I was always a walking skeleton back in Blighty. Then 2 years later I went "ooh look - I'm ugly now!!" I put it down to three simple things-

1) Portion sizes. Here they are ridiculously massive.
2) Pop. In gallon buckets. Everyone seems to drink lakes of the stuff.
3) No walking. I used to walk everywhere. People thought I was weird in Britain for how far I walked. Here they think I'm demented.

Now tho I'm in much better place - I was always annoyed at being skinny, and now with lots of running, exercise and weights I look pretty decent. Yay me!

When we came here we were skinny. The worse thing was we were both way past the age where you grow, but we did. Height wise and in silly things like length of arms. Our waistlines, well, need I say.
However once we were settled after a couple of years we had no problem.
Don't drink pop, don't eat fast food, can't eat the bacon, it's all fat. So we converted back to what they are now calling the Mediterranean diet, which we've eaten for years. Greatly helped by the discovery of the International Bazaar. Feta from everywhere, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey. Olives, lamb(which was impossible to get 10 years ago) and fresh fruit and veg, California abundance.
I just hate the way they put sugar with salt in the reconstituted fries over here. Everything seems deep fried with salt and sugar. Yuk!

Water, I didn't have a problem with. I always drink bottled water over here, never tap water, which would've killed me by now, I'm sure! -?
As for food - portion sizes were definately my downfall, not particularly the type of food I was eating. I've never liked fatty or greasy foods (except British fish and chips!! P ), so I don't eat that type of food here either. However, huge portions, combined with extreme lack of exercise, was quick to take its toll! Thankfully, I've managed to lose most of that excess weight by decreasing portion sizes and regular exercise. However, I'm still not as active as I was in the UK, so it's an ongoing battle....... roll

Ellie, did you drink bottled water in the UK too?

Within a couple of days of drinking and cooking with the tap water, I started to feel really ill. Once I swapped over to drinking bottled water, I felt a lot better. Now we have a filter on the fridge and that helps a lot but we still buy a lot of bottled water. Something we never did (or needed to) in the UK.

Like allot of you my waistline has expanded since living here. I was very slim back home (just under 8st) and even though I lived in London and had a car I did a fair amount of walking as well.
Not sure if thats because of the larger portions of food you get here or just lack of walking/exercise as I drive everywhere as does most people here.
Water is not a problem in the area I live in as its pure mountain water so I drink it straight from the tap but I do buy bottled water as well but just drink it when I'm out.

Thats interesting, we often find more bacteria in bottled water than in samples of City water/private well water at the lab I work at.. Also people around here will not drink the city water they have in their homes but will fill up their water Jugs at the water windmills scattered throughout the town that is connected to the cities water lines, its the same water :roll:

I don't think it is the bacteria, cel (well it isn't with me anyway), its the chemicals used and how much of them that my stomach can't cope with. In NJ you could taste the chlorine really strongly in the water.

I don't think it is the bacteria, cel (well it isn't with me anyway), its the chemicals used and how much of them that my stomach can't cope with. In NJ you could taste the chlorine really strongly in the water.

I have a stomach made of cast iron. Often eating stuff well beyond the sell by date....stuff with moss growing on it.....loads of fatty sugary stuff. Havn't puked once since I've lived here....never taken a day off sick and only put on about 5 pounds in 5 years. Hardly even exercise either.

OK, any ladies want to join me in the lynching of the skinny barsteward. :wink:

Pics.

Nah, we need to be sympathetic ...after all, we all know what the best exercise is, and he obviously aint getting any.......

Yes, Ben, but only when I was out and about, which was fairly frequently, or if I was in Europe, of course. At home I drank tap water, which was excellent.
In Florida our tap water was awful, with so many added chemicals it smelled like a lab experiment. No way would I even venture to drink it. I expected the tap water in TN to be much better quality, however it smells just as bad. I've also tasted it and it's awful, so I still drink bottled water here. I love Fuji water, however it's fairly expensive and only one supermarket here stocks it. When they have it in stock I buy it (if I'm feeling flush), but I usually just buy the store's own brand of Spring water. Our family drink so much water we're considering a home delivery service who will deliver 5 gallon bottles and a cooler to house it, then we'd always have it iced and 'on tap'. I'm sure a water filter would be more economical, however I'd be warey in case some of the chemicals got through the filter. :-?

:lol: