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Comment by DeusExMachina | Hacker News Reader

> the typical western diet is universally bad

As if there is a "western" diet.

Even just remaining in Europe, the typical diet in Italy has nothing to do with the typical diet in Germany.

And while southern countries and northern countries tend to have more similar diets, even between them they have big differences.

Same goes for "eastern diets". China and India, to pick just two, have completely different diets.

Criticize overcompsuntion of low quality food all you want when it occurs, but I think that broad-stroke generalizations like "western diet bad" are not useful.

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Go anywhere in Europe or in the US, people eat basically the same things. Globalisation took care of it, there might be some local variants, especially in rural areas, but in big cities there is close to no differences between NY, SF, London, Paris, Athens and Berlin.

At the end of the day >50% of people in Europe and in the US are overweight or obese. Every country adopting our diets are following the trend, have a look at Latin america and Maghreb.

We can argue all day long about the details but it doesn't change the facts that we're fucking up in major ways.

I'm not talking about traditional dishes that take 24 hours to prepare and that you eat once a month when you visit your grandma, I'm talking about what people actually put in their mouth days in days out, and it's frozen junk, fast food, over processed meat, excessive amount of carbs, etc ...

Damn, my colleagues can't stop asking me why I eat "so healthy" but I just eat fresh food / things I cook myself. There are 300-400 people in my office, we're literally ~20 to do that.

- http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-dis...

- http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/11/alert-hunger-obesity-rise-lat...

typical diet in Italy has nothing to do with the typical diet in Germany.

That's not really true. Both build a lot of their meals around a boiled starch, a grilled or fried protein and a vegetable dish, often prepared separately. It is not uncommon that this dish is primarily made up of raw vegetables. The starch and protein component almost always makes up the bulk of the meal. Both use a lot of dairy based sauces and/or a sauce made by thickening a meat stock (either pre-made or by de-glazing the pan they fired their protein in). Bread and other baked goods are a common component in many meals in both counties, often served with vegetable or dairy fat.

Is there any (national or regional) diet that isn't based around a starch, a protein, and vegetables, with the starch and protein making up the bulk of the meal?

Ketogenic?

Is that a national or regional diet anywhere?

The traditional Inuit diet is obviously much much lighter on starches and vegetables.

>>a grilled or fried protein I don't know where calling meat "protein" come from, but for me it seems so wrong. There are other sources of protein and more than protein in meat. So why not call meat for meat? I am almost sure you talk about meat, but could also be cheese or another natural protein source, since grilling or frying a protein shake will probably not be a great success.

They said protein because that would also include such things as tofu, fish, and eggs; none of which are commonly called "meat". You're being overly restrictive by trying to move to the term meat.

ok, so a protein source, or a source of protein, would cover it. Might be me getting old, but the term "a protein" rubs me the wrong way

It's just another example of an English word having multiple meanings. The listener (or reader) has to divine which one was intended by context. Much like the word "organic".

Protein is used this way quite a bit when talking about diet.

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