Two Weeks in Europe and My Body Felt Better. It Wasn’t the Rest.

Every time I spend a couple of weeks in Europe, the same thing happens. Somewhere around the end of the first week, I notice I feel better. My stomach isn’t hurting. I’m not bloated after every meal. My head is clearer. I have more energy.

The easy answer would be that I’m on vacation and resting, but I’m not. Vacations are exhausting. You’re up early, you’re on the move all day, you sleep in a different bed every few nights. I do walk a lot more over there, and I’m sure that helps. But it’s not what changes how I feel.

It’s the food.

My stomach keeps telling me

I’ve lost count of how many times my stomach has rejected American food. I’m talking about normal food from a normal grocery store or restaurant, not a sketchy gas station burrito. Stomach pain, bloating, brain fog, feeling heavy and tired for no reason. Then I go to Europe and eat bread, pasta, cheese and dessert every day, often more than I’d eat at home, and I feel fine. That bothers me, and I think it should bother everyone.

It’s not the same food

Even the same products aren’t the same. Some ingredients that are allowed here aren’t allowed in Europe at all. Potassium bromate, used in some American bread, is banned there. Azodicarbonamide, a dough conditioner that’s also used to make foam plastics, isn’t allowed in their food either. Artificial dyes like Red 40 carry a warning label in Europe saying they may affect children’s attention and behavior. Here, they’re in cereal marketed to kids.

Companies already make these foods without any of that for their European customers. They just don’t do it for us.

How do they keep their customers?

That’s the part I can’t get past. How do companies sell food that leaves people with stomach aches, bloating and brain fog, and still keep all those customers? I think most people don’t connect how they feel to what they ate. They think feeling like this is normal, and you only find out it isn’t when you leave for two weeks and feel the difference.

Something needs to change

It’s not fair that eating clean has become a luxury. Food that isn’t loaded with corporate chemicals shouldn’t cost more or take a special trip to find.