re: #278 wozzablog

I was pondering making a page of that bbc news line about healthier Englanders. Life here is totally different - your population is much more sedentary even by modern standards. Example - i can waolk to my nearest shops and get fresh on the day bread, fresh meats and veg. I stayed in texas suburbs last year and there was no fresh fruit/bread or meat within walking distance, more particularly getting in a car and crossing atleast one freeway.
Also - primarily though - the fixtation on aftercare in the US is a huge problem, in Europe we have altered our resources massively into health continuation/prevention work. Stopping people getting sick is a helluva lot cheaper than treating sick people.

I think the sedentary issue is huge. Many (most?) people in the UK live in places where many trips are easier to take via a combination of walking/cycling/public transport than by car. In the US, I would guess that’s only really true in NYC, Chicago and the Bay Area (possibly other East Coast and Pacific NW cities).

I also think there’s a massive culinary difference stemming in no small part from post-war food rationing in the UK. Food in the US is far sweeter than in the UK - there is sugar in pretty much everything (even most bread recipes).

One of my favorite stories from one of my older UK contacts concerns why she doesn’t take sugar in her tea: she remembers the time when the sugar ration went up enough that, if the family stopped sugaring their tea, they would have enough to make one cake per week.