108: Europe vs. America: The Health Secret Nobody Talks About

MK: I grew up in Austria, and since moving to the US in 2007, I've had a front row seat to two very different health cultures. And when I visit Austria today, like I did a couple of weeks ago. I can't help but compare what I see with both my life here in the States and with the way my grandparents lived back home and, and still do.

They're 92 and 93 years old as of this recording and still kicking, living by themselves. So in relative good health, I wanna say, and I can't help but. Their generation had it good. And don't get me wrong, I mean, they grew up during the war and so that was certainly not the good part of, uh, of their lives.

But still, they had decades of clean food, pure alpine water, and an environment that kept them active and outdoors. I mean, they were farmers, you know, they walk to school miles and miles and they spent a lot of time. Outdoors, exposed to nature, exposed to natural sunlight, no wifi, none of what we have today, and they only started getting exposed to ultra processed foods, glyphosate, and that creeping influence of American style food culture maybe 20 years ago.

Maybe 30 years ago, you know, to a degree. But by then most of their health trajectory was already set. So they have a very solid foundation based on decades and decades of relatively clean and healthy eating and living. But when I look at younger Austrians, you know, kids and teenagers growing up in 2025, I see something very different.

They're surrounded by sodas and packaged snacks and seed oils and the lifestyle that looks a lot more like. America than the Austria I grew up in, you know? And, and I was born in, in 1982, just for reference, you know, and, and that worries me. And that's what today's episode is about. You know, how Austria or the European Union in general, because Austria is part of the eu.

And a lot of what I talk about in this episode is really based on EU laws and regulations. You know, like it or not. And, and to the us you know, and, and compare and contrast that when it comes to food and water and lifestyle and health and what the trends mean for the next generation. Welcome to the Prime Chief Podcast, and just to set the stage, let's talk about numbers a little bit, you know, in Austria, and I just looked at it the other day and, and I was shocked learning this because I did so not expect those numbers.

You know, in Austria, cardiovascular disease, like heart attacks, stroke, and cir, uh, circulatory issues make up about 34 to 36%. Of all deaths. So one in, oh, more than one in three deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease. And I'm like, this seems high. And, and it is compared to the US where the number is closer to 20%.

So one in five Americans die of cardiovascular disease. And, but just looking at this, I'm like, how can Austria have such a heart disease problem? But if you look at the absolute numbers, you know, the US is obviously far worse, you know, nearly. 942,000, so nearly a million, uh, cardiovascular death deaths per year in the United States, versus 30 to th 32,000 in Austria.

So in absolute numbers, you know, it's, it's a whole different ballgame, obviously, but just in percentage based on, you know, the number of deaths in, in each country, respectively. Austria is leading, and I'm like, why is that? If everything appears to be healthier? And we talk about, you know, diet and some of those other things and how that influences those numbers.

And what I saw during my last trip to Austria and the first argument one could make is, um, that the life expectancy in Austria is higher. It's 82 years versus 77, I think in the United States. So. More people die of chronic diseases, you know, later in life. And that can skew the numbers a little bit. There are also, you know, other causes in the US like overdoses and gun violence and, you know, liver disease and obesity, complications that just make up a bigger slice of the pie.

Um, and that skews the numbers a little bit so that you know, more people, percentage-wise, die of cardiovascular disease in Austria versus in the us. We need to interrupt this episode for a quick shout to our sponsor, one Skin, because let's be honest, nobody wants the skin cells checking out early. It's called cell senescence.

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That's O-N-E-S-K-I n.co. And use Code M Kummer for 15% off. Now, back to our regular scheduled program before any more cells decide to retire. But there are also a couple of reasons why the Austrian numbers might be higher. One is smoking, you know. Approximately 25% of adults in Austria still smoke. Here in the US the number is closer to 12%.

So in fact, where we are here in in Georgia, I barely see anyone with a cigarette in Austria. You walk around and you see a lot of people still smoking, which is interesting and concerning at the same time, from a diet perspective, you know, Austria I think has an overall, has higher quality food with less.

Toxins in the food supply. But from a macronutrient perspective, I would argue the diet isn't necessarily much better. It's very high in carbohydrates. Um, and but to be fair, that used to be like that, you know, since I was a kid. I mean, when, you know, I talked about it in a newsletter not too long ago and, and alternate a podcast episode, uh, just a few episodes ago.

We grew up on star starchy food, potatoes, and pasta and bread. And the only thing we drank as kids, as far as I remember, were juices, you know? Um, and so it's not that that has changed dramatically, but that's still the case very. Carp heavy died in Austria, and also alcohol consumption is higher, uh, per capita.

Um, you know, beer and wine are prevalent. I mean, my, my, you know, my, uh, my stepfather, I mean, he, I'm sure he drinks beer every day, you know, maybe even for lunch already. You know, it's not that he gets drunk or anything, but he just has his beer, you know, or maybe two. And that's just very. Common in in Austria, but then another nuances, the medical coding is different in Austria and in the us you know, in Austria.

Uh, we often list cardiovascular disease as a primary cause of death without necessarily looking at the underlying cause. Whereas in the US it might get attributed to diabetes or obesity, you know, which is funny because just a couple of years ago when the SN sniffles, uh, uh, snuffles were going around, you know, everything was a snuffles.

Death even though there was just, um, a symptom and not maybe the underlying root cause. But generally speaking, outside of those, you know, pandemic kind of situations, there appear to be a more root cause kind of, uh. Coding than it is happening in Austria. So the bottom line here is I don't necessarily think that Austrian hearts are necessarily weaker.

Um, you know, people just live a little bit longer and, uh, and some of those other factors, you know, play a role here. But one, one thing that I noticed, I mean, I've noticed for a while, uh, the difference between Austria and the United States is how big agriculture and big farmer. Influence policy here in the United States.

You know, the US is only one of two countries. I think the other one is New Zealand that allows direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising, um, you know, on TV and, and, and otherwise, you know, ask your doctor about X, Y, Z. You don't have that in Europe. You don't have that in Austria. There is no pharmaceutical ads on TV or anything else.

It's prohibited. And that plays a major role in the way people look at, at issues. You know, they don't go to the doctor and ask for a pill, you know, they think about, okay, what's causing it more so than in the US and pharma spend here in the US is huge. It's like $370 million annually just on lobbying.

You know, that's more than oil or defense. That's absolutely crazy. And of course then, you know, big pharma also influenced, and big agriculture as well influence the nutritional guidelines, you know, so things that are heavily subsidized like grains and soy and maybe dairy, you know, they find a place in the nutritional guidelines, whereas the influence in Europe exists.

But the oversight is stricter. And lobbying is also. Tends to be much slower. And the other big difference here is that the European Union applies the precautionary principle. Meaning that unless a company can prove that something is safe, it is not allowed. Here in the US it's like, yes. I mean if, if it's kind of.

Looks okay-ish. You know, you can use it. And if it turns out to be bad, then we take action. You know? And so it's the exact opposite in Europe, and that prevents a lot of things. And, and you know, again, the, the recent pandemic was maybe a little bit of a, of an exception to this because the EU also approved things in individual countries within the EU approved things that would normally have not been approved from a food perspective.

There is a. Uh, there are a ton of food additives. I think there are about 3000 or so food additives allowed in the United States. Most of them are banned in Europe, including, you know, certain dyes and gross hormones in dairy. And Ted um, ted uh, seed oils, uh, vegetable oils, you know, all of those things are not allowed in Europe, you know.

And they're also not the same subsidies to the extent as in the US as far as corn and soy is concerned. You know, that really fuels the cheap processed foods and sugary drinks that use those ingredients now. There are a couple of things that are mind boggling as far as the European Union is concerned, and that is one example is glyphosate.

You know, it's still legal EU wide. In fact, they just renewed the permit in 2023 for another 10 years of glyphosate use in agriculture. Now, Austria bans the private use, but the farming lobby. Still manage to keep the pressure up and allow it to be used in, in, in agriculture, in commercial agriculture. And that's mind boggling considering everything we know about glyphosate.

And so, you know, there are still things allowed in indeed. There are also still PFAS that are, you know, certain pfas are banned also those forever chemicals that, uh, but many of them are allowed in the us. Pretty much everything goes, there is no ban, so the EU is significantly better when it comes to food additives and certain toxins, but they're certainly not perfect.

And there is one specific example I want to give you. Um, you know, when we talk about food supply and quality overall, you know, in Austria, the supermarkets, they still feature more real food and less processed foods, even though the trajectory is unfortunately heading in, in, in the, in the wrong direction.

But here in the US I mean most of the food or food-like substances that you find in grocery stores. Highly processed, ultra processed, full of additives and preservatives and seed oils and all crap that you do not want in your body. But just to give you one very specific example, because just a few weeks ago I was standing at the checkout line at, uh, a, an Austrian grocery store, and I look down and I see the Haribo gummy bears, those, that's candy that I grew up with when I was a kid.

And we had them a lot. I I really liked them at the time. And I picked it up and took a picture of the nutrition label and I realized that there is, I mean obviously it has, is full of sugar in the form of glucose syrup, but everything else appears to be. Benign. Definitely not something that I would say you should never have this, you know, at all, period.

Then I looked at the, the same product sold here in the United States, and instead of using, you know, fruit juices, like beet root, et cetera, to color the, those gummy bears here in the US, they use red, 40 and yellow, five and blue ones. So all artificial dyes that have been linked to a variety of health conditions.

So it's the same product at least. On the outside, but it's, in fact, it's a very different product. And you might have seen, you know, some of those posts on Instagram where they show, you know, the oak, you know, uh, the Quaker Oaks or whatever here in the US versus the ones in, in Europe, different products because you, there are fewer restrictions as far as crap ingredients are concerned here in the United States.

And so from that perspective, you know, even if you consume. Candy and, and certain, you know, packaged foods, you are likely gonna get a healthier version and as a healthier, not necessarily healthy in Atri and European Union than over here in the United States. And so that's a huge. A huge differentiator.

Number five, or the next one on the list is, you know, water quality. You know, specifically in Austria, Austria has one of the best, the cleanest drinking water in the world. And it's because we get the water from the mountains. It's alpine, spring water, you know, that that's, uh, that receives minimal treatment because it's already so good from the get go.

We actually walked around, we, we hiked up on, on the castle to the castle that is, you know, on, on a. Small hill in the center of, of Salzburg, my hometown, and there was a spring, um, walking up there very adjacent to the, the water reserves and we could just drink the water coming out of the rock. It's unbelievable.

On a second occasion, we took a hike to an outdoor museum that showed farm buildings from, you know, hundreds of years ago. And there were several running springs that we could just go there and drink water, you know. Coming out of, of, of the ground without any issues whatsoever here in the us you know, I would not dare to drink, uh, our tap water.

We filter it because it's so full of crap of PFAS forever. Chemicals and, and heavy metals and agricultural runoff and endocrine disruptors and all kinds of things. And, and yes, there might be places here in the US where you can get high quality drinking water, but in most places, I would recommend not drinking.

The tap water without filtering it before. And so that's another huge difference between Austria and and the us. However, I wanna point out, you know, glaciers are melting in in Europe and it doesn't really matter, you know, who's at fault. If it's just, you know, stuff changing without human influence or because it's our fault, you know, it doesn't really matter.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of the glaciers, you know, retreat, they're melting and so that, um. That puts a risk on the drink water supply in Austria. And certain countries are even far, you know, worse off, like the Netherlands for example, they can't get the drinking water from the ground because if they were to pull water from the ground, then the, the surrounding salt water would seep in and contaminate their drinking water.

So they cannot do this. They have to get it from rivers like rain, you know? And so, and that water is not as clean anymore as it, as it used to be either. There's a lot of pfas and forever chemicals. In circulation in lakes, in, in streams, in rivers, in Europe. And so they are still better off than we are here in the US but I think that is changing as well.

And over time, they, they are just maybe a few decades behind in certain areas, in, in other areas, just a few years behind the us. But the trajectory is not, doesn't look promising either from a work life balance and stress balance. I think that's also a huge component. You know, stress is a resource. Uh, robber and it's a not so silent killer, quite literally.

And here in the US you know, we don't have federally mandated vacation days. We have longer hours. It's a more car-centric living. Nobody walks or rides the bike. And by nobody, I mean, you know, very few people. Uh, chronic stress is just at a very high baseline, whereas in Austria, life appears to be more relaxed.

There is a better work life balance. Nobody. It's just go, go, go, go. I mean, there are some people who do this, but the maturity of the population, they're more laid back. They don't, they don't live for working. You know, they work to live, you know, and that's a huge difference. You know, they have shorter work weeks, generally speaking.

They have more vacation days. They have, you know, when they have a, they have, uh, parental leaves, et cetera. They move a lot. I mean, my mom and even my grandmother, you know, again, 93 years old, you know, she just, she still walks to the grocery store. My mom rides the bike a lot. They walk a lot. They just do a lot of.

Physical activity without necessarily going to the gym just based on their, you know, daily routine. They do so much more. They move so much more than most Americans, I would argue from a nutritional guidelines perspective. There is also some shocking, uh. Um, shocking, shocking revelation because I did, I thought the US MyPlate formerly known as the food permit, is probably the worst idea of dietary guidelines on this planet.

You know, with, you know, eat a whole of whole meat, a whole wheat, sorry, don't eat a whole lot of meat. You know, avoid saturated fats and eggs and all of those things. But the truth is the Austrian guidelines are. Even worse. They recommend not having meat more often than twice a week. You know, more whole grains, again, limit your saturated fat intake, you know, consume more vegetable oils.

You know, all of the things that are, I think are absolutely misguided, horrible, and poor for your health is what Austria promotes as well. The good news is there is, there appears to be less. Uh, propaganda overall, you hear those things less often. Um, there is a little bit more resistance to some of those, you know, go plant-based vegan, even though I have to admit when I go to the store, there are a lot of product packaging now that it says vegan on it, even maybe more so than here in the United States.

Um, so I think there is this, you know, vegan kind of wave, but it's also fading away much like here in the us. Um, but again, the food guidelines, the official guidelines from the Austrian government are as misguided as they are here. In the United States, unfortunately, and people will pay a price for that in the future.

Now, I mentioned twice already. I just visited Austria with, with my kids, actually with our kids while my wife's at home taking care of the animals. But I went with the kids and we observed a couple of things. I was really trying to pay attention what is different here in Austria than it is or in Austria than it is here in the United States.

And a couple of things that I noticed, most of the pastor, most of the lawns, most of the pastor that I saw. Was untreated. There were weeds everywhere. I mean, it was Mo, it was maintained. But it wasn't monoculture kind of grass like we see here in the United States a lot. I mean, every, everything that's, uh, com owned by the municipality, by the city, by the town, whatever, you know, all of the green areas, they are sprayed and meticulous, you know, meticulous long type of style.

In Austria, they are maintained, but you see wheats, you know, you see, you know, plantains and then all kinds of, um, plants that indicates that there was no herbicides used, you know, like. Glyphosate, which isn't allowed in, you know, outside of commercial farming. And so that was a big, big thing that I noticed immediately.

Also noticed, however, that there is a lot of overweight and obese people. You know, we went to a, like, to a public swimming, uh, area where they have different pools and you know, like a waterpark if you will. And I just walked around. I'm like a lot of fat people here. Unbelievable. I've never. Notice this. In the past even, you know, and especially, you know, childhood obesity is really rampant.

Now, the absolute numbers are still lower. We are like at, I think in Austria they have like 20% obesity or 70% versus 40% here in the United States. But just the amount of, of people that I saw that had like, you know, this pouch or just were big, big, was unprecedented. I've never, I've never realized that before.

And that was kind of a, wow. I've also noticed that junk food culture is seeping in like sodas and packaged snacks. And if you look at, you know, listen to the commercials and like, oh, how convenient all you have to do is, you know, open this thing and your kid has a, you know, a lunch. This is all shit food.

And so the American way of, of convenience of eating convenience foods is creeping in and that is concerning and I've already mentioned it. A big push for vegetarian vegan eating as a healthy choice, um, is also seeping in unfortunately. But on the bright side, you know, there are still a lot of, you know, farmers, uh, farmer's market, you know, local meats and cheeses, stuff that's produced in Austria that, you know, that keeps that whole outdoor kind of culture more alive and that, you know, grow your own food.

There are restaurants over there that serve local foods or homemade, you know, kind of meals. All of that is still preserved. But it's going away. And just from a, you know, gastro, you know, perspective from a restaurant, uh, and dining perspective, Austria now introduced, you know, dining slots where you have only two hours.

You know, you make a reservation and you get a two hour slot, and then you have to, you know, give up your table, you know, Austrian. Dining culture, eating culture in general means you sit there for hours and you talk and you have another coffee or another, you know, beer or whatever. But you, you, you, you, you spend a lot of time around meals and they want a curb that's similar to in the US where, you know, you get the check even before you have taken your last bite.

You know? So the whole, you know, making it faster, faster, faster, more stressful is also seeping in. And I, I, I really don't like this. So I, I do see that Austria and Europe in general is sliding into American eating habits and that is a problem. Now. What are the takeaways? Well, Austria still looks and is healthier in many degrees in order.

Food is still cleaner, the water is better, there is more movement, but the trends are worrisome. And you know, if you look at the cardiovascular. Death statistics. It is concerning, even though there is obviously a nuance to those numbers, as we've discussed in the beginning. So it's not too concerning yet, but I think it's heading in in that direction.

Now, if you're in the United States here, you know, you really have to actively fight against the big agriculture and big pharma, but voting with your dollars, you know, it matters who you pay to. Get your food. You know, you can either, you can choose to go to a grocery store or go to your local pharma and buy it from them, you know, and it, it matters.

It makes a difference. So I would highly encourage you to pay attention to who you give your money to, you know, filter your water, you know, source. Whole real food. Ignore the guidelines. They're misguided, unfortunately. And if you're in Europe, you know, don't, don't follow the us. Don't slide into American eating habits.

You know, stick with traditional diets and movement patterns and pay attention to the foods you buy because they might not be the same that they were maybe a decade or two decades ago. But you know, here is what really. Stands out to me. You know, my grandparents' generation in Austria is doing relatively well.

I mean, they're 92, 93 years old now. They still, they have their issues, but overall, considering their age, they're in relatively good health. You know? But here's the thing, they enjoy it. Clean food. Pure water and decades of a healthy environment. They're only starting getting exposed to all of the crap that we have today, like seed oils, glyphosate, and ultra processed junk food, you know, 10, 20 years ago.

But by then, their health spend was already largely established. Of course, you know, the deteriorate that might deteriorate now quicker being exposed to all of that stuff that should not be. But nonetheless, their foundation is relatively solid. But kids born today. Won't get the same buffer. You know, a, a child born in 2025 will grow up surrounded by processed foods and industrial agriculture and a lifestyle that's more sedentary and more stressful from the school age on, you know, it's, it's already more stressful than it ever.

Was in the past, and I'm not talking about, you know, stressors like, oh, you know, our flood, you know, destroyed our crops or anything. Something that's like a onetime stressor, but the chronic stress, I'm talking about the day in and day out. The same stressors over and over again. To do homework, I have to get an A, I have to, you know, to all of those things that we don't really need and that are absolutely detrimental to our health.

You know, and, and so those kids growing up today, and that's even worse in the US obviously, but even so in Austria, you know, I, I doubt that Dale enjoyed the same longevity or resilience my grandparents had. So whether you are in. Salzburg or in Atlanta, the lesson is really the same. Don't wait for policy or culture to save, you know, recreate the conditions that humans thrived in for thousands of years and forever.

How long you think humans have been on this planet, you know, better food, cleaner water, more movement, and less reliance on the industrial system. That's how we bent the curve for the next generation. Otherwise, it's gonna be a very, very bleak outlook. And if you like this episode, you know, share with someone who could benefit from it.

Someone maybe who is traveling, who thinks that everything is better in Europe, um, or maybe someone who thinks everything is better here in the us and let me know. What do you think? If you're watching this on a platform that supports comments, leave me a comment or send me an email. I'd like to hear from you.

What do you think? What if your observation spend and what do you plan on doing to improve your health and longevity?