German Women Don't Get (Very) Fat

Many of you probably have the image of the big, burly, blond, and near-sighted German woman. While this image does reflect reality somewhat, the average German—man or woman—is pretty slim. While for the last couple of years the U.S. publishing world and dieting industry have been abuzz with books and programs educating us about the diet and lifestyle of French women (http://www.frenchwomendontgetfat.com/), the eating habits and daily routines of their German neighbors have languished in the shadows. It must be recognized, of course, that Germans are known more for their schnitzel and autobahns than their haute cuisine and joie de vivre. Furthermore, within the European community, they are stereotyped as the ones who like to travel and eat a lot, often at the same time. And yet, when I look around me in Hannover, people of all walks of life do seem relatively slender. Though my argument for the not-very-fat-German probably couldn’t stretch out into an entire book, maybe I have enough evidence for a blog entry?

First a general observation and then a disclaimer. Just like the French woman’s addiction to heavy cream and champagne, many of the following German eating and lifestyle habits also seem counter-intuitive, and thus, fat-making. But German women don’t get (very) fat, so maybe they are doing something at least sort of right. Second, I am not a German and so do not share with you these secrets as if they were my own. Fernando and I have kept our American eating habits intact, peanut butter and “ethnic” food included. Just think of me as a messenger of this under-appreciated national way of eating, which truly does have a certain je ne sais quoi.

Different meal schedule
The typical German still faithfully subscribes to her rural farmer ancestors’ eating schedule. The day starts early with fruhstuck, literally “early piece”, which is some combination of muesli, yogurt, grainy bread, meats, butter, cheese, Nutella and a soft boiled egg. Lunch, the day’s hot meal, is often served at 12:00, when you might think they would still be digesting those power breakfasts. This Mittagessen includes meat, starch, salad, veggies, wine, and light fruit dessert. In the early evening is the traditional German cold supper, called Abendbrot or evening bread-- basically a repeat of breakfast, perhaps with one of those dense 100 grain hockey puck breads instead of rolls, and substituting sausage for the Nutella. Not all Germans partake of this miserly p.m. meal, though it does seem the norm that after about 2:00 pm, most Germans are finished with their impressive eating for the day, and take it easy from then on. This farmer-like eating schedule encourages an industrious work day as well as an addiction to coffee to stave off the desire to nap often brought on by big daytime meals.

Kaffee und Kuchen
The English have their daily tea ritual and the Germans have their Coffee and Cake. It happens at 3:30 in the afternoon (yup, pretty much on the dot-- Fernando and I have even observed Kaffee and Kuchen traffic on Sundays) and it involves getting together with a friend or family member and washing down cake with some milky coffee. What does daily cake eating have to do with staying thin, or rather, with not getting (very) fat? The answer lies in the quality of these confections. I’ve tried the butter cake, various cheesecakes, the berry cakes, the poppy seed cake and even a chocolate cake or two, and these small-portioned lovelies are hardly sweet. Cakes, and desserts in general, are not only devoid of the “sinful” quality of their American counterparts, they’re not even cut into “slabs”, or are they particularly rich. Though I enjoy them, I confess to craving dessert after Kaffee und Kuchen sometimes.

Market science
Picture it: a super market without its own aisle (aisles?) for Power Bars, Slim Fast powders, Atkins pancake mixes, Crystal Light and South Beach Diet cereal. Got it? That’s a German supermarket. Indeed, very few weight loss products can be found. All the stores have their organic section featuring tasteless brown crackers, raisins and cereal grains, but beyond that, very few products are marketed as “fat free” or “low carb”. German cows don’t even make skim or nonfat milk. The only sugar-free products for sale are found in drugstores, and are obviously for diabetics. There is always, however, an entire supermarket aisle, often two, dedicated to chocolate and candy.

Different nutritional labeling
I never realized that the “nutritional analysis per portion” information on food packaging was such an American phenomenon until we moved here and I started reading packages carefully to avoid poisoning my child unintentionally. In addition to displaying the ingredients list in ten languages (and often not in English) to cover the entire European Community, a brief nutritional analysis (only for calories, protein and fat, never for vitamins and minerals) can be found in some corner. The analysis, however, isn’t per portion, but rather, for the entire contents of the package. So, if you by a 750 gram bag of virtuous muesli, you won’t know how many calories are in a little bowl, but you will be alerted that eating the whole bag will cost you 3564 calories. Now, if that’s not enough to turn you off that rubbery stuff forever, than I don’t know what would be. Clearly, the consumer, and not some national dietary authority, is responsible for determining portion size.

Lack of soda
Germans don’t drink soda, or hardly ever. They do drink lots of tea (hot and cold), coffee, fruit juice, beer, wine, milk, buttermilk, and water, but very little Coke and Sprite.

Food for tots
The food German women prepare for their babies and young children is usually mushy, bland, and totally lacking in variety. Pureed everything, apple slices, grey gruel, mashed potatoes and plain rice cakes means a good food day for little Katarina. This has two positive effects: the little ones never learn that food is yummy, and there are no tempting tater-tots, bagels, chicken nuggets or mini-pizzas remaining on Junior’s plastic plate to tempt Mom.

Smoking
The non-health oriented German frau smokes and she smokes A LOT. These women are simply too busy puffing to eat very much.

Shivering
German women spend a lot of time dressing their children warmly but neglecting their own needs, going outside without a hat or gloves for several hours when it’s freezing, wearing mini-skirts with no tights in the winter, or keeping their homes so impossibly cold they could store the milk in their bathrooms. Their shivering burns lots of calories.

Exercise
They do walk most places and bike quite a lot, etc., but no need to elaborate on that one yet again.

Brats and beer and…?
Although Fernando and I are always singing the praises of the quality of German food, its variety is pitiful. Lots of scientific studies have shown that people tend to unknowingly commit their most waistline damaging pig-outs at buffets and salad bars with hundreds of choices. Well, with much less variety in Germany, there is considerably less danger involved in “sampling just a little bit of everything”.

There are probably additional reasons that German women don’t get very fat that I would be aware of if my German were better, or if I could force myself to watch more TV. From what little I’ve seen, the InfoMercial is alive and well, and Germans have an even livelier Home Shopping culture than in the US. They probably sell products to lose weight and get buff on those programs. But for now I rely on my powers of observation, penchant for making generalizations and regular trips to the supermarket.

IWAH and the New Year

Fernando, Leo and I returned last week after our trip to the U.S. and Chile for the holidays. We were only gone for a couple of weeks so it should be no surprise that not much in Hannover seemed different, as we groggily observed from our taxi cab windows on our way home. The Christmas ornaments, angels and lights in store display windows had all been replaced by more January-appropriate themes, like products to fight colds (water compresses, humidifiers, herbal cough syrups) and photographs of unhappy blonds blowing their puffy red noses. There were piles of bare evergreen trees amassed on street corners every kilometer or so. Leave it to the Germans to have a standardized system for their yearly Christmas tree disposal. But we had expected more changes though, since it was a new year and all.

Even at home, Starla was purring insistently like she was doing when we left and nothing had really happened in our absence, save for the appearance of a pile of mail that had been diligently brought up every few days by our cat-sitting upstairs neighbor Lea. There was, however, something new about the monthly newsletter from the International Women’s Association of Hannover. First, IWAH (www.iwah.de) is a social organization designed for women who live abroad, many of whom are here for work, either theirs’ or their spouses’. I guess these groups can be found in pretty much every large city, anywhere. In addition to orienting newcomers, IWAH also facilitates social and networking opportunities, interest groups, and volunteer events of different types. In reality, more than half of IWAH’s 250 members are Germans who just like to practice their English, and still many others are international women who landed here through marriage to Hannoverians.

I tend to open up these IWAH newsletters promptly, hoping one of them will contain valuable information about how to make lots of friends, find part-time work without a work permit, or the secret to perfection. Usually, though, they contain badly written book reviews (e.g. “I didn’t like this book by Tracy Chevalier nearly as much as her other ones”); advice columns about health and fitness by a woman who claims not to enjoy walking; and recipes often featuring British cuisine. But this issue instantly struck me as different due to the way the Chairwoman’s usual front page letter started. “Dear Members,” it read. Before, it had been “Dear Ladies”, an address that made me feel frivolous and ditzy, like someone whiling away the hours reading newsletters while her husband is out on his fantastic international assignment. So “Dear Members” felt to me like a nice change, and as I read on I learned that there was both a new IWAH Chairwoman and a new editor of the newsletter.

I realized I hadn’t given too much thought to IWAH at all really, but my experience with it, now that I am thinking about it, has been mainly positive. In a spooky parallel with my life in general here, during IWAH sponsored events there have been hits, misses, yawns, and truly awkward moments. Here are some highlights, as well as a glimpse into what goes on at one of these international women’s organizations-- in case you ever wondered J.

Newcomers’ Coffee: These monthly get-togethers are held at the palatial apartment of Sabine Fleming, a sincere, brace-faced early 60-something native of Germany. Back in October, I had big hopes for this coffee, certain that there would be a few BFF’s just waiting to make my acquaintance as they sipped coffee and choked down virtually inedible candied lemon cheesecake in Frau Fleming’s parlor. But my two hours there were mainly spent chasing Leo, who was checking out each and every room of the place, wearing out the oriental rugs as he scuffed along clumsily, pausing only to open the doors of old black and ivory cupboards or to yank at a doll from Sabine’s extensive antique toy collection. That morning there were four other newcomers: three of them about my age and all from India, and one 50-something, a veteran expat’s wife from France. Pleasant conversation, when I was lucky to catch any of it, but no best friends to be found.

New and Old Members’ Chat: These regular meetings are designed to hook up newcomers with active, more experienced IWAH members. At the meeting to which the gracious Renate Schulze invited me, I was the only newcomer, with four “old” members already sitting and chatting when I lumbered in with Leo and diaper backpack. While Frau Schulze’s wild berry tart was so delicious I resented having to share it with my firstborn, my dessert-induced bliss was quickly interrupted by what turned out to be my first really negative personal encounter in Germany. A bony faced Portuguese woman, whose name was therefore probably Ana, asked, upon hearing me speak to Leo, why I chose to speak with him in a language (Spanish) that was not my mother tongue. After responding thoughtfully to her, she shook her head, explaining how she had raised her 4 now grown children bilingually in Germany by speaking Portuguese to them, while her husband spoke German. And as I acknowledged to her the validity of her “One Parent, One Language” method for raising bilingual children and (tried to) explain why we were using a different one, she simply sneered, turned way from me in search of her friends’ approval, repeating in their direction, “That’s why it’s called the mother tongue! Lengua materna! Mutter Sprache!” If any of you have had an important aspect of your parenting… heck, of your life… criticized by a perfect stranger, then you can relate to the outrage that I felt at that moment (and admittedly, for a few hours after). Or maybe you can’t—maybe you would have been strong enough to dismiss it, since the judgment did, after all, come from a stranger. My only satisfaction that morning (after the tart) came when I said goodbye to my pleasant German hostess and her friends later, remarking that it had been “wonderful to meet most of you.”

Bi-monthly Wine and Cheese Social: Held in the evenings, I have managed to miss both of these so far. The first because I felt “too tired” after moving into our new apartment, and the second because I “got lost” trying to find the church where these things are held, and my pointy shoes prevented me from prowling around for too long in the dark. The truth is that these large, purely social events kind of intimidate me.

Bi-monthly Lecture: Held in the mornings, with topics such as “The Science of Perfume”, “All about My Country: Trinidad and Tobago” and “Jews in Germany Today”, these have been impossible for me to go to, thanks to you-know-who (rhymes with mío).

IWAH Mom & Toddlers’ Group: This weekly playgroup in a church basement for kids from 1 to 3 makes the 40 € annual IWAH dues worth it. Every time I go, Leo has fun playing with toys and the other kids, and I always leave with more knowledge and practical information about Hannover and Germany. There are even a couple Americans in the group!

It’s January and I’ve been making resolutions in my head for a couple of weeks now (and at this point in the month, already breaking some of the earlier ones). I resolve to make more effort with IWAH this year. Maybe I’ll start my own interest group… how many people can dog walking, quilting, or Finnish Conversation really attract? At least I should try to make it to one of those Wine and Cheese things.

Happy new year to everyone, and good luck with your new attitude about whatever it is this year!