What can we take from the Italians in terms of health?

I believe there are a lot of things that America can learn from the Italian health system as well as their lifestyle. Italians are generally healthier than Americans. If you were to walk along the streets in the U.S. you would see roughly every other person being overweight. When I walked on the streets in Italy however, over an entire eight-week period, I could count on one hand how many obese people I have seen. I haven’t seen one gym while I have been here. The only conclusion one can come to when they ask how, after all the food and carbs that Italians consume, the Italians stay healthy is that it is a combination of their lifestyle and their national health care.

In the U.S. our lifestyle mainly consists of working 8 hours a day and then coming home to watch TV until we go to bed. We eat out half of the nights in a week. Parks are empty and abandoned as kids play videogames at home instead. In Italy, parks are full of people walking. Kids fight over the grassy areas for space to play their pick-up soccer games. Italians walk, often miles, to and from work everyday. They also cook more than Americans do. This allows them to consume fresh, more-healthy products. In the U.S. many families order their food from restaurants who often do not have healthy food. Restaurants in Italy on the other hand buy all their ingredients from the local market every day. It is these little differences that Italy has that make them healthier than the U.S. I would be very surprised if everyone in the U.S. changed their ways, as it has become our culture. However, I do believe that we can take a few of these things and change for the better.

One thing I think America has to change is our diet. We consume to many unhealthy foods. This is something that we could change immediately. It starts with the kids in school. We need to provide them with more information on eating healthy and make sure that all the school lunches are healthy as well. Michelle Obama has started this, but we as a nation need to make sure we really strive to achieve this. Often times a person’s eating habits start when they are young, if they change it at a young age, they will grow to be healthy individuals and thus have healthy families for future generations.

Italy has national health care. Everyone in Italy who needs health care gets it. I believe that this has helped dramatically with the overall health of the citizens. They can go see the doctor if they’re not feeling well early on and spot any problems and treat those problems before they become too serious. In the U.S., not everyone has health insurance and those who do pay for it themselves. Because of this, they are not as inclined to take advantage of the cutting age science that we have. If we were to provide it to everyone I believe more people would use it, and thus be healthier.