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Yep, and also Italians "do it better", what gives? It is rare to see all together such a set of (I have to presume) unrelated items, such as the popularity of

• m0llusk 10y ago
  This has gotten a lot of study and comes up often here. The issue appears to be the same as with the so-called Hispanic Health Paradox where poor and likely obese Hispanic Americans have better health and life expectancy than the general population. The cause appears to be socialization and lifestyle as both Southern Italians and Hispanic Americans tend to form large accepting family groups. What is less discussed is the downside of this which is that with more social bonding and acceptance these physically healthy people are less likely to rebel in general or become extremely wealthy from business success. Neurotic and unhealthy people may have more personal challenges but build more dynamic economies and societies.
  • toyg 10y ago
    Less likely to rebel, really? WASP-powered US has had the same system of government for more than 200 years. In that timeframe, Spain and Italy saw several revolutions, upheavals, counter-revolutions, and fundamental shifts in democratic systems during peacetime. Even in the 1946-92 timeframe, the so called "First Republic" in Italy had a different government almost every year, and at various points it was on the verge of civil war. I think you are confusing economic dynamics with political ones. Despite What Marx would say, the two don't always require each other.
    • lucideer 10y ago
      I think you're misreading the above poster. He's not generalising to the entire Italian (/Spanish) population.
  • aphextron 10y ago
    >Hispanic Health Paradox where poor and likely obese Hispanic Americans have better health and life expectancy than the general population. Anecdotally, Hispanic people tend to eat far more fruits and vegetables than the average American, so this wouldn't surprise me. Although I think the conclusions you draw beyond that are a bit of a stretch.
    • m0llusk 10y ago
      I am not drawing any conclusions whatsoever. I am referring to an established literature of considerable volume. For a good popular take on all of this there is a big and very well cited section of Outliers by Malcom Gladwell that outlines all of this in a conversational manner. The problem is that you are pretending to be interested in this material without bothering to spend the effort to seek out and read existing findings. If Hispanic people eating far more fruits and vegetables is a key detail as you suggest then why is it that Hispanic peoples in the US are so much more likely to be obese? You really would do yourself a favor by consulting some of the existing literature about this rather than leaning on oversimplifications or attacking me for having dared to refer to studies I have read that may be relevant to this material.
• josephjrobison 10y ago
  Would love to see California and Colorado vs Mississippi and Alabama listed on here. Like the other commenters said about Italy, there's a lot of differentiation across the country.
• aphextron 10y ago
  >About the Mediterranean Diet and the availability of fresh products (which in itself are IMHO very good things) it is doubtful that the good people of Iceland share the same, still they are almost as long living as the Italians. I don't think it's so much the particular diet, as it is the lack of refined sugars and highly processed foods. Every person I've met from outside North America always makes fun of American food. Things like canned vegetables, frozen meals, etc. simply do not exist in most of the world. We as a culture have chosen convenience over health and nutrition.
  • jjtheblunt 10y ago
    America has also LONG allowed all sorts of toxic materials and chemicals, and, through incompetence, exposed its living beings (humans included) to such. In particular, materials which bioaccumulate have a tradition of being just ignored as unimportant until a couple decades ago (ddts, lead, asbestos, silicates in general, phthalates, etc).