I'm Italian. I would say it's pretty normal for an Italian family to have pasta and white bread twice a day. On top of that, classic Italian breakfast is usuall

I'm Italian. I would say it's pretty normal for an Italian family to have pasta and white bread twice a day. On top of that, classic Italian breakfast is usually sweet, with coffee/milk/cappuccino together with toasted bread and butter/jam, or a white dough pastry, or dunking cookies. Wikipedia says that Italy is fourth in the list of countries with the highest life expectancy. People on average are reasonably fit, it's rare to come across someone that can be defined as "obese". Of course over the last decades the number of overweight or obese people HAS increased, but what has changed has been the arrival of fast food chains, and the availability of cheap and convenient processed foods over fresh ones. I agree this is oversimplifying. But so does this this article. Demonising a particular food (and idolising others) it's the worst kind of information you can give people, the truth is that you can safely eat most of commercially available food with moderation and common sense.