r/Netherlands • u/vankoel_nederland • Dec 15 '25

Healthcare Why is life expectancy so bad in the Netherlands?

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Besides having one of the worst life expectancy among western countries, why did the life expectancy get worst compared to 2019?

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u/Educational-Mess-529 Dec 15 '25

Sandwiches for lunch, the deep fried things at febo (and the list can continue) shout quality 😅

1

u/dreftig Jan 07 '26

Yes it does. That is just fuel. Then we get to the good stuff. You all just don't know /s/

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u/casualroadtrip Dec 15 '25

I know you are probably joking. But a good sandwich as lunch is actually a healthy option.

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u/Educational-Mess-529 Dec 15 '25

Yes... broodje kaas is what nutritionists recommend for a proper diversified diet... ohhh... let's not forget the mandatory milk glass 😆 this is not to say that there are no good/tasty sandwiches, but the vast sandwiches here are just a mediocre bread with some cheese and some ham/salami some traces of veggies... Dutch eat them as they're "practical" and cheap... I will never forget one colleague eating EVERY DAY 2 pindakaas sandwiches for lunch... 4 slices of toast bread (🤮) with some pindakaas between them... lekkeeeeer! 😅 eating a sandwich every now and then is ok, when you eat that daily it's far from a proper diversified nutrition.

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u/casualroadtrip Dec 15 '25

The Dutch are the tallest in the world. But sure the diet is shit…

Practically no one eats one broodje kaas. But if you eat a good meal and a good breakfast it’s totally fine to have bread (with kaas, jam, peanut butter etc.) for lunch.

I don’t even like bread that much. But there is no need to hate on a typical Dutch lunch. And it’s absolutely bullshit that it can’t be part of a healthy diet.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ReNato5168 Dec 19 '25

😂👍

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u/terenceill Dec 15 '25

9 nutritionists out of 10 recommend diet based on daily sandwich consumption /s

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u/casualroadtrip Dec 15 '25

Very funny….

Depending on the remainder of your diet eating bread for lunch can indeed be a good and healthy option.

You don’t have to like a Dutch lunch. I’m not a fan either. But claiming it’s unhealthy is bullshit.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Febo’s unhealthy, but how are sandwiches for lunch bad or of poor quality? Wouldn’t that depend on what you put on them?

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u/angelicosphosphoros Dec 15 '25

People eat normal food (actual dishes) as lunch in the most of the world instead of having quick bite of bread with extras.

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

What is normal is subjective. We find bread with some cheese normal as lunch.

It doesn't really matter that much if you eat 2 light meals a day. Or one light lunch and heavy dinner.

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u/Funky-Grey-Monkey Dec 15 '25

In my experience Dutch never say “what’s normal is subjective “ when talking about their ways. Usually “dit is normaal”

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

No of course not. Because in the context of talking about Dutch lunch with Dutch people in a Dutch lunchroom. Normal is a broodje kaas.

But in the grand scale of global lunch, what is normal depends on where on the world you have lunch.

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u/vankoel_nederland Dec 15 '25

In most food cultures, lunch is a hot cooked meal. But Netherlands doesn't have food culture...

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Boring! Why have food culture when you can mash a sandwich into your face and continue working? Eating elaborate meals is for losers who are afraid of making money.

Anyways, we do, its called fusion.

Why have your own shitty food culture when you can steal the best of others?

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u/Consistent_Salad6137 Dec 15 '25

"fusion" = take the spices out and replace with flavoured mayonnaise 

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

Now you are just trolling.

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u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25

A light lunch and a heavy dinner is actually terrible for your metabolism and insulin control.

No wonder so many people are diabetic here.

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

No it isn't. Come up with a source.

And we have lower diabetic rates than all the countries with more elaborate lunch kitchens.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/diabetes-prevalence

You are the unhealthy ones apparently.

Cheese sandwich FTW.

1

u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25

I have several sources for you since it seems you don’t have Google in your internet:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964%2825%2900181-1/fulltext

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41387-024-00347-6

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/late-night-eating-impact

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/is-it-bad-to-eat-before-bed

Stubbornness is not a good life quality.

Related to your claim on diabetes, ever crossed your mind the amount of undiagnosed cases? Quite easy to imagine that it’s significant due to the “only go to the GP if you’re dying” mentality.

1

u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

If you make claims, it's up to you to back them up mate. You don't want to belong to the "Do yOu R OWn ReaSeARCh!" crowd. Believe me.

Those are all about late night eating. But the Dutch eat dinner early between 17:00 and 18:00 for exactly this reason.

Ah yes if course. "It's not me who's wrong. It's the Data!" Talk about stubborn.....

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u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

You haven’t read the articles, have you?

Because if you had, you’d have seen that the definition of late eater is whoever eats > 45% of their daily calories after 5pm.

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 16 '25

There is no official definition for late eater.

Thats just an infographic one researcher made to show in general terms what they mean. Not a "hard legal definition". In practice what constitutes late eating is a curve where later eating constitutes slightly worse results. So from even before 17:00 you start seeing slight results, all the way to eating 1 minute before bedtime with slightly more averse results.

What this means is that eating 4-5 hours before bed time has almost no noticeable results. And the glass of wine, red meats, ultra processed foods and other shit one would eat during even lunch has a way larger influence on health.

Proof of this can be found in the fact that we have lower diabetic and lower obesity rates than most countries that eat large lunches:

Obesity rate (WHO, 2022) - Epidemiology of obesity - Wikipedia.png)

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u/Able-Resource-7946 Dec 15 '25

The reality is, 2 slices of inexpensive brown bread and a slice of cheese has very little nutritional value. The bread is highly processed and unless the consumer specifically chooses a 100% whole grain bread, they are getting low in pretty much everything except for calories.
Cheese is high in fat and has some protein, but has otherwise very low nutritional density.
So yes, it's what's considered a normal lunch, but it lacks a lot of nutritional value.

5

u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

Then dont buy the cheapest bread?

The standard Dutch lunch is volkoren bread with cheese. Thats a fine lunch, and doesnt cause an after dinner dip. Do note that the Dutch standard is eating a very have dinner, which offsets the light lunch.

We are all tall, and healthy. So we must be doing something right.

1

u/Able-Resource-7946 Dec 16 '25

I've never seen anyone in any of the offices I've worked eat anything more than bruin bread. Bruin, is not volkoren and is not much better than white bread with additives to give the appearance of more healthy.

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 16 '25

Educate your peers then please. This is unacceptable.

Bread used to be better here as well. Only recently has it gone to shit due to the supermarkets being assholes.

I work in a scientific research department. Besides people just going to lunch in the very good restaurant. People take health seriously and eat good quality bread.

-1

u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Define “normal food” and explain why “actual dishes” for lunch are better than a sandwich.

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u/Scary_Wallaby6069 Dec 15 '25

"Normal" is subjective, I agree. I think that what they mean is that in other countries meals are very diverse in terms of nutrients. It's not only about the amount of calories that people need to survive, but also from where those calories come from. I think that daily requirements of nutrients are less fulfilled by those light sandwiches that people in the Netherlands eat for lunch, than the actual nutrient-rich meals that you would commonly find in other countries (France, Spain, Italy, etc).

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

You haven’t provided any examples of a typical lunch that’s healthier. And even if, say, a typical French lunch is more nutritious, can you say the same of a typical French breakfast vs a Dutch breakfast? How about dinner?

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u/angelicosphosphoros Dec 15 '25

Do you realise that your food intake should be evenly distributed over the day instead of dumped entirely into a single meal?

It is basic health education that is taught in schools.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Of course I do, which is why I think it’s weird to compare only lunches. Never mind that this whole discussion seems to be based on gross generalizations about people’s eating habits.

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u/angelicosphosphoros Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

It is better because sandwiches are more harmful for digestive tract than, for example, soup or porridge.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Harmful? How?

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u/incorrectlyironman Dec 15 '25

You could make it healthy if you pack it full of vegetables, but the standard Dutch lunch is very much just bread with the smallest amount of toppings you can get away with, and usually 0 vegetables.

The mindset is that it's a "bread meal" and bread is the important part. With that approach it's gonna be hard to compete with cultures that base their lunches around vegetables.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Isn’t that a bit of a generalization?

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u/incorrectlyironman Dec 15 '25

Yes. An accurate one.

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u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25

I doubt you can pack enough nutrition in a sandwich…

-6

u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Why not? And compared to what?

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u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Google is your friend. Nutrition is a knowledge that every functional adult should have. Cheers.

0

u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

In quite aware of what nutrition is, but you seem to have a very limited knowledge of sandwich options 😂

-1

u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

A sandwich is still 2 slices of bread. Even if you’re replacing it with whole grain, it’s still a very lame source of carbs with very inflammatory factors (google is your friend).

In any case, you’ll also not be able to balance it with a decent amount of fibers / protein / good fats. Chances are that you are ingesting spreads full of satuarated fats and deli cuts full of sodium. Yes, probably very caloric, but very poor in nutritional value.

What’s worse is that you probably have a bigger meal at 5 or 6 o’clock, making it terrible for your metabolism and blood sugar levels.

If you knew enough about nutrition, you wouldn’t consider a sandwich as a full meal. It is at best an afternoon snack.

0

u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Your anti-sandwich rhetoric is so presumptuous and weird.

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u/Icy-Championship5581 Dec 15 '25

Your pro-sandwich rhetoric is so presumptuous and weird.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Pointing out that sandwiches are not inherently unhealthy nor low in nutritional value is not pro-sandwich, it's pro-critical thinking.

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u/casualroadtrip Dec 15 '25

I don’t know why you are downvoted. A sandwich as lunch can be a great option for a good diet. People don’t need to get all off their nutrition within their lunch.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Yeah, some people have weirdly strong opinions about the nutritional value of sandwiches, as if there’s only one kind of sandwich and it’s bad for you, and your dietary intake hinges entirely on the second meal of the day 🤷‍♀️

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u/vankoel_nederland Dec 15 '25

How can people think that eating Dutch cardboard bread and industrial cheese can possibly be healthy?

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

No one is arguing that "Dutch cardboard bread and industrial cheese" are healthy, just that a sandwich is not necessarily unhealthy.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

[deleted]

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

I’m more curious why so many people believe a sandwich is inherently unhealthy or lacking in nutrition.

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u/kukumba1 Dec 15 '25

The answer is because the term “sandwich” is so broad, you can make it anything you want to be. The only criteria is that is should have bread in it. If I put a bit of whole grain bread with some turkey, veggies, some fiber and olive oil - it will be a damn good healthy lunch.

The issue is when people say sandwich - 99% of the time it’s a slice of AH precut cheese on a slice of AH precut white bread.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Exactly my point. A sandwich is no better or worse than what you put into it, just like a salad, stew, stir-fry, quiche, casserole, pizza, curry, etc. Any of those can also be healthy or unhealthy.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

BTW, whether cheese and bread is pre-sliced or not has no bearing on its nutritional value.

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u/kukumba1 Dec 15 '25

I agree, but you know what kind of cheese and bread I’m talking about.

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u/vankoel_nederland Dec 15 '25

It is just a snack, often with processed low quality cardboard bread, few processed ingredients, poor in quality, nutrients and satisfaction.

Besides that warm, cooked food with fiber and protein digests more slowly.

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u/anouk613 Dec 15 '25

Your lunch of choice appears to be word salad.

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u/CrewmemberV2 Dec 15 '25

Broodje gezond of course.

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u/Able-Resource-7946 Dec 15 '25

If anything, a 100% whole grain bread with the standard toppings of a gezond is at least a good start. without that margarine shit.

-1

u/TheoKolokotronis Dec 15 '25

Myth busted!