Food is our fuel. Poor fuel causes problems and so called ‘fast food’ is not the best fuel you can feed your body.
Slow Food
The saying ‘You are what you eat’ may be something of a cliché, but there is a lot of truth in it. Eating well has lots of benefits, and an organisation of Italian origin, Slow Food, is working to encourage everyone to pay more attention to the food they eat. But is slow food too slow?
Fast Food equals Fattening Food
I like fast food, and I do go to MacDonald’s from time to time. However eating fast food too often is not a great idea and is just not healthy. Whatever the fast food companies may claim, they are aiming for profits, and this means that they want everything to be as cheap as possible, which means quality often suffers. Fast food, more often than not, is synonymous with fried and therefore fattening food.
Indeed, the Slow Food organisation knows this. Just take a look at their manifesto. The organisation works to highlight that not only is good food tasty and healthy, it is part of our culture, and food production is strongly linked to the health of the planet. I was very pleased to learn that this organisation was set up in Italy as a reaction to the fast food invasion which was taking place in the country. It seemed right, after all Italians have been eating fast slow food for years, and many are all the slimmer for it.
Environmentally friendly food production methods benefit both consumers and keep our environment healthy too.
Now things will fast become a little contradictory as I begin outlining my heretical proposition: which is to make slow food faster!
Slow Food is Too Slow
Italian founding member of Slow Food, Folco Portinari, certainly supports a cause which is good, only the big problem with slow food is that for many it is just not convenient.
As the Slow Food organisation knows all too well, our lives are one huge rush, everything is ruled by deadlines. This means that cooking, which is not easy to do well for many, has very much been placed on the back burner. For the most part, we eat because we have to and will throw just about anything into our bodies in the vain hope that it will provide us with enough sustenance to meet our next deadline.
Still, if the Slow Food organisation can come up with a way of making good quality food fast, then it will change our lives. Can this be done? Well, yes, but a lot of brainpower needs to be applied. After all, traditional cooking can be a slow process, and sloth is perceived in this modern hyperactive world as being our number one enemy. Sloth is for old people with time on their hands. Hence the huge popularity of fast food outlets the world over.
Fast Slow Food Restaurants
Yet fast slow food outlets are possible. I know, I ate in one in central Milan not so long ago. And the price was comparable to good old Mac Ds. The portions were a little on the mean side, which was a shame, but the food was good and tasty.
Article continues after the advertisement
I’ve never really found burger and chip based fast food that satisfying anyway. Not sure why I eat it. It could be the novelty or just the effective marketing which creates an erroneous perception. Oh, sometimes a Mac attack does hit me, but not that often, and I certainly could not live off the stuff as it generally leaves me with an uncomfortably swollen stomach which appears to be whispering ‘What did you just do to me?’.
Quick Slow Food
What the Slow Food network needs to do is to come up with recipes which can be cooked up under 30 minutes or so. Tasty healthy recipes which have kids crying out for more. Recipes which simply reduce the appeal of the rather sad and floppy items served by many fast food restaurants.
Sounds like a great challenge to me. Actually, cooking up Italian dishes is not all that slow to do, especially if you think about pasta and rice based dishes.
Fast America equals fat America
Sadly the benefits of slow foods have come rather too late for many Americans who have slid well and truly down the true fast food slope and taken the way of fatness, so to speak. Many Italians have commented to me that any Americans seem to be very fat after returning from a trip to the States. This is worrying. The British are not too far behind, and alas, judging by the chubby kids I often see in Italy, things are declining here too.
Education in the ways of good taste is needed, and the Slow Food organisation is trying to achieve this by means of taste workshops and by training teachers in the ways of good food. Despite all this good work, if you asked your average school kid what slow food was, you probably end up with a response like ‘snails’.
Slow Food Evangelist Jamie Oliver
Yes, there is a long, long way to go, but at least someone has started heading in the right direction. Well known British chef and food expert and Italian food evangelist Jamie Oliver is a proponent of slow food and has been attempting to raise the standards of cooking in British schools.
Go Slow in Turin
Slow Food Show Turin
Should you wish to know more about the Slow Food movement, and you find yourself in Turin this October, then be sure to pop into the Salone Internazionale Del Gusto. Click on the image to find out more.
As for the Slow Food movement, I shall be writing more about it, and attempting to keep you up to date with Slow Food events in Italy.
If you have not done so already, go visit the Slow Food site – which is in English, and spread the word!
PS The Slow Food site linked to here is taking a long time to load at the moment. Not sure why! I’m sure normal service will be resumed shortly, otherwise try the Slow Food USA site.
Italy Chronicles Feed
What are you going on about? Lots of fabulous foods take much less than 30 minutes to make! The trick is to understand enough about food to pick what is fast and fabulous. Large chunks of the population here there and everywhere have gotten too lazy to figure out what they are putting into their bodies or what real quality is in food.
Last night I ate McDonald’s because I was enroute in a train. Tonight I am cooking something a bit elaborate, so for lunch I just made roasted cheese sandwiches from 5 grain bread, cheese and slivers of dilled tomato pickle. It took 10 minutes.
“After all, traditional cooking can be a slow process, and sloth is perceived in this modern hyperactive world as being our number one enemy. Sloth is for old people with time on their hands.”
You are so going to pay for writing that!
Hello,
I’m a student at the University of Maryland doing comparative research
about restaurant culture in Italy and comparing it to the US. I was
wondering if anyone would take a few minutes to post your answers to
some of my questions. These are only going to be used for exploratory
research in creating a survey. Thank you in advance for any help you
can provide.
1. When dining out, do you prefer an intimate group (1-2 partners) or
a large group of friends?
2. How do you think American portions compare to those of Italian
dishes? less/equal/more?
3. Do you think restaurant culture positively/negatively/doesn’t
affect the health of Italians?
4. Because wine is a large part of Italian culture, do you see
yourself drinking less/equal/more than you do in America?
5. What rules are observed during meals regarding age and sex roles
within the family, the order of serving, seating, utensils used, and
appropriate conversations?
6. What is the typical layout of an authentic Italian restaurant in
the country of Italy? If there is a common layout, for what reasons do
you believe they are formatted in that way?
7. How would you describe the typical staffing situation in Italy,
concerning the demographic and quantity of hosts/waiters/waitresses/
cooks? How does the demographic of Italian restaurants in Italy
compare to Italian Style Restaurants in the United States?
8. Are the tools and cooking equipment used in Italian restaurants
comparable to the same type of tools in the United States, in terms of
size/capacity/quality of the instruments? To pose an example of this,
are Italian ovens smaller than that of American ovens due to size
constraints of the restaurants or number of customers?
Hi Maggie,
Sounds like so interesting research you are doing. Before I attempt to answer your questions, you should know that I am not American, which means any answers I could give to the America specific questions will be hearsay.
If this is OK, I’ll reply all the same. However, if you would prefer that Americans answer your questions, I can point you towards a few, and one in particular who knows the restaurant scene here in Italy very well, as I understand.
Let me know, and I’ll do as you request.
By the way, you don’t happen to know a Sara Lowman by any chance do you? She is at the same university as you!
Best regards,
Alex Roe
10 minutes?!?! I can get to Taco Bell and back to my house in 5 minutes.
The sad part is that junk food, in America, is so much cheaper than healthy food. And Americans seem much more willing to eat a crummy diet than to give up cable tv or their big expensive cars/suv’s.
But another part of it, I’ve read, is that in the south, for example, some people do not have cars or public transportation, and must walk quite a ways to get to a market for food. And in these cases, often, the convenience stores, which stock virtually only junk food. On top of this, another example, milk is about twice as expensive in the southeast as it is in the northeast, yet the average income has got to be a maximum of half as much in the SE as in the NE.
Hi cara_mia,
Yes, fast food in the US is really fast, too darn convenient and cheap. This is a problem, but then someone needs to check how much it costs to treat obesity and related health problems. The insurance companies might well discover that healthy eating has certain financial advantages, not to mention the government. Such a study was carried out down in Rome, and it was decided to teach healthy eating habits, as well as feeding the kids on good quality food. Healthy eating is a long term investment, and accounting types may appreciate the savings it can achieve.
Trouble is nobody seems to have the time or will to cook – and low income groups seem to be lazier than higher income ones – down to education, amongst other things. Any suggestions as to what can be done?
And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours,
Alex
There are really two main things that I think would make an impact – 1, education, and 2, eliminate a disconnect between the bad habits and the result. But another thing is Americans’ attitudes towards governance of eating habits.
Attitudes:
Whenever there is a school that wants to ban bake sales or whatnot, people get upset, because there should be personal responsibility/accountability, and why punish the people who behave because some people cannot? I, too, get upset about this. But it’s hard to argue with the results of this school’s 10 year old ban on sugar. And those kids will probably have the healthier eating habits as adults than the average person.
Here is an article about Alabama’s plan to manage the health of the employees of the state…and the complaints of “obesity discrimination.”
Education:
Growing up in a highly educated area, where I did at least learn the USDA food pyramid, it’s hard to imagine that people just don’t know that they should go to the doctor, that their weight is affecting their health, etc. But the fattest states are also the poorest and least educated states. And I’ve read many articles where people admit they just didn’t know how much their weight was affecting them. (Watch the YOU doctors’ – Oz & Roizen – specials on Discovery Health to see. Maybe that channel as well as Fit TV should be on basic cable, rather than the Home Shopping Network and QVC…)
Education is key; for example, it’s surprising how many people don’t know how to read labels, and it’s proven that people who read labels are slimmer. But it has to be the right education, as this article about the American paradox shows. And Americans may be at a disadvantage of having to look for trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup, which I’ve heard are very uncommon ingredients in Europe.
Connect the act with the consequence:
There’s a saying that being able to be concerned about your nutrition is a luxury – if you are poor, your concern is just having enough to eat to survive. The richest, most educated, and slimmest states also are the ones with the best health insurance. I’m fortunate enough to have a great insurance carrier (one of the top ranked in the US), one that pays a lot of attention to preventative care. They’ve even added a rewards program for healthy behaviors. Like credit cards, I believe there is a huge disconnect between the activity (buying something expensive, or eating something unhealthy) and the consequence (having to pay for it, or poor health). On one hand, having to go to this extreme is a somewhat sad statement about our culture, but on the other, if it works, it’s worth it.
But it’s hard to argue with the results of this school’s 10 year old ban on sugar. And those kids will probably have the healthier eating habits as adults than the average person.
As for “obesity discrimination”, I have to say that in part I agree with this. If becoming obese becomes acceptable, then fewer people will worry about it, and the problem will worsen. Some ‘discrimination’ is wrongly labelled as such. OK, so some people have a tendency to expand, but when substantial portions of the population are chubby, then something is not right.
It is very true that the long term benefits of healthy eating for society should not to be underestimated. Studies seem to prove this, but it’s really common sense.
Education, as you say, can help – but laziness and work often seem to cause people to look for the quickest and easiest things to eat – this often means poor quality food. Oh, and I am guilty in this respect too – I will eat rubbish either because I don’t have the time or the inclination to cook something up. My other half works a long day and she too is not overly keen on cooking in the evenings, even if from what I understand, a large meal in the evening is not a good idea. – you go to bed and all those calories turn to fat – logical really. It is much better to eat a reasonable amount at breakfast and then at lunchtime. In the evenings all you need is a light meal or a meal which is low on fatty foods.
The other aspects you mention are true too, but as you say, the education has to be correct. This can be a problem in that if the educators are uncertain about many things.
Now to the crux of the matter:
You’ve hit that old nail squarely on its head. Mankind in general is terrible when it comes to assessing the consequences of its actions. Healthy eating is one such example. If governments were more intelligent and not run for the purpose of staying in power, then they would closely monitor what we eat to ensure that it keeps us healthy. After all, a healthy population costs less to run, and can work. Some companies and governments are waking up to planning for the long term future – and your far-sighted insurer is one example of this. No, they are not being that altruistic, even if the marketers would like to give this impression, they are being realistic from a financial point of view. Healthy clients make fewer claims on their insurance policies, and this ensures profits exist.
Keeping everyone healthy is not just a question of common sense, it also makes good economic sense too – just ask your insurers actuaries.
Oh and the US is by no means the only country to be having problems with poor diets, even Italy is having problems.
Finally, our children should be taught about actions and consequences at school. Then, possibly, mankind would stop repeating the same old mistakes, and start preparing everyone for a rosy future. Of course, all of this is easy to say, but not too easy to do. We leave to doing to forward looking women and men – like Obama, hopefully, will turn out to be.
All the best and thanks for the informative observations Cara mia.
Happy New Year!
Alex