This is the English version of the article published on May 25th 2014 by Alessandria News
This post comes from the exchanges I had with one of the newspaper’s readers. He said he could not show respect for a country that erected Mc. Donald as a symbol. Aside from the fact that the statement offends me for the amount of ignorance toward my hosts, it’s sure there is an extent preconception about the American way of eating, so I hope with this post I can give you an idea of how the food market and the American approach to food and nutrition is slowly changing and why.
We Italians stand as champions of healthy eating and good
food. We are known to the entire world for our outstanding cuisine. Sure it’s not
always been like this, and the variety of foods on our tables is a fairly
recent happening.
If you are my faithful reader since the beginning of my
adventure as a writer, you'll know already that in addition to teaching Italian
language, I also teach a course on Italian culture through the social approach
to food in Italian history. That's why I am lucky I have studied and been a
witness to the differences between the two nations at the table.
It’s common knowledge that in Italy food is good and Italians
eat well nowadays. Everyone knows it: the Italians in Italy, the Italians living
abroad like me, and all those who are lucky enough to have tried our real cuisine.
This is recent history, only our grandparents up to the economic boom in the
‘50s, ate a lot less than the minimum requested caloric intake and they were almost
vegetarians and not by their own choice. We Italians almost forgot this recent
history; we could buy good food and abundance made us spoiled, with only old
people remembering those not so good times. Unfortunately, the most recent economic
crisis made this all too actual: with more families trying to save money where
they can. Worrisome is when people begin to skimp on food and the quality and
variety of it…and it looks like it’s now
happening for many.
Here's an example of what I am trying to explain and it’s
not too far back in history. I'm sure not many of you (if any) know the name:
Fernanda Momigliano. Fernanda was a writer of romance novels during the
fascism. She was both Jew and fascist, as many Jews were, before the racist
degeneration of fascism. Fernanda wrote a book titled: "How to live well in
difficult times." This manual was written at the time when Europe was also
suffering as a result of the Great Depression and Italy was living the craziness
of Mussolini wanting a totally self-sufficient country, not depending on food
supplies from neighboring –enemy countries. With this book Fernanda wanted to give women
the tools to save the appearances at home even if money was scarce, for
example, by choosing less expensive cuts of meat, but especially suggesting to begin
each meal with what she called “ the secret weapon” : the minestrone, the vegetable
soup, inexpensive because based on water, but fulfilling the stomach so that a person would eat less of the food
that came(or not) after, but always in a “classy” way and without complaining, because
part of being a fascist was to be convinced that everything was ok and done for
the country ! Now fortunately Italians have voices and are able to complain,
but this does not change the fact that probably soup is returning on many
people’s tables. Italians are going back on being mostly vegetarians, with
pasta and vegetables as main calories‘providers, since they are a less
expensive alternative than meat, and they are in our DNA and in our history.
Grains and vegetables
are pretty much the basic of the Mediterranean diet, considered an example of
healthy eating! We owe the name to an American doctor that called it this way
in the 1950s, after discovering that the populations of the Mediterranean basin
had a very low rate of heart diseases compared to Americans. But when studying
the way the Ancient Romans ate, it’s already easy to see on their tables, foods
that were very similar to what we find on Italian tables today, because it was
what was available to them, not because they had any knowledge of healthy
eating and cholesterol!
Anyway, whatever they put on their table, Italians certainly
give a lot of value to the social meaning of sharing a meal together. Food means
sharing experiences and stories, it means conviviality and social life, and
it’s not only physical but also mental nourishment: for Italians, the food is slow,
it is slow food.
For all those reasons it makes totally sense that the global
movement Slow Food was born in Italy: Italians, as with the Mediterranean diet,
always ate in the slow food way, even without knowing it. The Slow Food message
is: good, clean and fair food, with a particular attention to local producers
and ingredients. This also means food eaten in season and certainly with a very
short trip from the producer to the final user’s table. Whoever got the chance
to be in Italy and go grocery shopping even in national chains ‘markets knows
that Italians buy seasonal and regional, if one talks to an Italian understands
immediately how it’s against our way of life buying strawberries in January ( .. who knows where they come from?) or oranges
in May, to list just two examples. And Italians eat regional as well, so food
is always a new experience wherever one is living, travelling, and staying. Carlo
Pedrini, the founder of Slow Food, took a concept that is already in our DNA
and made it a global message
And what can be said about fast food in Italy? Well, think
that in my hometown, one of the Mc. Donald joints closed down because it went
bankrupt and it was even the one inside the train station, so the traffic could
have been good. Apparently not enough Italians were desperate enough to eat at
Mc. Donald!
Italians do not like fast food: for us fast food is a
slice of pizza, or a Caprese salad. Our Fast Food chain is called Sfizio, and
it looks more like a restaurant than a fast food, as drive-troughs do not exist
in italy! We really have to be desperate
to eat at Mc Donald’s. In fact, Italy is one of the countries in the world with
the lowest number of fast food chains. The big chains don’t even try to open
their outlets in Italy. We don’t have KFC or Pizza Hut or Wendy.
If thinking of Italian food calls for Pasta and Pizza,
American food is synonymous of meat. Anyone who visits the United States cannot
help but eating a big steak or a burger. And in reality what is a typical
fast food meal if not a low quality, fast version of the love that Americans have
for meat?
Fast food joints are
literally around every corner.
Fast food is necessity combined with low cost and (I have to
admit it) low quality.
Something is slowly changing here as well, also with the
help of the institutions, and with the first lady Michelle Obama, sending an
extremely strong message with example to communities.
In preparing my course I read a very interesting book , titled
" Fast Food Nation " by journalist Eric Schlosster
http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/fastfoodnation_01.php , which was made also into
a movie and gave the start to an entire series of books and movies about fast
food and American food industry . I have watched and read several of those and
they are all shocking, from “Supersize Me”, the diary of the physical and
health changes of an athletic young man eating only at Mc. Donald: breakfast,
lunch and dinner for a month to "Food Inc." a film about food
production in the United States .
In my opinion two are the main problems that have led to a
drastic lowering of the quality of the food served in fast food restaurants, which
had their beginning in the 1920s from a fairly good concept: cost and mass
production. How is possible to eat at a fast food restaurant for $ 4 with
burger, fries and a drink? Where did the hamburger meat come from, which kind
of meat is that and what about the potatoes: which oil has been used to fry
them? Ask yourself these questions and the answers cannot be good: to keep
prices down imagine what you put in your mouth.
But if going to a fast food still costs less and is easier
than going to the grocery store to buy fresh ingredients, it’s easy to see
where the problem lies: the low income families feed themselves with fast food
or what is called junk food, food with no nutritional value, only able of
filling the belly and take away hunger, but responsible on the opposite to
health problems and in the long run to higher costs for the community.
But ...
It is not true that the population has Mc. Donald as its
symbol; there have been changes, partly as a result of documentaries like the
ones I mentioned. Even the fast food chains are changing rapidly and there is
more attention on the food served. For example, as a result of the movie "Supersize
Me " (the title comes from the fact that for a few cents more, until a few
years ago, one could receive an amount of fries enough for a family of 4 ) supersizing
is not possible anymore . Nutrition information and calories for each serving
have become mandatory at fast food restaurants. The quality of the meat
probably did not improve as the price of the meals has not increased. Anyway there
are many new chains that now offer more fresh and healthy alternatives, others
that attract a different type of customers more careful about what they put in their
mouth.
One may decide to go or not to a fast food place, but what
about the food served at home or at school?
The basic problem is that eating healthy may cost more than
going to fast food place and in the USA there is not the nutritional education that
we have in Europe. We Italians are lucky because we come in contact with a
healthy cooking since birth, but most of the Americans don’t.
When in a normal supermarket there are more canned foods or prepackaged
meals ready to be popped in the microwave and ready to eat, than fresh foods,
here is where the problem lies! Vegetables and fruits cost much more than a
giant bag of chips and most of the time they travel long distance and they are
picked not at the pick of the season, to the detriment of taste and
organoleptic quality. Many American women do not cook: their mothers did maybe,
but not anymore and they don’t teach their children.
And schools? When my eighteen year old daughter began elementary
school, the food served in the cafeteria was only fried and served in chunks so
the children could eat it with their hands. Many American children are not even
exposed to different foods. They do not
eat vegetables because they know only 3 of them: carrots, broccoli and
cauliflowers eaten raw or blanched and many children of course don’t like them
(raw broccoli and cauliflower are just bad in my opinion!) The potatoes are
fried or served in the form of little balls called tater tots, and the meat
comes from an undisclosed part of the chicken , definitively not the breast,
called chicken nuggets ( since I've watched one of the movies mentioned before I
strongly discouraged my daughter to eat them ) . This is not just about cost,
it is also about education !
Much is changing. Ms. Obama has done a lot in this regard. Her
battle against obesity in children targeted schools since children spend a lot
of time in school and from there education at large. Unfortunately, obesity usually
goes hand in hand with the family’s income, as many times obesity is sign of a
low income person.
Now schools serve fresher and not fried alternatives and soft
drinks cannot be sold in schools. These are small, but significant steps.
There is also a lot of effort done by different associations.
Through my course I was lucky to meet Greg Leon, chef associated with Slow Food
Wisconsin who will open soon his own restaurant Amilinda, in Milwaukee. Part of
his commitment is food education and he teaches low -income families that is possible
to eat healthy and cheaply (for less than buying junk food) by cooking simple
dishes, buying in season and knowing where to buy: little steps easy to take to
change attitude toward food and health.
Even restaurants are changing, the portions are shrinking, and
more importance is given to taste and not size. Not too fast! Do not think that
all Americans magically are becoming perfect. The road is still long;
unfortunately the message of Carlo Pedrini and Slow Food is still elitist.
The signals, however, are there and the fact that my course
is so popular proves it. Within my abilities I try to do something myself,
changing the mentality of the young people taking my course: 30 at a time!
Lastly I would like to explain the second part of my post’s
title: “..but let’s not blame everything on
Mc Donald”
Mc. Donald is not the devil impersonator! There is an aspect
of Mc. Donald that is not known by everybody.
Mc . Donald is behind the Ronald Mc. Donald house . http://www.rmhc.org/
There are many of them in the United States, usually near a
major pediatric hospital. It is a charity organization that provides housing
and long-term care to sick children and their families. These kids and their
family live in real homes, making it easier, less stressful and more effective to
take care of the sick children. These apartments are either free or cost as
little as $ 25 per day if the family has the means to give the money. That's
the reason for my title. Something to think about!