Eating like Americans

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:46 pm

What's really scary about this is that the changes have all occurred within the last 10 years or less.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/world ... ref=health

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:32 pm

Oh, by just seeing the heading of the article, I know what we will be talking about.
I've seen it happening in my country, too; only a matter of time before everyone is snacking all day long and eating crap in their cars; replacing eating at the table with the family. McDonalds has being working very hard to replace the seating down at a bar for an argentine cup of coffee (very strong, sweetened and in very small quantities, accompanied by a small glass of water in the end and all served in real china and real glass and savored without rush if possible) with the humongous styrofoam cup of weak coffee to go.
It makes my blood boil, because when you change a country's way of eating, you take away an important part of it's culture and that is a form of disrespect for it's people.

I love free enterprising and I think capitalism is a wonderful idea, but this is one aspect I do not like of it.
No, dislike isn't the right word -hate- is more appropiated.

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:34 pm

yeah,

we were pretty disappointed when we were in Rome a couple of years ago with how "americanized" a lot of the food had become ....

we had to make real efforts to get to more "traditional" and more "healthy" and more "delicious" fare, There were gasp

several McDonalds and we were quite surprised and saddened ... oh well, I guess American's are not going to be the only ones who have to learn the hard way that stuff is just not good any way you look at it!

Blueskighs

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:03 am

I found this from a Greek blogger:

http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2 ... cumbs.html

Happy Cooker · Post by **Happy Cooker** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:16 pm

Scary stuff about the disappearance of native healthy food culture and replacement with the American kaka diet. Thanks, wosnes, for posting the link to the Greek blogger. You have opened my eyes to a great site. I really like this woman's POV; it's so nice to find a person living on the other side of the world and thinking so similarly--likewise for you all living not so far from me.
Here's hoping for a much improved new year.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:15 pm

My favorite foods are those of the Mediterranean. I just got Nancy Harmon Jenkin's new cookbook: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook (she wrote The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook about 14 years ago)

Nancy Harmon Jenkins wrote:Recent decades have seen an increase across the board in meat consumption, as well as a huge impact on traditional diets from highly processed foods. (One of the most insidious invasions of the latter has been in the form of individual snacks for kids, heavily sweetened and salted and replete with the most unhealthful kinds of fat -- all conveniently packaged for Mediterranean moms to pick up at the local supermarket, a snack a day for each child in the family, to be tucked into each little book bag as they set off for school in the morning.) Even more dangerous, from the perspective of health and flavor alike, has been an increase in the use of cheap refined vegetable oils in place of traditional olive oil. Still, if you think of diet as a pattern, rather than as a collection of individual foods or meals, much of the traditional diet remains intact, and health profiles continue to be positive, with low incidences of chronic diseases, especially heart disease, cancer, and diabetes as a result.* Mediterranean countries continue to consume far greater quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables and far greater amounts of seafood than do North Americans.

*A recent trend among Italian public health specialists has been to decry what they call an alarming rate of childhood obesity. But I have to say that, after searching available crowds of children, adolescents, and teenagers in central and southern Italy, along with some colleagues from New York University's department of nutrition and food studies, we concluded that obesity appears, at least to our eyes, to be more conspicuous by its absence. Certainly it doesn't exist anything like the levels it has assumed in the United States.

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:26 pm

Tell me Wosnes, how are you liking her latest book?
Is it worth buying if you have a couple of her books on mediterranean food or are the recipes a bit repeated?.

EDIT
Wait, so it's just a revised version of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook?

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:13 am

Happy Cooker wrote:Scary stuff about the disappearance of native healthy food culture and replacement with the American kaka diet. Thanks, wosnes, for posting the link to the Greek blogger. You have opened my eyes to a great site. I really like this woman's POV; it's so nice to find a person living on the other side of the world and thinking so similarly--likewise for you all living not so far from me.
Here's hoping for a much improved new year.

I liked this post, too:
http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2 ... isine.html

Mavilu wrote:Tell me Wosnes, how are you liking her latest book?
Is it worth buying if you have a couple of her books on mediterranean food or are the recipes a bit repeated?.

EDIT
Wait, so it's just a revised version of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook?

I like the book; it's revised AND updated. There are new recipes and new information. I do have other of her books, but I really can't compare this to any of them, because they're all in storage right now (As are all the rest of my Mediterreanean cookbooks! I'm really missing them.) I like the books as much to read the information and headnotes on recipes as I do to actually cook from them.

I think it's worth buying, but I may not be the best to give an opinion on that.

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:55 pm

Ah, thank you, Wosnes!.
Well, I'm very intrigued and tempted, I think I might get the new book after all, I mean, I rely on the original and I have given plenty of recipes from that one to people; I love it so, improvided can only mean more love from me.

By the way, I forgot to comment that I also followed the link on the greek lady's blog when it was originally posted and I wanted to thank you for that.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:42 pm

Mavilu wrote:Ah, thank you, Wosnes!.
By the way, I forgot to comment that I also followed the link on the greek lady's blog when it was originally posted and I wanted to thank you for that.

You're welcome. I'm smitten with the foods of the Mediterranean and the way they approach food and eating. I think there's a lot to be learned from them -- especially that food isn't to be feared.

Happy Cooker · Post by **Happy Cooker** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:06 pm

wosnes wrote:My favorite foods are those of the Mediterranean. I just got Nancy Harmon Jenkin's new cookbook: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook (she wrote The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook about 14 years ago)

Don't know if it's synchronicity or just similar taste, but that day I had just been looking for another copy of Jenkins' book The Essential Mediterranean (2003) to give to a friend. Every time I make her something from it, she wants the recipe. I have no idea how much overlap there is in NHJ's books, but this one is great. I've been making bread from it recently.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:20 pm

Happy Cooker wrote: Don't know if it's synchronicity or just similar taste, but that day I had just been looking for another copy of Jenkins' book The Essential Mediterranean (2003) to give to a friend. Every time I make her something from it, she wants the recipe. I have no idea how much overlap there is in NHJ's books, but this one is great. I've been making bread from it recently.

I think The Essential Mediterranean is my favorite of her cookbooks, though I'm really fond of Cucina del Sole, too. I have all of hers except Flavors of Tuscany.

I found this the other day:
http://nancyharmonjenkins.typepad.com/

I'm also very fond of Viana La Place's La Bella Cucina, again as much for the writing as the recipes.