Before we
start, I just want to ask a question. Bearing in mind all the meals Lillian is
going out for on The Archers, not once has she made any mention about putting
on weight in the whole of the Christmas period and now into January. I do
wonder whether all her work outs with Paul are keeping the weight off!
That leads
me neatly into a serious topic which was flagged up on the Radio 4 Food
Programme earlier in January regarding the impending food crisis in Italy.
Flavours is passionate about Italian food but
it appears all is not going well in the country aside of the economic problems
they are now experiencing.
In Italy these days, childhood obesity in
those of elementary school age is the highest in Europe and the Italians are very concerned
about the future of their children. You might be asking what this is all about
seeing as we often hold Italy up as a paragon of virtue with
respect to healthy Mediterranean food habits. But slowly, despite the regional
passion and love for traditional foods, youngsters are beginning to experience
big problems.
A recent
state funded study showed alarming levels of obesity especially in the south
whereas in the past, people here were amongst the thinnest; Spain Portugal and
Greece also bringing up the rather enlarged rear so Italy is not alone in this
situation.
Flavours
holidays was interested to learn that what appears to be happening is this;
even though regions like Piedmont, Liguria or even Sicily hold on to their old
dishes, the foods Italians traditionally ate sparingly as seasonal treats like
pastrami or lasagne, to name just a couple of examples, have become so
mainstream people are eating them all the time with disastrous consequences.
Not only do
young people share their predecessors’ love of regional cuisine they also enjoy
the fast food which is slowly infiltrating the Italian psyche and what is
disparagingly called: ‘The American Way’. So if you add high fat to high
fat, a lack of physical exercise as so many young people have abandoned their
rural lifestyles, then the recipe is definitely one of disaster. The addiction
to sitting glued to computers may well also be to blame.
The problem
is passion and self-discipline do not make great bedfellows and with the
Italians love of food, if they do not practise a little self-restraint, this
worrying trend may well metamorphose into an epidemic.
There is the
other matter of lack of nutritional education and cooking skills amongst young
parents and the increasingly lazy lifestyles amongst teenagers. Just think how
easy it is to consume high calorie levels by just snacking on a few slices of
salami or serving a packet of tortellini; it’s all too easy.
Our cookingcourses at Flavours tend to focus on the very best produce available and we
like to produce balanced menus which focus on flavour rather than quantity. I
am beginning to believe the old adage ‘a little of what you fancy does you
good’ with great emphasis laid on ‘little’.
It is
obvious that high fat meals should not become the norm but perhaps more
importantly it is essential to increase the exercise we all take every day.
That is the key to this debate.
Yes, food
availability and price in real terms has affected our eating habits but over
and above all of this our lack of hard physical work is taking its toll.
So may we
recommend a Flavours cooking course followed by a week’s Pilates
in the sun? It’s just a thought, but a nice one!
No comments:
Post a Comment