Our Food – Their Food

Food!!! That is a hard topic to discuss. Food could be my food, my mommy´s food, food from my region or food from my country…. so on, so forth… Anyway, I would like to write from my point of view. As a matter of fact, from my point of view, the title should be OUR FOOD … heheheh

ToughI had been living alone by 9 years I am not a “chef” at all. I can prepare 5 or 6 dishes – for my own pleasure (if I don´t like them, I put some mayo and ketchup and it´s ok). So, at that time, I was used to eating in restaurant (simple ones). What did I chose? Basically some salad, meat, rice and beans or some pasta. It is not a big deal, is it? Well, I can´t find restaurants like those here, at least not where I am.

Fist of all, food in the USA became a national issue. It is interesting…. there are a lot of ads on TV about magic diets or  amazing gym equipment that turn you into a model in “N” weeks. There is a reason for it. Wherever you go, you can see big people, I mean, huge people. At the beginning, I tried to figure out how those people could even get out of bed .. nowadays I am just used to seeing them.  One proof that it is a serious problem here is the first lady Michelle Obama is the head of a campaign to improve the quality of food in school. That means, replace hot dogs, pizzas, hamburgers with salads, cereals, … It´s a challenge… but I was told these efforts haven´t reached hospitals yet. A friend of mine told me he was in a hospital doing some exams that would take some hours. In between exams – during lunch time - a nurse offered him a hamburger or hot-dog for lunch ….

There are two movies that make it easier to understand food in USA: “Food Inc” and “Supersize me”. The first one tells about how “industrialized” is the food nowadays. The USA has 300 Million people able to consume. In fact, the USA is on the top of the list of food consumption in the world. I heard a funny thing about it a couple weeks ago. An American friend went to Ecuador and she heard from Ecuadorians something like it: “America is a dream. Even poor people are fat in America”. That is really funny, but it is true. In most countries of the world, poor people are skinny … that is tragic but logical … there is no money to have enough food. I have already had lunch spending $1 (One dollar). Ok … I can´t explain quite well what I put inside of the microwave (some meat, some potato, some some …)  but … I found it on the food aisle. God bless America!!!

The second movie tells about Mac Donald´s and brings in a subtle way how the junk food increased in the USA. For instance, the big portion of French fries in 1960´s became the small portion nowadays. Moreover, you can buy a cup of pop and refill it as you wish. The conclusion is: people are eating more and worse than before.

Well, I think I have already talked too much about this issue. So, I will discuss “feijoada”, “churrasco” and fresh fruits next time.

See you soon.
(Reviewed)