So really nothing exciting happened today. Except we got our power back! Our power had been out for 24 hours, but we finally got it back on. It is such a relief to walk into an apartment with some lights on after 24 hours of no power. So now I get to charge my computer again! Of course my computer died after the power went out and of course I had homework due today. Thankfully the school building opens half an hour before my class starts.
The problem with the power going out is that the internet also goes out. So last night I was planning on FaceTiming my mother, but then the power was out. So I got creative. Our school has WiFi for all of us students, but by 9:00 at night the school was closed. However, you can bum outside the door to one of the buildings and pick up the scraps of Internet that float outside. I felt real cool leaning against the door while talking to my iPod. I was certainly a sight for all the people passing by.
I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love nutrition! I feel like it is good that I am studying it since it makes me so happy. Since I know you are all so interested in my class that I'm taking here, I'm going to tell you all a bit about it. First off, I am studying the Mediterranean diet. If you are like me, I though this meant studying what people in the Mediterranean eat. Wrong. The word diet comes from the Greek word dietia. Dietia means lifestyle. So in a sense, we are studying the entire Mediterranean lifestyle. What we have learned so far is that in the Mediterranean, food is appreciated and enjoyed. People sit down to have a meal with friends and family. They take their time when eating. I learned that first hand when it took about two hours to eat dinner the first week. You do not see any people walking along the street eating as they go to work or school. And when you see people in a restaurant, no one is alone. Everyone is eating with at least one other person and they are engaged in a conversation. It is a phenomenon called commenzality. People have done sociological studies across countries and when Americans are asked what it means to eat well, the typical answer is fruits and veges, lean proteins, and whole grains. But when you ask someone from the Mediterranean their typical answer is to sit down to a meal with friends and family without a phone or paper or anywhere to be. They don't even talk about the food they are eating. It is about the experience! How cool is that?
Lifestyle does include food though, so we have looked into the nutritional aspects of their 'diet'. Today we even examined the Italian food pyramid. It is quite different from the US one. Fruits and vegetables are the base! Now isn't that smart? As I have already experienced, the diet is largely based on fruits and vegetables. That is why there are open air markets everywhere! I had my first experience today cooking lentils. It wasn't too shabby. But I didn't have a recipe, so there was definitely room for improvement. Experimenting did not really work.
That is really what we have focused on in our class so far. Also, variety in the diet. That is all you need to get your vitamins and minerals. A variety of fruits and veges. So eat lots of colors. Oh, we also eat a lot more protein than we need. Protein is so heavily emphasized in the states that we always think we aren't getting enough. Really, the opposite is true. It only needs to be 10-12% of your daily caloric intake. And only 1/3 of these calories should be from animal sources. That isn't much at all. It is strange how hearing these things in a different context really makes it stick. I had heard both of these things before, but now they are put into practice. I felt like I was not eating any protein here, turns out, I am eating just as much as I should.
Another interesting fact. Pretty much all grocery stores are set up the same way. They have flowers or fresh produce in the front to draw people in. Then dairy is diagonal from the entrance and towards the back of the store. This is because most people buy dairy when they go to the store, and by putting it in this position it causes the customer to walk pass more products. The more products you see, the more you buy. The aisles are also set up to be just long enough to hold your attention. Once your mind starts to wander, the aisle ends. Something I had heard before, but just had reinforced here is to be a periphery shopper. All the fresh food is around the edge of your store. Don't even venture down the aisles unless you have to. That way you will get mostly fresh food, which we all know is so much better for you. Is it just me, or do you all feel extremely manipulated by the grocery stores now? But now that we know, we can start to outsmart them. Go us!
The food and lifestyle are not all I have experience here. Yesterday in the market I had my first experience with an Italian loving blondes. As I was walking through the aisles, a man grabbed onto my arm and practically yelled, "Mamma Mia! You are blonde! I love you!" I couldn't help but to crack up. He let go of my arm and let me keep walking, but I certainly got a nice chuckle out of it.
Thankfully it was not as hot here today. I was getting sick of 100+ weather. They say that it was just a crazy heat wave that plagued this place for the past two weeks and that the weather should be cooling down for good now. I was so glad to hear this. I'm pretty sure I would have started to melt if the heat kept up.
No comments:
Post a Comment