The Mediterranean Diet: Eat Yourself Skinny

Italian Snack Time

Pasta does not make you fat.

Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in Italy can tell you this.  A Mediterranean diet will not only make you skinnier, it will make you healthier.

I already ate a fairly healthy diet before moving here because I am a huge fan of quality food, freshly prepared.  I have made my own soup stock and sauces from scratch for years and am a Slow Food aficionado…including being a member of their LinkedIn group.  Basically, I didn’t just hop on a bandwagon.

Not only does the typical diet in Italy help maintain a healthy weight, but it also helps maintain your health.  The science backs it up.  The World Health Organization stats back it up.  Most importantly, everything tastes good so it is not only easy to adopt, but, unlike “diets”, it is also easy to maintain.  Who doesn’t like a diet with spaghetti, pizza and red wine as basic components?

What are some of the most basic tips that will keep your body slim and your taste buds satiated?

• Eat fresh
• Eat multiple times a day
• Don’t eat chemicals
• Eat colorfully
• Eat when you are hungry

Italians eat throughout the day and in small portions, except on holidays…then all bets are off.  Food is bought much more frequently than is typical in the US, going to the market every couple days is not at all unusual.  Preservatives are avoided as much as possible because they aren’t necessary if you go to market three times a week.

Beyond freshness, plates are colorful.  Different fruits and vegetables are in abundance in bowls and refrigerators in every house in Italy…and they are eaten with gusto.  This is great not only for flavors and a balanced diet, but also because of all the phytonutrients and antioxidants, besides, if you don’t eat them mamma or nonna will not be happy.

So what does an Italian typically eat?

• Prima colazione—the first breakfast, usually toast or a croissant and some fruit or fruit juice and yogurt and, of course, coffee
• Secunda colazione—the second breakfast, usually about 11 or so, a small sandwich and some coffee.
• Pranzo—lunch, a sandwich or small plate of pasta and a salad…a small plate of pasta means about 125g or a little over 1/4 lb and with a tomato based sauce typically.
• Merenda—snacktime, cheese or fruit and most likely an iced tea.
• Cena—dinner, this is generally good sized and is eaten fairly late 9pm.  Some soup or antipasto, a small pasta serving and a small meat serving, roast pork, seafood or steak and a large salad or vegetables…and a glass of red wine.

Italians consume as much fat as most Americans…but, almost all of the fat is in the form of olive oil.  Olive oil is monounsaturated fat, and gives you fat and flavor without issues with cholesterol and heart problems.  The meat here is lean and high quality and portions are sized right.  It’s the same thing with cheese, every house has multiple types of cheese, but people eat it in small portions…an ounce here or there or grated over pasta.

Good food does not make you fat.  Eat fresh, eat healthy and eat a little at a time…except on holidays, we all need to have fun.

Eat like an Italian!!!

Things I’ve Learned Living in Italy

I had mistakenly believed when I moved to Italy that the previous four trips I had taken here had prepared me for all possible cultural misunderstandings and missed cues.  I was woefully wrong.  I have a feeling that the learning will continue until I am a feeble old woman chasing my own grandchildren out of my kitchen with a wooden spoon, at which point I just won’t care anymore.

Some things I have learned have been positive, others negative and virtually all have been amusing…sometimes more for the people informing me than for myself.  In no particular order, I have learned that:

• Soccer is a religion.
• Your weight is open for discussion.
• I am too skinny.
• Putting the “wrong” sauce on a pasta is a crime.
• Ironing socks is not strange.
• Americans can’t make coffee.
• Salt is not optional, ever.
• Pork CAN be consumed at every meal. Yum.
• Wine is a food group…this one was just reinforcement.
• Eggs are for dinner, not breakfast.
• Your entire life is your neighbors’ business.
• Dinner before 9:00 is uncivilized.
• All telecommunications companies are thieves.
• Good customer service comes from non-contract employees.
• Businesses closing for a month is perfectly normal.
• Two weeks of vacation is NOT normal, it’s criminal.
• Going out without a scarf and gloves if it is below 70 means you will get sick.
• Going out with wet hair means you will surely soon die.
• Ugly shoes are illegal.
• Jeans that are not skin tight should be thrown out.
• Belts are mandatory.
• You can walk cobblestone streets in 4 inch heels…it just takes practice.
• Leaving the house not put together will get you strange looks.
• It is unhygienic to walk in your own house barefoot..even if you washed the floors 15 minutes before.
• Tanning is healthy.
• Paying 10€ for a spot on the beach is normal.
• 80 year olds in bikinis and speedos are normal.
• Superstition is alive and well.
• A guy touching his balls is not sexual…he is warding off bad luck.
• Italian cussing is much more colorful than most American cussing.
• Having a clothes dryer is akin to having a bomb shelter.
• Growing your own veggies is normal.
• Eating offal doesn’t raise an eyebrow, eating a rare steak is the only way, but eating a rare hamburger will kill you
• You are still a boy or girl until you are about 40, chances are you still live at home, too.
• Not having a dark tan in September means that something is terribly wrong in your life.
• Driving rules, lines on the roads and most stop lights are merely suggestions.
• Parking on sidewalks and at freaky angles doesn’t get a second look.
• A woman who can parallel park in the “back in, then pull forward” method is a rare anomaly.
• Having a cell phone tucked into your helmet, smoking a cigarette, balancing a Louis Vuitton bag…all while riding a Vespa in 3 inch heels is NOT an anomaly.
• I will never be as stylish as most Italian girls are by the time they are nine years old.

I love Italy.

Regionality of Italian Cooking

Travel in Italy can offer some surprises for many Americans who are not familiar with Italian history and the development of the various cuisines throughout Italy.  The diversity of the food has deep roots and slow or never changing habits.  I have had people traveling here wonder why they can’t find X dish when they are here in Tuscany…”Why can’t I find Italian food in Italy?” went the query.

Because “Italian food” is essentially a misnomer.

• Geography:  Italy ranges from glacier-covered peaks in the Alps to its southernmost point being on the same latitudes as parts of North Africa.  In a country the size of California they have the kind of geography that has allowed them to host both the Winter and Summer Olympics.  Surprisingly enough to most people, the country has hosted the Winter Olympics twice and the Summer Olympics once.  This means that different foods and livestock characterize different regions of the country.
• History:  Italian history as such did not exist until 1861.  Prior to the unification of the country the southern portion of the peninsula and Sicily were the Kingdom of Naples and the northern portion of the country was a collection of Duchys and Principalities, with San Marino and Vatican City thrown in as well.  Trade between regions was often strained and resulted in the development of items such as the salt-less Tuscan bread.
• Grudges:  Italians as a culture can hold a grudge longer than just about any on earth.  The wars that lead to the development of aforementioned salt-less bread ended over 500 years ago, but the bread is still made without salt.  The black rooster on the label of Chianti Classico is a remnant of a 13th century disagreement over territory distribution between Florence and Siena.

Where does this leave the traveler when searching out good food while traveling in Italy?  My opinion, eat what the locals eat.  The variances in things as “simple” as tomato sauce really do correspond to the items that they are served with.  A second factor in this is immigration.  Immigration from southern to northern Italy is quite common so finding good southern Italian cooking throughout most of the country is fairly easy.  If you are looking for a restaurant straight out of Naples you can probably find one in most towns.   On the other hand, if you are a fan of the indulgent style of eating characterized in Bologna then visiting the city is recommended.

Hints for maximum restaurant enjoyment:

• Find a restaurant that does not display English menus:  this means they cater to locals and the price/quality ratio will be infinitely better.
• Look for asterisks on the menu:  it is required by Italian law that the use of any frozen ingredients be indicated on the menu…the more of these you see the higher the chances you will get mediocre food.
• Seasonal foods:  even if you do not go for truffles or cinghiale, the more focus a place puts on the seasonal the better your meal will likely be.
• Unusual foods:  do not immediately run if you see unusual dishes on a menu.  Tripe, liver, chicken neck, wild boar and even horse are not unusual in traditional foods here.  Even if you do not order them, it usually means that absolutely everything in the place is going to made from scratch.

Other than that, eat as much as possible, as often as possible and with as much gusto as possible…you can walk it off sight-seeing.