Last night Hubby and I were lounging on the couch watching TV minding our own business on a lazy Sunday afternoon when suddenly the French equivalent of "60 minutes" came on.
Imagine our surprise when they announced that among their cover stories for the evening, they would be presenting a very worrying issue: Obesity in Mexico. WHAT? I mean, ok, Mexico is not known for having a very lean, healthy 5-veggies-a-day cuisine but from that to say that Mexico is a country of obese people, I have to admit I was shocked.
According to the show, US fast food chains have literally invaded the neighbours SOB (south of the border) and this has entirely modified the eating patterns of Mexican kids. I was also stunned to learn that Mexico is apparently the second country with the most obese people in the planet (after the USA!!). As an example, they showed the story of Miguel, a 500 kilo regiomontano how is bed ridden and has been on a diet for the past two years trying to loose 300 kilos!! They showed how little kids in primaria don't have cafeterias and instead make their own "nutritional" choices by buying their own (junk) food at "tienditas" that sell chips, pizzas and ice cream inside the school walls during lunch hour. They showed image after image of obese kids, teenagers and even grown policemen stressing the point that exercise is nothing but a myth in Mexico.
Needless to say, Hubby was shocked to see these images ("what? no fromage as dessert after a good hearty meal?" pfff... the french!) but for me it was a bit different. I have to say I’d never really thought of obesity as a problem in Mexico…. how can it be when there is so much poverty??? And yet, the show did bring back memories of my childhood growing up in Valladolid and my mom giving me and my brothers a 100 peso coin to buy our own lunch during recess (this was before the New Peso change in 1991). She did try to make us healthy lunchboxes at one point but I remember us flatly refusing to being the only “losers” coming to school with a stinking p&j sandwich when all the cool kids got to buy their own panuchos at the tiendita. I recall how much tortas (a 1000+cal type of sandwhich) and refrescos (sodas) cost in high school (2 pesos the torta and 1,50 the “chesco”) . Looking back I guess it is true no one in school talked to us about eating fruit and yogurt and veggies during recess time and the nutrition pyramid was nothing more than a colorful little picture that came on the back of the Pan Bimbo.
But still… I do distinctly recall that the basic Mexican meal consists of beans (veggie protein and fibre) rice or tortillas (cereal or feculent), cheese or cream (animal protein) and salsa or chile (veggies, ehem... ok, I wont go that far...). Ok, so it’s not the poster meal for a healthy diet, but at least it sounds balanced, right? (insert: when I talk about Mexican food, I of course am NOT talking about Taco-Bell and such tex-mex fast-food chain stuff) And yet, according to the show this has now shifted and kids are eating less and less enchiladas and chilaquiles and more and more McDonald's, Domino's, Burger King and Dunkin’ Donoughts.
Bottom line: according to soixante minutes, if Mexican health authorities don't do something about this and quick, Mexico could soon become a country with an 80% population considered to be clinically obese!!!
So what is it I don't understand you ask?
Well, this morning the news informed us that the FMI has issued an emergency statement saying that we are facing a food crisis which is going to affect the entire planet in the years to come. Prices of first necessity basic products (like soy, beans, coffee, milk, meat, produce, etc) are soaring skyrocket high and countries like Haiti and Somalia are already in a state of alarm with violent riots breaking out all over the place.
So how can it be that this can be happening at the same time? On the one side we have obese little Mexican kids overeating junk food and on the other we have little Haitian kids that are are soon not even going to have access to basic food at all??? This can’t be right, can it?
Fned.
10 comments:
We were surprised how many obese people there are in Mexico when we got here. We kept saying, "But Americans are supposed to be the fattest and there's just as many fat people and kids here as there are in the states!"
I ate dinner with a Mexican friend last year at his mom's house, and I have to say that the sheer amount of food that she served was insane! He even told her that we were skinny American girls and we weren't going to "eat like Mexicans" (his words) so she had better make less food than she normally would for his family.
Living here we see tourists from all over. I have no idea how the Italians stay so skinny and eat all that yummy food (let's not even go there with the French, I mean, it's just not fair)!
I don't know how it happens, but it does. Chile too has a rising obesity problem, mostly in children because it's a new thing, so the next generation is the most affected. Their rates of childhood obesity are exactly the same as in the U.S.
I'm actually kind of surprised that you hadn't heard that about Mexico before. I've been hearing that for a while now, and have seen that documentary on Miguel on 3 separate occasions! Maybe in Chile they talk about it more because they relate to Mexico's problems with food, since both countries are in the same boat.
I think it's the sodas, there was an article in the Diario de Yucatan that said something like "having oranges at hand they chose Cocacola", and the photo was kids under an orange tree drinking soda.
The packages of chips are small, like the single serving sizes that I remember not the huge ones NOB.
Also what I notice is that they are out of shape, when I went NOB, the people were big and overweight but the people here have huge bellies and fat rolls. Of course wearing everything (IMHO) 2 sizes too small doesn't help.
If you go to a cocina economica, the portions aren't huge, the food primarily is healthy enough. But if you eat the comida chatarra then you have problems. My friend said that instead of eating tortillas, the labourers are eating sabritas and cocas.
regards,
Theresa
It does seem surprising that poverty can go hand in hand with obesity, but it can. I watch the women in the stores on quincenas stocking up on groceries: tons of tortillas, beans, oil, and manteca. The only veggies seem to be tomatoes, onions, garlic, and chile. All that starch and fat, it adds weight. Not to mention that the poor don't have the luxury of free time to "work out" to lose some calories.
I also forgot to mention this: Coca Cola. I read somewhere that the Yucatan peninsula has the highest consumption per capita of Coca Cola in the world. I don't know if that's true, but I know it's true that I've actually seen it in babies' bottles here.
It's nutritional, it's got to be. Mexicans drink soda, because "why pay for water?" And tortillas are not good for you. And all the fatty foods Mexicans eat are not good for you.
The times in my own life when I've been skinny were when I only ate foods high in nutrition and I worked out 7 days a week.
My daughter's old school here has a tiendita where the best you can get is a grilled cheese sandwich. Most kids eat papas fritas and sodas for lunch.
Checking in from Puebla... yes, soft drinks (coca cola) are the downfall of the country in general, which is the number one consumer in the world of such drinks. However, health food and exercise are very big in Puebla. Yogurt in all flavors and combinations is sold everywhere, including school tienditas, as are fruit drinks and bottled water, which you see more people drinking than ever before, in spite of their higher price. FAST FOOD has bombarded the city, but hopefully, the whole fitness image people want to have of themselves and the city will win out over that. I can only hope that those in charge of SELLING us the whole FAST-FOOD PACKAGE will wake up to the reality that they are promoting the ruination of our planet! (I'm talking about their contribution to TRASH, BAD NUTRITION, GLOBAL WARMING, PROMOTING THE DISINTEGRATION OF MEANINGFUL SOCIAL INTERACTION, ETC. ETC. ETC.)
Fast food aside, Mexican cuisine is not low-cal, and when you add the cocas and chips on a daily basis, it stands to reason that obesity will be the result.
I think it's definitely the coke! And many (native) Mexicans just seem to have a smaller/wider frame so the pounds show up quickly!
But yeah the sugar ooo-eeeee! Just last night I went to a birthday party with Little S and the kids got all the pinata candy and were eating it ALL just after catching it, chowing down like mad and the parents were saying nothing. Then they had their little casse-croute which was jello cups and bean sandwiches, then cake of course--and the hostess came around with the gateau three times and just kept insisting! I realize that it's a birthday party so it's exceptional (well...there is at least one party a week so maybe not) but anyway it shows what seems to me a no holds barred mentality concerning sugar and carbs here.
When we take S to the doctor he gets a lollipop, and then she always offers a second one on leaving and then insists he take two for the road. She's his doctor so we definitely found that shocking.
Mainly I am seeing lots of little girls 7-12 years old here who have obesity problems, little pouchy stomachs, big arms and fat cheeks. Last night at the same party I was shocked by the distorted features of a five year old girl bursting at the seams of her little party dress. I've never seen such a young child that obese! Her mother seemed relatively thin but that little girl--stuffing mouthfuls of cupcakes was just a total shock.
So yeah I think it's the sugar. Btw we've gained since living here too! The portions are larger and we eat out more than we do in France.
I came back because I forgot to say that I do think the French media like to dramatize the bad stories about North America. They are always, always, always pushing the sterotype and it's annoying! It seems to me there are always many more stories about the Alabama Women's Prison System than American Noble Prize Winners. I sympathize completely.I came back because I forgot to say that I do think the French media like to dramatize the bad stories about North America. They are always, always, always pushing the sterotype and it's annoying! It seems to me there are always many more stories about the Alabama Women's Prison System than American Noble Prize Winners. I sympathize completely.
(oops sorry about the deleted comment --I was all logged in wrong under the family blog)
Post a Comment