Eating+Habits

HOW HAVE HABITS CHANGED IN YOUR COUNTRY IN RECENT YEARS?

To begin with, I have to say that lifestyles in Spain have really changed in the last 30 years. 30 years ago home cooking was the usual way of feeding ourselves, and things like frozen food, ready-made meals, fast food and food home deliveries hardly existed. And most of Spanish people did not use to go to restaurants except for a few remarkable occasions in their lives. And, what is more, they always ate their breakfasts, lunches and dinners together, in the family, at home and at their right time. Today, housewives have almost disappeared. Most of women work outside their homes. Neither women nor men have enough time to do the shopping and make home cooking appropriately. So, those same frozen food, ready-made meals, fast food, food home deliveries and eating in restaurants, are today more frequent than it is advisable for a healthy diet. Many parents need to eat in a restaurant near their jobs while their children eat in the school canteen. At dinner time nobody feels like cooking, so they defrost something in the microwave oven or order something by telephone. This style of feeding is unhealthy and is probably the reason for the increase of cardiovascular diseases, together with a sedentary lifestyle. Also the increase of overweight and obesity problems in adults and children is directly related to this kind of feeding. The Mediterranean Diet, which has been recently designated as World Heritage, is the healthiest diet for human beings, but is hardly compatible with workers' timetables because it is necessary time to do the cooking. In addition to this, the healthiest food, like organic, biological or light food, is always the most expensive food in supermarkets, and for some people hit by the economic downturn this is simply unattainable. It is true that we have a huge amount and variety of available food, and people live longer than ever in the history of humanity, but I am not sure that changes in eating habits in Spain in recent years can help us to be healthier and happier than before and to enjoy a better and longer life.

Ana Isabel San José