Something that we've been talking about a lot since we've been here with each other and with other teachers is the quality of food here in Ecuador. Ryan and I eat 95% of our meals at home. This is drastically different from our food lives in los Estados Unidos. In the states we probably ate 75% of our meals outside of the home. First and foremost, here, we know what is in our food. We eat mostly vegetables (we're talking A LOT of vegetables). We probably go through at least 2 or 3 onions, between 4-10 tomatoes, handfulls of green beans, 1 leek, 3 peppers of some sort, 1 turnip (for me, Ryan does't like it), and at least a head of lettuce a week, for two people. We eat a lot of veggies. In addition to veggies, we eat a lot of chicken, we drink a lot of milk, and a TON of water. We have rice, beans or quinoa 2-3 times a week, and we rarely have pasta. More importantly though, we don't use a lot of butter, we use sunflower oil, and we have limited access to things like cream, sour cream, rich heavy cheeses, etc. Oh, and we eat a lot of eggs. I'm talking a dozen a week at least. Sometimes more.
All that to say, we know what we eat here. And not only do we know what we eat but we eat only locally grown things because imported food is too expensive. It's odd because Ryan and I have both noticed (along with some of the other teachers) that we don't crave food here. You know how sometimes, when we were at home at least, you'd crave a juicy, greasy hamburger or you'd crave junk food, or sweets. We just don't really crave food here. Which brings us to the main question we've been tossing around... What exactly is in the food in America that makes people crave it? And we're not just wondering about processed food, like McDonalds. We're talking about that kind of food, but we're also talking about just regular old food that you make for dinner. What is it that leads to cravings and obescity and addiction to food?
Thursday nights are date night for me and Ryan. This week we had a very romantic evening of vaccuming, doing laundry (on the scrub board), mopping and just general cleaning the house. When we were finished we walked down to Jay & Jay's, the convience shop on our street, and bought some cheese (mozzarella) and some chips (ruffles). Now this is the first time that we've bought just about anything specifically American and it's only the second time that we've bought potato chips. The first time we're actually potatos cut thin into chips and fried. We celebrated our cleaning accomplishment by eating almost the whole bag of Ruffles. Mind you the bags are much smaller here than they are in the USA, but still, it was a lot of chips. All that to say, I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible stomach ache that continued till today. And the only thing that I can attribute it to is all of the hydrogenated oil and processed crap that is in the beloved Ruffles.
Since we've been here we've removed all hydrogenated oil from our diets, just about. And eating so much of it for the first time made me feel awful, tired and sluggish. I felt like that guy from Supersize Me. Anyways... it's just something we've been thinking about and talking about. There's something in the food in America. Whether it's there intentionally to keep sales up, or it's the chemicals that keeps food fresh during it's long commute from place of origin. Who knows... but it's not in the food in Ecuador and we've noticed the difference. We have more energy, we eat less, and we eat better.
MULUB,
Taylor
PS. Another thing Ecuador has gotten right is the cost of food. In the USA the poor are encouraged to eat McDonalds because it's cheap and easy and fresh produce and meat just cost to much to prepare (and that's without the cost of gas for the stove, electricity for the kitchen, etc). Here fresh produce is as cheap as it gets and as accessible as can be. People sell it in the streets. Whereas a Whopper is over $5 and McDonalds are few and far between. But that discussion for another day.
