Buenos Aires growing obesity problem

[texxaslonghorn]

Happy B-day Napoleon! Horns up for sure!!!! I just can't figure out why it is that whenever I am in Argentina (or, in this case, preparing to move back), we have a down year??

Anyway, not to get totally off topic, Austin is one US city that has done a good job keeping somewhat slim. Before Austin I was in Houston. That is a city that could lose some weight.

 

[starlucia]

The natural diets of argentines of the gaucho of meat , with little carbs and no processed foods was much better than todays diets of pizza, chocolate, choripan and icecream . The gauchos from 100 years ago had no obesity and were excellent specimens of human health . We need to go back to what nature intended for us and that is what grows and is alive we can eat .

I see a lot of misinformation/lack of information about nutrition in BA. The food in supermarkets is highly-processed, laden with high-fructose corn syrup and other unnatural ingredients that the body doesn't know how to metabolize (even the yogurt is watered down with scary-sounding fillers.) If you don't know where to look (Hausbrot!), whole-grain bread and healthy snack food like nuts and dried fruit are pricey/difficult to find. The only place I've ever seen a bigger sweet tooth than the US is Argentina. Meanwhile, women love their edulcolorantes (whereas many Americans have realized that artificial sweetener is poison and gone back to real sugar.) Eating well is expensive in BA if you don't cook at home -- a salad at a restaurant is 20-25 pesos, whereas parents can feed their kids a McDonalds meal or 2 empanadas for 8 pesos. Plus, like in most places outside of the US, American franchises such as Burger King, Starbucks, and (dear god, why) TGI Friday's are status symbols.

On the other hand, in BA you can grab a snack of fruit or veggies at any corner verduleria, healthy staples like calabaza and lentejas are insanely cheap, and you can log 3 or 4 miles a day by walking everywhere. So it's all in the angle.

 

[perry]

I see a lot of misinformation/lack of information about nutrition in BA. The food in supermarkets is highly-processed, laden with high-fructose corn syrup and other unnatural ingredients that the body doesn't know how to metabolize (even the yogurt is watered down with scary-sounding fillers.) If you don't know where to look (Hausbrot!), whole-grain bread and healthy snack food like nuts and dried fruit are pricey/difficult to find. The only place I've ever seen a bigger sweet tooth than the US is Argentina. Meanwhile, women love their edulcolorantes (whereas many Americans have realized that artificial sweetener is poison and gone back to real sugar.) Eating well is expensive in BA if you don't cook at home -- a salad at a restaurant is 20-25 pesos, whereas parents can feed their kids a McDonalds meal or 2 empanadas for 8 pesos. Plus, like in most places outside of the US, American franchises such as Burger King, Starbucks, and (dear god, why) TGI Friday's are status symbols.

On the other hand, in BA you can grab a snack of fruit or veggies at any corner verduleria, healthy staples like calabaza and lentejas are insanely cheap, and you can log 3 or 4 miles a day by walking everywhere. So it's all in the angle.

Great post Starlucia

I believe that Buenos Aires is the world capital per capita for articial sweeteners which are pure poison and in actual fact cause huge cravings for carbohydrates. There is no reason to take esplenda or any other aspartame mix as numerous studies have proven that brain damage is just one side effect .
http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html


There is a tremendous amount of misinformation about nutrition here and big business is rolling in more junk food to feed the masses . There is a overbundance of healthy food in Argentina from all staples and you can prepare a meal with great ingredients with little effort . As stated most corner shops have vegetables and you can find organic meats, pulses and nuts fairly easily in good neighbourhoods.

 

[jp]

It's astonishing: many of the coffee drinks served at Starbucks and other coffee joints are little more than coffee-flavored sugar and fat potions that will cause you to rapidly gain weight. They're candy. Nutritionally speaking, they're not that different from ice cream.

Also quite amusing to bear this point in mind when people complain about how awful the coffee tastes in buenos aires, compared to the deliciousness of starbucks...

 

[esllou]

I think it's similar to what happened with tobacco companies...they faced tougher legislation in north america and europe so began to choose easier targets in africa, latin america and asia.

fast food companies are doing the same. Films like Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me have joined a whole raft of books and websites and these companies either clean up their act or lose business. Outside their home country, the public are not so well-informed and these brands still have a "fashionable" aura to them.

 

[texxaslonghorn]

Not to mention, something about McDonald's tastes better in Argentina.

 

[MizzMarr]

Part of the problem with the regular coffee here (at least what's easily available in the grocery stores) is that it's toasted with burnt sugar. yuck! They do that to get the weight up as sugar is definitely cheaper than beans.

I was in Disco the other day, and saw a sign between their dairy/bread/meat sections that was the "nutritional MEAT wheel" and discussed which meats and how much of them you should have during the week. Nary a mention of a vegetable. I tend to pay a lot of attention to what other people are buying here when they go shopping and the bulk of the purchases that I see are white bread, meat, and soda pop. Then cookies, ice cream, etc. with an occasional head of lettuce, onion and tomatoes thrown in. What's worse is I've heard that farmers are jumping on the "more productive" CAFO bandwagon with the beef here, so that will likely deteriorate quickly as well.

I believe the problem is education. Availability and cheapness are a factor, certainly, but if education is the foundation someone might choose mandarinas or bananas over a platter of sandwiches de miga. Once when I needed to go to the doctor I was in a lounge waiting for my turn, and there was a "nutrition" specialist on the TV spouting utter nonsense about what and how to eat. I was flabbergasted, as none of the things she said to do were things that I would do, so... what do these nutritionists around the city say and where do they get their information from? Where does one start with a basic of nutritional know-how? By the way, I think it's great to get some information out there re: toxicity of chemical sweeteners. It's amazing how many people still don't know it's posion!

(I exercise regularly and cook nearly 2-3x every day so I can eat a very healthy, varied, relatively inexpensive and largely vegetable based diet).

 

[MikeB12]

I don't want this to turn into a diet argument about what is healthy, but I don't think that a high beef consumption is to blame. Historically, Argentina has always had a very high beef consumption, but what has changed over the last 10 years is the availability and popularity of soft drinks and junk food. Along with the massive amounts of bread, pasta, and sugar that are consumed.

Unfortunately, Argentina is transitioning to a cheap high carb diet, much the way the US already has...and you can see what that has brought.

 

[gouchobob]

I don't want this to turn into a diet argument about what is healthy, but I don't think that a high beef consumption is to blame. Historically, Argentina has always had a very high beef consumption, but what has changed over the last 10 years is the availability and popularity of soft drinks and junk food. Along with the massive amounts of bread, pasta, and sugar that are consumed.

Unfortunately, Argentina is transitioning to a cheap high carb diet, much the way the US already has...and you can see what that has brought.

I agree. Although fast food and soft drinks are available I don't think they are consumed in amounts as high as the U.S. I think the root of the problem is the local diet, lots of beef, pasta, pizza, empanadas, etc. I am willing to bet the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and seafood is very low in Argentina compared to other countries.

 

[MizzMarr]

Well, anything in excess can be bad. People would do well to eat "less" beef in general, but that's another discussion for another time. It's true that the addition of the refined starches and sugars (white breads, sugars, etc.) are a huge (no pun intended ) part of the problem...