The Mediterranean diet has existed for thousands of years and at the
moment it’s seen as a wonderful alternative which can play an important
role in the prevention of chronic diseases. But what happens in a
democratic country, very rich in healthy foods such as Colombia, where the
minimum monthly salary of a family doesn’t allow eating good
nutritional daily food? The people don’t have the necessary money to eat as nature calls for. Nevertheless, with globalization and
homogenization around the world, Colombian health
politics continues being sharply defined and there isn’t correspondence
between the natural laws and the political ones in relation to the true
necessities of the people. All the solutions are local, according to the
economic structure of our country, which favours those who can eat and drink
the natural diet prescriptions.
The daily diet of the vast Colombian majority turns on the use of low
cost food, some of them of African origin. Cereals and platano (the
starchy fruit of the plantain) are daily eaten in several presentations.
A classic service, at lunch, supplied to one person contains as
first course sancocho (a boiled aqueous extract of platano and meat of the most
lowest quality or cow’s bone) or pasta soup. A TV advertisement invites people to eat pasta every day from a company: little stars on Mondays, twists on Tuesdays, shells on Wednesdays, bow ties
on Thursdays, letters on Fridays, cannelloni without meat on
Saturdays and spaghetti on Sundays. Then comes rice in high quantities
with a portion of cooked dried grains of any classic Latin American
legume (bean, lentil, chickpea,...). All of this accompagnied by fried
low cost products. After that the people end the lunch drinking a
commercial very sweet gaseous drink or an aqueous extract of any processed
cereal: maize, barley, oat... Every day people eat great amounts of
carbohydrates, saturated fats and proteins of low biological value.
We live in a country very rich in healthy natural foods. It’s not
difficult to make Colombian diets with a highest nutritional quality, with
the same or even better characteristics of the Mediterranean one, which
can help in decreasing the high incidence and prevalence of several
chronic diseases in the world, but for the common people it costs
relatively a lot of money to maintain this diet every day. The economists
began in Colombia a globalization process of the country’s economy. In
order to globalize healthy habits in Colombia, it’s urgent and
necessary to globalize the people's salary in our country too.
Rapid Response:
The Colombian Crossroad.
The Mediterranean diet has existed for thousands of years and at the
moment it’s seen as a wonderful alternative which can play an important
role in the prevention of chronic diseases. But what happens in a
democratic country, very rich in healthy foods such as Colombia, where the
minimum monthly salary of a family doesn’t allow eating good
nutritional daily food? The people don’t have the necessary money to eat as nature calls for. Nevertheless, with globalization and
homogenization around the world, Colombian health
politics continues being sharply defined and there isn’t correspondence
between the natural laws and the political ones in relation to the true
necessities of the people. All the solutions are local, according to the
economic structure of our country, which favours those who can eat and drink
the natural diet prescriptions.
The daily diet of the vast Colombian majority turns on the use of low
cost food, some of them of African origin. Cereals and platano (the
starchy fruit of the plantain) are daily eaten in several presentations.
A classic service, at lunch, supplied to one person contains as
first course sancocho (a boiled aqueous extract of platano and meat of the most
lowest quality or cow’s bone) or pasta soup. A TV advertisement invites people to eat pasta every day from a company: little stars on Mondays, twists on Tuesdays, shells on Wednesdays, bow ties
on Thursdays, letters on Fridays, cannelloni without meat on
Saturdays and spaghetti on Sundays. Then comes rice in high quantities
with a portion of cooked dried grains of any classic Latin American
legume (bean, lentil, chickpea,...). All of this accompagnied by fried
low cost products. After that the people end the lunch drinking a
commercial very sweet gaseous drink or an aqueous extract of any processed
cereal: maize, barley, oat... Every day people eat great amounts of
carbohydrates, saturated fats and proteins of low biological value.
We live in a country very rich in healthy natural foods. It’s not
difficult to make Colombian diets with a highest nutritional quality, with
the same or even better characteristics of the Mediterranean one, which
can help in decreasing the high incidence and prevalence of several
chronic diseases in the world, but for the common people it costs
relatively a lot of money to maintain this diet every day. The economists
began in Colombia a globalization process of the country’s economy. In
order to globalize healthy habits in Colombia, it’s urgent and
necessary to globalize the people's salary in our country too.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests