“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” - Michael Pollan

Hey there!

Today I’d like to talk about Food!!

Food is essential to life as all living beings need nutrition in some form or another. I’d like to focus on humans and on our interesting ways of feeding ourselves.

I am an adopted child of the USA, and having made the US my home only for the past 14 years, I have noticed some very interesting differences between my new home and my birth country, Portugal.

I remember very clearly the first few times I watched the 6:30 news in the US, and noticing that every single day the topic of food was discussed: “how to fight overweight and obesity; caffeine is good (other times bad) for you; broccoli is great for you;” and the list goes on.

It struck me back then that people were obsessed with the topic of food, and more importantly, obesity. I did not really know what to think of it, and that during the next decade or so I would learn a great deal about it.

I went on to study food science and then work for parties that are key players in the food system in the US and in the world, both in academia, researching ways of enhancing food products with key ingredients that are important for human health, and in the industries that make those and other kinds of food products and eagerly try to sell them to us.

In both instances, the issue of food and feeding ourselves was approached differently than in my birth country. In Portugal, I was taught that eating in moderation, and cooking food from scratch with raw ingredients were the best - better said, the only - approaches to follow. And the reasons were not only related to health, but also - and more importantly - related to economics and culture.

Interestingly enough, 14 years later I am sitting here realizing that the US has caught up with that notion - that eating in moderation and with fresh and unprocessed ingredients makes the most sense for human beings and for the environment around them. 

The US is just reverting back to the uncomplicated days where processed foods did not exist and we humans, lived in harmony with our world and environment. It looks like Portugal had it right all along!

Healthy eating!