You are HOW you eat

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Jane, I'm with you! Your reply came to me this evening just after I

read the incredible article in today's NYT called " YOU ARE HOW YOU EAT " .

The article is one of those that makes you run for the scissors to clip it and

save it forever. The author is from Verona, Italy and he talks about how to

EAT SLOWLY and have A GOOD ATTITUDE ABOUT YOUR FOOD (actually,

a RELATIONSHIP with your food). It sounds exactly like your mother.

The Italian author was shocked at American's version of eating, which is

basically shoveling massive amounts of crap into the fuel bin. Fast food,

gobbled fast, often while driving or eating (Yuck, note that European car

makers gag at the thought of putting cup-holders into cars!!!!!!). It's a great

article, you gotta read it.

Italians eat 4X the amout of pasta as Americans and yet have a fraction of the

fatties we have here, in many cases, the men there have flat bellies and the

women hourglass figures. They often take a 3 hour lunch break and often

teach their children how to eat good food. They don't have " children's

menues " of dumbed-down mac and cheese and chicken fingers, but kids get

1/2 sized adult meals. They teach them young. Our horrible eating patterns

are spreading there but the wiser Europeans are fighting it tooth and nail.

In another magazine I read today about a Russian lady who has a kefir plant

in the US. She is planning on spreading the popularity as well as the health

benefits of the product. I was super relieved to find that the Russians (who

invented Kefir) pronounce it " KEY-fur " not a word that rhymes with " heifer " , a

pronunciation that has always made me nervous. (Now I'm trying to prove

that the word SCONE rhymes with " tone " , as I say it, and not a word that

rhymes with " ron " , as my fancy-schmancy baker wife pronounces it.

Will in Uptown, who is trying to eat more slowly from now on!