By Gioia Mathis, Switzerland
Food is a very important thing for me and for most people because, to stay healthy and to have energy, we have to eat good quality food which are rich in vitamins. This means if we want to have a happy life, we have to care about our food ,but that’s not easy and we have to educate ourselves about how to eat healthy and to care about what we eat and where it comes from, and that is often the problem. We need to learn this as children and it is good if the parents care, but often they don’t. So we have to be taught at school, but sadly most countries don’t offer this kind of education. The US, for example, barely does this. Only a few schools teach their students the meaning of good and healthy food. Switzerland in contrast, really cares about it and also where food comes from. We are taught what is healthy for our bodies and what is not. So we have to learn about different kinds of sugar, salt, proteins etc. that we need to consume to be healthy. We have to take at least two years of cooking lessons as well.
Compare the meals between Switzerland and the US:
Breakfast:
This is a typical Swiss breakfast. It’s made of yogurt, fruits and oatmeal. It is very simple but it is delicious and it makes sure that we have enough energy to start our day. You can add any time fruit you like and maybe some cinnamon.
This a typical American breakfast made of eggs, French toast, pancakes, bacon and French fries. It may look amazing but it is, for sure, the wrong way to start a healthy day. It is made of fat, sugar, and high calories. Fat and sugar are really bad for the heart and too much sugar can cause diabetes.
Lunch/Dinner
This is what a lunch in Switzerland could look like. It is made of Roesti, a typical Swiss meal made of fried, thin sliced potatoes. Together with meat and a cream sauce it is a perfect and quite healthy lunch, but often Swiss people don’t have enough time because the lunch break its quite short. So instead they eat a salad or a sandwich and the dish on the picture is called “Zueri Geschnetzeltes”. They eat it on the weekend, so there is time to enjoy this delicious meal.
This is the most common lunch for an American. It is made of oily fries and burger with a lot fat. This is the cheapest and fastest option that’s why most people choose this as their lunch/dinner.
Maybe this looks like a cliché that everybody just thinks that Americans eat a lot of junk food, but sadly this is the most common meal in the US. The reason is that healthy food is very expensive and fast food is the low-cost option. All this unhealthy food causes diseases and a lot people suffer from diabetes or become overweight. That’s why I think it is so important to teach children what is healthy and what is not, what causes people to gain weight or develop different kinds of diabetes. They need to grow up having a healthy relationship with food.
I don’t want to offend anybody. I’m talking in general terms but it is no secret that American people suffer much more from diseases caused by unhealthy food than people in Switzerland.
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