Janny was scared stiff
Every week, Janny van der Heijden writes a column for our editorial neighbor Franska.nl about what occupies her in the culinary world. We like that. So much so, in fact, that we’re happy to share it with you. This week, Janny was scared stiff—read on.
Time Magazine published an extensive article last week about children’s eating habits around the world. A report produced in response to the growing obesity problem. Children from various countries were photographed lying among all the food they ate in a week. And, to be honest, I was shocked. Not so much by what they ate, but rather by the conclusion of the report that prompted these photo sessions.
Healthiest eating pattern
The starting point was an extensive study by the University of Cambridge into the healthiest eating patterns in the world. This study, which began in 2015, concluded that nine of the top ten countries with the healthiest eating patterns in the world were in Africa.
Cooking for yourself
And that was something I could never have imagined. The reason is that the eating pattern in those countries largely consists of grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes and nuts. But not only that—the fact that people still cook for themselves also proved essential. A major contrast with the US, where sixty percent of calories come from refined products and only one percent from vegetables.
Hunger
I do want to add a caveat, because the report did not immediately make clear to me that many people in those African countries also go hungry (something I have unfortunately had to see with my own eyes), meaning that the ideal menu is not available to everyone. I do understand the underlying idea, because it has long been known that more people around the world now die from eating too much and eating poorly than from hunger.
Corn syrup
The writer and photographer of the article in the Times spent two years flying all over the world to photograph children surrounded by their ‘eating pattern’. In America, forty years ago, one in forty children was obese; by now, that figure is already one in four. According to him, the introduction of corn syrup has also tripled diabetes rates there, and Americans’ life expectancy has begun to decline for the first time in many years. Hard facts that speak for themselves.
