Four twenty-one-year-old Italians at the table, a big salami on the chopping board, a bag of potato chips ripped open down the center (“can’t eat just one”), an empty bottle of orange-flavored soft drink, and a bunch of beers-in-progress: that’s what I found in the kitchen when I got home last night. When the Italians started reading the ingredient list on the bottle of orange “juice” they’d just finished – “Did you know there’s only 12% orange juice in this orange juice?” – they were authentically surprised, and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass with pushing for more. A field study, you might say.
What resulted was a telling confirmation not so much of any culturally specific eating habits but rather of the pronounced deficiency in nutritional awareness (in particular) and scientific thought (in general) that I’ve come to attribute to Italians. Constantly under gastronomic fire as the American-in-residence, I admit that such certifiable examples of arrogant ignorance by my Italian counterparts provide me a certain measure of amused, self-vindicating satisfaction; at the same time, though, I’ve continued to hope, for the general good of society, health, and science, that my rather offensive characterization of Italians has been much too broad, a stumble into the trap of generalizing from the particular and battling mindless offense with mindless offense. But the more Italians I meet and the more Italian media I read, the more I’m convinced that my analysis is dead-on.
I’ve mentioned before a few examples:
· My roommate, who sustains, “It’s just a Florentine steak with a little oil. Very light!” (Actual nutritional analysis: more than 1200 calories and 80 grams of fat)
· The Italian dietetic association, whose food pyramid suggests that cookies are a more highly recommendable foodstuff than lentils, and that lard is better for you than low-fat milk
· The Italian version of Wikipedia, which sustains that wheat bran is not fit for human consumption, and that whole-grain products should be limited to no more than one per day (otherwise threatening a whole host of menacing problems, including stunting the growth of children)
The Italians at my kitchen table, however, were all University students majoring in nothing less “scientific” than physics and should imaginably have been able to sustain a discussion and an analysis based in reason, deduction, logic, and research: the scientific method, if you please. But they weren’t.
As is usual, the Italians started their part of the conversation with an attack on the eating habits of Americans as compared with Italians (which, since we’re considering the Italian capacity for scientific thought, is an argument, among its many other deficiencies, entirely irrelevant to the question at hand). When I pointed out that, in fact, Italians eat more beef, pork, and animal fat than do Americans, they didn’t consider this incriminating, in fact sustaining that this is a-ok: while American meat products likely come from the supermarket or from McDonald’s, theirs generally come from “the butcher on the corner.” This may be true – or it may not be, as several of my data hunts have turned up surprising results – but even if it is, the sourcing of animal fat doesn’t change the way it attaches to the insides of human arteries, raises cholesterol, and promotes (if not “causes”) obesity, related diseases, and cancer. A salami bought at Giuseppe the Butcher’s and a salami bought at Wegmans Supermarkets stimulate those degenerative processes with equal effectiveness. Italian Arrogance 1, Science 0.
They sustained further that “animal fat isn’t bad for you; in fact, it’s necessary.” Otherwise, for example, it’s impossible – impossible! – to get adequate quantities of iron. While I’ve seen various reputable medical accounts sustaining diets with relatively high quantities of fats, all of these have required that the fats consumed be primarily vegetable- and fish-based (and principally omega-3) fats. Never have I seen any reputable study promote the consumption of animal fats. And further, does it make sense to construct a general societal eating program based on the nutritional needs of the relatively miniscule population of anemics? Would any of them similarly propose a new wheat-free national diet to guard against possible problems for those with celiac disease? Italian Arrogance 2, Science 0.
Next argument: “We have the Mediterranean diet” paired with “We don’t have the health problems you Americans have, so we must have a good diet”. In fact, the Meditteranean diet involves very, very little meat and certainly doesn’t comprehend trans-fat filled brioches at the bar: Italians absolutely do not practice the medically celebrated diet of 1960s Cretan men. And if they haven’t matched us in public health problems of epidemic proportions, the Italians are catching up fast. According the FAO statistics, Italian children are among the most obese in the 27 European Union States, and Type II diabetes is spreading at an exponential pace. Again, it’s entirely understandable to me (though clearly not commendable) that these phenomena are underway. What’s not at all understandable is to me is why no one seems to recognize this reality. Italian Arrogance 3, Science 0.
If these are the country’s up-and-coming physicists, I’m joining the protest against the development of nuclear power plants in Italy. (“But our electrons are better than French ones! Hmphf.”)
