Reindeer and Doggie-Woggies

Yesterday I saw French couple walking their dogs. Actually, I heard them before I saw them. Little Precious I and Little Precious II were pitter-pattering, at just about the pace of their self-absorbed owners, through my guided historical tour. Only I and II had little weiner-legs suspended from their bellies, and jinglebells from their necks. My tour group oohed and awed and said how cute, but I just thought to myself: what on earth is the purpose of those damn jinglebells? Are your puppies in danger of flying off into the polar wildnerness and getting confused with Santa's flying reindeer? Do they normally pasture in Alpine meadows alongside your elderly bergher-neighbor Hansel's fondue-yielding cows? And why, in God's good name, are the bells that big? Giving Precious I and Precious II bells of that size is something along the lines of suiting Rudolph up with the Liberty Bell.

And you're going to jingle them through my tour for twenty minutes?!

Come on, man.

Apology

I wasn't very nice in my latest blog posts responding to Johnny Adamic's analyses of Italian and American eating habits. Big apologies to Johnny – who is continuing in his role as “The Food Scholar” in an awesome program in Food Culture at New York University.

I’m removing my last series of posts. If anyone is really curious about lesser-known facts relating to bread, meat, or fish (or Italian or American food consumption statistics), you can let me know and I’ll fill you up with data – without the invective.

Arrogance 3, Science 0

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.”)

"The Youth Center"

"The Youth Center" of Stroncone, Italy

Back on the Road ... Cammino di Francesco

I'm back "on the road" ... walking a part of the Cammino di San Francesco and-or the Via Francigena (albeit in the "wrong" direction). Yesterday I stayed with the friars at the Sanctuary of Fonte Colombo, and tonight I'm headed to the Franciscan sanctuary at Greccio. The friars at Fonte Colombo gave me a warm bed, a hot meal, and a scorchin' hot shower ... it was a surprise welcome and a real blessing, and only something that could have happened in Italy: the only reason I ended up there was because, Italy being Italy, they had cancelled the normally scheduled trains to Rieti .... and failed to update the electronic ticket database or even inform the train station personnel, who couldn't figure out how the train on Platform 1 could be "in departure" (as indicated by the flashing lights and public announcements) without the actual presence of a train on Platform 1. This meant I got a late start ... which meant I couldn't quite arrive at my planned destination ... and hence the surprise welcome at Fonte Colombo. GOD BLESS THE FRANCISCANS!

I'm happy to be "sul cammino" ... it suits me well!

As the "brothers" say ... Pace e Bene ...

p.s. Today I saw a man taking his dog for a walk. Well, the dog was walking. The man, big and jolly, just barely fit into the seat behind the steering wheel of his rusty old car ... to which he had attached a rusty old chain ... to which was attached the dog, trotting along behind ... That was a new one for me!

"It’s not a (green) revolution until somebody gets hurt"

It’s a good thing I run, and not only because I’m going to celebrate Easter in an Italian home: it’s podcast time, and, man, are there ever some top-quality podcasts out there. They don’t provoke quite the same endorphin kick as Donna Summers, but they do send the neurons spinning.

I just listened to Thomas Friedman’s presentation (“Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” the same title as his latest book) to the London School of Economics. This will surprise a lot of people, but: I like Thomas Friedman. I hesitate to define myself as a “capitalist”, but, in fine e in fondo, I do believe in capitalism. I think competition and incentivization work better than standardization and regulation (while I also believe that policy plays an important role in regulating competition that turns ugly). I’m certain I can’t summarize Friedman’s book in two lines (especially since I haven’t read it), but two phrases from his presentation deserve repeating:

- “It’s not a revolution until somebody gets hurt”. That is: forget all this nonsense about “101 easy ways to green the planet” … and actually implement policies that actually force innovation to actually green the planet.

- “Wouldn’t it be great if Barack Obama and his wife and their two girls got on their bicycles and biked to the White House? Now that would be leadership.” I agree. That’d be awesome.

I’d love it if some of you listened to the program and shared your thoughts.

More on Meat

Let’s talk a little more about meat. And about another argument I’ve made (without ever getting anyone to agree with me): that Italians in general have a very low level of nutritional-dietetic awareness. (And that this explains why the levels of childhood obesity in Europe are among the highest in Europe, and why obesity-related diseases such as diabetes are growing rapidly in Italy.)

My roommate – who I really like – provides me with an endless source of material for reflection (and, sometimes, pique) . Yesterday, she suggested that I might like eating in the University dining hall. When I said I preferred to “pack a lunch” – a behavior almost unheard of among Italian students – she asked why, and I explained that the meals served in the cafeteria were much more expensive than anything I might prepare at home, and that I find the offerings to be generally “unhealthy”. She disagreed: “I really think you should go. You can find some really good, healthy options. For example, on Wednesdays … Bistecca alla Fiorentina. It’s just the steak and a little olive oil drizzled on top. That’s it! Very light.”

Well, that is it, and, actually, that’s the point. To make sure I hadn’t misunderstood anything, I took an “ask for clarification” moment and ascertained that, in fact, I had understood perfectly: we were talking about a broiled porterhouse steak about two inches thick and twelve inches long. A little math gave me the nutritional facts on my roommate’s “light, healthy” meal (or, really, that part of her meal). If I assume the smallest possible weight (let’s say 400 grams), the leanest cut (trimmed to 0” fat, select grade), and discount the added oil – not to mention the bread, dressed salad, and Coca-Cola that almost surely accompany the meat – we’re talking about a consumption of about 1200 calories, 85 grams of fat, 32 grams of saturated fat, and 260 mg of cholesterol. And, given what I’ve seen in Italy – enormous portions of meat and fattier rather than leaner cuts – we could be understating those figures by perhaps 30%. We’ve already exceeded daily recommended limits for fat and saturated fat, we’re not so far away from those for calories and cholesterol, and we’ve considered only the meat consumed during lunch.

If this were an isolated example, it would be … an isolated example. But I’ve met with lots of similarly absurd health-related claims. Among other foods that Italians have tried to convince me are healthy: kebab (fatty pork meat served with fatty sauce), Bolognese bread (super-refined white-flour bread flavored with pig fat), Milanese-style steak (fatty beef, breaded and fried), and deep-fried vegetables.

What’s most interesting to me isn’t that Italians eat this, ah, “stuff”. It’s that everyone – Italians, Americans, Martians, everyone – maintains that Italians have better food habits than “everyone else” and most especially than Americans. It’s certainly not true in many “particular” cases, and I’d argue that’s not true even on average.

Surprise.