Ep 78: Eat, Drink, and Stay Slim: 11 Things I Learned from Living in Spain
08/01/22 | 16:50 | Episode 78
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Americans have a ton of mental anguish around their bodies and eating while Spanish women, on the other hand, barely think about it. Yes, they care what they look like but they don't fight or struggle with food the way we do. Americans, after all, are constantly struggling with their weight and dieting like their lives depend on it, while the French, Spanish, and Italians are known for quite the opposite. They enjoy good food and maintain la bella figura effortlessly.
In 2003 I moved to Spain with the intention of learning how Spaniards enjoyed food and yet stayed slim. My roommate, Carmen, 20 years my senior, was the perfect guide. She taught me how to cook and answered all of my questions.
In today's episode I share the 11 things I learn about eating and staying slim while living in Spain.
Spanish People Don’t Obsess Over Food.
They Aren't Afraid of Hunger.
Breakfast is a Non-Event.
No Such Thing as Low Fat.
Eating is Social.
“Nada en Paquete”.
Sweets are for Children.
They Don’t Diet.
They Don’t Exercise.
They Drink, But Not Too Much.
They Prioritize La Dolce Vita.
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Transcript
“No lo sabes?” Asked my Spanish roommate, Carmen, while we stood in our tiny kitchen in the middle of our little flat in Madrid.
No lo sabes translates to “Don’t you know that?”-- a phrase Carmen would say to me frequently over the year that I lived with her.
Carmen was 20 years older than me and had decided at some point, probably before she even met me, that it was her responsibility to educate poor little ignorant American girls on the evils of the American diet and to enlighten us with the wonders of Mediterranean gastronomy.
And while she typically trended towards the hyperbole (she was an actor, after all), she was pretty on point with her knowledge.
Americans have a ton of mental anguish around their bodies and eating.
Spanish women, on the other hand, barely think about it. Yes, they care what they look like but they don't fight or struggle with food the way we do.
Americans, after all, are constantly struggling with their weight and dieting like their lives depend on it, while the French, Spanish, and Italians are known for quite the opposite.
They enjoy good food and maintain la bella figura effortlessly.
I found this fascinating.
I was a sponge for Carmen’s lessons.
In 2003 I moved to Spain with the intention of learning how Spaniards enjoyed food and yet stayed slim. I was hyper aware of the evils of the American diet then and yet, despite eating a very healthy diet, was still overweight.
Carmen was the perfect guide. She taught me how to cook and answered all of my questions. She took me out until 5 in the morning to underground flamenco bars where we danced for hours.
On my own I would study people in cafes and restaurants to see what and how they were eating.
Here is what I learned. You can get this whole list of 11 for free delivered right to your inbox by heading over the https://liapinelli.com/goodies
Spanish People Don’t Obsess Over Food. They eat really well and enjoy really good food, but Spanish women are not obsessed with food, nor are they obsessed with their weight. Of course people enjoy food, but it isn’t a big deal. Eat according to tradition, not too much, and move on. No one lives for food or fetishizes it. I remember a Spanish friend remarking that when she had visited the States she noticed all the food commercials (which in and of itself was foreign-- the Spanish had not advertised food until recent history-- thank you, globalization) where people were always smiling and very happy in those commercials. She didn’t understand the connection of food and happiness and why we would market it that way. She was genuinely baffled. And I was also baffled: doesn’t food make everyone happy?!?! Aren’t we all obsessed with happiness and eating our way to contentment? Clearly not. Spanish, French, and Italian people enjoy good food, but they don’t have overhunger and overdesire the way we do-- and this says a lot about us versus them. We could stand to learn a lot in that department.
They Aren't Afraid of Hunger. In Spain and the rest of southern Europe there are strict windows of time in which it is socially acceptable to eat. No one eats lunch, the biggest meal of the day, until 2 PM and you won’t find anyone eating past 4:00. And then dinner begins around 9:00 PM, with very few people eating any earlier than that. What happens in between? Life! La dolce vita! But no snacking, ever. Period. Not ever. No such thing. No such concept. So what happens if you don’t eat enough lunch or miss a meal on accident? You get hungry. And you deal with it. And you eat at the next meal. That’s it. No drama. No freaking out. No panicking or binging or excuse making. It’s just hunger, it will pass, you can handle it, and you will be fine. Move on.
Breakfast is a Non-Event. They either skip breakfast entirely or eat a piece of toast with butter, jam, or olive oil. Breakfast can happen first thing if one is hungry, or hours after rising-- at say 10:30 or 11. Or again, not at all.Coffee is a standard and usually taken black or with full-fat milk. Yes, I said full fat.That brings me to my next point.
No Such Thing as Low Fat. There is no lowfat anything. Ever. Not yogurt, not milk, not nada. Why would there be? There is no obesity epidemic (or sugar industry mucking everything up) and therefore people just eat the way they’ve eaten for centuries-- which is eating whole foods, intact with the fat that it comes with. They eat fat like the natural fats from jamon serrano, whole eggs, tons of olive oil, butter in cooking.
Eating is Social. In Spain, lunch is traditionally the main meal of the day but with the modern times and globalization this meal is slowly giving way to dinner. People take time out of the day to sit down and eat a full plate of meat, fish, or eggs with vegetables, and maybe a small portion of carbohydrate such as pasta, bread, potato, or rice. People sit down and eat together, slowly and leisurely. In our modern world this tradition is slowly fading out, with people eating sandwiches in front of their computers during lunch, but it is important to note that people are also gaining unwanted weight in Spain these days, so its worth revisiting these traditional ways of eating.
“Nada en Paquete”. Nothing in a package, is what Carmen always used to say. She got her meat from the butcher, her fish from the fishmonger, and her fruits and vegetables from the open air market. Culture and tradition constranis what people eat. While people will eat lots of variety in terms of protein and vegetables, they do not a ton of items outside of Spanish traditional: Spanish tortilla, meat, vegetable, bread, rice. One of the challenges of the American diet is we have so many options and not a lot of constraint to help us to make decisions. This can lead to decision-overwhelm and choice-fatigue, which can negatively impact our ultimate result.
Sweets are for Children. Sugar is enjoyed by adults on occasion, and in small portions such as jam on toast or a piece of good chocolate a few times each week.
They Don’t Diet. Why would you? It is a rare thing that someone is overweight or obsese in the Mediterranean, so the concept of a diet not necessary. When one does need to drop a few pounds, I was told by a stunningly beautiful woman named Pepa, she just eats a little less bread, or maybe cuts it out all together. That’s it. Simple. Clean. No drama mama.
They Don’t Exercise. Now I'm not saying they don't move. They do, but Spanish women move for pleasure. They walk. They dance. They enjoy movement. They certainly don’t sweat buckets at the gym in an attempt to “make up” for overeating or indulging in something that tastes good.
They Drink, But Not Too Much. The entire culture around alcohol is so different in Southern Europe. Alcohol is not taboo because they don’t have the Puritanical underpinnings in their culture. Children may be given a very small glass of watered down wine from a young age, and drinking is almost always modeled responsibly– meaning it is never taken without food, is sipped slowly (never to get drunk) in small glasses, and is no big deal if someone passes. For example, no one bats an eye if a group goes out to eat and some order a copa de vino while others order juice. It is totally common to have a small glass of wine at a leisurely midday meal, but never the whole bottle. It is not revered or demonized. It is just a part of the cuisine. Emphasis on “a part of”-- it’s not the focal point.
They Prioritize La Dolce Vita. Mediterranean women live whole, beautiful lives. They prioritize high quality food, family, friends, relaxation, creativity, the arts, intellectualism, politics, and travel-- they have time for all of this because they aren’t spending inordinate amounts of time obsessing about food.
We have a lot to learn from these gastronomic food traditions all over the world, from Costa Rica to Kenya, to Taiwan. But the most important of them are how people think about food and what that means about how they feel, the actions they take, and the results they get.
I challenge you to pick one thing from the list of 10 to start to implement today. Pick one that feels good to you and go for it.
Have fun, ditch the drama. Live la dolce vita.
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