Diets around the world

[Olivia]

I was chatting to some of my Philippino friends the other day about food difference between our cultures and I was surprised to hear that traditionally they eat white rice for breakfast along with meat and/or eggs. This is widely eaten in all households, by all ages. When questioned further they did say they have a huge problem with high blood pressure and diabetes in their culture.

It got me thinking what British people Would class as our traditional daily breakfast, and I bet this would vary considerably between the four nations.

[Alice]

Well I can give you an answer there, we eat a ‘full English’ fried breakfast full of fat and high in cholesterol!

[Bumblebee]

Porridge or cereal is popular and they can be healthy depending on what you put with it or if the cereal is full of sugar!

[Nancy]

Well I can give you an answer there, we eat a ‘full English’ fried breakfast full of fat and high in cholesterol!

Do we? I don’t know anyone that eats that everyday as their diet! Surely, it’s cereal or toast?

[Sarah]

My friend is from Sierra Leone and in the countryside they make enough food for their evening meal to eat for breakfast the following day, this is traditionally brown rice based. For fluid they drink water.

In the cities they tend to eat oat porridge or rice porridge made with sugar and lemon. Diabetes is a big problem for people that live in the cities that have more of a Western diet.

In the countryside they eat what they grow only, and some people will not eat the Western food when travelling to the cities out of fear for developing the more Western illness conditions.

[Ella]

My friend is from Sierra Leone and in the countryside they make enough food for their evening meal to eat for breakfast the following day, this is traditionally brown rice based. For fluid they drink water.

In the cities they tend to eat oat porridge or rice porridge made with sugar and lemon. Diabetes is a big problem for people that live in the cities that have more of a Western diet.

In the countryside they eat what they grow only, and some people will not eat the Western food when travelling to the cities out of fear for developing the more Western illness conditions.

It’s interesting to hear about how Western food is impacting on the health of people in other countries. It seems the impact is for more profound in these countries because they are not being slowly introduced to such foods. In the West, the introduction really started in the 1950’s so our bodies have had some time to adjust to the food. But Asian countries have been bombarded with the full whack of chemicals etc in a way that their bodies are responding massively.

[Daisy]

The famous ‘China Study’ looked at the impact that different diets from different regions had on the local populations, I found it very interesting. Some areas had high incidences of certain cancers, for example - breast cancer, while others had no incidences of it at all. This was purely put down to the diet they consumed.

[Olivia]

The famous ‘China Study’ looked at the impact that different diets from different regions had on the local populations, I found it very interesting. Some areas had high incidences of certain cancers, for example - breast cancer, while others had no incidences of it at all. This was purely put down to the diet they consumed.

This I was basically what my friend was saying. That people in the rural communities did not want to eat the food that was available in the city out of fear of getting their diseases.