Not the Healthiest Option

Blog Post #4

April 20, 2015

By: Justin Ehren

As I have discussed in my previous blog posts, the German diet consists of heavy amounts of bratwursts, sauerkraut, sausages, and potatoes.  It is full of starch but definitely not for the vegetarians in the world because they have a variety or meats that are often served with almost every meal.  Bread, pastries and cakes are also often popular in the German culture too, cooked with butter and lard as their cooking fats.  Which I’m sure you can figure out, this part of the diet is certainly not healthy in any way.  The typical German diet is quite high in fats, refined sugars, and carbohydrates, and it often lacks vegetables, fruits, and dietary fibers.  These high dietary fibers raise your blood cholesterol levels and place you at greater risk for heart problems and strokes. The high consumption of beer and alcohol also contributes to there unhealthy eating habits. However, there are some benefits to the German style of eating though.  The ample amounts of meat provide plenty of protein to maintain, heal, and grow the muscles of your body.  Sauerkraut is also a popular choice among the German people and this provides a vegetable source during the cold winter months.  Another thing is that because of their fermented foods, it helps with the digestion.  In Eastern Germany, it is more underdeveloped and it has been found that the typical diet is more natural and healthy than it is in the industrialized West.  The German diet is not healthy in many ways; in fact, they have the highest number of overweight people in Europe and are considered the 43^rd most unhealthy country in the world.  There have been some small attempts to push for healthier eating such as German lawmakers implementing healthy check out lines at grocery stores.  You can read more here: http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2015/01/16/german-lawmakers-push-measures-for-healthy-eating/

In the novel they used the food quite often like when the cake poisoned everyone who ate it, and Mama Elena tastes Tita's food and refuses to eat it saying she's trying to poison her.  She describes the food Tita gives her as smelling bitter even though no one else smells it the same way.

"Diet & Nutrition in Germany." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/359745-diet-nutrition-in-germany/>.