To Eat or Not to Eat

When I came to Spain, I wanted to throw myself into the Spanish experience, which, of course, means the food. Bocadillos, tortillas, paella, cerveza, vino: I wanted it all. And it’s been great. But recently, I’ve been feeling a little – and I’m not sure what the correct word is really – funky. I’m not quite sick, but I’ve feeling out of sorts, uncomfortable. I was thinking about why I was feeling this way, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s partly, and really mostly, because of the way I’m eating. The food in Spain is not conducive to a gout-friendly diet.

First, there’s the alcohol. In the U.S., I barely drink, and if I do, it’s always wine, and maybe just a glass. The Spanish drink all the time, by comparison, and wine, in particular, is the assumed drink of choice. Today, for example, at lunch, my classmate Derrick and I shared an entire bottle of red wine that came with our menú del día. It’s cheaper than water. And I find myself drinking glasses of beer in the afternoons with regularity.

Second, there’s the pork. The Spanish loooovvveee pork. The eat it constantly, and in many forms. It’s in sausages, of course, but it’s the mainstay of bocadillos, sandwiches made on baguettes, that are to the Spanish what hamburgers are to Americans. Jamon, ham, in many, many forms is also pervasive.

Third, there are the mariscos, shellfish. They love every fish that comes in shells, particularly shrimp, and fish that used to have shells, but now don’t, like octopus and squid. They eat fish, obviously, but less than you’d think compared with shellfish.

Fourth, there’s the sugar. They are sugar addicts. There are patisseries everywhere, and they obviously must do enough business to stay open. And postres, desserts, are eaten constantly, unlike in the U.S. where often people decide not to eat them. (The U.S. obviously has it’s own sugar problem, but for some reason it’s much easier for me to avoid it there).

Fifth, there’s the bleached, highly processed flour that’s in their bread. They have good bread here, but it’s not the bread that most people eat, or that is served at tables. Most of the bread that comes with food at restaurants is white baguette style bread that can be pretty tasteless.

All of these things are some of the worst things that gout-sufferers can eat. And at first, I don’t think that it really affected me, but after 4.5 months, I think I’m starting to feel the effects, and so I have to do something about it. The other day I went to lunch with my friend Delia, and she said that when she came here from Honduras, after the first month, she was feeling like crap, and she realized it was the food.

Today in class, we were talking about medical vocabulary, so we ended up, obviously, talking about health in Spain. One of the students is a nursing student from Sweden, who did a two week observation in Tarragona, and she told us that Spain has a really bad diabetes problem, much worse than most of Europe, and that it’s because of all the sugar they eat and all the alcohol and meat. It’s funny because when I was in California I was under the impression that Spain was a healthier place than the U.S., and that they didn’t have the same obesity problem as we did. And at first, I think I selectively saw what I wanted to see here. But now that I’m more used to things, I realize that Spain has plenty of fat people. They never get to the spectacularly fatness of Americans, but there are definitely people here who need to lose weight. And yet, they continue to smoke excessively and eat badly.

So, I need to change the way I eat here. I’ve already cut sugar out, which is really difficult here, but I’m going to try to recreate my own American eating habits as much as I can here. And this makes me wonder about the next year. As I travel to Latin American countries, will I have the same problems? As I travel I really want to have “authentic” experiences, which means partly, of course, eating authentically. But it’s not really worth risking my health, or heaven-forbid, having a gout attack.