Paella in your usual diet is a good agglutinator of what we commonly call the Mediterranean Diet, but we must clarify these concepts due to its preparation and content.
In the previous entry on the history of Paella, I had for the moment ignored the dietary part, since we were introducing the reader as a tribute to one of our traditional gastronomy dishes, because they are dishes, the traditional ones, the ones that you have to taste in moderation, but openly.
It is often said that it is a “round” dish, because it “carries everything.” It does not carry everything, but it does carry the three main groups of nutrients such as:
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins
- Fats
Ingredients like so many others less known or famous, in addition to some fiber and micronutrients (minerals and vitamins). I am not a friend of bombast. Fats, by and by.
Let’s not forget that to make it, a sauce is made where olive oil abounds. The oil is pure fat, in addition to being a fairly salty dish, determining points that mean that you should not try to praise anything healthy.
It is true that saturated fat does not carry, or in very little proportion, so that we will leave its consumption at a sporadic frequency. It is very common for it to be a Sunday dish in the Levantine area.
The caloric intake of paella
I keep the following: oil. Oh, how much is said about oil today! When it has been silent for so long …
What about olive oil?,… 100 grams have between 900 and 1000 Kcal. Healthy, yes, the list of scientifically proven benefits is very long, but let’s not forget that the Diet of a Spaniard almost always exceeds the fat recommendations (which are 35% of the total caloric intake of the intake). If you go over oil, it’s easy to go over fat.
Commercial chocolate has half the calories, to make a comparison that usually impresses whoever you tell it. And a paella without a generous amount of oil, it is not the same.
Therefore, when we talk about paella or paellas of this or that thing, this is the first point to take into account, that a large amount of oil is absorbed in the grain and distributed over its surface and also in the rest of the food during cooking.
That is why it is heavy to digest and very caloric. And that is why it should be consumed within a balanced, moderate and varied diet, from grapes to pears, taking into account that if it is the case of Levante where it is usually consumed on the 7th day of the week, this is our “weekly extra ”, In an effort not to overload the diet.
Celebration Sunday, which is why the plate of the most caloric snacks is usually wrapped, it is washed down with some wine or beer and of course, it is rounded off with a dessert, usually sweet.
Educating Taste from childhood
The menu is complete, yes, but… how many patients say in the Valencian area, “I spent Sunday and did not have dinner”, but the damage has already been done.
Going over is not the solution, focusing on what we eat is, which in the first place means moderation as the first step. And a relevant fact is that also in the region of origin it is typical that in school canteens Thursday is the day of paella, fideuá or similar.
With this we have two identical dishes in the same week. And that reduces variety, another key concept in dietetics, which means that the probability of eating the same thing, on Thursday and Sunday, for many weeks of the year, is very high. And the palate (in the end, the brain) is making those flavors, retains them as its own and does not understand variety.
Taste is learned little by little, it is a sense, not a whim of man. And as such, you have to take care of it and make it evolve. Here, custom and evolution of taste collide, this is what I meant when I spoke of having an open palate.
Taste is a continuous process, which if it is stimulated in the correct way from childhood, will be able to overcome the neophobia, which most children display (“I don’t like this”) and it will be easier to eat from everything.
The result will be that these children, as adults, will be free and will not live under the dictatorship of fat and sugar so present on the table, as well as in thousands and thousands of commercial products.
Again … Long live the Paella!