PASSPORTSHEALTH.NET – Is the Slow Food movement a new food fad?

Marie Watiez – Slow Food rather offers a return to traditional values ​​by encouraging the quality of food, its diversity and conviviality. A return to simplicity and common sense, in balance with the environment in which we live. You know, contrary to what public health messages may suggest, eating is not complicated! It can be as easy as enjoying vegetables with a drizzle of olive oil.

Simplicity is acquired by being aware of what you eat. It takes time, hence the “slow”. Take the time to learn about food, cook and feel the pleasure of taste. Slow Food may have seemed elitist in its early days because it was intellectuals who founded the movement. Some local Slow Food units have turned more to artisanal products and haute cuisine. But the basic values ​​of the movement go in the direction of simplicity.

PASSPORTSHEALTH.NET – Can Slow Food inspire people to eat healthy?

Marie Watiez – In a certain sense, yes, but the expression “to eat healthy” seems to me very reductive. Eating is not limited to the nutritional and functional aspect of foods (omega-3s, trans fats, cancer-fighting foods, etc.).

It is an act closely linked to our deep identity, to our psyche, to our family, cultural, and even earthly roots! We tend to forget this deep bond that unites us to food.

Eating well also means eating with family or friends, paying attention to taste and listening to your satiety signals. Slow Food makes the pleasure of eating a priority. He invites people to ask questions, to become aware of what connects them to food. All this is not opposed to health, on the contrary.

PASSPORTSHEALTH.NET – Can Slow Food help people create a more harmonious relationship with food?

Marie Watiez— I believe so, even if it is not part of the missions of the Slow Food movement. What seems important to me is to get out of the constraints, restrictions and anxiety about food. To no longer see food only as a way to fill your body or obtain energy. We thus establish a consciousness centered on pleasure.

There are no more good and bad foods. The idea that eating carrots is good for you, but potato chips are bad, just doesn’t hold up. What matters is the quality of the food.

Many people have a guilty relationship with food. The famous sin of gluttony is still well anchored in mentalities. When we make a “gap”, we always try to justify it. However, eating should be a place of pleasure and conviviality.

In this, I believe that Slow Food helps to create a healthier relationship with food.

PASSEPORTSANTÉ.NET – Do we not run the risk of going overboard if we rely first and foremost on our pleasure?

Marie Watiez – Good things, if we appreciate them, it is no longer necessary to eat them in enormous quantities. Cheese, yes, it is fatty; but if you eat it, you don’t have to eat four pieces. The tasting brings great sensory satisfaction, comfort and well-being. The body is then sated for a few hours. Let’s stop believing that pleasure is harmful!

Take fast food. The fatty and sweet foods that we are offered have a uniform taste. We no longer even recognize the original flavor of the ingredients they contain. The problem is that this junk food generates a kind of dissatisfaction that we then try to fill by the quantity. We always want more. Making fast food a habit leads to the loss of the pleasure of eating foods in their natural state. While, well cooked, these have more flavor. But it’s hard to transform our relationship with these foods that we both love and hate.

For many people, it’s okay to eat junk food. It has become a habit of life. I would even say that these foods are safe because they always taste the same, no matter where they are sold. This is what prompts people to eat at fast food chains in a foreign country, for example.

Slow Food encourages food awareness and time to taste. It is very soothing, brings deep well-being and gives meaning to the act of eating.

PASSPORTSHEALTH.NET – More and more information is circulating on nutrition. Also, we better understand the link between health and diet. However, a good part of the population eats badly or too much. How to explain this paradox?

Marie Watiez – I believe that the individual, especially in North America, is under social pressure to eat properly. So there is a lot of stress in our connection to food. The majority of Americans are tormented eaters who want more control over their appetite and weight. People believe that eating well means first and foremost following food guidelines. They closely monitor the nutritional value of products.

In Europe, the attachment to traditions is stronger. Pleasure and conviviality take up more space. People rely more on traditions when making their food choices. I believe these benchmarks help maintain a healthier connection with food.

Knowledge of nutrition helps us make choices that are tailored to our needs. But what I’m saying is that this speech is scary if you give it too much space. Especially since standards change and sometimes end up contradicting each other. Just think of the recommendations on butter and eggs. In a way, Slow Food helps people to become, at the grassroots level, independent eaters who rely on their common sense. Then we add the knowledge that helps us make choices tailored to our needs.

PASSPORTSHEALTH.NET – Slow Food relies heavily on taste education to bring pleasure back into eating. What does it consist of?

Marie Watiez – Slow Food does offer tasting activities. This allows people to introduce variety into their diet. They discover quality local or foreign products, manufactured according to the values ​​of Slow Food, that is to say on a small scale and in an environmentally friendly way.

I believe that taste education should be introduced in young children. As soon as we expand their diet, we can awaken the senses by varying the color, shape and texture of the food. When you tell a child “carrots are good for you,” it means absolutely nothing to them. What does health represent? I think we can hold their attention by making them understand that the food is good, that it grows in the earth, that sometimes it’s too strong or it stings on the tongue, etc. The child is very much in touch with the perceptions of his body and with nature too. Tasting brings a lot of pleasure. It is even an act of bravery!

It is very difficult to educate about taste with foods prepared in industry about which, in reality, little is known and which all taste roughly the same.

PASSEPORTSANTÉ.NET – Is adopting the Slow Food philosophy of life realistic in the current context of life solid?

Marie Watiez – It may be utopian, because it is complicated to combine work, family and life as a couple! We talk about the lack of time and the lack of money. I nevertheless believe that it is a question of values. Eating has become an activity like any other. We eat to quickly move on to something else.

Slow Food brings back the idea of ​​taking the time to live, to put the act of eating back at the center of social and family life. If we consider that the time devoted to food is an activity of education, communication and sharing, it is no longer time wasted. If we allocate more resources to its food, there will indeed be less money left for gasoline or new high-tech TV. Quebecers spend an average of 10% of their budget on their grocery basket. This is little.

For me, food is one of the small pleasures of our day-to-day existence, and one of the great pleasures of life, especially since it is simple and everyday. It is the first from birth and often the last at the end of life.

It’s up to everyone to find their way to apply their food awareness and find pleasure in it.

Marie-Michèle Mantha – PasseportSanté.net

The 3 October 2005

Notes

1. Slow Food France, www.slowfood.fr and Slow Food Québec, www.slowfoodquebec.com websites

2. ÉquiLibre, Action Group on Weight. www.equilibre.ca