Lifestyles have changed and so have Italians, who never would have imagined abandoning the Mediterranean diet
Beautiful, full of life and youth. Password: perfect shape. Keeping fit has become an obsession, to the point of triggering the sort of stress that was supposed to be tackled in the first place.
Being overweight is bad for one’s health, but it has become especially negative for our image as it has turned into the most important product of those producing it. Worshipping the body while fretting about going beyond the limits of weights and measures — risking banishment from social, employment and even family circles — simply induces sacrifices that go beyond our own resistance to effort, pain, hunger and desire.
Bettering ourselves and our relations with others is an imperative, forcing us into becoming obsessed with our exterior aspect. Keeping one’s body under control through food, sports, massages, beauty creams, saunas, exercise bikes, gyms, jogging: we have become prisoners of the conviction that aesthetics are an absolute value. Being liked by others and liking oneself do not coincide with satisfying one’s own needs, but rather with meeting social demands. Not gaining the approval of others has become a source of unhappiness.
Lifestyles have changed and so have Italians, who never would have imagined abandoning their healthy and tasty Mediterranean diet, turning their backs against what every country in the world envies us: pasta, fresh tomatoes, basil, pizza topped with mozzarella, healthy sweets without the use of artificial food colorings — only in exchange for mortifying meals that are not only lacking in quantity, but also in flavor. Today there are most certainly other demands that are in contrast with overabundances of the past, demonstrating that a shift towards more delicate tastes is the result of a long process that has evolved over the course of centuries.
Globalization has contributed towards spreading different flavors and traditions; choosing to change our eating habits is just a piece of the puzzle in that multi-faceted mosaic depicting all the culinary trends and traditions from every period in history.
As Virginia Woolf wrote: “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”. This philosophy of life seems to have been tailored to our traditions, although today this seems to have been shattered by an exaggerated concept of external beauty — to the detriment of wisdom.
Translation by Vittoria Anna Farallo
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