WHEN one goes to a vacation in Italy for two months, devouring of Italian food becomes a passion in the end. For Spain is a land of nutritious and delicious food. And that my friend is not an understatement. For Italian food is one of the most nutritious in the world. The world famous Italian pasta, lasagna and tiramisu have a few things in common – they are rich in carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. All these make for longevity in life. And in deep frying or sautéing or marinating their food, Italians use olive oil. Because olive oil is made of mono-saturated fat, it has the lowest cholesterol level and therefore considered as the healthiest cooking oil in the world.

Do not be misconstrued with the fact that pizza is the most popular Italian food in foreign places – they are not necessarily the ones the Italians consume the most. In fact, Italians consume mostly vegetable and fruit-based foods. They have lots of these agricultural produce in the country. In fact, Italy is the number one exporter of various agricultural products such as rice, tomatoes and wine. That doesn’t count the fact that Italy also exports olive oil on top of what was mentioned earlier. Other Italian exports include oranges and lemons. The Italians likewise export dairy products such as parmesan, mozzarella and gorgonzola.

Now let’s talk about Italian breakfast. A typical Italian breakfast consists of chips and milk. A typical person may not approve such kind of breakfast and may consider it as bereft of energy. But a hearty breakfast is only ideal for people in the olden times that have to toil the farms every day. Thus, they need the energy after lunch. But nowadays, people are usually trooping to the office right after breakfast and sit there all day long, encoding reports in the computer and taking calls. Energy gets stuck in the waist. With this premise, we can only presume that Italian breakfast is the healthiest in the world. And that’s another factor why Italians have one of the highest life expectancies here in the planet. But Italians do take their mid-morning snacks which may be a toast of pizza coupled with orange juice. Lunch is the one which is hearty. A typical Italian lunch consists of pasta with tomato sauce, vegetable salad and baking fish side by side with potatoes in the oven. Now that’s something hearty and healthy at the same time for the fish they bake is plucked out of the Mediterranean as fresh as possible. Another alternative could be pasta with beans. For afternoon snacks, Italians take in yogurt or fresh fruit.

Next, let’s talk about Italian meat. It is no easy task to marinate Italian meat. For Italian meat is marinated in three days at most with red wine. Pancetta, the Italian version of bacon, is likewise stuffed with pepper corn aside from being marinated with red wine. Now that is real Italian food – not the spaghetti with red sauce that you see on so-called Italian restaurants overseas. Forget them. The food they serve is hyped and oversaturated.