This summer I embarked on the most incredible journey and studied abroad in Italy. Home base was Pisciotta, Italy.
The best way to describe Pisciotta is that it is a hidden gem. It is situated on the side of a mountain with the most breath taking views from just about everywhere. The view from our apartment terrace was so stunning that it looked more like a painting then real life. We saw Italy, taking day trips to Salerno, Pompeii, Peastum and even spent a couple days in Rome and Florence. As amazing it was to be on each of these trips all I wanted was to go back home to Pisciotta.
Everyone knows that as similar as America is to Europe it is as different ten fold. There are major cultural differences, my favorite was the friendliness of everyone in the town. Everytime you walk past someone you greet each other with a simple Ciao! or good morning. One of my favorite cultural differences was the "siesta" or riposo in Italian. Between 1pm and 5pm the whole town shut down and that meant nap or beach time. The shop owners treat you differently, for instance, if you are at the local produce shop they might throw in some fresh basil with your purchase or let you take a piece of fruit if it was all you intended on buying. The quality of life was incredible.
But it is also the local produce shop that sparked this blog and I think it is a very important thing to discuss.
I have mentioned in blogs previously that I live with an incredible amount of food allergies from fruits and vegetables to nuts and soy and a gluten intolerance. I can't eat anything. Now although at home I maintain a gluten free lifestyle, I couldn't pass on pizza, pasta and pastries from Italy so I decided I would eat whatever I wanted and deal with the aftermath.
But I was shocked when after eating a whole plate of gnocchi the first night, that I didn't get sick. I didn't get sick from anything containing gluten so I enjoyed everything without restriction and felt great.
One of the fruits that I'm allergic too but not severely is apple, so here and there if I am really craving one I'll suck up the fact that my lips are going to swell and my mouth will itch. So I had a fresh apple from the little produce shop across from my apartment building and NOTHING happened. My lips stayed at normal size and not even the slightest itch in my mouth or throat. So I tried more fruit, I ate kiwis and peaches and plums for the first time in years and it was amazing.
At first I didn't look at it as such a big deal, but when you are all of a sudden not allergic to anything you have been to for years you start to think about it. I couldn't figure out what could possibly make that happen. I couldn't be allergic to American fruit and not Italian fruit, but turns out you can and that is very concerning.
So here is the big difference between Europe and America that I think needs to get a lot of attention. Their food is regulated very differently then ours. They don't allow all of the chemicals into their food supply that we do in our foods.
Fresh fruit is fresh fruit and is not chemically altered and full of GMOs or genetically modified foods. Our food should not be so full of harsh chemicals that we can't eat it. And I shouldn't have had to go so much of my life without eating fruits because there are too many preservatives in them that I can't eat them.
Americans need to pay close attention to what is being allowed in everything we consume. And eating organic is a big way to help to limit the intake of preservatives and GMOs that you and your family are consuming.
This link has a quick chart to glance at a snippet of how differently our food is being taken care of:
http://www.ecowatch.com/13-ways-the-eu-beats-the-u-s-on-food-safety-1881850175.html
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