This may be my preachiest post yet, but it's at least an interesting issue...and we often face interesting issues as we bee-bop around the globe. So, I thought to myself, someone just may enjoy reading this.

Burgers and French fries vs. Quinoa. The issue of the 'poor' Bolivian diet.

Burgers and French fries aren't just a problem food for Americans. The more I get to hop from place to place around this globe, the more I see this 'American' meal settling itself in to the regular diet of the global underclasses. The issue seems to be, that all over the world, what is seemingly cheapest to produce en masse, and therefore eaten by poor city-dwellers, is also consistent with a terrible diet in a nutritional sense.

I'll share my experience riding along a bumpy, dirty road in Bolivia travelling from the capital, La Paz, to Oruru where I would find a train to continue my journey south. For background, this bus trip to Oruru was the beginning of my 35+ hour trek back to Buenos Aires after spending two weeks in Bolivia. I got on the bus on a Sunday morning; my two friends had departed La Paz about 24 hours prior and I had spent my entire Saturday wandering the streets of the Bolivian capital by myself. The city gets a bit spookier when you no longer have jovial banter-makers walking along the streets beside you. Thus, I was not at my most comfortable that Sunday morning when I chose an aisle seat on a bus south. I sat beside a well-off looking older Bolivian lady, choosing this seat because Bolivian women of her sort are usually kind and curious. Feeling lonely, this seemed like a good match for the 3-hour bus ride.

This woman's kindness was as hoped for, and not too long into the trip she was offering me candies and sharing her tangerines. I was much obliged due to the fact my vegetarian stomach had experienced a non-vegetarian meal two nights previous and I was feeling less than 100%. The gracious fruit-offering led to shared giggles over this and that, horror that they were blasting the movie "300" over the bus' audio/visual systems, and questions as to what the man in the back of the bus was preaching to those seated behind us. My Spanish was hardly passable at that point, but I could understand a lot of what she tried to tell me. The man in the back of the bus was attempting to teach the bus riders about the benefits of natural foodstuffs in their diets and the diets of their children. In particular, the man was stressing the grain quinoa. The woman seated to my right felt very strongly about this topic.

She asked me, in Spanish, "There really are a lot of fat people in America, aren't there? This is what I see on the television programs – you have a lot of big people in your country don't you?"

This happens to be a subject which I have become quite comfortable with in my travels. Ever since I left home after my junior year of high school, for a summer conducted in French, I've heard similar queries: "Everyone in America is fat, right?"

My typical explanation goes something like this:
No, not everyone in the United States is fat. We have a lot of people who actually care a lot (sometimes too much) about their weight or health and thus have figures that reflect their healthy lifestyles. However. Yes, there is a disproportional amount of overweight folk in the United States. And mainly my answer to: "why?" is that it is just easier to eat/purchase food that is not good for the body. Not only easier, it is overwhelmingly cheaper in a lot of cases to purchase ready-to-eat food that is packed with chemicals, preservatives, and less than fresh ingredients that are in no way conducive to a slim physique.

On this particular instance, the woman sighed and nodded knowingly, this cheaper/easier foodstuffs problem was something she was sadly watching in Bolivia as well. In the Bolivian cities that I traveled to or through (Villazón, Uyuni, Potosi, Sucre, La Paz, and Oruro), the evil phenomenon of the cheap burger and fries is hard to miss. But in Bolivia of all countries, the shame of the situation is intensified due to the fact that there is a very good and inexpensive alternative food staple that grows in abundance. The Andean people of South American (mainly native Peruvians and Bolivians) have used this grain for at least 5,000 years and considered it a sacred crop. The Incas called it "chisaya mama" or "mother of all grains."

Quinoa. The very same grain the man on the back of the bus was trying to get people to consider eating more regularly.

My Bolivian friend felt strongly about quinoa, and that the overwhelming amount of poor Bolivians eating fried food was atrocious considering the grain they could be eating in its place. Quinoa is known by the health conscious to be a truly amazing food, a 'superfood.' Interestingly, the definition of the word food goes something like this: "any nutritious substance that people eat or drink in order to maintain life and growth." Somehow hamburgers and fried chicken do not seem to fall into this nutritious category of things we place in our bellies. On the other hand, containing a balanced set of amino acids plus being very high (12%-18%) in protein content, quinoa is a complete foodstuff. Furthermore the grain is a good source of dietary fiber and is easily digestible. A final plus:, it is not difficult to prepare! Really all that is needed is twice the amount of water to quinoa, boil for less than 15 minutes, and you're set to eat. Even easier than cutting up potatoes and placing them in sizzling oil.

You could take this all as good news for the plight of the burger-fed underclasses. There is a cheap and nutritional alternative to fried food. Somehow this knowledge needs to be transferred, all over the world (United States included) to the people who need it. Because, as of now, I can still hear the sizzle.