The threat of childhood obesity by Eva Stamou

Obesity is rarely mentioned in the Greek news. While the UK makes a big issue of it, and expends a great amount of time, effort and money into thinking up solutions for the problem, in Greek news, we simply get the latest results of an obesity survey, mentioned in passing in the news, and that's about it. Everyone is left to their own devices. Not that this is wrong, since obesity does have a lot to do with the food habits of the home environment, but it does seem wrong that no one is trying to find a solution to it, especially when Greece apparently claims the greatest weight levels for children aged 6-9 in Europe. The article below appeared today in Protagon. I have translated it into English in order to add (even) a (small) Greek voice to the global debate. 

Inter-school sports day for primary school children in Hania:  I took this photo in June 2008

According to the survey results of the World Health Organisation which were released last month, the childhood obesity rate in Greece is among the highest in Europe. Survey data concern the obesity rate and the 'more than normal' body weight for children aged 6-9 years in 16 European countries, including ours. One of the actions taken by the Greek Society of Obesity to address the scourge of childhood obesity is to establish "Obesity Week" (October 21 to 26) to inform and raise public awareness. One week is not enough however.

We can laugh over the developments related to the case of the "new food" program devised by Michelle Obama, and the comments of American students on twitter, but in Greece the situation is just very sad. The absence of welfare interventions in our country is a trait that dates back to long before the economic crisis. Nutrition, dental, and psychiatric care during childhood and adolescence, unfortunately, remains almost inactive, not just because of limited resources but also because of the famous Greek discontinuity of party-appointed authority, which constantly creates obstacles and misunderstanding among public bodies.

Competent bodies should not ignore the relative economic status and dietary choices of the population, which is confirmed by the survey data, showing that childhood obesity is present at an increased incidence in low family incomes - but they should also not underestimate the role of prevention and systematic information to the public in the way that this works in all the other European states. It might also be good of the parents if, apart from seeking support from doctors, nutritionists and psychologists, they think seriously how they themselves can help their children, changing their way of life.

My work in Britain with families of adolescents suffering from eating disorders made me realize how painful and multidimensional this issue is. The first thing that psychology takes into account when facing the problem of childhood obesity is the eating habits of parents. If the child grows up copying the wrong habits of his/her parents - who may or may not be obese, according to their body type - it is necessary to address the problem as a problem of the whole family. Those using certain food items, such as sweets, as "bait" to encourage the child to do or not do something, or as a "painkiller" when the child is sad, help to create not only obese children, but also obese adults, since we can reproduce the wrong perception about food, which we acquired as children for the rest of our lives.

With the guidance of experts, parents are wise to set and follow certain dietary rules, so that they themselves provide the good example, even if they are not overweight. It is important to encourage the child to be involved in sports and exercise, helping them to choose something that suits the body type and temperament of their child. It is equally important not to devalue the child, to avoid comparisons with friends and classmates, so as to not create guilt about the child's extra weight.

The time has come for us to understand that childhood obesity is a threat to the individual and to public health. This disease is directly related to physical and mental disorders, which usually appear in childhood and are maintained into adulthood. An organized scientific approach on the part of the state is now compulsory.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki. 

Obesity: comment is free

There's a lot of discussion going on these days about the food people are 'forced' to eat in highly developed countries. My reading this week started off with a Guardian comment-is-free discussion of how obesity cannot just be controlled through personal responsibility alone (written by an Australian contributor) - in other words, the state and industry needed to make some kind of contribution too. Then I saw the BBC using the phrase 'obesity crisis'. Greek news rarely discusses obesity as a prime news topic (let's face it, we have plenty of other hot topics to discuss right now), although I don't see it as anything close to a crisis in my country. Last but not least, The Guardian also published a story about banning sugar and chocolate at supermarket counters, replacing them with dried and fresh fruit, oatcakes and juices, after customer demand:

Lidl (supermarket) has banned sweets and chocolate bars from the checkout at all 600 of its UK stores after surveying parents about the "pester power" of their children. 

This last story was followed up by a Guardian survey, asking readers if they thought this was a good move. This led me to think about how I could make a contribution to the obesity debate, by writing my own comment-is-free article that The Guardian may be interested in publishing. Writing beyond my own blog is definitely one of my goals, and since I write in English and not Greek, I look towards international websites where I can do this. (Writing in Greek is very very different from writing in Engligh - it is not one of my goals at present.) So I began to write my article on Monday morning before contacting the website about my interest in becoming a contributor. (There are rules and guidelines about how to do this, which I read through first; The Guardian leans to the left.) I spent the whole morning writing; 2pm, I felt I had covered all the topics I wanted to include, and added the relevant links. I then prepared my introductory letter email to the comment-is-free staff (you don't send them the article, just a little about the topic you want to cover), which is always the trickiest part of introducing yourself to someone that doesn't know you:

   I would like to contribute to the current discussion about obesity. I live in Greece, and have been blogging (http://www.organicallycooked.com/) about Greek food and how it relates to Greek identity for nearly seven years. 

   The main point about obesity that I wish to make is that it is often caused by an over-abundance of processed food, especially in the western world which attaches a negative view to home-cooking and and a positive one to branded food products. I would like to draw on my personal experiences, many of which I have recorded in my blog, and to point out the differences in the Greek culinary culture that possibly protect us from rising obesity levels.  

   I hope it will be of interest, as the topics of obesity levels and industrialised food seem to be cropping up on a regular basis in mainstream news.

As soon as I sent it, I got a routine DoNotReply email acknowledging receipt. This was immediately followed by two more bot messages: one from a comment-is-free staff member who said they weren't in the office that day and would respond on their return, and one more from another staff member informing me that they don't work on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (I was writing on a Monday) and to contact another staff member (who was in fact the one that sent the previous email to say they weren't in the office day). Half an hour later, I received another email, this time from a real person:

"Thanks very much for this offer. I'm afraid I don't think it's one for us." 

So that was that, I decided. I then sent a 'thank-you-for-your-prompt-reply' message, as I like to acknowledge receipt of my emails. Since I'd already written my post, I decided to put it up on the blog, after making a few refinements. I didn't do this immediately, as I thought that the topic could 'wait' a little. The next day (Tuesday), what caught my reading attention in The Guardian was an article about the free school meal plans for every child in the UK. It sounded to me like the problem of feeding children was being removed from the parent, and added to the state burden; helping people to cope with the global economic problems is a bit like giving a man a fish to eat (not teaching him how to fish). Providing a decent meal for your child is part of good parenting, so I wondered if this kind of policy would encourage parents not to bother to do this, using the excuse that their kids will have been fed already at school. Parents (for various reasons) are often the main factor in the obesity problems and bad food habits of their children.

I also snatched a glance at another food-related article touted on the home page of The Guardian entitled "How to give up sugar in 11 easy steps", clearly related to the previous day's issue of obesity not being just a personal responsibility, as well as the ongoing excess-sugar debate in processed food. But I was a little dismayed to discover that Zoe Williams was being more tongue-in-cheek than her usual form, and her 'advice', at least after the fifth step, was bordering on the batty (point 6 was simply labelled 'Gary Barlow'). I also snuck a quick look at the 5 most viewed posts in the Life&Style section which gives one an idea of what kind of topics the website publishes (and presumably what people are interested in reading):

1. 1. How to give up sugar in 11 easy steps
2. 2.Female pilots: a slow take-off
3. 3.I'm unable to have penetrative sex with my husband
4. 4.Why snooty waiters are becoming a thing of the past
5. 5.Dieting makes you fatter

It is worth noting that there was another obesity-related article mentioned in the list, as well as another food-related post. I quite liked the 'snooty waiters' story:

"the recession may have been 'one of the best things to happen to the dining scene in the UK' because it forced the restaurant industry to look at the way it serves people". 

I dislike snobby attitudes to food: the next thing that should go in the UK is treating top-to-tail dining as an elite and expensive experience (for goodness sake, you are eating an animal's bum). And less than an hour later, I caught a BBCNews discussion on the continuing mistrust of the public in the labelling of their food, in relation to the biggest food fraud in the last decade, which was revealed by the horsemeat scandal.

So it is not far wrong to believe that food is a really hot topic in the UK, especially when it comes to processed food and obesity. Hence, it is a shame that a Greek point of view could not have been equally considered as part of the obesity debate, given that it was trying to provide some insight into why one of the poorest countries in Europe has better nutrition habits. Never mind, I know who will appreciate it, of course. My readers. So here it is (blued, to make it stand out from the rest of the post).

In Crete (Greece) where I live, obesity is also regarded as a problem, especially prevalent among children and women; this is often explained by high inactivity levels and the ease with which processed (read: junk) food is available. Despite the economic crisis, where one would think that people will be spending less money on ready food and more money on cooking from scratch, this does not hold true.

Children are still eating a heck of a lot of junk food, something I regularly notice when I drop my son off in the morning at his high school. A good many pupils arrive carrying packaged food: large chocolate bars, crisps, salty pastry snacks, store-bought ham-and-cheese filled rolls, packets of chocolate biscuits. Drinks range from locally produced soft drinks (I am surprised to see this - they don't seem to be drinking global brands), juice boxes (the school is located in an orange-producing village!) and styrofoam coffee. I once saw a girl licking an ice-cream rocket cone as she arrived at the school gates. No one was munching on fruit or anything that looked barely home-made.

Why shouldn't they eat all this packaged food? For a start, it's very cheap. Supermarket offers of own-label crisps and croissants are so low-priced that it makes baking cakes, muffins and biscuits from scratch seem expensive: why not just stick a pretty package full of something tasty (as processed food usually is) into your child's lunchbox (or let them buy it for breakfast), instead of going to the trouble of putting real food in its hands, like fruit which may get damaged in its bag? (Yes, I have seen what an uneaten banana looks like - brown goo - when it is forgotten at the bottom of a school bag.)

It should be noted that not all the children that I observe in the morning eating packaged food are fat, or even close to obese. Only a few look overweight, and there are a good many that do not look fat at all. So the first thing to note in the obese children is not necessarily what they are eating: it's better to ask how inactive they are. Greek children spend a lot of time at school sitting at their desks and they have only two-three school periods dedicated to physical education; after-hours sports clubs abound but may be too costly (this includes time and petrol expenses for children who live far way from a main centre and there is a lack of bus services). It's not just the hi-carb, hi-fat, hi-sugar food that's making them fat.

Greek food culture is still heavily based around a home-cooked meal, and mama's kouzina: there is still a great likelihood that there will be a freshly cooked meal, either on the stovetop, in the oven or the fridge, waiting for everyone to come back home to after school or work. Even among working Greek women who aren't at home to cook the main meal, which is often eaten some time after the middle of the day until the early afternoon, they will have prepared the meal from the night before, or someone else will be doing the cooking (eg a grandmother, an older child, or even the father/grandfather, as Greek men are now more involved in these once-female domains). Even if Greek children eat processed food, they are also just as likely to be eating a home-cooked meal made from scratch on a daily basis. It is also a point of discussion among women at work: "What have you prepared for lunch?" my colleagues ask each other. The answers are, believe it or not, very similar: fasolakia yiahni (string beans in tomato sauce), bifteki (baked meat patties) and potatoes, fakies (lentil soup), among a range of Greek meals considered standard fare in daily Greek cuisine, which can be prepared easily, and overnight if the home cook is not available to cook it during the day. (As I write, there is a pot of rice-stuffed mallow leaves - a kind of dolma - waiting on the stovetop, prepared from the previous evening, for when my family comes home in the mid-afternoon).

The preponderance of home-cooked meals in Greece is attested even among the poorest sectors of society: Greek soup kitchens and food banks supply people with a cooked meal, or 'primary' ingredients with which to cook a meal at home. They are rarely supplied with ready-to-eat or heat'n'eat products. This can even be seen at the food collection points of Greek schools and supermarkets: things like tinned soup, pasta sauces, rice pudding and sponge pudding are not part of our culinary culture. No wonder the 'Greek' label is being tacked onto processed food products (whether produced in or outside Greece) and doing so well: Greek food is regarded as healthy and pure. The main meal of the day in Greece is less likely to be a heat 'n' eat type - such products are still more expensive than cooking the same meal from scratch. A meal can be as basic as roast/stewed/boiled vegetables, and/or dry/frozen beans, often accompanied by cheese (Greeks most likely still eat more cheese per capita than any other European).

Even the nation's beloved fast food meal, the souvlaki (also known as yiro), can hardly be called a highly processed meal. Each layer is completely transparent and anyone who has bought souvlaki in Greece from a souvlatzidiko will remember its assembly: First, the kitchen hand slices some cooked meat off the upright grill. Then he picks up a square piece of paper and places on it a flat disc-shaped bread product (the most processed part of a souvlaki). He then spreads yoghurt on it, some onion slices, the meat pieces, tomato slices, some freshly cut, freshly fried potatoes and sprinkles a bit of paprika on top, before sealing the paper on both ends. Hardly a processed meal - and even that is more expensive in a crisis-ridden economy than cooking a meal from scratch.

The obesity issue is making a regular appearance in mainstream international news websites, and it should worry all of us, not matter how healthy we think our food is, even if we do read all the food-packaging labels, despite how sure we are of what goes into our food because we put it in there ourselves. But what should really worry us most of all concerning our daily diet is our food habits. If our daily food routine involves eating a lot of processed food whose contents are not immediately discernible on sight, we should really be asking ourselves what is in that food. And much more importantly: if we are responsible for the food that children eat, whether they are our children or not, we really need to be sure that they are eating appropriate amounts of food for their activity levels.

Falling into the habit of eating too much processed food is just too easy to do in highly developed countries, which treat cooking as an art form rather than a daily chore; where cheap tasty food is presented in pretty packaging; where time spent on cooking from scratch is seen as old-fashioned; where branded food is heavily advertised; where sedentary work is the rule of thumb; where drinking juice is cheaper than eating fruit; where drinking out of a logo-printed bottle/cup is more common than drinking tap water; where 'eating out' includes breakfast; where Michael Pollan's ideas about eating like your grandmother or eating food which contains up to five ingredients are regarded as deluded; where food is regarded as a money-spinning industry; where standardised tastes are viewed as superior to seasonal differences (and seasonal differences don't exist anyway); where people have been deliberately brainwashed to have complete ignorance of their food chain - you really cannot control what you put in your mouth under such circumstances unless you make an incredibly large effort and possibly spend quite a bit of time and money to eat nutritious healthy 'real' food that does not contain hidden additives.

Such evidence possibly lends some weight to the argument which claims that obesity cannot be controlled through personal responsibility alone, but I highly doubt that the profit-driven food industry which works according to the rules of the modern market-driven world is going to work towards making processed food healthier quickly enough to save my children from their inescapable fate, which is that they will most likely cook less than their mother and eat more processed food in their older age than their parents ever ate. Cultural culinary habits play a major role in what and how we eat, even in the highly developed world, whose citizens enjoy the greatest range of international cuisine, and the greatest freedom from time spent in the kitchen. Sometimes, you just have to say no, whether it's to yourself or to your children. It's the only way to control salt and sugar intake. Sometimes, having the economic power to buy whatever you want to eat in artificial form is actually working towards making you ill, requiring you to find equally artificial ways to expend some of your excess energy. (approximately 1500 words - 12 links from my blog, 2 links from elsewhere)

In my opinion, it really is a shame that a Greek point of view on the topic of obesity cannot be heard more widely. Greek food is popular throughout the western world and Greeks are traditionally a nation of home cooks; asking them to teach economics to the outside world might be regarded as laughable, but this surely cannot apply to their cooking habits.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

English examinations (Εξετάσεις Αγγλικών)

I spent last weekend examining Cretan students' spoken English. The food-related picture cards below were used in past EFL/ESL examinations (this examination format is no longer used in Greece). Bear in mind that examination candidates in Crete (and most of Greece, I'd say) that take EFL exams are predominantly school-age, with a small percentage of tertiary students.

While still in primary school, and in the years leading up to the final high school class, Greek children sit examinations to measure their English language skills. Some of these examinations are internal (ie the examinations are written by Greeks and the examination session is organised by a Greek body), but most are external, held by international examinations syndicates like Michigan University, Cambridge University and Pearson's (which recently replaced Edexcel in Greece). Twice a year, I travel to another part of Crete to conduct English language oral examinations for an external English examination company. I call it a company because a lot of money is spent by parents for their chidlren to sit these exams, and few parents do not send their children at some point to do these exams. This year, enrolments for these examinations were down by a staggering 20-25%, all due to the crisis of course: not only are fewer children attending the preparatory lessons (at the frontistirio) before they sit these exams, but they are not sitting the examinations either because they are very expensive - each exam costs the parents on average €150. Pass marks (ie scores greater than 60%) are not always guaranteed, but some examinations are notoriously 'easier' than others, hence they are more popular, keeping both parties happy: the parents will be pleased they got something for their money (although such certificates are quite meaningless in practice), while the examination company is keeping their customers happy.

Intermediate level students, under the general theme of travelling:

Cretan students can relate to this kind of photo because there are a few Asian restaurants in tourist areas on the island. What I found was that they couldn't relate it to the idea of young people travelling for experiences; they thought this would make an interesting meal out for a one-off experience in their own town.

Examinations take place over the weekend. The body that organises them always provides food and overnight accommodation to the visiting teachers. For a weekend's worth of work away from home, we are paid very well, with all due taxes deducted, and without delay. It used to surprise me to hear the complaints of some of my colleagues about their perks we were provided during this period: for example, when the inner-city luxury hotel where the examinations used to be conducted in was changed to the dingy suburban school premises of an out-of-town state school, when the a-la-carte menu we were served lunch from was replaced by a buffet from a catering company, when the coffees were limited to a certain number per day instead of the freely available room service by phone call. The most moaning and groaning was heard when the hotel was changed: for some of those teachers, it seemed that the move from a luxury hotel with silver-service breakfast taken by the pool, to a cheaper hotel with smaller rooms and only a basic continental breakfast, was a very difficult one.

The poshest place I've ever stayed at is Galaxy Hotel in Iraklio where EFL exams used to be held.

  
The high-quality accommodation standards that the English teachers had gotten used to in the past were due to the fact that the profession had a lot of money entering it. As I mentioned, we were paid very well for a weekend's work: I recall making €420 (net) at one time, which used to be half the average monthly salary of a Greek private-sector worker. For this, I sat at a desk for 10-12 hours each day for two days, getting up only to open and close the door to let the next student in and to have lunch. Each day, 70-80 students would be interviewed by each pair of interviewers: one would examine, while the other would assess (this year with fewer enrolments, we interviewed about 60 students per day).

Intermediate level students, under the general theme of travelling:

more of the same as above. Cretan children do not have such a well-developed concept of independent travelling as a young person.

Lowering living standards is a hard concept for people to grasp when they were used to a very materialistic throw-away lifestyle, even when it was provided to them for free. But I am happy to say that I don't hear these complaints any more. The frequent complainers have recently been dealt with quite swiftly. For the last two years, I've noticed that this side of the profession has been filtered out with a fine-tooth comb: these people were the first to go as the crisis hit the sector. It's sad to say this, but the truth is that this particular group of teachers wasn't always the most professional. Some would treat the working weekend as a holiday. Stories abounded of the empty mini-bars in the hotel room and the room service orders. A few of them would even invite their friends along for the weekend, so that they could go out in the evenings, despite an early-morning start the next day (we have to be up by 7am to wash, dress and have breakfast before we start work at 8.30am). Some of them would not even bother to show up to the exams, cancelling at the last moment. Who turns down such money, whether during a crisis period or not? Especially when you have been specifically selected to do the honours? Keep in mind an important point about the identity of these teachers: they were mainly foreign-born Greek women (ie native speakers of English). Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is definitely woman's territory in Greece.

It has always been too easy to become an authorised EFL teacher in Greece: you sit a European-certified C2-level examination for English language proficiency, and if you pass, you can apply to become a non-state-school EFL teacher, although most teachers often have more than just this qualification nowadays, because of the competition and the fact that most university graduates are unemployed, so they get involved in private teaching of some sort. I have often worked with women who have simply finished high school and gained one of these certificates - really good students of English can achieve this level before they leave high school. These teachers have no idea about teaching methodology, they have very little knowledge of theoretical English grammar, and they have never created their own teaching materials. This isn't necessarily a criticism: ust because they aren't always highly educated doesn't necessarily mean that they don't make good teachers at the end of the day. Their experience as both learners and teachers helps them to teach in a manner suitably directed towards passing an examination. I've also found that most of the time, students pass exams regardless of who the teacher is (in other words, the students took in whatever the teacher had to offer).

Intermediate level students, under the general theme of employment:

this picture was easier to handle than the previous ones, as it is a universally understood topic.

The profession is full of people who don't really have advanced knowledge, even though most of the teaching is very bookish. On this point, frontistirio owners are bombarded by publishing companies (both national and international) selling expensive course books, and some even make deals with them to use specific book series for a number of years - that used to provide perks for the frontistirio (eg advertising stationery with company logos) and sure book sales for the publishing company. English-language frontistiria were often run in the past by people whose qualifications level is quite basic, sometimes lower than the teachers they hire (while some operations are a one-person show); this has changed over the last few years, again due to more competition - frontistirio owners in Crete tend to have ESL qualifications.   

English language teachers have helped immensely to boost the family income. In rural areas where there are few positions of employment available, an English teacher could make a respectable income away from the local food processing plant or fieldwork, supplementing her household income quite handsomely, without too much initial outlay in setting themselves up as such. In a country with high unemployment, teaching English is perfect work 'on the side'. Private one-to-one tuition is rarely taxed (before the crisis, lessons cost anything from €10-20 an hour). Some unscrupulous frontistirio owners don't declare their employees (or even businesses, if they are running them from their own home) to the tax office (and this is continuing, as far as I know). In this case, it's the employee teacher that you have to keep in mind. She's often paid a low rate per hour, she may be uninsured, and when the business closes down for the summer holidays (like state schools do), she has to register at the unemployment office - which she can only do if she was being paid legally: the frontistirio owner would have to be declaring her employment, paying taxes and, most importantly, paying her national health insurance contributions.

Intermediate level students, under the general theme of employment:

another easy topic for our students.

This is what gave English language teaching its weird side in Greece: a lot of those schools and their teachers relied on image projection (pretty teachers and high pass rates) rather than highly qualified appropriate teaching staff. Word of mouth was the main form of advertising; but because frontistiria are as common as zaharoplasteia, souvlatzidika and corner shops (or at least they were before the crisis, while paying a small amount in salaries to some employees who are in a dead-end job), and they are run in a similar way (a little family business providing employment for most members), people often prefer to send their children for ease of access to the closest one in the neighbourhood. When a visiting professor from the UK came to Greece to conduct a seminar for English language teachers, he made an interesting remark at the beginning of his report: when he entered the lecture room, he wondered if he had been sent to a hairdresser's conference by accident, so saturated was the profession with image-conscious women that it was difficult to see its more serious side.

In the good old days when EU loans were pouring into the pockets of Greek state employees, this sudden wealth created the need for services that they could pay for with their new money, which in turn created a host of new businesses (which make up the Martyr's Party, as labelled by Petros Markaris), including frontistiria. But they had been around well before Greece's entry into the EU; however, they were not accessible to everyone. My husband, for example, used to work on construction sites in the summer and the money he earned from there would pay for his English lessons during the winter. In the 70s, there was much less money in the pockets of the average Greek than there was in the 80s, carrying on through to the first decade of the new millenium.

Advanced level students, under the general theme of pollution:

this topic was way off the scale for our students - and our teachers, as I subsequently found out when the topic was discussed over lunch. The idea of carbon footprints and food miles is only recently getting attention in Greece, but not in the form that it takes in the UK (where these exams and picture cards originate).

Such micro-businesses as the frontistirio have been hit hardest in the Greek economy. Civil servants have had their salaries reduced (in theory), but they still get paid something every month, while all those little support services in the form of private businesses that sprouted up around them have mostly gone completely bust. The economy's decline will have a number of repercussions in the frontistirio business, but moving away from the many hours Greek children spend in a frontistirio is actually a positive step in many ways. It may seem as though children won't have the opportunity to become as educated as they were before, but that's looking at the issue in a one-sided way. Most importantly, fewer hours spent in a frontistirio will assist children in their creative development. Frontistirio lessons take place in conservative environments and they take up most of the free hours of a child's afternoon and/or evening. All of the downsides of a move away from frontistiria are counter-balanced by the new technology available to us, which will continue to be available even with a return to the drachma.

The way Greek politics is going paves the way for a new form of frontistirio too. The old system has been crushed or severely bruised, and it needs to be replaced imminently with new ideas. There is no real need to go to a frontistirio these days to learn English (my own opinion - I know there will be a public outcry on this one) because we live in the internet age, and these days, it's unlikely that young Greeks will not have any grasp of basic English skills (check out a potential Prime Minister candidate's skills here! - he clearly didn't like going to frontistirio when he was young). But there is still a need for the frontistirio and its teachers:

• private language teachers will still be needed, but on a more individualised basis - their salaries won't actually be reduced (but they will need to work harder to keep their customers and build up a clientèle)
• private language schools won't need to close down - like publishing houses, they will diversify: many (but not all) are already using interactive whiteboards (or laptops connected to an overhead projector)
• the publishing companies that brought out the course books can now diversify their products and sell online programmes instead of paper material
• children's after-school hours won't be clogged with more sedentary activities, which is what is happening now in Greece (unless they have no one limiting their time on the computer) - Greek children are already regarded as some of the most obese in Greece (and it's mainly due to the many hours they are involved with school work, including frontistiria)
• instead of children relying on being taught English by someone, with internet-based online lessons, the onus will be on them to learn what they need to learn, and at their own pace
• the days of teaching EFL should be regarded as over and done with! It's ESL (English as a second language) that should be taught now!!! 

Before the crisis, Greek parents were forking out thousands of euro per year for their children to learn English. I'm glad my children are caught up in the period of change in Greece, when this kind of spending has clearly lost its significance. It may seem as though children won't have the opportunity to become as educated as they were before, but that's looking at the issue in a one-sided way. Individualised learning programmes require some knowledge of the specific needs that will be included in a tailored learning programme, which is a novel way to approach learning in Greece, since it is still very bookish. But all that is about to change in the coming year (September 2012):  the organisation which used to produce Greek school books has been closed down, because the Ministry of Education (MoE) has decided to produce more online material. Frontistiria can't continue to require that their students spend hundreds of euro (or drachma) a year to buy course books when the MoE will be providing theirs free - for the frontistiria, it will be a case of monkey see, monkey do. It will mean a lot of work in the transition stages, but you don't get something for nothing these days.

Advanced level students, under the general theme of cultural diversity:

students still needed prodding to get them to talk about the actual topic that this picture covered. Most students discussed their interests in the food and music of other cultures, rather than race relations (it was much easier for them to 'see' the topic in the non-food photo below). Bear in mind that students are given only one photo: it depends on their luck as to which one they get.

Since we live in a highly connected world, the frontistiria owners and their teachers are not the only ones who will suffer economically. Remember those examination syndicates offering tests to prove your English language skills and proficiency levels? They're all based in the UK or the US. And Greece - believe it or not - was one of their biggest customers: in other countries, teachers aren't even employed to conduct the oral examinations (they are all taped and sent to the UK, which is where they are assessed, but this isn't possible in Greece where hundreds of thousands of students sit exams all in one weekend). Leading people to believe that they need a commodity is something of an art in the maintenance of the global economy. Somewhere the bubble has loosened and air is being released. The balloon won't burst, but it's already shrunk considerably, and there isn't much air in it now.

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Childhood obesity (Παιδική παχυσαρκία)

Throughout my blog, I have shown to be highly critical of parents who do not teach the value of good nutrition to their children. I am especially saddened by what I see or hear through my children about what goes into some chidlren's school lunchboxes, especially since Crete reputedly has Greece's fattest children and Greece is apparently the fattest nation in Europe (the UK often competes with us on this one). It seems incredulous to hear of packaged goods being brought daily into a primary school (that has no canteen or tuck shop) which is located in an agricultural region where chickens and sheep, fruit and vegetables, orange, avocado and olive treees surround the general area. I would think it would cost much more in time, labour and money to go to a supermarket to buy so many packaged products, instead of using the resources that these children are surrounded by!

Greek people's ideas about good nutrition often hinge on some fallacies, such as:

- preparing copious quantities of food (hence, portions are always large, and there are second helpings)
- bulk buying of food items (so there is always too much food in the house)
- the belief that young children's bulging stomachs will magically turn into height at a later age
- preparing different meals for fussy eaters (it's now standard practice to see the menu heading 'Children's Meals' at tavernas, which was once quite rare)
- the belief that children deserve to be given sweet treats (eg regular servings of ice-cream in the summer, etc)
- the lack of knowledge about what packaged convenience food contains (eg few people realise that soft drinks contain not just sugar but also salt)
- the lack of critical self-awareness: few people acknowledge that their chidlren are overweight (in their eyes, their chidlren look 'normal', while other people may view the same child as 'fat'). 

Some of these problems sound like global ones, but they also have an inherently Greek twist to them: during WW2, many Greeks starved to death in urban areas (while the rural populations had to resort to foraging to survive) because of the confiscation of food by the Nazis for their troops, and many people still remember those times, hence they have an image of fat healthy chidlren, which they pass on to their family members. The doting tender care, love and affection expounded on children is also a contributing factor to Greek children's bad dietary habits. When the parent is not looking after their child's nutrition needs, it's usually the grandparent who takes care of it, and grandparents are often too relaxed in their methods of raising their grandchildren, which they may not have been with their own children. Greek women who like to keep up with fashion are also not shy about wearing clothes that seem to accentuate their fatness. This peculiar trait is quite revealing in terms of identity: it rings tunes of smugness: "I eat what I like, I wear what I like, and I know I am beautiful." 

Most Greeks still prepare, cook and prefer to eat Greek traditional meals, but the large portions, coupled with junk food added to the daily menu, are probably what causes obesity in Greeks, not to mention a more sedentary lifestyle and less physical field work - the average Cretan farmer used to walk 20 kilometres a day on average, whereas he now drives that much instead, and walks only about 2 kilometres a day.

Obesity survey in Greek schools, 2012

Just recently, my children bought home a large envelope containing a 20-page questionnaire for the purposes of discovering the eating and physical activity patterns of Greek chidlren. The research is being carried out as part of a nationwide survey on childhood obesity, touted as the first of its kind ever to be conducted in Greece. The cover letter states that this is an attempt to chronicle the changes in Greek society in the way we eat and keep active. The questionnaire is to be answered anonymously, and only if the parents/caregivers wish to take part. Having worked with questionnaires and other such research work, I know how difficult it is to gauge accuracy using only such tools, because it's difficult to know how honestly people answer the questions. But this survey is also going to be backed up with physical measurements of the chidlren (whose parents have signed a written agreement to allow them to take part), which include: weight, height, waistline, neck perimeter, blood pressure, strength (with a hand-dynamometer) and endurance (through a running test).

The questionnaire asks parents about the dietary habits of the household, but there is a clear main interest throughout the survey in junk food. Parents are asked to check boxes (with a cross: Greeks aren't used to using a tick!) to show which food items they allow to be found in the house and/or give to their chidlren for morning/afternoon snacks: chocolate, croissant, 'tost' (which means 'ham and cheese toasted sandwich' in Greece), pizza and packaged juice are found among the choices, including yoghurt and milk (with separate entries for low-fat, full-fat and 0%), egg and fruit. There is also a section that asks parents how often they order food from a fast-food restaurant, pizzeria, souvlaki shop or taverna (note that 'fast food' and 'souvlaki shop' are kept separate). No actual Greek food name has been used, only generic ideas.

The physical activity sections focus on what sports activities children take part in (eg basketball, football, etc), as well as dance. People are also asked to state what they believe about physical activity in children, eg "How likely are you to send your child to a sports activity rather than a frontistirio?" Most if not all Greek children spend many hours outside the state school system, sitting at desks in private school, doing more school work, mainly in learning foreign languages when they are primary school, and adding preparatory lessons in school subjects when they are in high school. 

The economic crisis is touched on with six questions concerning the affordability of eating balanced meals, eg "Do you believe that in the last 12 months you have been unable to afford to eat balanced meals?" and "In the last 12 months, have you felt hungry because there was not enough food in the house?" But I was surprised that absolutely no mention of olive oil was made, whereas there were specific references made to sugar and salt, eg "How much do you agree with the statement that too much salt is bad for you?". Salt, sugar and fat in combination are regarded as the main culprits for the rise in obesity around the world, as discussed in obesity literature, along with the sedentary lifestyle. Olive oil is propounded by experts as a superfood for good health, well-being and longevity, as well as one being one of the most marketable products Greece produces. Greeks consume the highest  amount per capita int he whole world, while Cretans supposedly use more than any other Greek (we go through 150kg of olive oil in a year, among 5 people).

The questionnnaire also asks parents to provide basic demographic details, including their chidlren's birth history and present weight and height (apart from the physical measurements which will be conducted by the researchers at a later stage). My children were both surprised to see that their weight matched the centimetres in their height (after 1m/100cm was subtracted). So if you weigh about 70 kilos, you should be about 1.70m tall. That's what I've always used to gauge a balanced weight and height.

It will be interesting to hear the results of the survey. I will keep you posted.

You can see how I answered the questionnaire (and test your knowledge of the Greek language at the same time) in this photo set.

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The Ministry of Food Exhibition, Imperial War Museum - Part 2 (Το Υπουργείο Τροφίμων: Μέρος 2ο)

This post forms part of the series of our culinary adventures from our recent trip to Paris and London.

Education is a powerful tool. It is one of the most important factors in changing people's attitudes and behaviour. It is a positive force in the development of a nation, and it can even be used to instil prejudice and disseminate propaganda. I was the first person in my family to go to university; none of my ancestors had even completed primary school. To be educated in an English speaking country is both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, English-speaking nations always had some of most respected educational systems, and high levels of education (in the good old days, anyway); on the other hand, an English-language education  is often monoculturally-inclined (at least, that's what mine was like), given the language's widespread use. If I had been raised in Greece and not New Zealand, my life would have been dramatically different now.

Forget what Gordon Ramsay told you about saving bones for stock making (Kitchen Front IWM cafe tray cover); in WW2, bones were needed for making glue and fertiliser (WW2 Ministry of Food campaign poster).

I was born nearly 20 years after the end of food rationing in the UK, a system intended to restrict everyone's (including the royal family's¹) consumption of basic food items in order for there to be a fair distribution of the limited resources² available at the time, due to the destruction caused by WW2. I started school in 1970, and my teachers were likely to have been at least 25 years old or more; even though food rationing was not practiced in NZ, it's likely that NZ was heavily influenced by such an event, since NZ still had a strongly British influence, and her most important trading partner was in fact Britain. Some of my teachers were actually born in the UK (a net exporter of population to Australia, South Africa and NZ in the 70s and 80s).

The sinews of war - the importance of the colonies: "In the desperate austerity of the 1940s, the colonies were seen less as fragile possessions to be held in trust than as economic assets to be milked for all they were worth. Administrators who had spent most of their careers cautiously guarding the equilibrium of their colonies now devoted their energies to cash crops, marketing boards, monopolies, rationing and 'Grow More Food' campaigns." (Dominic Sandbrook, Never Had It So Good, 2005)

As a kiwi schoolchild, it never occurred to me that what my teachers were teaching me in Social Studies and what my Domestic Science teachers were teaching me during the cooking classes in manual training, were all partly based on British WW2 experiences. I thought it was simply the outcome of their own high level of education, not the effects of WW2, a concept which conjured up images of Europe and communism, bombed out buildings and Hitler, none of which had much to do with the rolling green pastures dotted with white woolly sheep in the kiwi countryside and the plentiful supplies of cheap New Zealand lamb, creamy yellow butter and frothy full-fat milk. Even my parents thought of their new home as the land of  'του πουλιού το γάλα'³.

In WW2, vegetables suddenly came into fashion, and have been ever since - but you can't live off those alone: "No one carried a pound of superfluous flesh, in spite of the vast quantities of starchy food. They expended every ounce they ate in work... Vegetables and fruit were eaten because they were good for you, but it was the bread, potatoes, meat and floury puddings which staved off exhaustion." (Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds, 1977)

Tthe Ministry of Food exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London was a deja vu experience for me; I discovered my educational roots. The Ministry of Food exhibition hows how the British public were re-educated to change the way they thought about food in post-WW2 Britain. This had long-lasting effects, and not just in the UK alone; the WW2 Ministry of Food's campaign influenced the farthest outposts of British colonialism.

Visiting the exhibition helped me to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of my own personal food history. For instance, why did I scold my mother when she cooked a potato dish and served bread with it?

WW2 Ministry of Food posters: potatoes were easy to grow in the UK, while bread was difficult to make as it involved imported grain: "Potatoes new, potatoes old, potatoes in a salad cold, potatoes baked or mashed or fried, potatoes whole, potatoes pied, enjoy them all including chips, remember spuds don't come in ships" (WW2 nursery rhyme).

Why did I insist (in those days) that brown bread was healthier than white bread?

Brown bread - you either loved it or hated it, as the quotes attest.

Why did she show disgust when I bit into my apple with the skin on, or boiled potatoes without peeling them?

WW2 food Dos and Don'ts: an image of my schoolteachers immediately came to my mind as I was reading these, and I didn't even go to school in the UK.

Why am I trying to force-feed my husband par-boiled vegetables? It's hardly a European habit to eat crunchy raw vegetables, nor is it deemed suitable to leave them all unpeeled. So where did I pick up my non-European ways, given that I was born European (well, that's how the NZ census used to classify me). Do carrots really make your eyesight better? And why do I keep the adage "meat and two veg" in mind whenever and with whatever I'm cooking?

The answer to all of these questions lies in the UK's post-WW2 educational campaign to make better use of scarce resources, now almost a thing of the past in the lands of plenty that the Western world has become, the high level of literacy and education needed to teach old dogs new tricks, and Britain's readiness - having already been through similar problems arising during WW1 - to introduce the food rationing system efficiently and effectivelyª.

*** *** ***

The consequences of WW2 destroyed the food chain throughout the whole of Europe. Some countries, like Greece, had lost all the infrastructure needed to distribute food to all the population, hence many people starved. Being essentially an island, Britain was cut off from her crucial food supplies by the sinking of her ships. Due to a lack of food during and after WW2, food rationing was in force in Britain from 1940 until 1954. In order to obtain basic food supplies, everyone had to have a ration book which they had to use at the grocer's that they were registered with; they could only purchase food items (including clothing and tools) with their ration book, and only in the amounts that they were legally entitled to. Children, pregnant women and labourers were given extra rations. Even vegetarians were catered for and given extra egg and cheese rations.

The photo shows a week's worth of food rations, as well as the Queen's ration book.

The government created the Ministry of Food (hence the name of the IWM exhibition), which served to fairly distribute all the food in the country (both local produce and imported products) to all the people in Britain. It also had another more important task: to re-educate the import-dependent British people to produce their own food (and therefore reduce imports), eat seasonally, recycle and not waste. It all sounds familiar, doesn't it? Except that in those days, there were no supermarkets or refrigerators.

UK food imports: the most carbon footprint laden are tea, sugar and rice, each one needing up to 11,200 miles of travel to get to the UK: "... lamb and butter from New Zealand, tea from India, chocolate from Nigeria, coffee from Kenya, and apples, pears and grapes from Africa... [and] toys that were identified as 'Empire Made'." (David Cannadine, Ornamentalism, 2001)

After WW2, the food situation actually worsened rather than improved, since the US stopped sending food supplies to Britain. Soldiers came home, families grew; there were more mouths to feed:

Britain in 1945... Meat rationed, butter rationed, lard rationed, margarine rationed, sugar rationed, tea rationed, cheese rationed, jam rationed, eggs rationed, sweets rationed, soap rationed, clothes rationed. Make do and mend." (David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007)

Without limitations on the amount for each individual and an emphasis on the importance of maintaining a vegetable garden, Britain would have found it very difficult to feed her people. A fortnight after the end of WW2, the government made it clear to the people that "Every inch of useable English soil will still have to be made to grow food" (David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007).

Allotments were made use to the full during and after WW2. I can feel the pain of the owners of these ones (left: from the DLR to Lewisham (Mudchute??); right: from the train to Gatwick): when you don't live near your patch of land, it is difficult to tend it. The colour of the sky also dampens your mood (pun not intended). They remind me of our orange orchards and olive groves, 10km away from our house - our summer garden is a different story altogether.

A high reliance on food imports is now viewed as highly unsustainable due to the carbon footprint-laden food miles; the idea of a poor country providing food for a rich country is also contentious. It seems incredible that 70 years ago, a country as advanced as Britain was able to provide only a third of the food required to feed its own population (around 46 million at the time), relying heavily on food imports, whose transport to the UK required long sea journeys from the colonies.

We all think and talk about food eternally, not because we are hungry but because our meals are boring and expensive and difficult to come by... what I wouldn't give for orange juice or steak and onions or chocolate or apples or cream. (1941 diary extract, quote from the Ministry of Food exhibition)

Throughout Britain's history, food was always imported to keep people fed; food imports have been a crucial element of Britain's food supply since the industrial revolution. From the colonies, Britain acquired a liking for exotic tastes that local food could not provide, especially for what has often been termed as the Brits' 'insatiable desire for something sweet': the ease of importing novel (and tasty) food into Britain created a certain dependence on them, as in the cases of tea and sugar.

The exhibits in the photos above were the most nostalgic for me. They reminded me of the plain-looking (but tasty) cakes and biscuits we ate during a morning or afternoon break in tea-houses (aka cafes) when I lived in Wellington in the 1980s. They represent a period in time that we cannot return to, before lattes and cappuccinos.

This kind of dependence can easily become a cause for war, and it isn't only in the past that food was being used as a weapon. With fewer imports now available, the daily British diet was radically changed with the introduction of food rationing. All of a sudden, milk and eggs were replaced by their powdered substitutes; fresh eggs were limited to one a week and fresh milk was allocated to those who needed it most (mainly children). Since people had never used these powders to cook with before, they had to be 'taught' to use them appropriately, which is where the powerful role of education and literacy came into play, via pamphlets, radio broadcasts, demonstrations, newspaper advertisements and posters, all of which were prepared by the Ministry of Food.

Fish wasn't rationed, but fresh fish was hard to find. Salt cod was a relatively new product for the British; people were, once again, 'taught' to use it.

Complaining about the tastelessness of egg powder did no good when there was no alternative. Even the weekly allowance of one fresh egg per week wasn't always easy to get hold of, for example, when there was a strike; not everyone was happy about the political and economic situation at the time, even if the war was over. All meat (except chicken) was strictly rationed. Fish wasn't, but it was expensive and hard to come by. Canned goods were also allocated by rationing. Fresh fruit and vegetables were eaten by those who had an allotment or used their garden to grow them; otherwise, people had to queue up to buy them when they were available. Bread and sweets were also rationed on and off. Everyone ate the same food, cooked in the same way, for nine years.

Meat ration lasts for only three evening meals, ... that is Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday I cook a handful of rice, dodged up in some way with curry or cheese. But the cheese ration is so small there is little left. Thursday I have a pound of sausages. These make do for Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday... All rather monotonous, but we are not hungry... (diary extract, quote from the Ministry of Food exhibition)

The end of the war only made the rationing situation worse, when the US stopped supplying food to the UK: "there are bad times just round the corner," a politician of the time warned. Food rationing has been blamed for the decline in British cuisine and people's interest in cooking. The above account gives a grim view of the food situation. People could not really enjoy their food; they ate to sustain themselves.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, I have not the foggiest idea of what is being pictured here (can Jamie Oliver?), and neither does it look particularly appetising.  Was food rationing to blame for the lack of attraction to/in the British cuisine, or was it simply a result of Britain's main interests lying away from the land, home and hearth, so that most people were occupied with other business and not with food? Well, I guess we can definitely say, by looking at these photos, that British cuisine has no influence whatsoever in Greek cuisine...

In amongst the misery, there are also many positive aspects of the WW2 food rationing system. It helped people to develop the qualities of living in a fair world where everyone patiently waited until it was their turn for something, so that no one couldn't say they were given an equal chance to survive:

The British prided themselves on their ability to form an orderly queue; they had plenty of opportunities to prove it. (Dominic Sandbrook, Never Had It So Good, 2005).

We did think that once Japan was beaten, we should do away with queues, but it doesn't seem like it. Yesterday, I queued 1/2 an hour in Woolworths for some biscuits... The fish problem seems to be a bit better here - it isn't quite so rotten, although the queues are still there (Muriel Bowmer, In: David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007).

Queuing - ie, waiting for your turn when it came up - is what I remember most about the years I spent living in New Zealand, everyone's right to a fair share of everything, their rightful share of the pie, a concept that was pretty much shattered for me when I first came to live in Greece in 1991º, where some people seemed to be getting a huge hunk of it, while others never even saw it.

The nation's health: the NHS was established in 1948 during the rationing period:
"During the war, although there were privations and shortages, people generally had a good diet. When the war ended, it was found that the average food intake was much higher than when it began... with virtually no unemployment and the rationing system, with its fixed prices, [poor people] ate better than in the past... People at all levels of society took nutrition seriously and ate sensibly with the rations and whatever vegetables and fruit were available, and with less sugar and fewer sweet snacks there was less tooth decay. As a whole, the population was slimmer and healthier than it is today; people ate less fat and sugar, less meat and many more vegetables." (Jill Norman, Eating for Victory, 2007)

But all that talk of vegetables being good for you, digging for victory by growing your own, recycling to reduce imports, is all by the by; this propaganda served its purpose (to make you feel guilty, just like the carbon footprints ideology in today's society), but was readily forgotten once the good times came back.

In through one ear and out through the other: how much food do you buy and chuck out?

Rationing's success lay in its effort to maintain the whole nation's health with everyone getting the due attention they needed. Obesity and tooth decay were practically unheard of, everyone had access to food and no one starved; everyone's voice was heard, from the baby to the pensioner, and everyone was taken into account, from the vegetarian to the cats and dogs.

*** *** ***

Rationing finally came to an end almost a decade after the war was over.

'Almost at once,' wrote Harry Hopkins, 'affluence came hurrying on the heels of penury. Suddenly, the shops were piled high with all sorts of goods. Boom was in the air.' (Dominic Sandbrook, Never Had It So Good, 2005).

It has been suggested that rationing could be re-introduced in modern times, for the purposes of living in a more environmentally-friendly world:

"I'm afraid you've reached your monthly allowance of Kenyan green beans, Sir - you'll have to buy locally grown ones from now on. The last truckload we saw of those came in last week..."

... or perhaps as a way to curb obesity:

"Sorry, Ma'am, I see you've been classified under the Big O category - I'm afraid you've used all your bacon rations for this month, so you can only buy low-fat turkey meat for the next fortnight!"

... or even just to maintain the community spirit: To promote the idea of people registering with a local food supplier, they might be given incentives such as fixed prices, discounts, and the like, for similar reasons as when you have a neighbourhood butcher or grocer where you do your regular shopping, in order to give small businesses a better chance to survive and to provide a kind of 'neighbourhood watch' service:

"'Ello there, Mrs Patel, sorry to 'ear about your 'usband. Was a good man, weren't 'e? Well, I see your sons' been taking good care o' you. The older one popped in yesterday, axed me if I'd 'ad your OAP milk rations sent to you, an' I told 'im I did. Good lad, 'in 'e?"

In the market-driven economy that we all live in, it sounds highly unlikely that it would be accepted by most...

But it did work in WW2 Britain, and I cannot help but look upon the food rationing system in great awe, when I know that no one starved in a country that could not even feed her own people, as they did elsewhere. They patiently waited for their turn to pick up their weekly rations, and never forgot to say their good mornings, pleases and thank yous (as they still do), and always remembered to queue, whether it was raining or the sirens had just gone off warning of an air raid, or a V2 rocket had just landed and shaken the ground beneath their feet, the food queues always being the last to disperse.

Moving photos adorn the walls of the exhibition: the milkman carrying a crate of full bottles of milk, walking amongst the rubble of a bombed London suburb; a mother of 16 children, looking at all the ration books of her family members, working out her food needs for the week; the queue of people at a bombed fishmonger's premises. There are lessons to be learnt from the food rationing system in the modern world amongst the beleaguered nations in the present economic crisis: to weather the storm, it is not enough to take measures, one must also wait their turn. If only things could have been like this for the Greek people during WW2. Sadly, despite the food-rich world that they lived in, many Greeks died of hunger during WW2. We can't change the past, we can only learn from it.

¹People noticed that the royal family's faces always looked rosier than the rest of the population's: "... Mary King managed to get near to the car of the visiting King and Queen: 'She looked a little too matronly for her age. Considering the rationing... she certainly looked well-fed.' " (David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007)
²The black market was thriving for those who had the means (ie money) and the right connections: "... the black market... - including off-ration and under-the-counter sales as well as tipping and favouritism - were at least as extensive after the war as during it; ... I suspect there's more dishonesty in this country today than for many years." (David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007)
³Bird's milk, in the literal sense; metaphorically, this phrase is used to denote 'abundance'.
ªBritain had learnt some hard lessons during WW1, when food supplies were so depleted that there were only 6 weeks' worth of food in country - the situation bears a great similarity to Greece's recent money woes: most of the time, there is only 6 weeks' worth of money left in the state coffers to pay out pensions and salaries...
ºThings are better now in Greece, but they weren't perfect in WW2 Britain either: "I doubt if a single Englishman did not avail himself of the help of the black market." (Diary extract, In: David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 2007). Everyone will grab a chance when offered it, won't they?

*** *** ***

I rounded off my visit to the exhibition with a meal from the Kitchen Front - the museum cafe (coincidentally voted by radio listeners in 2008 as one of the best museum cafes in London) had been given a facelift to coincide with the Ministry of Food exhibition, selling WW2-inspired foods.

I had the baked potato with kipper stuffing. Potatoes are easy to grow and store in the UK, and were promoted as a 'protective food'. Fresh fish wasn't on the ration, while lettuce (but without the vinaigrette, of course!) could be grown in the garden or even above the bomb shelter by the tenant/owner of a house, so this meal could be said to be very ration-friendly. Very good indeed; possibly boring on an everyday basis (the main problem with Britain's WW2 rations), but tasty. I also fancied a slice of that beetroot cocoa cake on offer, mainly to compare my muffin version with the cafe's, but passed on it, since I had to keep plenty of extra space in my stomach for... (the post on that is coming soon).

My chocolate beetroot muffins - a good way of incorporating fresh vegetables in sweets and cutting down on ingredients that were difficult to access during the war.

If I had to mention a minus point about the exhibition, I'd say it was the amount of white spaces on the wall; I would have liked them to be covered with more quotes and newspaper clippings. The Imperial War Museum offers entertainment and knowledge for all ages and interests - we've visited the museum three times already  as a family! Look at how my own family was entertained while I went to see Ministry of Food exhibition:

The children were guided through the WWI Terrible Trenches, and my husband got a chance - by special arrangement - to handle his favorite toys:

(The Terrible Trenches - thanks to lego for the photo - is a specially designed children's exhibition; the WW2 weapons on the table were laid out for Mr OC's enjoyment - thanks to Paul Cornish at IWM)

We were also greatly amused when the young man at the welcome desk of the museum, after patiently listening to me as I explained in English which tickets we wanted to buy for which exhibitions, replied to us in Greek; we can be found all over the place, can't we!

And special thanks to Cynthia, who provided the motivation for my whole trip.

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