She was attending a two-day conference of scientists and doctors all proclaiming nutrition as the science of the future. Her headline article in the Diário de Notícias , "http://www.dn.pt/dn2/home/fige.htm" , stresses that over 60 per cent of illness could well be avoided by eating the correct foods.
These "correct foods" , however, belong to the new "alimentos funcionais", food fortified by the addition of pharmacological products intended to benefit our health.
"Portugal tem de inovar" (Portugal must move forward) , says the article, as must the rest of Europe . Japan and the United States headed this new food revolution in the eighties and their products, all of which must pass stringent tests before appearing on the market, are likely leaders in the new nutritional health science.
The article ends with an excellent explanation of some of the terminology used to describe the pharmacological input.
I have long had saudades for Portugal and its wonderful food, fish straight from the sea, sun-ripened fruit, healthy vegetables.
This article , which you can translate if necessary, through searching by AltaVista or using Babelfish, raised for me many questions.
Do you believe we can delay old age through man-made fortified foods?
Do you believe we should be combining pharmacology and nutrition?
Do you believe in natural, organically grown foodstuff?
I am sure you can think of many more questions and may even have really strong opinions on the subject of nutrition. It is something which affects us all.
For those of us who believe in food without scientific additives, there is sound advice,such as granny might have given, to be found in Portugal as elsewhere. Searching the Saúde (health) channels of Portuguese Internet portals such as "http://saude.sapo.pt" you could while away hours solving health problems for all generations of the family.
A good general article is "http://saude.sapo.pt/gkB3/110291.html", which you could use to test your knowledge of food vocabulary.
Another portal site is "http://busca.pt/" which lists the self-explanatory "http://www.100caloria.com.br/home.html", a Brazilian site so some of the vocabulary may be slightly different from European Portuguese.
You choose the food which you are interested in eating from the listed categories which range from Aves (poultry) to Vitela (veal). If you are searching for vegetables, remember to look up not only Legumes but also Verduras where you will find the greens.
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