Pour La Sante
Although it's been temperate ever since I've been in Rabat - normally in the 80s and 90s, and sometimes even dipping to the 70s - I've been interested in why people literally don't drink water here. For example, being an American and all, with our 8 glasses a day, I'm always lugging around my oversized Nalgene bottle (with my 89.3: The Current sticker representing). When I'm at the apartment, you'll normally find me with a glass of water, or something along those lines by me (Arab Coke = less sugary + more drinkable). At meals, I can pound down four or five glasses of water (waiters hate me) on a light day. This extends to most of the other members of room, such as my fellow Nalgene-carrier, Mr. Ryan Burbach.
This has only compounded my surprise at the lack of water people drink here. Part of this was recently explained to me by some of my Moroccan friends, who I've found out, are kind of like Europeans in their weird health habits. For instance, Moroccans believe that drinking water during a meal is bad for your health. For some reason, they believe it'll expand your stomach too much and make you sick. This was backed up by the newly arrived dutch trainee, Merrell, who, gasp, agreed with them (by the way, if you're counting, that's now 11 people in one apartment). As a counter to this, I drink exorbitant amounts of water during meals to show them they're wrong, no negative effects yet, besides bloating...
These weird health principles also extend to vitamins, or vitamines en francais. Moroccans love to talk about how many vitamins things have, especially things like fish, which they extoll for their vitamins, and various fruits. However, for digestive reasons, it's a good idea here to eat fruit by itself (so the vitamins don't get diluted?), and at an isolated time during the day. My friend Ziad eats fruits every day around 5pm, so that he can fully benefit from the vitamins... I tried introducing my Centrum Chewables to some of the locals, but they hate that chalky texture (eating a Tums almost sparked a health crisis for one - lots of sputtering and gagging noises).
This has only compounded my surprise at the lack of water people drink here. Part of this was recently explained to me by some of my Moroccan friends, who I've found out, are kind of like Europeans in their weird health habits. For instance, Moroccans believe that drinking water during a meal is bad for your health. For some reason, they believe it'll expand your stomach too much and make you sick. This was backed up by the newly arrived dutch trainee, Merrell, who, gasp, agreed with them (by the way, if you're counting, that's now 11 people in one apartment). As a counter to this, I drink exorbitant amounts of water during meals to show them they're wrong, no negative effects yet, besides bloating...
These weird health principles also extend to vitamins, or vitamines en francais. Moroccans love to talk about how many vitamins things have, especially things like fish, which they extoll for their vitamins, and various fruits. However, for digestive reasons, it's a good idea here to eat fruit by itself (so the vitamins don't get diluted?), and at an isolated time during the day. My friend Ziad eats fruits every day around 5pm, so that he can fully benefit from the vitamins... I tried introducing my Centrum Chewables to some of the locals, but they hate that chalky texture (eating a Tums almost sparked a health crisis for one - lots of sputtering and gagging noises).
posted by Isaac at 6:39 AM
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