22 September 2010

Presenting....Nathalie!!

If you go back to my very first post on the blog, you'll find a lot of good, robust energy and the foundation of a supportive community. Among the comments on that post, you'll find Nathalie speaking about her need for this blog. Over the past few months, Nathalie has made several attempts to get me back to blogging and a few weeks ago she asked once more when I was going to get back to it and how she could help. Well, I decided that the best she could do to help was to join me here on this blog. Nathalie will be posting here on Thursdays and I'll be posting on Mondays. Look for us to pop up on other days from time to time, but we will be here on Mondays and Thursdays!

If you haven't been following Nathalie on her blog, Multiculturalism Rocks! I'm going to give you the opportunity to get to know here a little better through the following interview.


Nathalie, what foods do you remember from your childhood?
So many. Cameroon is very fertile and the country has an abundance and variety of food. I have fond memories of mangoes. There are unlike the ones you see in the market: There ares small (fit in a child's hand), juicy and tasty. My mom used to make delicious mango jam with them. I wish America would be introduced to them. Fruit lovers are really missing on something.

Papaya, especially the "solo" kind. I remember a poem from school about. The seeds are super easy to use (my first tree).

We eat lots of grilled fish and chicken, grilled peanuts, grilled plantains, grilled "Sa", a type of sour plum. I'm hungry!

Why did you decide to include food and nutrition in your studies?
That actually came later in my life. I grew up wanting to become a humanitarian physician. I wanted to work with Doctors without Borders ever since I was eight years old. There are lots of anecdotes related to that, but to make a long story short I miserably failed my first year of medical school in France. Right after that experience, nutrition caught my interest and made sense to me. 

    I've seen things in Africa that impacted me growing up. Studying nutrition allows me to implement a type of preventive medicine where it is needed, here and abroad. The way we eat affects us more than we think. It affects how we work, affects our mood, and of course affects our health. 

One cannot work on world and domestic hunger without also addressing poverty (economics) and illiteracy. These three issues are intertwined.

    I like to think that everything happens for a reason, and though my dream to work as a doctor was crushed, today I am so grateful that I failed. My focus in nutrition is world and domestic hunger. My approach to solving world hunger: Don't go around dumping genetically modified food on Third World villagers (and of course, don't use them as guinea pigs for your research). Learn the culture. Suggest a solution that incorporates the culture, the way people live, the local crops, too. That will be a long term solution. I would have more to say about that but this answer is already very long...

   What I wrote above is also the reason why I study cultural anthropology as an undergrad; however my grad studies will be solely focused on nutrition.  


If you could open a food store or restaurant what would it look, sound, smell and feel like?    What an interesting question. Do you read my mind? :)

    One can dream, right? I dream to one day open one or several multi-ethnic restaurants. I would love the atmosphere to be like what I experienced in Cameroon and in some of the places I traveled to: warm, friendly, with a display of ethnic art as a homage to the variety of cultures our planet is graced with. The place will be colorful, cheerful and serve ethnic comfort food.

Smell: A symphony of spices in a vegetarian stew. 

Sound: Eclectic. Would probably go for musical instruments that few know of.

 I have more ideas, but you would have to come to the restaurant to experience it yourself. :-)


You won't let me let this blog die! What compels you with regard to food and nutrition?
Edi, I can't begin to tell you how excited I was when you started this blog! It is so needed in my opinion. We're so busy with life that we don't pay attention to what we eat anymore, to what's in our plate, and to what chemical corporations put in the food we buy. I like that you challenge us. Your post are always thought-provoking and informative. I really admire that you started it, despite your already busy schedule. I applaud that. 

   I'm sorry that until now I wasn't able to comment more on your posts, due to my online absence during the summer. We need your blog. It is timely; you can see it with the reforms that the administration is trying to implement in the food industry, in school and just overall in our society. For example, restaurants with more than five outlets will now have the obligation to add a nutrition charts to their menu.

Informed people make informed decisions. I've witnessed that during my internships as a dietetic student abroad. I can't let it go of your blog. It's a voice that will be missed if you silence it. :) 


Natalie, what's your favorite meal these days?Crêpes! As a matter of fact, I'm on my way to make some. Come on over! ;-)


 Welcome aboard, Nathalie!!

3 comments:

  1. Great interview--and timely, with "Frankenfish" in the news...good nutrition saves lives--period. I heard a report on the radio that said cutting edge food production is happening in the developing world--we have a lot to learn and share...

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  2. Great post! Nathalie, I love your thoughts on nutrition and your food memories of Cameroon. When you open a restaurant, I'm there :).

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  3. Thank you, Zetta & Kelly. :)

    Zetta, I'm sad to say that I eat healthier in the developing world (the food is less processed; it seems to make a difference). I also always end up losing weight without dieting. My metabolism changes...

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We're not going to worry about being politcally correct here. But we will be polite. We're trying to save lives!