Croatia’s bread culture is quite low, mostly they want as much as possible for as little money as possible, price is more important than quality when deciding on a purchase. Despite this, the prices of bakery products in Croatia are among the highest in the European Union. Every fifth bread and most bakery products are imported frozen as a semi-finished product. We import mostly from Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Poland through retail chains. The bread we import is of poor quality, full of additives, and not particularly nutritious.
The bakery industry in Croatia makes them the busiest fast food establishments in the country. Domestic bakeries, on the other hand, experienced a boom and we can find them on every corner. They say that production has increased by 60% and is not stopping. We have become a nation of bakeries and beer bars (about that in another post).
Bakeries can be found on every corner in Croatia, especially around schools and colleges, so they are the inevitable choice of many schoolchildren and students. Bakery products are ideal for a tight budget, and we are talking about products with high energy and low nutritional density. Increased intake of saturated and trans fats and simple carbohydrates in the diet creates the basis for the development of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and others.
It’s nice to know that if we don’t already have an industry, we have private individuals who have started a chain of bakeries and filled the state coffers. Money is coming in, but we don’t ask about the health of the residents. We have become the fattest nation in Europe, mainly thanks to fast food because we live on bread and pastries that are readily available. On the one hand, bakeries fill the cash register and we have fast, cheap and easily available food at our fingertips. On the other hand, hospitals are full of sick people with high cholesterol, high fat, diabetes, celiac disease and other diseases caused by an unhealthy diet.
We can’t blame the bakers for that. They just want to survive like any private company. At the same time, no one forces customers at gunpoint to have to shop in bakeries. But bakeries are close at hand, where they literally catch your eye on every corner with tempting and affordable sandwiches, croissants and bureks… how can we resist when we’re in a hurry? And so every day until it becomes a habit. Then we get our children hooked on such a diet because it’s difficult for us to prepare breakfast in the morning, so they eat breakfast at the bakery on their feet, and that’s how we raise future carbohydrate addicts.
Where to draw the line and how to fix the situation?
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia must launch a strong campaign against the harmfulness of empty carbohydrates and saturated trans fats (mainly white flour and white sugar). Just as the harmful effects of smoking and the ugly image of a dying or damaged lung are marked on a cigarette box, the same should be true for nutrition. We have reached a critical limit where we are systematically poisoning ourselves, and many have no awareness or basic knowledge of the harmfulness of such a diet.
Campaign, campaign, campaign! And to be persistent and boring and to bring to schools experts who are included in the curriculum to raise the future generation of healthier people in a few hours during the year.
Recently, a sick man with high blood sugar told me that he has cut back on bread and eats only a quarter of white bread a day and maybe a pastry and one coffee a day with sugar. And those are the heights awareness.
Forget white bread and pastries and sugar in coffee. If only we were aware that we should actually live on a full bowl of fresh salad, fruit and some protein. We are addicted to meat, bread and sweets. A recipe for disaster and we haven’t moved on for decades.
Bakeries are unfortunately a scourge spawned by the financial crisis. We have no money for restaurants and they are for the chosen ones, while the poor and the ignorant and the lazy poison themselves with white flour and white sugar in bakeries. In the bakery, only yogurt can be healthier, and bread and pastries made with whole grain flour. But such bread or pastries cost as much as one whole lunch for two.
The image of today’s cities revolves around bakeries and beer bars. They are on every corner and that is our standard. Foreigners wonder at us and we ourselves, but there is no change.
Some bakery, but some awareness that it is unhealthy, so let’s just decide what to do.
