This semester I decided to study abroad at a partner university in Wales, UK. Before coming here, I was a little scared that about how I would adjust to the food served in around the country. With my past experiences traveling around Europe, I knew that finding vegetarian options was going to be a continuous challenge for me. However, after being here for two weeks, I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at how healthy the Welsh are. From what I've heard, a great amount of Welsh are vegetarian, lactose intolerant, unable to digest gluten, or a mixture of those three. Therefore, finding veggie options and non-dairy products are a breeze. At every restaurant that I have been to, they have their own vegetarian section on the menu and at every coffee shop there is a choice to substitute milk for soy milk (or what they call soya milk :) ).
If I wasn't already SUPER happy with the Welsh diet, I was even more ecstatic when I heard that the UK has banned High Fructose Corn Syrup from all the foods they sell! That's right, no foods are allowed to have any HFCS here! Now, this is just a rumor that I heard and I plan on researching it a bit further, but I have never heard some so as ingenious as this! And better yet, all packaged foods have to list all ingredients and tell whether they are suitable for vegetarians, vegans, lactose-free, and gluten-free eaters. This is exactly the next step North American needs to take in order to fix the malnutrition rut that we had gotten ourselves into.
So I thought I would share this incredible movement that I'm experiencing first-hand. I'll be sure to report more on the ban of HFCS in the UK once I learn more about it.
:)
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