Sparrow Grass

It's asparagus time. Nothing I like more than green English asparagus, preferably from the Vale of Evesham. We never seem to call it asparagus at home. It's either sparrow grass or else we use the German word Spargel. Very often Spargel is white an not nearly as flavoursome as real sparrow grass so I was pleased to find a German website recommending trying different types Spargelsorten: Exoten und Klassiker There are plenty of other interesting articles on food and drink on the same site http://www.daskochrezept.de/lust-auf-genuss/

Food labelling

Nutritional values will soon have to appear on packaging in Germany. I was surprised to find that this was done on a mainly voluntary basis at present.

"Bisher sind die Nährstoff-Angaben auf Verpackungen größtenteils freiwillig. Künftig wird die Kennzeichnung für alle Lebensmittel Pflicht", sagte die CSU-Ministerin der Zeitung "Bild am Sonntag".

Reuters ran the report this morning under the heading Ministerin: Nährstoffangaben zu Lebensmitteln werden Pflicht

eating disorders and healthy diet

Discuss the causes of eating disorders and the importance of a healthy diet. Now there's a good topic for any one learning German.

What immediately comes to mind is http://www.was-wir-essen.de/ which has a section on Gesund Essen. Following through to the Empfehlungen you'll find plenty of recommendations and links to other information sources.

What comes to mind with eating disorders - Essstörungen - are anorexia - die Magersucht - and bulimia - die Ess-Brech-Sucht. The latter illustrates some confusion about how to write words in German. It used to be Eß-Brech-Sucht but the ß has been replaced by ss and it is sometimes written as a single word without hyphens i.e. Essbrechsucht, or else as Ess Brechsucht. The easiest place to go for background reading is Wikipedia de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essstörung and that will also give you information about that wonderfully German sounding expression Binge Eating (note the capital letters). A further sources of information is Onmeda where you can look up all manner of things to do with health and illness. Bulimie and  Magersucht are both to be found via the Krankheiten A-Z  page.


Germany seems to have clubs and associations for everything and eating disorders is no exception. Take a look at BFE Bundes Fachverband Essstörungen e.V. They have a useful quick check page which, I think, will help with the discussion over the causes of eating disorders, so take a look at Test: Bin ich essgestört? and there are also Links für Betroffene und Angehörige. The following quote is from the BFE site

Essstörungen gehören in der westlichen Gesellschaft zu den häufigsten psychosomatischen Erkrankungen – mit mehr oder weniger deutlichem Suchtcharakter. Essstörungen äußern sich durch ein gestörtes Verhältnis zum Essen und zum eigenen Körper.

The numbers of people affected are much higher than I had expected. The figures for Germany are:  anorexia 100,000 people (90% young women) - bulimia 600,000 - binge eating about 2% óf the population. Warum sind Kinder aus sozial benachteiligten Familien fast doppelt so häufig betroffen wie Kinder aus der oberen sozialen Schichten?

Local and regional food

I mentioned the government initiative dat.gov.uk in my Sunday post and looking at it this morning I found this suggestion from James Shedden

Take the farmers market to the web - have a searchable map of local food producers. Often small producers or farm shops don't have websites so finding out about them can be difficult. For example try finding a fish shop outside of a city these days....

If you want to add your support to the suggestion then you could comment on the article on data.gov.org

I don't think there is anything like this on German websites but I did find some interesting advice on food and nutrition which includes an encouragement to buy regional produce - bunt ist gesund.

Der hessische Agrarstaatssekretär Mark Weinmeister hat die hessischen Verbraucher aufgerufen, frisches Obst und Gemüse aus der Region zu kaufen. „Gerade bei frischem Obst und Gemüse aus der Region ist der Vitamingehalt besonders hoch, da die langen Transportwege wegfallen. Buntes Obst und Gemüse ist zudem reich an Pflanzenfarbstoffen (Flavonoiden), die gegen Bakterien und Viren wirken und entzündungshemmend sind“, sagte Weinmeister. Wer frische Produkte aus der Region auf dem Markt kauft, tue seiner Gesundheit Gutes.

Another site I want to explore further is was wir essen I was please to see it has lots of info on food production as well as the usual health and nutrition advice. This would be a good source for learning German vocabulary about food and food production.

Do let me know if you come across any more useful sites about food - über Lebensmittel