The South American diet shapes the figure harmoniously

The traditional South American diet consists of three meals a day, and some people include one or two light snacks between main meals.

The first feature of the traditional South American diet is that it is quite low in dairy products. Milk is hardly consumed except for some desserts.

More popular drinks are coffee and freshly squeezed fruit juices. Fruits, vegetables and nuts are consumed in large quantities. Cassava flour is involved in the preparation of many dishes.

Coffee is the number one drink on the continent. ⅓ of all the coffee in the world is produced in Brazil. In countries like Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador, coffee is drunk in quite large quantities and this has an impact of the metabolism by making it faster than usual.

Usually breakfast is light. Consists of fruit, fruit juice, coffee, some bread and jam, sometimes butter. It is rather a symbolic meal that prepares people for the new day.

In South America, the biggest meal of the day is lunch. Larger amounts of food are usually consumed for lunch – roast meat, beans, rice, vegetables and others.

Dinner consists of the same products, but usually in smaller quantities. Sometimes it goes on for hours. Dessert is usually served, but it consists of some fresh fruit with the occasional slice of cheese.

In South American cuisine, bread is not overdone. Usually more corn and quinoa are consumed. Quinoa itself has recently gained fame as the healthiest grain.

If you take a closer look at the diet of the continent, you will notice how a huge part of the local residents’ menu is occupied by fruits and vegetables, and everything else is consumed as if for variety and color.

The absence of dairy products in the menu, especially full-fat ones saves a large number of calories from food every day.

Another important point in South American nutrition is the relatively low popularity of artificial and processed foods in shiny packages. These sources of empty calories are one of the secrets of a good figure in most countries of the continent.