Food in Ecuador Healthy But Is It Really?

cccmedia Ecuador/Colombia Expert

Member since 13 March 2014

cccmediaEcuador/Colombia Expert29 June 2021 05:30:22

10285

Since just after I moved to Quito in 2013, whenever I have been in the city, I like to buy my produce at the all-day-Monday América market that I mentioned on this thread. Wholesaler/growers have outdoor booths there over an area of hundreds of square yards.

I buy most of my produce from Tía and her friends and family. She told me that the family operates a farm outside Quito and they come into town early Monday morning and man their booth till 9 p.m. The rest of the week, so far as I know, they are tending the farm.

On recent Mondays, I have been swimming at the Matovelle pool starting around 6 p.m. and then walking down Calle Venezuela the few blocks to the market. I buy fruits and vegetables there; next someone from Tía's clan assists me to the 'calle' less than 30 yards away and we put the mercancías in the trunk of the first taxi we can hail. Then for me it's back to my condo complex, where the taxi driver and I unload the produce onto a USA-style shopping cart kept at the building's entrance, which cart I then wheel to my condo's door.

My Chevy is scheduled to be 'boosted' tomorrow by the Chevy dealership (the battery died, of course, during my extended stay in the USA). So on future Mondays I may drive the car to the weekly market and bring my purchases home myself.

As to the quality of the fruits and veggies, I generally love it. Is the produce truly organic? I haven't visited the farm and I can't vouch for exactly how everything is grown.

cccmedia

Priscilla ViP

Member since 30 May 2013

PriscillaViP02 July 2021 03:59:31

42358

Hi cccmedia,

Kindly note that a new thread has been created with your post on the Ecuador forum, as requested.

Thanks,

Priscilla
Expat.com Team

cccmedia Ecuador/Colombia Expert

Member since 13 March 2014

cccmediaEcuador/Colombia Expert02 July 2021 04:17:00

10285

Thank you, Priscilla.

Members, please note that there is a similarly-named thread on the Ecuador forum that already has about 14 responses on this topic.

That thread is reachable via the Ecuador forum welcome page.

cccmedia

cccmedia Ecuador/Colombia Expert

Member since 13 March 2014

cccmediaEcuador/Colombia Expert19 July 2021 04:42:38

10285

For my food choices, no-sugar means healthier.

The sugar-is-bad-for-you theme was drummed into me by my nutrition-expert doctor* during my recent year in Reno, Nevada, USA, where I received plentiful and successful medical attention.

So I have been pleased to find more sugar-free products on grocers shelves in Quito since I got back last month .. than even before.

I found two of these products today at the MegaMaxi on 6 de Diciembre near Portugal.

The more surprising one is Kinu brand Apple and Kiwi jam marked Sin Azúcar (without sugar) that comes in a smallish, black-capped bottle.

The apple-kiwi product is delicious -- the slogan is "le va a encantar" (you're gonna love it) -- and contains 98 percent fruit, according to the labeling.

It also says the product is vegan and contains no coloring, flavoring or gluten.

How they sweeten it without sugar is anybody's guess .. as the back of the label is in such tiny letters I can't read it even with reading glasses.

cccmedia in Quito

*That doctor is a Russian-émigré bear of a man with the unlikely name of Maged H. Maged, of the Century Wellness medical center in Reno.

I do not receive any financial incentive -- nor free products -- for mentioning this product, MegaMaxi or any other products that I may mention in this thread.

cccmedia Ecuador/Colombia Expert

Member since 13 March 2014

cccmediaEcuador/Colombia Expert19 July 2021 04:56:21

10285

The other product now available in Ecuador is made by the USA company Hershey's. It's been renamed as Zero Sugar chocolate candy.

The product contains milk and tastes like the Hershey's chocolate mini-bars that many of us on this forum grew up with back home. New Name, Same Great Taste, says the packaging.

The labeling says No Aspartame as well, but, once again, the back-of-the-package lettering is so tiny as to be unreadable by yours truly, even with reading glasses. So how Zero Sugar is sweetened with no sugar or aspartame is unclear.

cccmedia in Quito