Food Beliefs

Conversations about the food system often focus on agriculture, policy, and marketing, but cultural beliefs and practices surrounding eating are essential to understanding the whole picture. Food culture shapes demand for specific types of food, responses to policy decisions and marketing, and cooking and eating practices that influence public health. With this in mind, I have had many conversations with Moroccans about food – what we should eat, when and how we should eat it, and why. I've gotten some interesting responses.

Dates are considered almost sacred in Islam

Dates are basically seen as a wonder food. Much of this stems from the importance of dates in the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah, the example of life set by the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon Him). It was the tradition of the prophet to break the fast (during Ramadan or other days of fasting) with fresh dates, or if none were available, with dry dates. He is also reported to have said that dates come from Paradise, and even that dates are an antidote to poison and black magic.

This store sold over a dozen varieties of dates

 Thus, dates are very popular in Muslim countries. They are good for breaking fasts, because they give you energy that your body can use right away. I was told that your body can use every part of them, and thus if you only eat dates you will not go to the bathroom (I did challenge this point as dates contain a significant amount of fiber). You should also only eat odd numbers of dates, otherwise your body cannot use the energy as well.

What else is good to eat? Fruits and vegetables are important for giving your body vitamins and minerals, but you can't just eat any type at any time. Eating fruit out of season is not good. I was specifically advised not to eat watermelon in May - the season really starts in July - because it is "not healthy." Figs are good, but if you eat too many, they will make you go to the bathroom a lot.

Don't eat too many of these, or...you know

Grapes, too, are said to help with constipation, more so than other types of fruit. Cactus fruits are said to be good to eat the night before fasting, to reduce thirst in the coming day. It's also good to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, since they all have different benefits.

Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables - this seems like sound advice

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 BUT!! Don’t eat just soup or just vegetables or just fruit, because your stomach will be working for nothing. Eat bread or other “hard” food. Bread makes you full, and cereals are good for your body.

Bread, like erghaygef, with cheese or butter and honey, is a good breakfast

It is good to eat bread like harcha and erghaygef with jben arbia (Moroccan cream cheese) or another type of dairy product, but just in the morning. If you eat that in the morning, you should not eat that type of thing again in the day. Lunch and dinner should definitely be hot; cooked food is more nutritious. And make sure you switch it up - meat one day, chicken the next, fish the next, then meat again, for example. Meat is important for your body.

There are not a lot of vegetarians in Morocco

Lots of foods give your body energy for sex, especially nuts like almonds, peanuts, and cashews. Also certain types of spices, any foods with protein, and some types of fruits, like avocados and pomegranate. Snails, too, are good for this type of thing. There is always a large crowd around the snail cart when the nightclubs close around 4am.

This is your store if your trying to get it on

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Not everything is good for you though. Never eat pork - it is prohibited by the Qur'an because it's very unhealthy. So is blood - my description of the preparation of Spanish morcilla (blood sausage) was met with shock and moderate disgust. Alcohol, too, is bad for your body and stays in your system for 40 days.

No.

There are other things that are not that bad, but should be avoided. Eating two soups in a row - in my case, harira (tomato soup with vegetables and noodles) followed by bisara (fava bean soup) - is not good. One of my friends told me that it would make my stomach hurt, another said it's not bad, it's just better to eat something hard too, like bread, so that your stomach isn't working for nothing. And don't eat to much spicy food, or an unspecified bad thing will happen to you.

                                           Choose one or the other - NOT BOTH!!

And what if you're sick? Heat milk until almost boiling, then crack an egg in it and mix well. Drink and go to sleep right away. You will sweat out all the sickness overnight. Then wash your clothes!

No matter what kind of sick you are, you should probably drink some milk

Food can help prevent you from getting sick, too. Sugar cane juice is good for you - for your mind, liver, heart, and energy level. And if you are inside and going outside to a colder temperature, you should drink a few sips of cool water, otherwise you will get sick.

 I eat fruit out of season, I'm a vegetarian, sometimes I eat just soup, sometimes lots of figs - and I got sick five times. I guess I have a lot to learn.

Advertising Part III: Women and Ice Cream

Women appear rarely in print advertisements. Most of ads simply depicted the foods themselves, served attractively; sometimes kids appeared in ads for candy or snack foods, or in one ad to promote new calcium-added "La Vache Qui Rit" processed cheese.

Ice cream is an exception. Young, attractive women were pictured in nearly every ice cream ad I saw, especially on coolers in front of stores. There seemed to be a suggestion of guilty pleasure and temptation, as well as an association with youthfulness and fun.

This freezer case advertised a brand of very cheap ice cream treats, retailing from 1 to 7 dirhams (about 12 to 85¢).

The phrase under Titan translates to "the pleasure is enormous" and the caption in the corner translates to "pleasure in every moment."

This ad went a step further and focused on just lips with red lipstick, with the woman biting her lip, presumably in anticipation of delicious ice cream. I was surprised by the more overt sexuality of this ad and the one below, since Morocco is a Muslim country. Tangier is quite liberal, especially compared to Saudi Arabia for example, but it was still unusual because I so rarely saw advertisements with any of the sexual overtones that are so common in the US.

The ads above and below place more of an emphasis on youthful fun, albeit fun involving attractive young women.

I've been thinking about why the ads for ice cream are so different than for other products like yogurt, cheese, or flour. One factor may be that ice cream is sometimes a product of foreign companies. Nestlé is, of course, Swiss, and Carte D'Or is a Unilever subsidiary. After doing some research on ice cream companies though, I am less inclined to think that this trend is merely imported advertising. Pingouin, for example, was started by a Danish entrepreneur in response to demand for ice cream on American military bases in Morocco, but, like Henry's, is owned by Morocco food giant Mobigen.  Yasmina, too, is based in Casablanca.

I think a large part has to do with the target market - it's mostly adult women buying things like flour, whereas the ice cream market may be dominated by younger consumers, particularly young men. And what better tool to sell things to young men than... young women. It seems that some things stay the same no matter where you go.