Turkish Food Is Healthy – right or wrong?

BBQ ribs

Many people would not agree with the premise that Turkish Food Is Healthy. Here I will tell you my side of the story.

How my outlook on food changed since I came to Turkey

Before I came to live in Turkey, I was a pretty simple person concerning food. I didn’t care so much whether the food was tasty as long as it was healthy. I followed the rules in not eating a lot of fat, salt and junk food in general. I would boil vegetables and be happy with that kind of meals. Plane and simple. But…. Turkey made some big changes in that part of my life.

Boiled vegetables

The first year or two I spent almost with my mouth wide open when I would encounter some new food which happened on a daily basis. From sweets like baklava, sütlü nuriye (it resembles baklava, but is swimming in milk and is not as sweet as regular baklava) and sweet olives (yes, that also exists :)) to all kinds of kebab, amazing vegetable stews to practical soups and nice flat bread (yufka).

Coban kavurma and flat bread

Now after four years spent here, it happens still that I get surprised and very excited to try something new. Like recently when we traveled to Black Sea region and when our hosts prepared something amazing called kuymak. (and no…it’s not kaymak. It’s kuymak and here’s the link for a recipe to this amazing dish)

So in all this richness of food, that comes from Ottoman times and the fact that this land is a crossroad of Asia, Africa and Europe, it is almost impossible to stay untouched and unchanged by this big civilization.

Also, my taste buds and I changed 🙂

I still consider myself a healthy eater, but with BIG changes. I eat a lot of fat now, as I am following partly Paleo diet. It means I eat mostly protein and fat, some carbs and I have a strong sweet tooth, but I try to make sweets that are healthy and in Turkey you can find so many options to do that.

Why I consider Turkish food healthy

Vegetables on the green market

Simply because since I came to Turkey some of my health issues disappeared 🙂 And not only because I feel happy here, which is also very important for our overall health. This big country has four different seas, many different climates and geography vastly differ from one region to another, which gives the opportunity to grow so many different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Since I came to Turkey I was introduced to at least seven new vegetables, that now I use on a daily basis and at least five new fruits. This variety of foods gives us the opportunity to live healthy lives filled with good taste, which is for most of us, very important.

Of course, occasionally I indulge in less healthy sweets or foods, but I try to keep it on a low end. So my point is that even in a country where you have all these wonderful sweets, amazing flat bread, super tasty rice and very fatty meals (many times made with what is called “bad fats” like vegetable oils), you CAN eat healthy every day and prepare healthy meals from scratch for yourself and your family and talented Turkish people can teach us a lot about that.

Of course, many people make different choices and maybe would see this subject different than I do, so I invite you to leave your comments below and share your opinion on the subject.

Do you think food in Turkey is healthy or not? And why? I would like to know what kind of things got you surprised and what kind of the things you were happy to discover here.

Share your thoughts on this subject in the comment box bellow or contact me directly.

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