EUROPTEENS
ETWINNING PROJECT
Both in Spain and in Italy there are many vegetarian people. Unlike Spain, in Italy there are many restaurants that offer vegetarian meals but there aren't many vegetarian restaurants.
In Italy, instead, as well as everywhere in the world many people are affected by celiac disease.
WHAT IS CELIAC DISEASE?
Celiac disease is a permanent intolerance to gluten, a protein found in oats, wheat, spelt,khorasan wheat (usually marketed as kamut), barley, rye and triticale.
The incidence of this intolerance in Italy is estimated in a subject every 100 people. The celiac potentially would then be 600,000, but individuals diagnosed today are little more than 100,000. Every year there are 10,000 new diagnoses with an annual increase of about 10%.
To treat celiac disease, currently, you must exclude from your diet some of the most common foods such as bread, pasta, cookies and pizza, but also eliminate the smallest traces of gluten. This implies a strong commitment to nutrition education. In fact, the consumption of gluten, even in small amounts, can cause several more or less serious consequences.
The gluten-free diet, conducted with rigor, is currently the only therapy that provides the celiac a perfect state of health.
In our country it isn't very common to be a vegetarian. In our city there aren't any vegetarian restaurants and none of our friends and neighbours is vegetarian.
We looked for ingredients in a supermarket to make a vegetarian recipe because we wanted to find out how expensive it is to be vegetarian.
By Pablo Argüelles and Andrés Díaz
By Valentina Favaro, Martina Rigo and Giorgia Zorzetto