Coronavirus Comfort Food: Spain’s Residents from the Costa del Sol to the Costa Blanca have another thing to worry about-Weight Gain

THE Weight Gain Watching the Telly goes Mainly on the Belly! – Stuck at home for over 100 hours a week, Costa residents are comfort eating to suppress the boredom.

Households across Spain consumed 4.5 million tons of food and drink from March 9 to April 26, that’s a staggering 1 million tons more compared to the same seven weeks last year.

The Spanish minister for Agriculture, Luís Planas, said that this spending in the first seven weeks since the beginning of the pandemic and lockdown amounted to €11.1 billion, an increase of €2.5 billion on 2019.

Planas explained this was “evidence that Spanish citizens confined at home have consumed between 20 per cent and 25 per cent more food in terms of volume and between 25 per cent and 30 per cent more in value” than the previous year.

According to the minister, during the first two weeks, there was an “accumulation” (hoarding) of food by people, especially products such as pasta, rice, sugar and oil.

This was followed by a more stable period where demand for such goods levelled off “thanks to supply chains working well.”

During this period, he pointed out, there was “a large consumption of fresh products” and after Easter, the consumption of other foods such as fresh fish recovered.

Flour consumption quadruples

The agriculture minister also revealed that flour consumption quadrupled over the entire period. This four-fold increase was first noticed during the third week of lockdown when Planas suggested the data might indicate that people have “begun to make bread and pastries” as a “regular activity.”

Supermarket study

In April, an internal study carried out by the Catalan supermarket chain Bonpreu, which looked at the food and cleaning products most in-demand during the crisis, showed that the sale of vegetables such as courgettes or potatoes in supermarkets has grown 54 per cent during the coronavirus lockdown, while the demand for frozen fish has skyrocketed by 151 per cent.

The study also found that sales of fruit have gone up by 33 per cent, while meat sales have increased by 50 per cent, with the most demand for lamb and steak.

Quarantine weight gain

Weight concerns are deeply rooted in our culture, but the truth is, you have a lot to worry about right now, from staying healthy and homeschooling your children to finances and shopping for groceries. Worrying about gaining a few pounds during a pandemic only adds to your stress. Here’s why you should stress less about it:

In one study, monitoring food intake was linked with an increase in stress levels and cutting calories was linked with an increase in the stress hormone, cortisol. While this may not be true for everyone, it’s good evidence that worrying about your weight can make you more miserable during an already difficult time.

In summary, don’t worry about it, there are much more important things going on at the moment and remember,  as soon as this is all over and you can get out-and-about on a regular basis, the weight will gradually fall off. TW