health foods in macedonia

Lately, I discovered myself that I am buying many stuff from "Vitalia", which is a health food producer in Macedonia (http://www.vitalia.com.mk/). Well, I am actually surprised that there is a concept of "health food" exists in Macedonia. Because, to me, many Macedonian seems do not care about what they eat and how they eat, which supposed to be very important basics of keeping a sound body. They put too much salt on anything, eat oily, fatty food a lot and all kinds of meat, meat, and meat with less vegetables, and take too much sugar in general (and many of them smoke a lot.) It is sometimes disgustingly too much. As I was told, even Macedonian think that nobody wants to get sick in Macedonia because of the poor health service, but, considering their eating habits, I think there is no way that people do not have chronic diseases in Macedonia. Well, in fact, the leading causes of death in Macedonia are diseases of the circulatory system such as cardiac and cerebrovascular stroke. No wonder. That kind of diseases of the circulatory system are so called "lifestyle-related diseases", which means if you change your lifestyle i.e. eating habit, you will be safe in many cases. Funny enough of a comment of DFID's Health Profile is "Macedonia is beginning to see a pattern of morbidity that would be expected of a wealthier, industrial or post-industrial society." Hmm, so as the concept of health food in Macedonia, I guess. Well, the leading causes of death in Japan are also cancer, heart disease, and cerebral stroke, which are all lifestyle-related. And, in Japan, the health food industry is booming.
Anyway. About Vitalia. While there are products for diabetics and obesity, what I buy from Vitalia are: organic whole rice, sesame, red beans, dried fruits, etc. I was also happy when I found out there is natural unrefined brown sugar, which I would otherwise ask my mother to send me from Japan. But, you know, those are the food items that Japanese regularly eat, not particularly as health food....

最近、よく買い物するアイテムが「Vitalia」という健康食品メーカーのものであるということを発見したのですが、ちょっとびっくりしたのは、「健康食品」というコンセプトがマケドニアに存在するってこと。私が見るマケドニア人の一般的イメージは、塩気が多く脂っこいものや砂糖がたっぷり入った食べ物をがつがつ食べるし、基本は肉ばっかだし、タバコはスパスパ吸うし、健康のことなどまったく気にしない、というカンジなので、「マケドニアでは病気しないに限る」なんて言っておきながら、こんな食習慣だったら慢性系の病気が多いに違いない、と思っていました。案の定、どんなヘルスレポートを見ても、「マケドニアでは循環器系の病気が1番の死因」といわれています。循環器系の病気ったら、そりゃ生活習慣病でしょ。食生活とか生活習慣を変えるだけでだいぶ死ななくてすむでしょ。知らないんだろーなー。ちょっと可笑しいのはDFIDのヘルスレポートで「マケドニアでも通常裕福な先進国で見られる病気のパターンが見られるようになってきました」というコメント。そりゃあ、健康食品のコンセプトもあるわけですな、先進国並みに(笑)。
話を戻して、Vitalia。Webを見ると、糖尿病用の人用商品、とか肥満の人用商品とかあったり、大豆系商品があったり。なるほど。糖尿病もめっちゃ生活習慣病だしね。ちなみに私が何を買っているかというと、玄米、ゴマ、アズキ、ドライフルーツなど。ちょっとうれしかったのは、三温糖みたいなのがあったこと。これでわざわざ日本から取り寄せなくても済むわ。