Arrop exists. It is the literary offering that the shepherds propose to bring to the newborn Baby Jesus along with fresh bread, cheese, honey, and mató. When the writer Josep Maria Folch i Torres wrote the play Els Pastorets he must have turned to the most precious and beloved foods, among which was arrop. Today it is still a good food, and we can prepare it at home, right now, with the fruits that still linger from the summer.

Reading and understanding the labels of the food we want to buy is basic to knowing what we are eating. I have seen elderly people using a large magnifying glass to read them by enlarging the small print. Let's do it however we want, but let's do it. The other day, a friend told me that he had bought a Cadí cheese, DOP Urgèlia, which is semi-cured and with a washed rind, very good, and he sent me the image of the labeling. It indicated the origin of the milk, which is from the State. The ingredients: pasteurized cow's milk, salt, lactic ferments, stabilizer (calcium chloride) and rennet. On the rind there is a preservative, E-235 (an antifungal). And, attention, in the list of allergens, the labeling indicated that it could contain gluten, egg, sulfites, soy, nuts, celery, mustard, fish and crustaceans. And my friend asked me: "Why can a cheese from the Pyrenees contain traces of fish and crustaceans?"

We have had a day that was as dark as a wolf's throat, we arrive home and think we will solve it with chocolate. It is not the first time we have turned to it, and it has worked for us. That is why we thought of it quickly. Perhaps even when we were already imagining ourselves sitting on the sofa eating it, we started to feel better. We eat it and manage to make the sadness, anger, and boredom of the day go away with that piece that we know perfectly well we have stored away. Behind this action there is a reason. Science says that chocolate stimulates a pleasant state because it has phenylethylamine, and linked with the memory we have of it, it makes us seek it out to leave behind an unpleasant mood.

Peanuts deserve a lot of reverence and also four clarifications. The first: botanically they are a legume, but we eat them as if they were nuts. The second: they do not generate cholesterol, as has probably been said and believed. In fact, from bags of mixed nuts, it has become customary to believe that peanuts were the worst. “No food of plant origin contains cholesterol, which is only present in foods of animal origin, because it is a molecule that is part of the membranes of their cells”, explains dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. And the third: peanuts not only do not generate cholesterol, but they help to regulate it, as demonstrated by one of the most important clinical trials on nutrition and cardiovascular health, carried out in the State with the participation of the Rovira i Virgili University, among others.

Until January of next year, when you buy a canned product labeled as zamburiña you will likely be purchasing Pacific scallop, Galician scallop, or variegated scallop. All three have an affordable price, and have traditionally been passed off as an expensive mollusk: the variegated scallop, zamburiña in Galician. However, all this will end in January, because a new law will force canning companies to label them with the correct name: they will not be able to pass one off for the other, neither in the name nor in the labeling photograph. Meanwhile, they have these remaining months of the year to finish the canned goods that have the erroneous labeling, the one that tries to pass off as a big deal what is not.

With figs we have certainties. We know they are a fruit that arouses lively passion. If we pick them from the fig tree and eat them immediately, we will feel the summer slipping through our fingers, because figs, especially the "coll de dama" variety, mark the end of August.

Gazpacho, the preparation that is already Catalan according to the Corpus de la Cuina Catalana, is prepared with tomato, pepper, cucumber, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, a little bread (optional), vinegar, and salt. Everything is put together and blended with an electric mixer. It's easy, and the biggest difficulty is gathering the ingredients, chopping them with a knife, and blending them. However, so that we don't do anything, so that we always have everything done for us, the food industry gives it to us ready-made in tetrapaks. The cook Ada Parellada stated at the meeting with ARA readers that she would have said that such an invention would never have worked. Perhaps today industrial gazpachos have already entered a large part of Catalan homes. Which ones are the best?As always, we must read the labels. The fewer ingredients they have, the better; they will resemble homemade ones more. To continue, "the first ingredients should always be vegetables, especially tomatoes, which are the main component and responsible for a large part of their content of lycopene (antioxidant), vitamin C, potassium, and other antioxidant compounds," states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. If you read bread in the ingredients, "it is normal within the traditional recipe and should not be a cause for concern." However, there are other ingredients that can also be found in some industrial gazpachos, which are the ones to avoid. "Some partially substitute extra virgin olive oil with cheaper refined oils, such as sunflower oil, which is also healthy, but nutritionally extra virgin olive oil remains the most interesting option thanks to its content of oleic acid and polyphenols." You also need to pay attention to the amount of salt. "There are gazpachos that easily exceed 1% salt, a high amount if we consume a large glass. Whenever possible, it is preferable to choose options with less than 0.8 g of salt per 100 ml," says the dietitian-nutritionist.Vegetables, the first on the list

So, first there must be vegetables; then extra virgin olive oil and be careful with the amount of salt. But there are still other ingredients that industrial gazpachos can contain, which are the ones that must be rejected: "Some incorporate added sugar, unnecessary thickeners, flavorings or a long list of additives that have little to do with a traditional gazpacho". And it is so because "supermarket gazpacho is a processed food, which also does not automatically make it an unhealthy food". It can be healthy "if the vegetables have been blended, mixed with the usual ingredients and subjected to treatments such as pasteurization to guarantee food safety and extend its preservation". As a consequence of this process "the amount of vitamin C, which is especially sensitive to heat, can be slightly reduced, but it retains a good part of the rest of the nutrients and can even increase the bioavailability of lycopene from tomato, a carotenoid with a high antioxidant capacity," says Grífols.To finish, making gazpacho at home is simple, and there are two tricks that the Disfrutar chefs reveal so that the garlic and cucumber do not return. The garlic will not return if you blanch it three times. That is, once you have peeled the garlic cloves, submerge them in a pot with boiling water, and do so for a few seconds. You can repeat this operation up to three times, because in this way you will manage to lower the pungency of the garlic. And as for the cucumber, they say you have to peel it, chop it, remove the inner seeds and put it in salt on a plate for a while. Then the cucumber will sweat and extract water. When it has done so, rinse it well with a stream of water to remove the salt. And the two ingredients will be ready to add them together to the blender jar and blend them. A quick dish to prepare that also hydrates.

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There is a popular street conversation about the fact that sardines are smaller than ever. Summer is the peak season for these fish, because that's when they eat a lot to accumulate fat for autumn; then they can lay eggs and reproduce. For this reason, it has always been said that sardines should be eaten in the months that do not have an 'R': June, July, and August, because that's when they have more fat and are tastier.In the city of Porto, sardines are the typical dish in many restaurants. Both in street food and in Michelin-starred cuisine. At the hotel The One Monumental Palace, located in the heart of the city, the chef Julien Montbabut has a menu that travels through Portugal dish by dish. It is a journey through traditional cuisine, filtered through his French lens after years living in Portugal, which earned him a Michelin star last year. Sardines, of course, cannot be missing. He cooks them to perfection, with bread and oil, and they are a meaty and flavorful bite. Meanwhile, in street restaurants, near the river, you will find grilled sardines. Also meaty. And that is because in the Atlantic, sardines are big, very big.In the Atlantic, bigger“In the Mediterranean, in general, many marine species are smaller than in the Atlantic,” says scientist Anna Bozzano, who assures that it is due to the environmental characteristics of the sea; the Mediterranean has a higher temperature and less nutrient availability than the Atlantic. When the sea temperature is lower, fish have a slower metabolism and, therefore, can grow more, says Bozzano. In the Mediterranean, there are many other factors that could explain why sardines are small. All together, they could lead us to understand it. To begin with, there is plankton, which has lost quality and quantity due to the warming of the water. If the sardine's food is less nutritious, it will not favor its growth.To continue, there are microplastics that sardines ingest. “They feel like they have eaten, that they are full, and then they do not eat their food. Microplastics worsen the metabolic condition of sardines, which end up being smaller and thinner,” says scientist Anna Bozzano, who points to rising sea temperatures as a factor that stresses sardines. “They can end up laying smaller eggs than usual because environmental stress can accelerate sexual development,” she says. Therefore, multifactorial reasons explain why our sardines have nothing to do with those from the Atlantic.To conclude, let's look at the data to check that we have fewer sardines than ever (beyond whether they are small). According to data from the Catalan Institute for Research for Maritime Governance, in 2025, 3,935.7 tons of sardines were caught, counting all Catalan fish markets. This figure represented a reduction of 33.3% compared to the average catch between the years 2022 and 2024. So we eat smaller sardines than ever, and fewer than ever. Probably, overfishing also explains this decrease. All this makes us envy the city of Porto, with those large, plump sardines. Ours are meager. And all this doesn't seem to have a solution.

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Hard-boiled eggs can be found in the refrigerated section of supermarkets. I'll write it again. Half a dozen boiled and peeled eggs, in the refrigerated section. There is a wonderful recipe, traditional to our region, made with hard-boiled eggs, which are deviled eggs. They are cut in half, the yolk is mixed with tuna and its olive oil, and then the filling is placed back inside the concave part of the egg. A little egg white is grated on top (from another hard-boiled egg we have). An important detail: the price of a package of hard-boiled eggs is similar to fresh eggs; it's around two euros for half a dozen.The question is: can't we make hard-boiled eggs or peel them? Is our culinary knowledge so meager that we can't put a pot with plenty of cold water on the stove and put the eggs in it? When the water boils, put the fresh eggs in with the help of a spoon and after twelve minutes they will be cooked. Let them cool, and then peel them. A note: if we leave the eggs in boiling water for six minutes, we will have soft-boiled eggs. If they stay in for three minutes, poached eggs. You don't have to have studied at ten cooking schools, or even one, to boil and peel an egg.Industry anticipates our needs, and what it gives us is time, because that's what we shouldn't have when we buy hard-boiled eggs. Nutrition specialist doctor Montse Folch tells me that a hard-boiled egg bought at the supermarket is "nutritionally very similar to one cooked at home." Dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols agrees, adding that supermarket hard-boiled eggs, like homemade ones, "provide high biological value proteins, fat-soluble vitamins such as A and D, B group vitamins, choline, selenium, and other essential minerals for health and sports performance. The mere act of cooking, peeling, and packaging it does not significantly alter its nutritional value." She also adds that there's no need to be alarmed "if ingredients like citric acid (E-330) or lactic acid (E-270) appear, as they are intended to maintain the microbiological stability and pH of the product." Among all the packages of boiled and peeled eggs you find, there is a warning: pay attention to the amount of salt. "If it provides more than 0.8-1 grams per hundred, it's better to look for another one, because the ideal salt quantity would be a maximum of 0.5 g per hundred," states doctor Montse Folch.Peeled with nutrients

Regarding the fact that eggs are peeled, the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols also sees no problem. “It does not involve a significant loss of nutrients; the same are lost as if we did it at home, which are some water-soluble and heat-labile vitamins, but their nutritional impact is minimal”. So science applauds the invention; industry gives us time and consumers don't even boil eggs so we don't have to cook. But, alas!, there is one thing we will never have if we buy a package of hard-boiled eggs: taste! The flavor, the smell, the texture of a hard-boiled egg from a plastic supermarket package will not be the same as the one we made at home on an exhausting day, when all you feel like is a fresh lettuce salad with a boiled egg that you prepare in that pot you have designated for boiling. While you boil the eggs, you can put on your comfortable house clothes and slippers. Set the table with your tablecloth, the plate, the cutlery. Peel the eggs with your hands. If you are very hungry, you will burn your fingertips a little if the eggs are hot; if you have had the patience to let them cool, you will peel them in a moment. Some people place a glass bowl in the freezer while the eggs are boiling, because that way, as soon as the twelve minutes have passed, they can take the empty bowl out of the freezer and place the boiled eggs in it. Then the egg cools down immediately. Everything is easy if we want to do it right. We gain a lot, we gain taste, which no invention of the food industry will ever beat us in.

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Mayonnaise, the Minorcan emulsion that the French have claimed for years they invented, is easy to prepare at home: it is made with olive oil, egg, lemon, and a pinch of salt. Current nutrition views it favorably because it is considered that mayonnaise provides the body with healthy fats and a small amount of protein from the egg. The problem, as everyone knows, is that "it is sensitive to microbiological contamination.” “The raw egg can contain bacteria such as salmonella," state dietitians-nutritionists Anna Costa and Anna Grífols. And all this is aggravated in summer, with high temperatures. So, what do we do? If we want to eat a Russian salad with mayonnaise, how do we go about it? On the supermarket shelves there are a thousand and one jars; are they good?“Paradoxically, from a microbiological point of view industrial mayonnaise is usually much safer than homemade,” says Anna Grífols. The industry uses pasteurized eggs, the sauce undergoes strict acidity controls and also elaboration processes that minimize the risk of salmonellosis. However, industrial mayonnaise is made up of ingredients that we would not use at home: refined sunflower oil (at home we would use olive oil), sugars and additives. “There are industrial mayonnaises that even incorporate oils of worse nutritional quality, or quite a few technological ingredients,” points out Grífols.The industrial, more than four ingredients

If we take a jar of industrial mayonnaise, we will find that the list of ingredients is more extensive than the four we have mentioned. Placed in order according to quantity, we will find refined sunflower oil, water, pasteurized egg yolk, lemon juice or vinegar, sugar, spices, salt, and stabilizers such as xanthan gum. It is an industrial product, therefore, which imitates a simple preparation, and which is safe because the egg is pasteurized. But beware, “because it is safe straight from the factory but when we open it and, therefore, air enters, it must be consumed quickly and kept cold, because microorganisms can also enter that spoil it,” points out the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa.So, the paradox of industrial mayonnaise is that it assures us of food safety parameters but we lose many others in terms of flavor and tradition, to the point where a simple recipe with four ingredients becomes ultra-processed. At this point, we recommend you make it at home with all precautions and eat it immediately. We advise you to use fresh eggs, with intact shells. Do not wash them, because the bacteria on the eggshells could penetrate inside. Wash your hands and also the tools with which you will prepare the mayonnaise. Add lemon or vinegar, because both act as acidifiers. Prepare a small amount; basically what you will eat. If you have any left over, store it immediately in the refrigerator between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius. Do not keep it at room temperature. And eat it by the next day at the latest, no later.

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The flavor that we all people in the world like the most is vanilla, according to the scientific journal "Current Biology". As the industry is aware of this, it uses it for custards, ice creams, infusions, and much more. Vanilla seems to be infinite, but it's not possible to use so much of it, because it's one of the most expensive spices in the world. "Its pollination is practically manual; cultivation is slow and production is very vulnerable to droughts, cyclones, and market fluctuations, so its price can be 500 euros per kilo", says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, who adds that vanilla comes exactly from an orchid, generally Vanilla planifolia". "Its pods don't smell when they are picked, but, on the other hand, when they are cured and fermented, they do, and this smell can last for months", she comments.

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Do you know the white shrimp? It is that small one, larger than the plump one, which until about ten years ago was from the south, from Andalusia, and was prepared breaded, fried, and eaten as a tapa or as an appetizer. And how good! Well, the white shrimp is now Catalan, we can say it that way. Meridionalization, the scientific term that explains the phenomenon, has caused species from the south to move north, where they seek suitable temperatures to live and reproduce. And the fact is that in our country the white shrimp has found them. Miquel Mir, patron mayor of the fishermen's guild of the port of Palamós, assures that during the months of March and April each boat has caught 200 kilos per day this year.Marine scientist Anna Bozzano explains that white shrimp has always been traditional to Andalusia. "It used to be found in the west of the Mediterranean, near Gibraltar, and the resulting cuisine was battered and fried," and it was eaten whole. Since white shrimp needs a higher sea temperature to live, it has moved north, where it has been found. "If it's comfortable there, then it can reproduce more," and hence the large quantity caught by boats from Catalan ports. In the markets, it is a shrimp that is well-received, and in homes, it is easy to cook and eat. Furthermore, the price is usually low, so we have all the arguments to understand its good acceptance: abundance and low price.

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There was a time when we ate mayors for dinner (Micromesistius poutassou).We fried them, turning them over and over, with flour, and placed them on a slice of toasted bread well rubbed with tomato. It was a white fish that fell apart, with an easily removable central bone, with soft flesh, which was a delight if we poured a good stream of extra virgin olive oil over it. It was a good dinner, and with many advantages: nutritional and economic, because the sardines were cheap.

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Stuffed olives are one of the great successes of the food industry, which we have become accustomed to, knowing that they can be more expensive than if we bought olives with a pit. Furthermore, not all fillings literally correspond to what is stated on the label. So it could be that they do not contain pepper, anchovy, tuna, salmon or cheese, but rather "a reconstituted paste, formed by crushed pepper, thickeners, texture enhancers, flavor enhancers and food stabilizers that maintain its shape and preserve it for months," states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols.

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Buying yogurts should be a simpler task than it has currently become. If we are clear about the taste (Let's take it step by step. To begin with, what do A1 and A2 milk mean. “Some cow breeds produce a type of milk protein, beta-casein A2, while many other European breeds produce beta-casein A1," says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa. In A2 milk, this protein is mostly present, while in other milks it is not. “We know that the digestion of milk containing A1 can generate a peptide called BCM-7 (a peptide is a short chain of amino acids linked together), which some studies have linked to digestive discomfort in sensitive individuals,” points out Anna Grífols. Therefore, since the industry knows that A2 milks are more digestible, what is being done is selecting cows, which are usually Friesians, that produce beta-casein A2.

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Extra virgin olive oil is the liquid gold of our kitchen. We revere it, respect it, and know that it is one of the healthiest fats, and probably the most studied. When From 180 degrees, extra virgin olive oil begins to oxidize, but it is also true that it will do so more or less depending on the amount of time it is kept at this temperature, and "it will also depend on what we cook in it," states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, who adds that despite this, "extra virgin olive oil is much more stable than is often believed thanks to its high content of two components: oleic acid and natural antioxidant compounds such as polyphenols and vitamin E". A maximum of two times

To the point: we can reuse extra virgin olive oil between one and two times, "as long as we have never taken it to high temperatures, as long as it has not reached the smoke point, if it does not contain burnt residues, if it has been filtered and if it has been stored correctly after use". On the other hand, "when extra virgin olive oil darkens, when it smells rancid, when it produces a lot of smoke or when its texture changes, it is a clear sign that the quality has been lost", says Grífols, who assures that this advice is general, the one that people can follow at home. "We could reuse it ten times if we did not heat the oil beyond 180°, if we fried vegetables in it, if we completely covered the food, if we filtered it after use and if we then stored it in a suitable place". Since meeting all these requirements is difficult, the recommendation is to reuse extra virgin olive oil a maximum of two times. A note on the idea that frying vegetables in it makes it more profitable: "It is not the same to fry vegetables in extra virgin olive oil as battered or protein-rich foods, because the organic and protein residues they leave behind accelerate the degradation of the oil and, moreover, increase the production of potentially toxic compounds", states Grífols, who underlines the idea that extra virgin olive oil should not smoke: "When it burns or is used too many times, it stops being a protective food and becomes a source of oxidized compounds that do not help our health".Finally, extra virgin olive oil can be solidified (not frozen) if you need to keep it for months with the same properties as when you bought it. "Below zero degrees, we manage to solidify the saturated fats in the oil, which are 15%," says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa, who suggests the idea of taking an ice cube tray and adding sauces that contain extra virgin olive oil (like a pesto sauce) and then using them according to the use we want to give to our dishes. The extra virgin olive oil will have been preserved intact with all its benefits, for health and for cooking.

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Rice or corn cakes are the trendy food, and through marketing we perceive them as healthy. You'll find all sorts: rice and corn with salt, with yogurt, with white chocolate, with dark chocolate... There are also organic ones. The reality is that they are an ultra-processed food: rice and corn are industrially subjected to high temperatures, and precisely because of this, the starch chain is broken, which causes the food to turn into sugar when we ingest it. If they add salt, it's to disguise the sweetening of the ultra-processed rice and corn, but if they add yogurt or chocolates, they increase the sweetness. For all these reasons, they are less filling than a slice of bread with extra virgin olive oil, of which, if we count the ingredients, there are four: flour, water, salt, and oil. "The nutritional labels of the cakes do not reflect the real sugar content from the processing of rice and corn because they do not take into account the industrial method with which they have been cooked," explains dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa, who adds that they are regulatory labels, but, despite this, they do not fully reflect reality."Popcorn are an ultra-processed product even when they only contain two ingredients, rice and salt," says Costa, who adds that the explanation is the high temperatures to which the industry subjects the two foods. "If it takes us ten minutes at home to make popcorn, the industry takes less than a minute, and for this reason, the starches, which we have to imagine as a pearl necklace, break and the sugars become individualized," explains the nutritionist. When we eat them, if we don't accompany them with any other food, they will cause a blood sugar spike, a hyperglycemia, because the individualized sugar from the popcorn quickly passes into the blood. The body, by definition, does not like such high sugar spikes, because the pancreas has to respond, it has to play the role of a solver, which means producing insulin to counteract it. Of course, popcorn eaten exceptionally cannot have more consequences, as stated by the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, but as a regular food, yes. "The excess glucose in the blood is transformed into triglycerides, which go to the arteries in the form of particles known as bad cholesterol, with all the consequences it entails," says the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa. Ideal for athletes

Finally, as a source of processed carbohydrates, there may be some situations where they can be "interesting to eat, because in nutrition the most important thing is not only the food but the whole diet and the context in which we consume it," says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. The fact is that for athletes "it can be useful before or during exercise, because they provide quick energy and are easy to digest; moreover, they help increase sodium intake." For non-athletes, if we want to eat them, the recommendation is to combine them with protein, fiber, or healthy fats. If not, they generate little satiety, leaving you hungry and thirsty shortly after, because the body has converted them solely into sugars.

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The potato omelette is so ours that it generates debates that polarize the population: those who put onion in it, those who don't; those who make it creamy, those who don't. But there is another more intense debate in nutrition with the potato omelette: resting it in the fridge to make it tastier, less caloric, and more digestible.

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As we approach the best time of year to eat prawns (Aristeus antennatus), in June, it's time to explain that the parental authority over red prawns lies with the Mediterranean. Not the port of Vilanova, nor Palamós, nor Blanes, nor Tarragona. The decapod crustacean that is the prima donna of our gastronomy moves tirelessly from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, and no one can scientifically say that it has spent its life in any specific town. The red prawn has no place of residence because it is nomadic: one day it's from Blanes and another day it's from Cambrils, for example.In a few days, the prawns will have a lilac-colored head (actually the cephalothorax, where the stomach is). This will mean they are females and are about to expel their eggs, which will be fertilized in the sea, and this might happen in Dénia. When the eggs are released into the sea, they will become larvae, and then the sea currents may transport them to Tarragona. Moving from place to place, they may have formed their exoskeleton in Vilanova, and also increased in size. And, finally, they may arrive, adult, in Palamós, ready to reproduce. We could explain the cycle in reverse: the egg could have been released in Palamós; the larva, in Vilanova, and the adult stage, in Dénia. And whoever says Palamós, Vilanova, or Dénia, also means other coastal towns. Therefore, it's anecdotal to say that the best prawns are from a fishing port, because they are all the same. Furthermore, there is no scientific basis for saying that prawns from the Costa Brava have an orangey hue "because in reality the red prawn has a predominantly transparent or white hue when alive, and once caught, the intensity and extent of its color gradually increases over hours and days," states scientist Arnau Subías, who runs the @gastrobio Instagram account. The only thing that indicates an orangey or red color in the prawn is how long it has been caught.

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We want to eat cheese when we buy a package of grated cheese, but if we don't look closely at the label, we might end up eating starches, milk proteins, melting salts, vegetable fats, flavorings, and water. All these are the ingredients that appear on the label of some industrial packages of grated cheese, some of which might not have a drop of cheese in them, because “they substitute it with vegetable fats, starch, and flavorings”, states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols.

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