2023-06-05 07:43:30
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, what gives us the right energy to face the day and makes us get out of bed enticed by the aroma of coffee, cappuccino or the sweet smell of warm croissants. This is the classic formula of the “Italian-style” breakfast, envied throughout the world, an identity mark of our country: a sweet recipe that differentiates us from the savory one, typical of the Anglo-Saxons. This in theory, but in practice Italy too can boast a long tradition of savory breakfasts, the emblem of which is undoubtedly the sdijuno from Abruzzo. Pane “onde” – bread and oil – cheeses, salami, but also pipidune and ove – pan-cooked peppers with scrambled eggs – pizza and foje – a corn pizza cooked on the grill or directly in the fireplace – accompanied by wild chicory or other wild herbs, ventricina and homemade pasta.
Also proposed as an appetizer in restaurants in a naturally reduced form and celebrated in numerous local festivals, sdijuno has been linked to rural reality since ancient times, when farmers ate a robust breakfast, practically a single and high-calorie meal, capable of giving the right energy to work the fields up to in the evening. A practice that is still perpetuated today on the occasion of the holidays, especially the Easter one. In fact, the name derives from the dialect and can be translated as “break fasting” which historically began on Good Friday and ended on Easter day. A tradition consumed in the middle of the morning which normally includes boiled eggs blessed and decorated with parsley, mixed cold cuts – such as homemade salami and mortadella from Campotosto from Aquila – and typical dishes of the Abruzzo tradition depending on the area, such as mazzarelle – a Teramo peculiarity made with coratella wrapped in endive leaves and tied with lamb intestines – plain or with sauce, pallotte with cheese and eggs – a recipe from time.news – or fiadoni, sweet stuffed ravioli typical of the Chieti area.
The Pizza Cola is a must o Easter pizza – cake similar to a panettone in shape made with aniseed and candied fruit – and “a strozzo” taralli, used instead of bread and accompanied by the classic Montepulciano. But “sdijunare” in Abruzzo is not just a party ritual, but above all it is a real elixir of life. This was confirmed by the study of Professor Mauro Serafini, professor of the Faculty of Biosciences of the University of Teramo, who with his team has led the “Centenari” project in recent years on the eating habits and metabolic characteristics of nonagenarians and centenarians in the area of the province of L’Aquila: “We did a demographic analysis on Istat statistics to see the frequency of nonagenarians and centenarians in Abruzzo compared with that of the Sardinian municipality of Villagrande and a fairly pronounced longevity emerged located in inland areas near the parks national ones”, says Professor Serafini.
The novelty of this study concerns the importance of the role of sdijuno in a low metabolic stress diet, highlighting chrononutrition as one of the key factors for longevity: “Meals were made according to circadian rhythms – explains Serafini – Dinner was consumed between 19.00 and 19.30 , guaranteeing low nighttime post-prandial stress, while the following morning a small breakfast was practiced at dawn, a sdijuno around 11 of about 300 calories and then lunch, the most abundant meal, around 12.30. In this way a caloric restriction window of about 17-18 hours is identified, from dinner to the following lunch, which made it possible not to stress the body and indeed to face lunch efficiently from a metabolic point of view, keeping the response low inflammation and containing post-prandial stress”. An eating habit that represents a “state of mind” rooted in the Abruzzo lifestyle and which also has many similarities with the Mediterranean diet: “These people are in excellent health, they don’t have important diseases from a cardiovascular point of view or related to a unregulated eating style, such as obesity and diabetes – concludes Serafini – Obviously with the limits of age, they are still active, carry out physical and household activities, such as cooking or tending the garden, and adopt a bio-Mediterranean diet, with vegetables, fruit, many legumes, cereals and a moderate consumption of meat”. The only sacrifice is to give up sweets, which are almost completely absent from the diet of centenarians. The game should be worth the candle and maybe, indeed, after all this savory, who still has room for sweet?
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