HOW THE HABITS OF ITALIANS AT THE TABLE HAVE CHANGED – PART 2

In our last article we started from the post-war period and arrived at the present day to see how the habits of Italians at the table have changed. From the typical family lunch to the energy bars eaten on the scooter, passing through the world of fast food and junk food. We ended our run by talking about replacement meals, which have been on the market for several years now but which, in almost all cases, have slimming purposes. (https://www.completefood.it/en/how-the-habits-of-italians-at-the-table-have-changed-part-1/)

Today we are talking about Complete Foods, or as we prefer to call them “new generation replacement meals”.
Complete Foods are the biggest novelty in the rapidly expanding segment of the ready meals market, which in the last 7 years has seen the birth of new companies and the involvement of new types of consumers. With Complete Food we mean a new generation replacement meal that contains everything the human body needs, and that provides a caloric content such as to provide a correct caloric requirement (ie it is not a low-calorie meal). Complete Food is defined as a real food, which does not always have to have a slimming purpose, and whose function varies depending on the mode of use.

The first complete food is called Soylent and was born in 2013 in Silicon Valley, in the United States, as a product capable of being the only source of nutrition for the person and with the characteristic of having the most neutral flavour possible (as if to say that taste was not the goal of this type of product). Over time, however, things have changed a lot and several products have been created with very different versions. The very first version for complete food was the powder to be dissolved in water, offered through a very voluminous packaging that could contain the quantity necessary to replace many meals. The use was only domestic or for the office, in situations where the transport of the product was not a critical issue. Subsequently, some companies began to offer a single-portion product to give greater flexibility to the consumer, who can easily transport the product and use it in many more situations. Another type of Complete Food is then the “ready-to-use”, which sees the powder normally inserted inside a bottle, to which the consumer only has to add water, without the need to use a shaker. In addition, the first “ready-to-drinks” were born, where the product is already prepared in liquid form inside a bottle or a tetrapack package, to be immediately consumed without any preparation. Continuing, the same consumer need can be satisfied in solid form, which led to the birth of the first Complete Food bars, different from the traditional ones because “complete” with all the macro and micro nutrients and for the caloric content, one more time, sufficiently high. In recent times, the first Complete Foods have even been born in the form of “normal” food, such as Complete Food noodles, or Complete Food candies. Not even Complete Foods are free from defects. The vast majority of versions on the market follow the trend of recent years for which “protein is good – carbohydrate is bad”, proposing unbalanced caloric divisions in favour of protein sources. The high-protein formulations are dangerous in the medium term, as it is scientifically proven that they create risks for the liver and kidneys (https://www.vitaesalute.net/non-dategli-peso/). Furthermore, to improve palatability and make the product more attractive to the public, it is often the presence of sweeteners or added sugars.

But undoubtedly the greatest innovation of the last century (it’s a joke: we’re a bit biased) is called Bivo. Bivo is the first and only Complete Food developed and produced in Italy. Made in Italy is an intrinsic and unique feature of the formulation. In addition, Bivo proposes the nutritional content and the subdivision of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fibers) typical of the Mediterranean Diet. Bivo is also characterized by a low glycemic index so that those who use the product do not have glycemic peaks or drops post-intake: the formulation is designed to provide both immediate and subsequent energy, in such a way as to release energy constantly for 5 or 6 hours after consumption.
High digestibility is also a characterizing element of this product, thanks to the slow energy absorption that manages to not burden the body during digestion and avoids the typical drowsiness that occurs after taking traditional replacement meals.
The ingredients chosen in the formulation of Bivo provide a high chemical index (measurement of the quality of the proteins contained in a food) thanks to an adequate quantity of all essential amino acids and at the same time a correct balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6.
Bivo is a natural food, unlike other Complete Foods, because it does not contain added sugars and sweeteners, nor any kind of preservatives or stabilizers.
Our historical excursus among the habits of Italians at the table (not always at the table to tell the truth) is over … Now you just have to try Bivo … to be entitled to a 10% discount use the code “IORESTOINFORMA”: