Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the practical aspects of expat life in Latin America, covering grocery shopping, market dynamics, and dental health. He discusses the availability of first-world supermarket chains like Walmart and Costco, with local equivalents such as Super Benti Quattro, and highlights the often higher prices for fresh produce in these stores compared to local markets. Johnny also addresses the misconception that local markets are unsafe or dirty, emphasizing that they are safe and offer better value. He explains the 'gringo price' phenomenon, where repeated purchases by expats can lead to inflated prices.
Johnny further explores the challenges expats face when dealing with local markets and prices, noting that locals often take advantage of gringos, who are willing to pay higher prices. He warns about the potential for future crises and encourages expats to plan ahead. Additionally, he highlights the benefits of shopping in local markets for fresh, organic produce and discusses the realities of chicken farming in the region, including the issues with factory farming and the challenges of sourcing local chickens.
The episode also covers the differences between free-range and factory-farmed chickens in Latin America. Johnny explains that free-range chickens, referred to as 'driveway chickens' or 'patio chickens,' are not confined to cages and are more common in the region. In contrast, factory-farmed chickens, often called 'pollos de granero,' are raised in closed spaces and are typically imported from the U.S. Johnny highlights the preference of many Latin Americans for factory-farmed chickens due to their association with 'first-world' products, despite the ethical concerns.
Johnny also discusses the affordability and quality of free-range meat in Latin America compared to the United States. He highlights that free-range chickens and other meats are significantly cheaper in Latin America, often costing up to a third of the price in the U.S. He notes that the animals in Latin America lead a more natural life, as there are no factory feed lots, and the climate prevents the need for confinement. However, he warns that meat processing facilities in Latin America may not meet first-world sanitation standards. Johnny critiques the confusing and misleading labeling of meat products in the U.S., suggesting that Latin America offers a simpler, more transparent approach to meat consumption.
Finally, Johnny discusses common dental issues in Latin America, highlighting the primary and secondary problems. He notes that the number one issue is an unlimited supply of sugar leading to cavities. The number two problem is severe enamel erosion caused by the widespread habit of sucking on lemons and using lemon juice extensively. Johnny explains that while lemons are beneficial for health, their high citric acid content damages teeth. He also contrasts the dental costs in Latin America with those in the United States, emphasizing the affordability of dental procedures in Latin America. Additionally, he touches on the cultural significance of lemons and their role in the diet, linking it to the overall health of the population despite the dental risks.
Topics
Healthy eating in Latin America, Grocery shopping in Latin America, Local markets vs. supermarket chains, Gringo pricing and expat experiences, Expatriate experiences in Latin America, Market dynamics and pricing, Future crises and expat planning, Local vs. imported food products, Sustainability and farming practices, Free-range chickens, Factory-farmed chickens, Chicken farming in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:45 Healthy Eating in Latin America 00:01:11 The Misleading Name of Supermarkets 00:02:13 The Value of Local Markets 00:05:58 The Gringo Price in Latin America Markets 00:06:29 Why Living Off the Tourist Trail is Recommended 00:06:58 Preparing for Future Crises as an Expat 00:08:04 Benefits of Shopping in Local Markets 00:10:48 Issues with Factory Farming in Latin America 00:11:47 The Cage vs. the Open Road: Free-Range vs. Factory-Farmed Chickens in Latin America 00:13:20 The Controversy of Tyson Chickens and Their Impact on Latin American Markets 00:17:38 Cost of Free-Range Chicken in Latin America vs. the U.S. 00:17:51 Price Comparison of Organic Free-Range Chicken 00:18:50 Free-Range Animals in Latin America 00:19:40 Sanitation Standards in Meat Processing Facilities 00:20:20 Confusing Meat Labeling in the U.S. 00:24:19 The Number Two Dental Problem in Latin America 00:26:08 Severe Enamel Erosion from Lemon Consumption
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wander Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the Expat Files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started So let's talk about practical day-to-day living down here in Latin America. That is practical living for astute expats Of course, so in keeping with things I've learned along the way mostly from mistakes
[00:45] We'll start with a little discussion on healthy eating now We all know that there are a lot of big grocery store chains down here in Latin America There's Walmart's and Costco's and Club Mart's etc And they've got their Spanish equivalent of 7-elevens which they call Super Benti Quattro's and a lot of competitors were just about the same name along that order and note that Super Benti Quattro means in English 24-hour supermarket which is really nothing but BS because almost none of them are open 24 hours a day Believe it or not though strangely enough the actual title logo says they are But this is Latin America, you know, I mean, come on talk about details and the opportunity for gringos and the gringo advantage
[01:30] Can you see one here? I can how about you put up an equivalent of a 7-eleven somewhere in Latin America and put up on The sign in big letters. We really are open 24-7 no BS, but I digress So anyway in the last five or ten years all kinds of convenience stores and first world supermarket clone chains have appeared down here So you can get all the canned and boxed and processed preservative filled Predigested cardboard like food that you get up in the States at all these supermarkets and convenience stores So you can't come down here and survive on the same kind of crappy Junkie you ate up in the States or you can live healthy and buy good wholesome non-gmo fresh products at those gigantic produce marts and they're everywhere so you've got no excuses now
[02:21] No, if you shop at one of these big stores like a Walmart or a Walmart clone a big supermarket chain You'll see that even their layouts are clones of equivalent first world stores Though as you know, Latins aren't into the details So if you look around the edges things are just a little bit scruffier that said when you walk in there'll be a gigantic Produce aisle too, but note if you buy your fresh fruits and vegetables there You'll be paying about twice as much as you'll be paying if you go down to one of the big local markets and buy Directly from the vendors who get shipments daily from local small truck farmers That said if you're the average clueless gringo whether you're on or off the gringo tourist trail You'll probably go to Walmart or one of the big first world supermarket clones because you're simply used to that kind of setup Naturally, you'll buy all your fruits and vegetables there
[03:09] I think you're getting a great deal because they'll probably be half or less of what you'd pay in the States Where if you went down to one of the local markets, which is probably only about maybe 10 minutes away You can buy your fruits and vegetables even fresher because they came in that morning For half or less of what you pay in the supermarket for the same stuff And you know often I run into green gringos and expats that have been down here a long time And they never go down to one of the local markets because they're just totally happy with the wide variety of food They can get at half price at the local supermarket now They believe mostly because they're Spanish sucks that if they go to one of those chaotic markets They won't feel comfortable because they've been warned those places are dirty dingy and scruffy and just full of poor
[03:55] low-class people scraping by not to mention the sights and the sounds of the hawking vendors and the chickens and the pigs squealing and The howls of the slightly deranged Jesus freaks posted at about every third corner Spitting out Bible verses in Spanish as you pass not to mention the parade of little guys coming up to you all the time trying To sell you things like garlic and onions and vitamins knives and light bulbs and batteries And of course my perennial favorite a little guy selling antibiotics and rat poison from the same backpack And when he dips a blind hand in it to show you his wares He could pull out either or or both no cross-contamination there, right? So yes, it is a chaotic world of its own and you have to dress down But it's a place that really is eminently safe no matter what you've heard in fact any rumors
[04:44] You may have heard about the place being dangerous I always seem to come from people who've never visited there before fact is over the years I've been to places like that hundreds of times and no one gets robbed or ripped off not to mention when you're off the Gringo tourist trail. There are no gringo prices either because well You're such an oddity that there's really never been enough gringos coming through to show the vendors the example of how naive Gringos can be with their money. And what do I mean by that? Well, let me start out with an example Here's a real case to suppose you walk by and you see some beautiful strawberries, and they're offering 75 cents a pound now to a gringo That's a tremendous price because you're probably gonna pay two bucks or more a pound up in the states and they won't be nearly as big
[05:30] And nice and fresh and juicy. So a gringo will say great Give me three pounds or as a local person will say I'll give you a 40 cents a pound for them And then they'll settle on 50 cents. In other words, there'll be some dickering going on There always is but you know clueless gringos don't dicker they think it's a great deal So they pay the going price So you can look at gringo pricing in this way if enough gringos came through enough times and paid the asking price of 75 cents That forever becomes the gringo price for all subsequent gringo is coming through the place The fact is locals figure you're an easy touch and as for the local Latin shoppers hanging around Well, they'll wait till you do your deal and leave and then they'll get it for three quarters or half of that price
[06:16] Like they always do now note when you're on the gringo tourist trail like Cancun Playa del Carmen or Costa Rica There's just so many gringos coming through all the time everywhere Even in those big chaotic markets The prices have been permanently bid up because that's what gringos are willing to pay and that's reason number 426 why I always recommend living off the gringo tourist trail And again for you wise guys and gals up there in Cleveland and parts north And I don't mean wise as in the Italian sense. I mean wise as in owl wise Anyway for you astute expat wannabes and gone a bees up north who are waiting for the next shoe to drop the next big crisis Military financial government or environmental or otherwise it will come it'll come soon and it will be painful
[07:05] I know you wise guys and gals up in the states have a plan B already or are formulating one I mean come on you wouldn't be listening to this program right now If you weren't thinking about Latin America as your escape hatch Which means if you haven't been down here quite a few times already and got your boots on the ground in places other than gringo tourist havens you really do have to get cracking and One great way to do that is come down to my January 2015 expat wisdom seminar It's more than half filled now And there are a lot of people sending me emails trying to get their ducks lined up You know vacations time off and all that So if you really want to get those boots on the ground and get a big head start as an expat What I mean to say is after you take this seminar, and you come back down to Latin America afterward
[07:51] You won't be coming down as a clueless gringo. That's for sure so just go to Www expat wisdom calm and click on the Latin seminar link for full details now speaking of those big chaotic outdoor Central markets that I recommend Everyone shop at at least a couple times a month since that's where you'll get the cheapest Freshest vegetables and produce that are least likely to be doused in pesticides etc etc And you know as far as GMOs at those big chaotic Central markets You're getting all that produce from small truck farms, and there are no GMOs involved there in fact Most of those truck farmers are very very anti Monsanto and other similar International seed and pesticide producing international scumbag corporations mostly of course to sell megatons of that
[08:43] ubiquitous toxin with that happy bouncy name Roundup sounds so innocuous doesn't it? Roundup and you know expat Eddie who's a restaurant owner and obviously a big-time food buyer He thoroughly dislikes GMOs and pesticides too And he swears that if a Monsanto exec ever walked in one of his restaurants Eddie would like nothing better than to put around up his ass Anyway, you've often heard me mention the word driveway chicken And you know what they are of course Latin America is a version of free-range chickens No matter where you live in Latin America You'll hear those driveway chickens crowing at two and three in the morning do note that there's always some Lower middle class or poor family in the neighborhood whose driveway chickens are a natural part of their diet
[09:33] Which I have no problem with at all if they'd only shut the hell up at night I mean come on They're supposed to crow with the sunrise not at two in the morning And the fact is no matter where you live even if you have a 10 million dollar house in an exclusive neighborhood You're gonna hear those chickens because outside of your restricted plush little compound. There's no zoning But luckily most of us as we unwind from our first world treadmills We do develop somewhat of a tolerance to driveway chickens and dogs barking etc Though depending on your temperament it can take a while so then what about chickens in Latin America? Well, I can tell you this if you're a chicken lover, and I don't mean as a pet that's not recommended
[10:18] You could always go down to Costco or Walmart or one of the big chain Supermarkets and by Tyson chicken and all its hormone injected glory Frozen solid and imported directly from the US now of course They're not just shipping in chickens from Tyson down here in Latin America They've got big factory-style chicken farms here, too You know where the chickens sit in a little spot in a tiny little cage all their lives and get so fat That when you let them out they can't even walk they collapse Such as the twisted state of factory farming in the States and in Latin America now So then you might say and I said this myself many times Why not just buy some driveway chickens from the local little indigenous lady in the house down the street?
[11:04] She's got three or four from that you've always wanted to strangle Well, the fact is these people with their little land plots have a kind of an ecosystem that can support only a few chickens When you buy one or two from her You'll be depleting her own family supply and even if they were for sale You can only do that for so long before you've bought up all the chickens in the neighborhood That is if chickens your thing So in the end, it's kind of a losing proposition You have to keep finding locals to buy chickens from which will certainly deplete the available supply nearby Oh, and by the way, speaking of so-called free-range chickens up in the States a Definition of a free-range chicken just means it has some access to the outdoors Which could mean it only has 15 minutes a day where the door to the cage is actually open to the outdoors
[11:53] Whereas down here in Latin America driveway chickens have no territorial restrictions whatsoever And most of them don't even have cages free-range chickens are by the way, not called driveway chickens That's what us gringos call them local Latins call them and remember this boyos Which is chicken that patio you get it patio chickens Patio means the same as it does in Spanish and English So for example, if you see a bunch of chickens running alongside the road and in and out of some guy's property Don't forget to refer to them as boyos de patio So everyone knows what you're talking about now as far as those farm factory chickens They're called pollos de granero and the word granero
[12:39] Basically translates to granary or barn in this case meaning chickens in a closed-in space or factory farm Now note that in the last five years the recent influx of chickens from the states like Tyson chickens You know Tyson chickens don't yeah, they've been in the news a lot They get sued all the time for their false advertising their river fish kills along their plants Not to mention hundreds of worker complaints and lawsuits about unsanitary conditions You name it Tyson's been sued for it and they've lost millions in damages for those lawsuits So think of it. They're sending all this chicken down to Latin America where no one checks anything So obviously you and I know they're sending their best triple-a prime cut stuff now, aren't they? Hmm?
[13:28] Anyway, the sad fact is if you talk to any Latin person down here these days They actually prefer that Tyson and Tyson style chicken brands and that heavily processed Kentucky fried stuff along with chicken McNuggets which are pretty much heavily processed chicken byproducts mostly But never mind Latins love them because they come from the first world and they love everything gringo So anyway now Latins prefer those soft injected chickens over driveway chickens And they'll come right out and tell you that and here's the proof Remember I said that you can't go buying up all the neighborhood driveway chickens because you'll deplete the local supply Well, if you go down to one of those big chaotic food markets I'm always telling you about as you're walking through the place
[14:15] You'll see there are plenty of people selling dressed chickens you know plucked and raw or plucked and cooked already and Then you'll see and hear and even smell great walls of chickens in tiny little cages Now those are your local brand of factory chickens and at least they're alive which if you've ever seen them ain't seeing much So then how can you tell at first glance that they are factory farm chickens? Well, you can tell because they're packed into tiny little cages that are so small They can't turn around at all not to mention they all look like clones They look exactly the same and they all look pretty much miserable and unhealthy They're all that perfectly awful drab dirty white color You know what I'm talking about So then you walk up to the ladies that are selling these things and they'll tell you that they'll sell them dressed out for about
[15:04] A buck to a buck 25 a pound and if you want as most people do they'll kill it right there for you and pluck it And you'll have the freshest chicken in town, which is really quite a difficult thing for a city-bred gringo to watch You know, but that's not the point here If you say to the lady in charge and it usually is lady Do you have any gallos de patio in other words free-range driveway chickens? She'll tell you no But you knew that already by the look of these chickens that pale awful white ugly look and if you ask her to direct you To the part of the market where they sell the free-range chickens She just might try to talk you out of it saying well You do know those free-range chickens are a lot more expensive and they're tougher and stringier Not like these pollos the gonna narrow that I have and of course
[15:51] She is right about that her chickens are a buck to a buck and a quarter a pound and the free-range chickens The pollos de patio are around two to two and a half bucks a pound dressed out of course So that said if you take a walk to where they sell the patio chickens You'll notice a couple of things right away. First of all, they're not in cages Because they're not actually living in the market like those other chickens are so they're caught early in the morning and brought into The market with their legs tied or taped together So they won't run off because they haven't got cages why because they're patio chickens So you'll notice right away their feet are tied together with metal or plastic twist wraps Some even with duct tape and they're all just kind of laying on the floor nice and quiet looking up at you when you
[16:41] Walk by now another thing you'll notice that they're not that ugly white There are various colors from grays to Browns to speckled and believe me They look a hell of a lot healthier than those dish water white chickens that live their whole life in cages in the market And by the way, here's another thing those driveway chickens aren't just laying on the ground with duct tape around their feet They're actually taped by the feet to another chickens feet So they're in pairs kind of cozying up together. Cuz what else can they do now? Don't get me wrong They may be laying on the ground with their feet tape, but they don't look like they're in pain In fact, they don't seem to be suffering at all as opposed to those factory chickens in those cages They're miserable and do note again If you buy one of those free-range chickens the lady or her young daughter
[17:29] 12 years old or so will kill it right there drain the blood out yank all the organs dress it up cut the feet off Pull the feathers off Of course wrap it up put it in a nice bag and weigh it for you and you'll pay about two to two and a half bucks A pound now, of course if you stick around to watch that that might be the last time you ever eat chicken But do note another interesting thing here Is that if you're up in the states and you buy an organic free-range chicken if you look it up You'll see that the going price in many areas is around six bucks a pound So anyway down here in Latin America where you're sure because you can see with your own eyes that they're free-range chickens You're gonna pay from a half to a third of the price that you pay up in the states And by the way in these places at these big markets that sell free-range chickens
[18:15] You can also buy free-range ducks and free-range turkeys all of course highly recommended if you are immediate Now on the subject of red meat the very best places of all to get your cuts of free-range beef Are at the sales counters at the slaughterhouses or at your local meat market and though I admit a lot of these meat Markets you see would never pass inspection in the states They're pretty ratty and I do mean that in the rodent sense of the word still if you buy your meat from these guys You're guaranteed to get free-range beef because down here in Latin America They just don't have factory feed lots like they have up in the states In fact, I've been told from farmers here in Latin America that everything on the hoof including pigs are basically free-range
[19:01] Since it doesn't freeze in 85% of Latin America those big animals are out in the fields Foraging from Sun up to Sun down There's just no need to confine them in the winter to a pen or a barn where they're stuck eating GMO corn or Perina cow chow because well, there's basically no winter So the point is all you ex-pet wannabes and guannabes if you eat meat Latin America is the perfect place to be because your meat is so much less likely to be contaminated Hormones drugs GMOs and additives, but I do have to warn you this meat packing plants slaughterhouses and butcher shops are by no stretch of the Imagination sanitary or up to first-world standards not that that's saying much if you've ever seen how meat packing plants are up in the first world
[19:48] But do note that the animals themselves except for the factory chickens Of course lead a pretty healthy unstressed life until of course they whack them And if you're a vegetarian or a vegan Latin America is the perfect place to be too And if you don't believe me all it'll take is about five minutes in the center of one of those chaotic markets now Do note when you're down here the locals that farm and sell those chickens, etc Are not very sophisticated about first world style labeling. I mean, come on, you know up in the states They've got so many different kinds of labels designed to trick you into thinking that you're getting natural organic products Like for example people just often take for granted when they see the term natural or antibiotic free or farm raised or fresh
[20:36] cage free or hormone free or free range It's so confusing that most people don't know what any of that stuff really means though Most people think with labels like that. It must be good and wholesome But really if you have been paying attention, most of that is simple marketing I mean It's one thing to have so-called free-range chickens in a tiny pen with a gate They can barely squeeze through in the states They still qualify as free-range whereas down here in Latin America a free-range chicken a driveway chicken has a huge Open environment and walks around anywhere at once I mean look I've been in many Latin farm houses where when you're eating breakfast a chicken walks right through the door now They don't pluck themselves and jump in the oven. That'd be asking a little too much though I'm sure Tyson or DuPont or Monsanto are working on it. Anyway, just think about how confusing
[21:26] Chicken labeling is up in the states. You've got the term natural which means there are no artificial ingredients or preservatives Yeah, right And then you've got the term hormone free which is a contradiction because every animal is chock full of its own hormones Not to mention some very nasty ones induced by the stress of killing it Same goes for the term farm raised and you can argue that every single animal that's in the store is brought up on some kind of A farm and then there's that ubiquitous term fresh Which means the chicken is what freshly dead or was fresh when they packaged it and froze it three months ago or fresh? Meaning it doesn't smell bad Anyway, the point is if you come down here to Latin America You just won't have to deal with all that and note if you want Tyson you can get it
[22:14] Not to mention if you don't like the cuts of meat down here and a lot of people say they're stringy and a little tough too You can always go to Costco or Walmart and get imported US grade-a beef and you know how good that is That said if you're unlucky enough to be addicted to chicken McNuggets. Well, don't worry. They've got that crap down here, too Oh, and by the way I have it on good authority and you'll like this that chicken McNuggets contain one or more of the following cartilage bone skin Feet eyes and of course peckers. Yum. Yum now staying on the subject of food and nutrition Let's talk about some other Latin American quirks that you probably didn't know about if you talk to any Dentist down here and ask them what the biggest problem is in the collective teeth of the Latin population Obviously, it's simple cavities or caries and as you might expect there's more caries and the poorer populations in Latin America
[23:07] Especially out in the boonies where they have huge mega Plantations of sugar cane kids will just clip off the tips and suck on that cane all day Obviously because it's free it grows practically everywhere alongside roads and ditches and well Like I said practically everywhere so in most of Latin America you will see kids especially poor ones sucking on it like it was an all-day sucker and Dennis will tell you that an unlimited supply of sugar means an unlimited supply of cavities So then you might say if to dentist that's the number one problem in Latin America What might be the number two problem? You'll never guess go ahead and list all the usual suspects lack of flossing Maybe well, that's a problem. Of course Down here almost no one flosses except upscale women and gays ask any Dennis about that
[23:56] But that's not the number two problem. Neither is bad brushing technique or avoidance of the dentist in general which is a great candidate because dentists down here will tell you that only one in 50 Latin people actually makes and keeps his six-month annual checkup appointment as One dentist put it. It's not preventive dentistry. It's dentistry by crisis But that's still not the second biggest dental related problem as local dentists see it You're wrong if you guess that Latins don't have enough money to buy braces for their crooked teeth It's true only about 150 Latins ever ends up getting braces However, it's also true and quite a lucky twist of fate for Latins that as compared to many other cultures They have very straight teeth. In fact dentists down here will tell you that as compared to first-world people
[24:48] Latins have very very intrinsically straight teeth Whereas statistically about one in five US residents might need braces That number is about one in 20 when it comes to Latin people, which is a pretty lucky thing for them So then you might ask what culture has the worst luck in that department It's the Asians as a matter of fact and no one really knows why but one dentist told me about one out of three Asians could really use braces go figure, huh? So anyway now that you've all failed to guess the number two problem in dentistry in Latin America and no it's not wisdom teeth either Sure, Latins have them and they get infected But they just go to the dentist and have them removed like you do up in the States Only get this down here if you have your wisdom teeth removed and you're not under a general anesthetic
[25:39] It'll only cost you about 25 to 35 dollars a tooth to have them removed and if you need those extractions under general anesthetic you're looking at a whopping 75 bucks a tooth meaning under general anesthetic you could have all four pulled for around 300 bucks Whereas in the States the average cost for four wisdom teeth under general anesthetic is around two grand anyway, the number two problem as dentists see it is severe enamel erosion do to get this sucking on lemons now I know that sounds like a bad joke, but it's so true as a rule Latins are just crazy about lemons and sucking on lemons is a big thing down here In fact, there are at least a dozen different ways that Latins use lemons and lemon juice and basically they squeeze lemon on everything
[26:31] The main ingredient in lemon is citric acid which eats away at the enamel of your teeth so dentists see very big problems with enamel erosion even in Adolescence and as dentists will tell you trying to get a person to stop sucking lemons or using lemons on everything It's like trying to get a person to stop drinking Coca-Cola or quit smoking Now, of course the upside to sucking on lemons all the time and other citric fruits Is that Latin people are very healthy because as you know lemons and other citric fruits are Excellent for everything else but your teeth and in the quantities that Latins eat lemons Which is at least 10 times the per capita consumption of lemons up in the States Doctors nutritionists and epidemiologists attribute that unusual habit and the habit of eating large quantities of chili peppers
[27:21] To the unusually robust health of a poor society chronically short on safe potable water and thus chronically short of safe hygienic food handling practices South of the border You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And don't forget to check out expat wisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on Latin America See you next time nos vemos