A Cuban resident in France sparked a debate on social media by comparing the quality of food in Europe to that in the United States, where she previously lived, claiming that her health has significantly improved since the change.
The video, published on Wednesday by the profile @anlilg ("Familia2Mundos") on TikTok, lasts three minutes and thirty-three seconds and features a Cuban who shares her daily observations about the food she consumes in France.
The trigger for the testimony was an apple that spoiled in just two days. Rather than seeing it as a problem, the creator interpreted it as a positive sign: "Look at this, two days ago, look at this spoiled apple, what does this mean my love? It means this has no preservatives, this has no chemicals."
Contrast that experience with what she lived in the United States, where her children could not tolerate the skin of apples: "My daughter would eat one in the United States with the skin and throw it up because that skin was horrible."
In France, she says, her children eat whole fruit without any problem.
The Cuban also mentioned that some carrots deteriorated quickly outside the refrigerator, which she also attributes to the absence of chemical additives.
The impact on his health, as he describes, has been significant: "I no longer have reflux, I no longer have acidity, I no longer have anything," and he adds that the inflammation also disappeared since he started consuming food in France.
Part of the video is dedicated to debunking what he considers a myth about the U.S. organic market. He claims that shopping at Publix or Whole Foods is practically the same: "organic is simply the label, what's inside is still the same product," and concludes that "the only things that change are the marketing, the brand, and the price."
It also argues that no authentic European product would reach U.S. supermarkets because transportation would make it too expensive and spoil it before arrival.
The debate on food quality between the two continents has a real regulatory basis. The European Union applies the precautionary principle through the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which requires scientific evidence before authorizing additives, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) operates with a more permissive approach based on a history of safe use. According to data from the Yuka app, products in the U.S. contain an average of 3.1 additives per product, compared to 1.9 in France and Germany. Substances such as potassium bromate, azodicarbonamide, or BHA/BHT are permitted in the U.S. but restricted or banned in Europe.
This type of comparison is part of a recurring debate among Cubans in the diaspora on TikTok, where the “Europe vs. Miami” axis generates thousands of reactions each week.
Last Wednesday, another Cuban in Spain reopened a similar discussion about whether it's better to live in Europe or in the United States, arguing that with between 1,000 and 1,400 euros a month, it's possible to live well without needing to have two or three jobs.
The Cuban diaspora in France is small, consisting of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, and faces challenges in regularization: the country rejects nearly 80% of asylum applications from Cubans. Nonetheless, some have achieved stability and share their experiences online, like the protagonist of this video, who concluded with a direct invitation to her audience: "ask me anything you want about food; honestly, my inflammation, everything has gone away."
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