As any foreigner will note, Türkiye is quite a health-obsessed country. The people here tend to eat seasonally with an emphasis on fresh produce and fermented foods and there is a long legacy of medicinal teas and remedies as evident at any farmers’ markets. This should come as no surprise as Hippocrates, considered the founding father of modern medicine, was born and died just kilometers away from Türkiye’s coastline.
What I infer is that the Turks may indeed know the best practices to stay healthy. Fact or fiction, there are some peculiarities surrounding health that Turks are passionate about that may simply be lost in translation for foreigners.
Therefore, here is a guide to some of the quirks the Turks have surrounding health that may seem peculiar to those from other cultures.
This is the time of year when in the past, viral videos have made their way to the web depicting anywhere from passive-aggressive to full-on arguments in transportation where one passenger opens the window to get air, while another immediately runs to shut it. This is because most Turks have an aversion to being in direct contact with a breeze or a fan as they believe it will result in them catching the death of cold and especially if they have broken a sweat beforehand.
The upside of this is that almost every outdoor establishment will have a pile of pashmina-like shawls available for their patrons should anyone start to feel cold.
Many a Turkish-foreign coupling can attest to the fact that one of the most basic splits of opinions can surround an air conditioner. The same can be said for those foreign gym-goers in Türkiye. This is because, in addition to breezes, Turks also have a distinct distaste for air conditioners.
While they may be right as there are cases of Legionnaires disease surfacing as a result of the comforting appliance, the comment that air conditioners can cause facial paralysis is just thrown around way too often for comfort. Therefore, many gyms won’t even turn the air conditioner on and when installing the appliance they tend to situate it in a corner where it will come into the least amount of direct contact with the individuals it is intended to cool down.
While the country is laden with stunning stonework buildings, walls and platforms, Turks refuse to sit on them. According to multiple warnings received in the past, sitting on a stone is perceived to cause urinary, ovarian and intestinal issues. Similarly, almost every beach in Türkiye is covered with plastic sun loungers so that nobody has to actually lay on the sand. Coming from California and Los Angeles at that, this has always been a conundrum for me because I don’t think I ever sunbathed on a lounger on the beach, those were reserved solely for poolside situations.
Instead, the beach is where you would lay out your towel directly on the sand and while this is nearly impossible to do nowadays in Türkiye, it was definitely a major part of the whole beach experience personally while growing up.
I don’t think I even owned a pair of slippers before residing in Türkiye. However, here it is definitely an essential item. So much so that households will also have spare slippers available for guests. There are also beach slippers and slippers to wear at home, which are both distinctly different.
This tradition is mainly because, in Türkiye, one would never enter a home without taking their shoes off. If there is any takeaway from this article, it should be this. Always, I repeat, slippers or not, always take your shoes off at the door when you arrive at a person’s abode. Similarly, should your bag or any piece of clothing hit the floor, the first thing anyone will do is immediately pick it up for you. While I now certainly abide by these cleanliness rules, just to give perspective and while quite an extreme example perhaps, my high school in Santa Monica had a “shoes optional” policy.
This is one healthy tradition I have admittedly not gotten the hang of, but Turks do not consume ice cream, lemonade or cold water in winter. In most situations when one orders water they will even be asked if they would prefer cold or room temperature water, which is just not a thing in my native U.S. In fact, many of us still yearn for tall glasses filled with ice cubes for our sodas at any time of the year, alas most eateries won’t even have ice available in the colder season months. I believe the belief is that cold drinks cause a sore throat, however, I must have built up some immunity to that as it really has never happened to me personally.
Turks will also never leave the home with wet hair in the winter months that’s for sure. While this may make good sense, one custom I don’t understand is the need to change swimsuits after every dip in the sea or a pool. There must be a good reason for the practice, which I originally assumed was simply for people to reveal their different summer styles because it is definitely a steadfast practice for health concerns such as getting an upset stomach or some sort of internal infection I believe.
Nonetheless, when the beach clubs this summer resemble the fashion runways of Paris, know that they are putting on the hottest show in town to stay healthy and not to show off.
While not necessarily spurred by health concerns, a peculiar trait of Turks is to choose to not partake in anything that includes onions or garlic should they have some sort of social engagement following. Perhaps this is just good sense and is certainly kinder to those they plan to breathe upon, I had never heard of the concept before arriving in Türkiye, a country which interestingly enough has onions and garlic in nearly every dish prepared.
This is just to clear the air for any misunderstandings as to whether your Turkish companion has an aversion to garlic or onions or if they are simply abstaining for your own benefit, in which case you might want to do the same, I guess.
