The development of the food industry throughout the 20th century has captured the attention of many as fast food has become the new fad diet concerning nutritionist. Until recent times, Americans and others around the world have not been concerned with the origin of their food and what its impact could have on their everyday lives. This concern for diet didn’t become relevant until the early 1970s (Pollen 2010). When I interviewed Christine Cuthrell, my mother, who was in her teens during the 1980s remembers how many people were beginning to shift away from eating at home with their families every night. This shift didn’t take place in the Cuthrell family until she was out of school and busy working everyday. This analysis of the Cuthrell …show more content…
Additionally, the forever changing food industry has caused the introduction of fast food and frozen, fast to make foods because many people don’t allocate the time to make all of their meals because they say they have too much going on. This epidemic has caused many foods and celebrations to seemingly lose their authenticity as many people show up to gathering and events with a store bought snack. In my opinion, this ruins the fun of having a potluck, where everyone brings a dish and everyone shares, style of celebrations. Rarely do people comment on the quality of the cooking or complement each other anymore because often times the response is simply “Oh I didn’t make it, I bought it at the store. Aren’t they great though.” Although I understand that we, as humans, have become more occupied with education and extracurriculars, I think we need to understand that food is more important than twenty minutes a day. We and our bodies deserve the nutrients we need to stay healthy, and remain active for as long as possible. A large issue today is that many are resorting to fast food before and after sports and it is not giving the supplements necessary for the work-out we are giving our bodies and causing health issues down the road. Overall, we must begin a new movement, much like any other; to bring knowledge and understanding about our bodies and the food we eat to all. This understanding will foster making food at home with supplies that we know are safe for our bodies. My …show more content…
In summation, in learning about the food ethnography of my family, I have realized that my family, like many others has fallen into the trap of believing that there is only one way that we can eat with our schedule. I learned about the significant differences between my mother 's upbringing and my own where I have learned just to eat whenever and wherever, and she learned that it is polite to sit at the table and socialize with everyone as well as wait for them to finish before leaving the table. The development of what are today my family 's customs through my mom 's life is intriguing as she, like many others resorted to fast food as a supplement because of issues with timing. I am curious to understand, what action is necessary to combat this barrier of time and price that was not once an issue? I believe that our best chance at dis-establishing the fast food market would be understanding the food itself. Most people understand or have heard that fast food is bad for you, but providing significant scientific evidence that fast food is causing our obesity and diabetes epidemic should create fear in people, which is much more powerful than any other
Empowered by this unbridled freedom, the modern consumer was casting aside all notions of limitations and satiating their hunger whenever and to whatever degree appealed to them the most. According to Critser, “…if fast-food companies of the 1980’s seemed to see the American eater as an endlessly expanding vessel for their product, Americans of the same period rejected the entire notions of limits themselves” (Critser pg.31). This mentality, of course, expanded far beyond the realms of fast food to bigger houses, bigger cars, and larger clothes. Another erroneous idea mentioned by Critser that began to crop up in the 1980’s was the concept that in addition to eating three meals a day you should also snack continuously throughout the day. This wouldn’t have been cause for much concern if the snacks people (mostly children) regularly consumed were nutritious and didn’t contribute to an excess of one or more major food group, but ultimately consumers stuck with the unhealthy snack foods they saw advertised the most.
In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.
This shows the impact on how important it is to make a priority in eating and making well balanced meals. Being able to see the history in how eating habits have changed generation to generation gives an insight on what we need to change. Many people such as Mark never ate a fresh vegetable until 19 years old. This shows that there is a big gap in eating balanced and healthy meals because of the mass production of frozen and canned foods. Mark Stated that, “it cut down on the variety of food we ate” (Mark Bittman 2007 Ted Talk, transcript 10:17).
Throughout Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser criticizes and reveals to the world how the fast food industry has made drastic alterations to America. In addition, he managed to motivate society to start having a healthy life. Before Schlosser draws to a close on his book, he gives his readers hope towards other “fast” food business who succeeded by serving the quality of their food and caring enough about the health of their customers. In Schlosser’s epilogue, he opens up by considering that not all food industries are the same as the previous companies mentioned throughout the book. He explains that Dale Lasater, owner of the ranch Lasater, in Matheson, Colorado, is indeed different from other food productions because he does not use chemicals to enhance the growth of his cattle, instead he lets nature be in charge.
“The Moral Crusade Against Foodies,” an article where Myers spends his time pontificating a handful of elitist foodies has grabbed the attention of many. Myers has managed to make a lot of enemies with this piece, one being Ethan Kahn, a Washington Post reporter who decided to fight back in his article titled “A Response to B.R. Myers.” He attempts to expose the many weak aspects of Myers argument, giving us a new perspective of the article as a whole. For the first half of Kahn’s article he discusses that Myers fails to address any positive impacts of foodie culture.
Food has become part of our social status. Those who have money get to enjoy healthy organic options, while those who live on food stamps and low incomes get sugary packaged foods that are harmful to the boy. In “What Food says about Class in America,” Lisa Miller, a healthy food enthusiast and a bystander to the food problem, effectively captures the American people’s attention through descriptive imagery, alluring metaphors, and academic diction, but contradicts herself and fails to convince her target audience of the food corporations that a change is needed. Opening her article, Miller describes her family’s breakfast habits to relate herself to the people. She begins the article by saying, “I usually have a cappuccino mixed with organic
This ongoing has been a large discussion for many people. He exemplifies that through Eric Schlosser of the “Dark Side of the All-American Meal” (2001) and how San Franciscans, fretted largely about, “the nutritional dangers to their children’s health, began the last century by banning “roving pie vendors” who catered to the “habitual pie-eating” habits of schoolchildren and prohibiting the sale of soft drinks on school campuses.” (Leitcher) The question then becomes at the center of all the health promotions advertised, the advice spoken, and advocacy, to what lengths do one literary novel change the social fabric of how Americans look at food
The “mentality of uniformity, conformity and cheapness applied widely and on a large scale has all kinds of unintended consequences” (Food, Inc.). That is the main situation mentioned in the documentary, Food Inc. Food Inc. is a documentary about the nation’s food industry. Robert Kenner, director of Food Inc., made the film find out where our food comes from and how the food industry has changed over time. The reason behind the documentary is to have people think about where our food comes from and to think about how we could develop a food system that would be sustainable. Over time, the food system has taken over by the industrialization of our food, and the consumers are denied the right to be informed what is in their food and discouraged
When the dinner bell rings in America, many families are not flocking to the table, but running to the car and the call of the “Golden Arches”. In today’s over-scheduled world, food has now become an afterthought and America is paying the price, literally. Obesity is now an epidemic and a crisis that is not slowing down. The nation is not only paying the price with sky-rocketing medical bills from the effects of the American diet, but also with the deteriorating health of its citizens and for the first time in history, a generation with a shorter life expectancy than the generation before. Food today looks nothing like the food of just 40 years ago, and now instead, is making people sick and obese.
According to all the statistics and and data forms displayed it is proven that fast food is the most unhealthiest meals to consume
For many people the ideal meal is inexpensive, fast, and tastes good. When purchasing these quick and inexpensive meals we put very little thought into how that food was actually produced. Food Inc is a documentary produced by filmmaker Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, to bring awareness to Americans about the industrial side of food production. Kenner wants us to question how much we really know about the food we have been feeding to our families and to ourselves. He interviews various experts such as food advocates, farmers and authors who have written books about the food industry.
Junk food is responsible for the growing rate of obesity. This is outlined by David freedman in his article of “How junk food can end obesity.” David Freedman has credited the “health-food” motion, and followers of it along with Michel Pollan. Freedman claims that if the America desires to stop the obesity epidemic, or at least reduce its effects, they must shift to the fast meals and processed meals enterprise for assist, now not the “health-food” movement.
It is no secret that the fast food business has an impact on the American people. Price, efficiency, and flavor are all important considerations. Some people prefer packed food since they can prepare it at home while still enjoying the convenience and speed of fast food. Jayne Fulkerson’s article “Fast food in the diet: implications and solution for families”, mentioned how time consuming it is for some people to prepare food for themselves,”The people state “they don't have time to prepare other foods”. With this knowledge, it leads more people to fast foods because they don’t have to make the food.
The sociological imagination on food In this assignment I am going to talk about the sociological imagination on food and the aspects it brings with it. Before starting that large process I firstly will explain what the social imagination is and what the key points of the imagination are in able to fully understand the topic; food and its history, biography, and the relation it has in society. This is my first assignment for the module understanding contemporary society so please bear with me as I will do my best to explain it in a logic manner so everybody can understand it.
Anthony Mendoza Nagle English II CP September 14, 2015 Summer Assignment Over the summer, I choose to read Fast Food Nation. This book was really an eye opener to me towards fast food chains. The main idea of the book Fast Food Nation is to show the dark side of the fast food industry. The author supports this throughout the book by talking about the workers of the food industry, quality of meat served and advertisement aimed towards children.