Introduction The interviewee that was questioned helped to collect and understand information with regards to food culture and food consumption based on changes through time. I interviewed a woman who lives near me who is in her early 60s who has lived in Canada her full life. Examining someone who has lived in Canada her full life was interesting because I was able to compare how food production and consumption has changed so much. Through looking at my interviewees food habits of when she was younger through up until now linking it to the concepts learned in class it helps to understand the ever-changing food culture. Alternative food movements are needed to help provide people with better choices because industrialized food and production …show more content…
Through the manufacturing and industrialization of foods many foods are made into frozen meals which are a lot easier to prepare. Pre-packaged frozen food that interviewee would eat she thought was semi healthy because it included a vegetable and meat or pasta. The price of the frozen food is something that she mentioned as well, these are a lot cheaper than buying fresh fruits and vegetables. The main ingredients that she found she used seemed to be a lot less healthy than what her mother would make her family for dinner. A lot of the main ingredients in meals prepared by her are pre-cooked or frozen foods such as vegetables and fruits which seem to lose their nutritional value (Scrinis, 2008). With living in a farming community, she tries to eat vegetables and fruits that are grown locally which helps to add some nutritional content to her food. One thing that the interviewee talked about during the interview was about the amount of packaging that is used today to help protect food to last longer on grocery store shelves. With grocery stores being so accessible and convenient it pushes a lot of people away from unpackaged and local foods. Interviewee believes that with grocery stores being so convenient and needing to provide food for multiple people the quality has decreased drastically. With having so much low quality food that is easily accessible it is pushing people’s health down which can be visibly seen according to the
In recent studies, it was discovered that most of the foods that Americans consumed are foods which had gone through so many processes and thereby losing most of its nutritional values. Unhealthy nutrients are also been added to foods as additive during production to either preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance. An individual cannot simply trust what he or she is consuming at a fast food restaurant or even a cheap prepared meal at a grocery store. Processed food or western diet needs to be replaced and totally taken out of the American life and diet; this will help the Americans to live a healthier life, and spend less on medical bills.
In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability. I agree with Kingsolver that knowing the origin of food is an important and healthy benefit of developing a true food culture, but it is impractical to maintain that everyone is able to buy more expensive food. Kingsolver presents a compelling argument for developing a food culture, however this lifestyle change may not be practical or even possible for a poverty-level citizen. The following essay will summarize and respond to Kingsolver’s argument to demonstrate how “Called Home” is a model for novice social scientists.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
According to an article entitled, The Child in the Garden: An Evaluative Review of the Benefits of School Gardens, by Dorothy Blair, “Anonymous prepackaged food arrives at supermarkets from energy-intensive, polluting, and often obesity-promoting industrial food-manufacturing systems.” This is the main reason that I am interested in food based education programs because I am a mother of three school aged children and as a mom it is difficult for me to encourage healthy eating habits when everything is against me. Television commercials are constantly advertising sugary foods, radios promote candy, and grocery stores encourage more candy sales at checkout lines. On top of that they are packaged in a way that is appealing to young children. For example, I was at the grocery store and saw a box of cereal with the characters of Frozen as did my daughter. Since Frozen is my daughter’s favorite movie she wanted me to buy it for her. I looked at the nutrition content and it was just another sugary cereal. As a mother this is a hard decision because I know the only reason she wants it is because of the packaging. If I say no than she becomes upset and if I say yes than I am not providing healthy food choices. This is the
In our fast pace society, we base everything on time and money. This need to save money and time has transformed the way we see food and purchase food. Food is an essential part of all cultures. It plays a role in every person’s life. The population has the power to choose what we eat and how the food industry is shaped. There are many important questions that we need to ask ourselves in order to keep the food industry in check. These questions are: How do we know our food is safe? What should we eat? How should food be distributed? What is good food? These are simple yet difficult questions.
The invention of the television (TV) dinner has led to lifestyle changes in American society. Created in 1953 by C.A. Swanson & Sons, frozen suppers allowed mothers to take breaks from cooking and sit down with their families (Pendergast). These meals quickly boomed with popularity and revolutionized the way that Americans viewed food. Today, many families still purchase these meals, but do not realize that they have several limitations. Although TV dinners seem like convenient and inexpensive food choices, in reality, the “TV dinner culture” has serious implications for the environment, health, and agriculture. The problems posed by TV dinners, such as food miles, inadequate nutrition, and untrue costs, alienate people from their food, families, and environment, and would be lessened if Americans purchased foods from farmers’ markets.
Michael Pollan discusses two categories of food: one is real food (the kind our great-grandmother would recognize), while the other is “edible food-like substances”. The category that needs defending according to Pollan is the real food. This category of food is minimally processed, fresh (will eventually rot), and includes mostly things that are taken straight from the source (the ground, tree, etc.). When one walks into a store, they should look for and pick the foods that are more “quiet”such as fresh produce than the ones that have more labels that say they are more healthy, or better for you.
In French school, every day, many kitchen staffs prepare the lunch for students by using totally fresh food materials. The food can keep the most part of the nutrient and relatively safe to be eaten compare to ready-made frozen food. The students do not need to worry about if their foods have been put into the refrigerator for a long time and become staled. Compared to French schools, American schools do badly in this aspect. Many foods in American schools’ canteens are prepackaged food, like macaroni, pizza, sugary drinks or even fruits. These prepackaged food always contain many chemical additives to keep the quality of the food. The kitchen staffs usually heat up the food and then serve to students. It is very easy and convenient. However, those additives contained in the prepackaged food are bad to the body and even toxic. These foods do not help teenagers grow taller but make them face many health problems, like overweight, stomach problems. So, a good suggestion to American schools is to spend more money on the original material of school lunches, and try the best to keep the food material fresh. I know it may be difficult for plenty of schools to approach fresh food material. As a result, it is the problem that the education institutions and governments should care
This concedes that now America is creating health issues from consuming unhealthy foods. According to, “The battle against fast food beings in the home”, by Daniel Weintraub, “Kids eat unhealthy food and sit in front of the television or computer for hours at a time”. The article states that now obesity has affected many kids in America. Due to obesity affecting many kids in America the argument here is that, parents are not thinking about their child’s health and how it affects their body. Their main worry if the food is cheap and that it’s reasonable to buy for their family; which is understandable. Thus, many kids health are in danger from the lack of a nutritious diet. At the same time, fast food companies believe that it’s not their fault. According to Daniels Weintraub’s article, it states that “ It’s the parents, not the government, not the fast food companies who are responsible for teaching kids unhealthy habits” (Weintraub 1). The argument here is that parents need to try to feed their kids much healthier diets such as vegetables. Feeding them fast food is going to wreck their health. For this reason, fast food companies should try to sell healthier food for a reasonable price. Having produce companies sell more affordable fruits and vegetables will clear this problem. This will allow people who don’t have much money be able to provide a healthy dish
We Americans are always on the go, no matter if it is on our way to work, school, or exercise. Most people are eating some types of processed food usually for almost every meal due to how quick it is to prepare. However, most Americans do not realize that the nutrition facts on the other side of their granola bar shows the ugly truth about what they are eating. Michael Pollan who is a highly esteemed author on this subject refers to the “Western Diet” as mostly processed foods. Pollan’s main argument is that Americans need to reduce the amount of processed foods that are consumed so that health risks will be reduced.
With the poor choice of choosing unhealthy and processed products, it may lead to many health problems, such as chronic disease, diabetes,...etc. People are still lack of the knowledge about nutrition and its importance. Not to mention, food access is not simply a health issue but also a community development and equity issue. For this reason, access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food is a key component not only in a healthy, sustainable local food system, but also in a healthy, sustainable
Many people in America, from toddlers to the elderly, have shown numerous signs of bad health. People have the desire to keep on eating due to more, new things being merchandised as “new and improved items” from the producers. For example, nowadays, people are eating pure junk that they find satisfying on the grocery food shelf. As, stated by Michael Pollan, in his article, “Eat Food: Food Defined” he affirmed that “real food is the type of things that our
Food has been a common source of necessity in our everyday lives as humans. It helps gives us nutrition and energy to live throughout our life. Over several decades, the development of making foods has evolved. They have changed from natural to processed foods in recent years. Nowadays natural ingredients are barely used in the making of foods like bread, cheese, or yogurt. The food industry today has replaced natural food making with inorganic ingredients. The cause of this switch is due to processed foods being easier, cheaper and faster to make. Artificial nutrition and processed foods have been proven to last longer in market shelves then natural foods. Also, due to artificial additives in processed foods they help satisfy consumers taste more than natural ingredients. The method of producing processed foods is common in today's food industry and helps make money faster and efficiently for companies. Examples of this can be found in all markets that distribute food. Even though processed foods may be easier and faster to make, they are nowhere near as healthy for consumers compared to natural foods. Natural foods are healthier, wholesome, and beneficial to the human body and planet then processed foods.
American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot
It became so clear that junk foods lead to a punch of catastrophic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes, vascular diseases and cardiac disorders. Those kinds of diseases cost more than $150 billion annually, just to diagnose, treat people who suffer from them. That disease is chronic and leads to many health-related issues, for example, obesity considers a risk factor for type two diabetes, and high blood pressure, joint disorders and many others (The Denver Post 2012). The key of preventing many chronic problems is nutrition. Low income plays an important role of limiting most people to buy and eat a healthy diet and in the other hand, it is easy for people budgets to purchase junk foods. So controlling the prices of healthy foods to be suitable for all people make good nutrition available for everyone. Adequate diets mean decreasing the epidemic of those serious diseases, and stopping the spread and break the bad sequences that may happen. Long-term exposure to junk foods that are full with chemicals like additives, preservatives have led to chronic illnesses difficult to treat. Also, the chemical added to junk foods are tasted unique and made millions of people becoming addicted to them and are available everywhere for example in restaurants, cafes, lunchrooms (The Denver Post