week 3: food practices and advertisments

In talking with my family about strange or taboo foods, the first thing that came to their minds was the consumption of aphrodisiacs “because it leads to sex”’, however people do eat them- chocolate, fish, etc.  We also discussed the difference in eating habits between the U.S. and here. I noticed that snacking is very prevalent in the U.S. in comparison to here. My family discussed how they don’t keep food in the house so as not to snack, but then they do eat more at their meals, but hopefully it is often fresher. I think that this practice seems healthier than our habits of continuous snacking and fast meals at home. When I mentioned this thought, my family explained that here, most people work one job, and have time to come home and cook a fresher, healthier meal.  In the U.S. it is different, they described, because we are often working multiple jobs, with multiple things going on, and, therefore, don’t have time or energy to cook a fresh meal every night.  While my family notices that freezer meals are now becoming prevalent here with a changing culture and lifestyle, they choose to keep the value of fresh, homemade meals for dinner, for the most part.

This whole idea of how we eat more fast meals in the U.S. because we work so much really got me thinking.  We live in this faster paced society at home, always moving from one thing to the next, and I think we lose sight of what is really important.  What are our values? We work so much to have money, and we are always moving so that we can do everything and don’t miss out.  But I think, in reality, because of this busy-work-a-holic mindset, we then are not mentally or physically healthy.  We are stressed and always in a time-constraint, which leads us to choose the snacks and fast freezer meals.  I think if we slowed down a little bit, we could cut some things out of our lives, be more present in the activities we do have, and then furthermore, become healthier, physically and mentally.  We can learn to value food and where it comes from, and see the significance in a fresh meal.

When we talked about what food may say about a person, my family discussed how it did not used to be so important here to be skinny, but, just like the idea of fast food, these ideals from the U.S. have begun to spread here.

I have seen these values described by my family on billboards and TV advertisements.  TV commercials are filled with diet pills and workout equipment, and billboards are filled with fast food signs with the cheapest prices.  These food patterns spreading here from the U.S. are representative of more than just food; the food is just serving as a mechanism to spread deeper ideals.  In the U.S., they exemplify the importance of a fast-paced, competitive environment, where the cheapest and easiest way is always the best.  Are these same ideals spreading here through the fast food places, or do they hold a different significance?  Does it hold the same meaning to go to fast food here?  Regardless, this changing of how food is seen in society and the role it serves for people and families is consequently changing the culture here.