EE1

Nick Young

April 30^th, 2012

Writ 1133

How Culture Changes Food

Growing up in a small upper middle class town, one does not really think about how other people eat. Personally, I thought everyone had their mom make them breakfast before a long day of 3^rd grade, then have a nice lunchable packed in your lunch box. Finally, you got to sit down with your whole family and tell them how you can name every state capital.

As I started to grow up and became devoted to sports and in more complicated academics, it was not very easy for my whole family to sit down for a meal. In the mornings I would leave my house at about 530 and grab whatever I could for food. Get to school and have cross-country practice, and struggle for four periods of school to get to lunch. Finally I would be able to scarf down as much food as I could get in my 25 minutes to eat. The last bell would right and I would be off to my second cross-country practice of the day. Getting out at 5:30 from practice I would race to my car while calling my mom to start dinner, then I would run into the house and eat what ever she had waiting as I started my AP Physics homework. I would finish my food and run upstairs to hop on my computer to check Facebook and check my grades online so I would know how much I would be getting yelled at that night. By the time I finished my nightly tasks, I would get a call for my coach making sure I would be at practice so the coaches could meet with other captains and I and tell us how much the team sucked and how it was all our fault. Finally, on the ice at 8:30 off at 11pm, running into my house showering then passing out in my bed to start it all over again.

So how does this have anything to do with the culture of people and what they eat? Most young kids have very basic lives, and then they progressively get more and more complicated. This is much like how culture has changed and how it effects people’s eating habits. Many years ago, everything was very basic, it was a shame to miss a family dinner. Now, it is rare to find a family that eats more than three meals together a week.

Food used to be the way people lived. Everyone was self sufficient with his or her food and making dinner was a family wide task. When a family’s farm could not sustain them anymore they would move. Then, once time went on, more and more things did not have to be done to get dinner on the table. No one has to grow their own food if they do not want too. You can go to the store to pick up Hamburger Helper. This is a lot like how people’s food culture changes, at first you have very simple planned meals from your parents. However by the time you are in high school your meals turn into tasks that you have to squeeze in;

The native people of North America had a simple solution: abandonment [3]. No fertilizer was used, except for the ashes from burned undergrowth and corn stalks. As a result, the soil became exhausted after a few years, so the fields were abandoned and new ones were dug. Primitive agriculture in many other parts of the world has been similar, and sometimes such a technique is called “slash-and-burn.” (Goodchild 1)

It was incredible how people were back then because they were completely able to make with what they had. If they did not have enough for their families, they would not call TruGreen to replenish their land, they would move to find land that could sustain their family. This is so compairable because one does not make use of everything anymore and as the person grows up, much like the nation, everything gets a lot easier and it is less of an event. “The “miracle” of growing so much food on so little land was largely due, therefore, to neither technology nor topography, but to the fact that starvation was the only alternative,” (Goodchild 2) the fact is people had to find food at this point in time and this clearly shows how much different things are than they are today. In the current time, people assume that it is other peoples responsibility to get food and the person that makes dinner can run to the store and grab whatever they need. Once they have that, they can make dinner in minutes and serve it to whoever need to eat before they go to practice or start on work they need to do.

Just looking at this change shows that hundreds of years ago, everyone in the family needed to bring something to the table for the family to eat. Now, dinner can be made as everyone is watching the Blackhawks game. This point alone shows how eating is much less of an event and more of a task; "Looking at screens while eating, rather than at other people, has become more commonplace since those first tv dinners, at home, at work, and beyond. Eating in front of tvs is ubiquitous in public spaces such as airports, hospitals, and sports bars, as well as in more sequestered niches" (Horwitz 44). This proves that meals are not what they used to be. So, does watching TV with your family really add to the situation or does it make your not pay attention to the others and just look at the TV. When I think of food adding to a situation, I think about how whenever my friends and I would watch a Blackhawks game, we would get food. Some of the people, who were not as big of fans as me, would be more focused on the food then they would be on the game. So, some people thought the food of a way to bring us together and watch the game and others used it as a distraction from the game. Also, people set there own eating cycles, so like in college people eat whenever it is easiest for them, which is when every they turn on their microwaves (Horwitz).

This covers how the entire world has changed their ways of eating since the beginning of time, but there are many cases that places and people have to change their eating habits due to where they live or how they have to live.

Imagine how people who have to work very stressful jobs that force them to eat diffrerntly than they many want to. A great example of this is 60 miles south of Denver. In Colorado Springs, there are thousands of people that are working in the Air Force that have adapted to the Fast Food lifestyle.

The extraordinary growth of Colorado Springs neatly parallels that of the fast food industry: during the last few decades, the city’s population has more than doubled. Subdivisions, shopping malls, and chain restaurants are appearing in the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain and the plains rolling to the east. The Rocky Mountain region as a whole has the fastest-growing economy in the United States, mixing high-tech and service industries in a way that may define America’s workforce for years to come. And new restaurants are opening there at a faster pace than anywhere else in the nation. (Schlosser 1)

It is incredible how much things can be compared to how food is changing the culture. In the Springs, as the town got larger, the more the people moved into the city, the more the fast food industry took over. There are even fast food places in the smallest of towns. In my town of 10000, there are 3 McDonalds along with all the other restaurants. All the time you see families grabbing a quick bit on their way to wherever they have to be. Food has completely changed from a way for families to connect after a long day at work to a drive thru window on the way to taking Susie to soccer practice and Alex to violin lessons.

Lastly, some people have to change their food culture because of health problems. Diabetes is a very common health problem for the human race, but it is very interesting that each culture has a different way changing their diets according to the ways they would eat their cuisine. “The American diet is a combination of many cultures and cuisines. To understand it, one must not only study the traditional foods and food habits of the many minority groups, but also the interaction between the majority culture and the cultures of these smaller groups,” (Kulkarni 1), in America, everyone has their own ties to home, which is a way to keep their culture in tack. However, with diabetes, they need to adjust their ways of eating while still keeping their connection with their families together. “Helping patients modify recipes for foods they typically eat is valuable in achieving and maintaining adherence to recommended dietary changes. A study at the diabetes clinic of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., found that the primary reason for patients not following food recommendations was that the recommended diet was not familiar to them and contained unfamiliar food choices,” (Kulkarni 1), this is a great example of how food has to be changed for health reason and people do not like it because it changing their usual diet. People who move to America do not have many ties to their homeland because of how different everything is in America. Food is one of the few things a family can keep within their lives because of the passing down of recipes. With health problems like this, it is hard to find a way to make the soul food everyone loves without the carbs that would make these peoples insulin spike

Works Cited

Goodchild, Peter. "Food and America." Culturechange.org. Culture Change, 01 Feb. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.

Horwitz, Jamie. "Eating at the Edge." University of California Press. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2009.9.3.42 .>.

Kulkarni, Karmeen D. "Food and Diabetes." Food, Culture, and Diabetes in the United States. Print.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

TV dinners

Hortwiz makes a point of how one can add a lot to a situation with food. However, you can also take away from a situation if you are eating. Hortwiz brings up how she had someone in his class eating a huge sandwich, now in a lecture hall this would not matter. This event took place in a small classroom, which made it much more obvious to the teacher and all of the other students. So after all this, she brings up how s1he used to have people smoking cigarettes during class. This was a subtle way to show that the food was effecting the situation. He also talks about how TV dinners were a way for families to get together, since you did not eat a TV dinner without watching TV. "Looking at screens while eating, rather than at other people, has become more commonplace since those first tv dinners, at home, at work, and beyond. Eating in front of tvs is ubiquitous in public spaces such as airports, hospitals, and sports bars, as well as in more sequestered niches" (Horwitz 44). She makes a valid point that meals are not what they used to be. So, does watching TV with your family really add to the situation or does it make your not pay attention to the others and just look at the TV. When I think of food adding to a situation, I think about how whenever my friends and I would watch a Blackhawks game, we would get food. Some of the people, who were not as big of fans as me, would be more focused on the food then they would be on the game. So, some people thought the food of a way to bring us together and watch the game and others used it as a distraction from the game. Also, people set there own eating cycles, so like in college people eat whenever it is easiest for them, which is when every they turn on their microwaves (Horwitz)

Drunk Noodles

Noodles is a very interesting place to eat dinner at. There are many different people that one can find in the establishment. My friends and I got there on a rainy day during the LAX game. We were not playing to well and we were not very interested in the game so we went to go get food. On our way we saw many people trying to escape from the rain and seeking shelter. We got there and they took our orders, the wait staff there is fairly casual. They stroke up good conversation with all of us and made us feel like we were welcomed. Noodles is an interesting format for a restaurant. It is more formal then McDonalds and less formal then a sit down restaurant, it is a lot like Panera. Once we sat down and got our drinks, we started too look around, there were many different kinds of people there. There were families having a quiet dinner, there was college students lightly discussing the weekend. Then, once the LAX game ended, many drunken students rolled into the place. Loud and annoying, the families gave them a dirty look as they said hi to everyone they knew in the restaurant. However, the people working there did not seem to care what these kids were doing, it is no shock to have drunk college kids in a restaurant that is foot steps off a campus. The families should not have been too insulted by this because they should know what they are getting into in a college campus. The sober kids there interacted with drunken kids, which made for some interesting interactions. Some people were noticeable more drunk than others. You could clearly tell this by these peoples actions. There were certain things that you would not see at a normal food establishment in downtown Denver. To add on to there drunkenness, they were all soaked from watching the Lax game in the rain. Wet and out of control, the families eating there quickly finished their meals and left, while all of the sober college students watched and interacted with the intoxicated kids like they were playing a fun game. Students were hiding cups and stealing food. It was very interesting seeing all the people laughing at one person that truly had no idea what was going on. Then one of Denver sports biggest fans walked in clearly drunk. This was the main show of everyone at Noodles. Everyone was watching to see what this person would do. This student was running around talking to everyone he or she knew in the restaurant, some people accepted this person as he or she ran around giving everyone hugs, others gave her a “dead fish” hug. It was very interested to see how everyone reacted to this. Also noticed, everyone who was intoxicated just shoved their food into their mouth, not caring what it was. This brought up a question in my head. Why do people not care what they eat when they are drunk? So after some Google and searching of alcohols affects on the appetite. I found one article that nailed it on the head. “When a person drinks the body responds to large quantities of increased glucose in the system by producing more insulin which removes the glucose. “Once the process has started, the insulin carries on working removing glucose from the blood. Low blood glucose levels are responsible for that shaky feeling, heavy sweating, dizziness and blurred vision. Low glucose levels also result in feeling tired. To overcome this feeling of lethargy and tiredness the body will be craving a carbohydrate boost which is why many people feel hungry when they have been drinking,” Never really thinking about how drinking affects someone’s eating habits, this really explains why this happens why drunk people get hungry.

Overall, it was very interesting to actually watch what is happening around you when you eat. Usually I would just pay attention to the people that I am with and see what they are doing. However, watching other people eat made in more interesting as a meal of a whole. Since, the other people I was with were not in my class, they did not exactly understand why I was pay attention to other people more than them. After explaining they joined in on the watching and also found that it was a very interesting part. Usually when you eat, you only notice the loud and annoying group of hockey players or the couple that is getting way to close for the public good, but to see other people’s reaction to these people made the experience of eating more interesting. 

Link

This is the link I look to use on my paper. It brings up the affects of alcohol on a person appetite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1721987.stm

Is Nelson food better than jail food?

 O’Donnell brings up a very good point right at the beginning of her writing; “Southerners eat fish and seafood because those are the most common types of protein in the region. Fish and seafood are hard to catch. So, in the past, if Guangdong people wanted to eat, they had to have quick hands and eyes; they had to be sneaky to catch the fish.” This points out why some things are know for certain food because it is the easiest thing to get. Unlike America there are many places that cannot simply call a company to get any food they would like to be shipped to them. I personally believe that this truly makes a culture. If you ask an American what is American Food, you would get a thousand different answers. Food is what gives people jobs in these types of communities and it brings them together as a whole. She also brings up that once a community can get enough for the people living there, they can start selling to other communities that do not have fish, and build their culture.

In Cate’s writing, she shows how that in jail, food can also bring people together in the worst of ways. She shows a meal bring people in common place to eat and discuss. It is like when I walk into Nelson and see Nicole Boerema enjoying a meal. We are both their for the same reason. However, jail is most likely not as nice as Nelson (could be up for debate however). Food truly can bring people together even if it is not the best circumstances. 

Scotie Doesn't Know, that im looking at his blog

http://chomponsomenoms.blogspot.com/2012/04/humor-me-dont-inform-me.html This blog had many similarities. Comparing the Burger King and the Panda Cheese ads, both of them had a lot of humor in them. The Burger King ad shows that their menu has a lot of value by giving a humorous quote of being able to pay your rent and eat breakfast. Panda Cheese uses the approach of you can not say no to Panda, and if you do, the panda will get you. Both ads use humor to attract their customers. 

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For the two advertisements, I chose a Burger King ad and a Wildfire ad. The Burger King ad talks about how breakfast can be affordable. It shows that one does not have to give up simple things to get Burger King breakfast. Wildfire, on the other hand, is a very high cost restaurant in Chicago. It caters to the higher class because of their high quality steaks and other foods.

Burger Kings ad is very eye catching, a lot of different colors with big and small font. This really tells you exactly what is important on this ad. It also has pictures of the actual food. It probably looks a lot better than it actually is, but it some how gets on their ads. This ad uses humor by saying, “now you can pay rent and eat” which shows the value of the restaurant. The ad also show may different parts of different city sky lines, showing that it is all over the country. Lastly, the logo tops the middle of the ad showing exactly where one would go to find these delicious looking breakfast foods. 

The Wildfire ad has a lot more thought put into their ad. To start, there is a fairly attractive female smiling, this makes a point that eating at this establishment not only is for eating, but that there will be an experience. This woman also shows the suggested dress code at a restaurant like this. Looking at this add, I would not come from the gym and sit down for a steak. Next, one sees the cursive writing that cannot be easily read quickly. It reads, “as good as you remember”. This shows that many of the customers return for the experience again and again. And if has been a while since you had been there, they are assuring you that the experience has not changed one bit and you will enjoy it just as much. Finally, you get to the details. You see the name of the restaurant and what he or she offers, but there is no fancy logo, or picture of their food. This shows that they do not need to have a catchy logo to attract people, and each time a dish is served, it has a different look too it which can not be copied into a photo. The last part of the detail is a historical twist on the restaurant “the quintessential 1940s supper club”. This shows that this restaurant is based off of some historical restaurant type that was very popular in the 40s. All of the detail text is a very simple, all caps font that is not eye catching, but catches the eye because it is so discrete.

Burger King does not seek after the people who would be buying $100 steaks. They are looking for the people that are late for work and do not want to spend more than $5 on breakfast. They are the kind of company that is not competing for the best food; they are competing for the most economical food. People who has blue-collar jobs are much more likely to pick up a sausage sandwich than someone who just picked up the Porsche for the shop.

Wildfire does not have to advertise, their food and reputation does that for them. Wildfire has the same wealthy North Shore families come there week after week spending hundreds of dollars at their bar. The typical Wildfire dinner is not shy about spending $200 at a dinner for three. They are a well-known steak place that does not have to make themselves known because their customers adversative the restaurant themselves.

The culture of Burger King is a place where a family can get a cheap dinner, and the kid is happy because he or she can get a crown. No one walks out of a Burger King calling their friends telling them how amazing today’s whopper was, and that they need to hop in their mini can and get to the nearest Burger King. Burger King is fast and cheap, but there is not one type of people that go there. Everyone needs a quick bite once and a while.

Wildfire is much different, when you know you are going there; you find our days in advance, you tell your friends that you are going, and you cannot focus in school. Wildfire is something that is planned, sometimes it is a tradition, sometimes is a celebration. However, not everyone is able to spend what this restaurant is asking for, so I feel like this has more of a narrow audience.

Chips and Stuff

Looking at food, one can see many different things. Each potato chip brand aims at a certain demographic. The more expensive chips mention health six time more than the cheap brands. This shows that the people who buy the more expensive chips, care more about health, so it is only right for them to make the health of their chips more evident. I assume that the people who buy the cheaper chips do not care about the health value. I can personally say, that sometimes I want something unhealthy. One of the first things I go to is a bag of chips, so there is no reason for these companies to try to change their ways. I also think the quote from the reading “Working-class speakers drop the “r” in words like quarter

and park, while upper-middle-class speakers pronounce the “r,” following the standard American “prestige” pronunciation” shows that things as simple as the words used on the bag can decide who will be buying that bag of chips. A college kid who just stumbled into a gas station at 2am on a Friday night is not going to care the trans fat intake, but a mom who loves chips and goes to the grocery store will most likely pick up the more expensive bag of chips.

         This also applies to food, a upper middle class person is not going to be thinking where to go to dinner and see a McDonald’s ad and decide that is where their family is going. Every ad has a certain audience and it applies to them directly.