4. What do you think American eating habits reveal about our national character? How is Pollan’s book not only about healthful eating, but also about cultural values?
4. What do you think American eating habits reveal about our national character? How is Pollan’s book not only about healthful eating, but also about cultural values?
As I neared the end of “In Defense of Food” Pollan talked about rules to follow in making more healthful eating decisions. A message that was strongly conveyed to me was that Americans are opting for the convenience of ready to go meals. Pollan talks about a growing trend in which families don’t sit down to eat at the dinner table together, and instead consume microwaveable dishes at their own leisure that is marketed towards their age group (190). This point about food describes a larger quality about Americans in that we desire tasks to be easy and as cost effective as possible. Food seems to be a major part of any culture, and in the last century as greatly defined the lifestyle of Americans, ranging from our eating habits to health problems-leading to the way of American life.
What our eating habits reveal about our national character is that we are a culture of instant gratification that has lost sight in the true importance of food. I think that Pollan was very smart to bring up the French, who eat less, but spend more time enjoying their food. Americans scarf down their food, rather than enjoying it. Maybe this is because, with a majority of the food we eat, if we actually took the time to chew and taste the food we would be disgusted by how it actually tastes. Seriously. The next time you have a McDonalds french fry, really eat it.
America has become a nation of fast paced madness where people rarely take the time to slow down and enjoy the moment; and this is now being demonstrated in our food preparation and consumtion. We need to learn from the French and actually enjoy our food. If we did, we most likely wouldn’t eat as much: 1) because a majority of the food we eat is disgusting if you really taste it and 2) this gives the brain time to process that we are full.
I agree that life in the US can seem fast-paced, and that this influences our eating habits for the worse. Like many other aspects of US life, this quite possibly spanned from American exceptionalism. Due to our country’s affluence and latent superiority complex, things like food, which are of easy access to us, are taken for granted and viewed as something to be consumed only so that we may survive to get to our next important task. The quality of food naturally takes a backseat to convenience. Production of mediocre-quality yet convenient food will not cease so long as we are at such a quick pace in life. But quick pace has been hard-wired into our minds due to our technological innovations that allow us to accomplish tasks much quicker. So yeah, this is our conundrum, and like you said, I think it can be helped if we all just calm down, slow down, and really eat. I admire the French for taking the time to eat their food, even if they do so merely for the superficial reason of maintaining formality, because they still have the right idea.
I also found the example Pollan gave us on p. 106 very interesting. We stuck to white rice over brown knowing that it was not as healthy because our ability to refine the grains signified affluence — and we love to show that off, don’t we?
The majority of our food does not have great health benefits, but I wouldn’t say it’s disgusting. If it was really as disgusting as you say, people would stop eating it. I, for one, love french fries.
American eating habits have developed throughout the years to make the whole process of eating easier. For hundreds of years, the preparation and consumption of food was something people enjoyed and took pride in. The American culture of food is that we no longer have a culture: we eat whatever is fastest and easiest, with no regard for the traditions and expectations that have for so long surrounded mealtimes. Food has become a means to an end, rather than a social activity that not only feeds one’s body, but also one’s heart and soul. We lose very important social interactions and connections with the people around us when we microwave a single-serving meal, or choose to eat alone rather than as a family.
It’s not just time that we have ceased to put into our food, but money. Americans spend almost half as much of their incomes on food as do the the Italians, the French, or the Spanish. By simply providing us with this statistic, Pollan shows us the difference in the cultural values of our country and that of people who still take pleasure in food, not only as a source of energy, but also as a source of pride. These other cultures spend more on food, and more specifically on pure, whole foods. These people are far healthier than we are as a culture surviving on processed, chemically bonded piles of pre-packaged “food.”
Anna, Annabeth, and John, you all make excellent points. Americans, in general, have removed the culture from their diet. When we go to a restaurant we expect fast service and begin to gripe if the bill does not come in under ten minutes. I showed this question to my parents and they had a few interesting observations. My mother grew up in a family that did not have much. At meal times her parents would not let her leave the table until she ate every last parcel of food because they could not afford to waste anything. Nowadays, parents still continue to overload the plates of their children and refuse to let them be excused until the plate is clear. These parents, merely following the precedent set by their mother and father, display our desire to prevent the waste of any food. We treat food as edible money, we feel we must consume all of it. Interestingly, my Dad claims the size of the average dinner plate has grown immensely since his youth. Thus, parents are dishing up larger and larger plates that will be served to children growing larger as well. My parents’ observations reveal our tendency to repeat the teachings of our elders even though they may not be practical today. While food should not be wasted we should stop eating before we feel sick!
I believe that American eating reveals many diversities and cultures which makes it very appealing. America was and still is the land of opportunities to many people. Having immigrants from every corner of the world makes America very much alluring to the eyes of many people. Pollan brings out the fact that what we eat doesn’t just come from nowhere and it has history. He points out that we are all connected to nature, something that we usually miss. For example, in the years and years past someone who fished to eat understood the value that the fish had. He/ she probably didn’t know what it was good for. He/ she didn’t look at it through nutritionists’ eyes. They ate it and they survived and back then, that was the simple rule of life-survival.
Jonathan (first comment) starts talking about the “cost-effectiveness” of our meals and I think he’s hit the nail on the head. The way Americans eat has turned into the way America makes it’s money: industry. Industry seems to me like a practice devoid of humanity. It’s all about accruing the most of a piece of paper. However, industry has no ties to nature. In a natural sense, it holds no value. Americans seem to have been caught in a frenzy about money, which is an unnatural thing.
Now, to connect this to how we eat. Americans have also lost our connection with the nature of food, as Pollan says in his book. For instance, he talks about the study of the Aboriginals who went from their Western diet back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and saw dramatic health changes. Pollan even says the “human animal is adapted to…an extraordinary range of diets, but the Western diet…does not seem to be one of them” (100). Pollan is suggesting that the Western diet is a diet that fits with no natural being.
It seems Americans, much like with industry, have forgotten about nature. We have become greedy for money and it’s causing major problems. (Just take a look at our current Recession.) For “cost-effectiveness,” we eat food that isn’t natural anymore (processed, unhealthy, etc) and thus have cut our ties with the natural world. Culturally, the entire United States is moving away from nature and into an entirely man-made world.
I really liked the point that Annabeth brought up regarding the reference to the comparison of how the French eat and how we eat. It is true, our society in America does not take the time to sit down and truly eat and chew and process our food, we want to take the direct and immediate route from hungry to full. That is not to say that we are okay with eating bad food, but rather we don’t take the same amount of time to enjoy it, taste all the different flavors, or really savor the experience.
In general, it seems as though Americans wish for the fastest high quality experience. We don’t like wasting time or spending too much of it on things that are less than urgent. We take much of life for granted because things are so much easier now. We don’t have to spend the entire day planting seeds, harvesting food and then cooking dinner, we can just stick something in the microwave for 5 minutes and we have a satisfactory dinner. Since things are so easy, we lost our insight to the real world. Sort of like what Colin was saying, we have become a world of processed everything, it seems as though man no longer creates anything or works for himself. Our society depends so much on finances, as most do, but it has caused us to only care about the end product, nothing in between; just like our meals. Meals are generally just for getting full.
Americans consume, consume, consume. Our culture has been built upon the idea that “we deserve everything” and therefore, we get everything. Our grocery stores sell food in bulk, instilling the thought that we must have as much of one item as we can possibly get our hands on. We drive bigger cars. We have bigger houses. We have more of everything. This is not necessarily a good thing, because the rest of the world lives on much less. Naturally, this psychology of “consume, consume, consume” will reflect on our eating habits. Americans tend to eat more meat than any other food item, sacrificing fruits and vegetables in the act. With the emergence of super-corporations like Monsanto that have genetically modified corn and soybeans so they can grow anywhere, we have begun to witness legislation that allows these companies to control what Americans eat. Also, the rise of fast-food restaurants have caused us to streamline our eating, rather than ‘savor the flavor.’ While most countries base their diets on cultural and social cues, Americans base their eating habits on the most efficient and fast methods. We have forsaken our cultural eating habits for a quicker, easier way of eating. TV dinners, fast food, etc., etc., have all affected not only our health, but the way we view food. Instead of seeing it as a way to connect with our peers, we see it as a way to simply survive. But food is much more than the basic nutritional functions.
Pollan’s book detailed how food has been cheapened due to industry, and also how our emphasis (whether it be monetary or cultural) on food isn’t what it has been since practically the dawn of our species. I think that what this shows about our national character is that we prioritize economical money usage and that we are willing to put a good bargain ahead of good health, relationships, customs, etc.
Considering that America’s economic system is based on capitalism, corporations’ main goal is to make the highest profit. As food has become industrialized along with other industries, the pressure to generate a profit on something that had traditionally been grown for subsistence has been one of the strongest altering forces. Such pressure has reduced the nutritional value of our food while increasing the amount of food per dollar. In addition, making the food less expensive has appealed to the capitalist nature of the American people by offering more food for the same amount of money. The quantity of food eclipses quality, especially with the incentive of being inexpensive. Not to say that we are cheap as a nation, but the food industry’s measures to maximize profits enables consumers to spend much less money on food (and in a capitalist economy, saving money is usually thought of as a good thing.)
American eating habits reveal that we value quick accessibility to food. Fast food restaurants make billions of dollars every year. The food they provide in proven to be unhealthy but still we eat their food because it is fast and easy. Fast food allows people to grab food on the go with minimal interruption to their day. Quality of food in American culture is not the top priority. Quality seems to come third behind the profit that can be made on food and the ease of its preparation. Pollen points this out by highlighting the close relationship between the lobbyist and the FDA.
I agree with Fintan Doyle, that Pollan makes it very clear “Quality of food in American culture is not the top priority”, but I believe Pollan may also be inviting us to see these values of cheap, quick, and easy – over quality – as a reflection of our American society in juxtaposition to others. He talks in depth of the history behind food and nutrition of long-standing societies, and infers that their ways are quiet superior to ours, through multiple studies and research.
To go back to the original question, it seems to me what Pollan is saying about our national character is that it is easily swayed, based on “proof” rather than tradition, and overall superficial. Our cultural values are not deep-rooted like those of other countries, rather they are cosmetic, convenient, or even merely for bragging rights to say an American chicken can lay more eggs faster than any other countries chickens. While at times it seems a more appropriate title for this book may have been On Attacking American Culture, I do admire Pollan’s ability to tie food and culture together.
I feel that our national character is greatly defined by how we choose to eat. I have two coworkers that are on exchange from Ireland and the first thing they say that is different from their home is the way “we Americans” make eating an experience. As much as food being just a thing to fill our stomachs such as others have mentioned above, I feel that much of our social lives are based around food. When you go out with friends or on a date, what do you do? You go out for dinner or fro-yo. Because we place such a high value on food, the food industry is huge!
Pollan mentions the diversity in availability of food for our nation that correlates with our different cultural values depending on our economic status. We are filled with diversity when it comes to our food, diversity in food from different cultures and in quality of ingredients. The food is also diverse in the prices, which portrays the great gap of wealth in our nation.
My family had a French exchange student stay with us briefly one summer, and one of the first things I remember her saying is, “I’m amazed at how much you Americans eat, and how fast you all can eat it!”
She then went on to explain that in her country, people eat slowly while making meaningful conversation with others, and meals are more about establishing connections with friends and family than they are about filling your stomach.
Though eating in America can be a very social thing, I do think much of it is based on convenience. Fast food chains and companies that manufacture microwavable meals make billions of dollars every year, and a common theme in food advertisements is how fast and easy eating their food is. It’s enormously apparent that most Americans (and therefore our country as a general whole) value convenience over quality, low price over nutrition.
Ever since America started as a country it has always been a melting pot of cultures. There are about 311 languages spoken in the United States. The reason why I bring this up is because along with those different languages comes a wide variety of cultures with different thoughts on eating. Michael Pollan suggests that we “Eat more like the French, or the Italians, or the Japanese, or the Indians, or the Greeks” (173) which as a society we have tried to do so, but we have just gone about it incorrectly. America has immigrants from all of these countries, and these immigrants have shared with us their cultural values and their traditional cuisines. In some cases they have opened restaurants to expose Americans to their countries food. Out of curiosity Americans visit these restaurants and some even open up new restaurants imitating the originals or try to cook these foods at home. Though this may seem like it is Americans adopting these new food habits, it often times results in the food becoming more American than what it originally was. The traditional foods are then made with unrecognizable and nontraditional products, in larger portions, and all around more American. Sometimes there are even fast food chains opened that attempt to imitate the traditional cuisine such as Panda Express which hardly even resembles traditional Chinese food. So though the food in America may resemble a diversified cuisine, is it really or is it just American food culture hiding under a mask of foreign foods? It is hard to tell, but until America changes what makes our food unique to our country I think we will continue to see an increase in unhealthy eating.
I definitely had some of the same thoughts as Madeleine about our attempts to eat diversely.
The U.S. is a relatively young country, peopled with citizens from far and wide. The people who came to America hundreds of years ago came from an entirely different ecosystem, already full of ideas about what to eat. North America – like almost anywhere – had the resources to provide a balanced human meal, but only if said humans were willing to start from scratch and live off the land.
Instead, the Columbian Exchange introduced dozens of new species, not only wreaking havoc on the native plants and animals, but creating an entirely new, mixed list of foods to choose from.
So we came as people with no idea about how to live from the land we moved to, and technology advanced too quickly to give us much reason to learn. Coming from various cultures (and so, various cuisines) meant that America didn’t have set eating habits to fall back on. I feel like that’s why processed and fast- food hit us so much worse than many of the places it came to at the same time – because we didn’t have any cultural eating to build from.
Most people agree that America’s national character can be defined as impatient, fast, or capitalistic, but I think America’s food industry is strongly determined by the work industry. In foreign countries, people work less hours, with more vacation time and travel time. People have less stressful work situations, and therefore more time and energy to put towards other things: family time, exercise (bike to work), and food (cook a meal). However, in America people work such long, stressful hours, that Americans don’t get as much quality work done as they would have, and then people return home too tired and stressed out to want to think about food or exercise. The American national character is one of tired, over-worked, stressed out people, who live in a country where it’s nearly impossible to live on one income and still have time for other things in a person’s life.
The American culture has always been about innovation; creating things that are superior, more convenient, and of higher quality. Therefore, it is safe to say the American relationship with food is very rich in culture. With great intentions, we have been aiming to advance the production, consumption, health, and accessibility of food. Similar to nearly everything in American society, food can too be “improved”. However, this perception of food is proving to be very distorted and destructive. We far too often associate eating actual food with a sense of guilt, rather than a sense of pleasure. Not to mention it is practically common sense now that artificial sweeteners are a healthier supplement to actual sugar. This mindset of having to create the perfect diet is proving to be more harmful than helpful. Why should we have to engineer something that already has a strong natural foundation? Our mindset about food shows that we have strayed so far from our roots in the natural cycle of life. We shouldn’t have to be paranoid about what exactly we are putting in our bodies, and it surely shouldn’t a remarkable creation when our crackers are made with “real cheese”. The perfectionist mind of America has lead us down an appealing, yet tentative path, that seems to be coming back to bite us really quickly.
I believe that America was a place of dreamers and innovators. That being said, it was also a place where people wanted to make it big no matter what the costs. When I look at American eating habits, I see who people who value quantity over quality. Michael Pollan is correct that the the kitchen is not the center of a family anymore. Families go to their separate rooms with their own televisions and cell phones and stay that way until dinner time. The more complex society has become, the less time people have to think about what they’re putting in their bodies. For example, a working mom of three children could easily feed them by taking them to McDonald’s rather than slaving away in the kitchen for an hour or two. Plus, it’s probably cheaper than buying all the ingredients needed for a family dinner. I believe that for people in those situations it’s truly difficult for them to prepare a healthy meal because they simply are too busy or can’t afford to do so. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who choose to eat whats processed and cheap out of pure laziness and utter disregard for personal health. Americans today like their food to be fast, cheap, and easy to get. Best of all, there are plenty of corporations that strive to do just that. They focus on the profit margin rather than the quality of food. Even if a person is health conscious, most of the altered foods they eat aren’t even natural anymore. In terms of diet, I believe that American culture is stuck between two extremes. The first extreme is the fact that people value quick and easy over truly healthy. The other extreme would be that people do value health, but eat products that really have no benefit and can barely be called natural food anymore.
I feel that America’s eating habits have indeed turned the food culture from innovation to convenience, effectively taking out the “culture”. TV dinners, fast food chains, instant noodles seem to be what most people stuff in their mouths at least once or more a week. Of course, businesses take advantage of this, and because any food that is not ready to eat under 15 minutes is considered “slow”, more and more restaurants and products on the shelves promote our “neediness”. Like Michaela said, many of us Americans feel that we have a sense of entitlement which lets us get food how we want, when we want it. Additionally, our high obesity rate reveals we also, as Pollan believes, favour quantity over quality (and, in my opinion, taste over healthiness). Because of this, Pollan does not want us to lose culture, although I feel that there is a balance between enjoying the food that our respective culture offers us in addition to eating healthier.
I am definitely in agreement with Micheal Pollan that what we eat is based more on our culture than science. In society today we are told of more and more ways to attain a healthy body by bypassing facts we know work such as working out and eating vegetables. Through pills, new diets, and (as Pollan suggested) nutritionism, our culture has essentially brain washed us into thinking we can fool basic nature. I believe that as a culture we put so much time into worrying about how we look on the outside, that we start looking for shortcuts and forget what we put into our bodies. Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, points out the fact that no one nutrient can completely help your body. As a culture we will have to realize that we must start eating a more complete natural diet if we hope to be truly healthy.
Americans have very face paced lifestyles. We strive to make every task as efficient as possible; eating is no exception. There are many good things about this American lifestyle. United States citizens are generally well-rounded people that can fit millions of activities into one day. We get things done and we get them done fast. However, this can have negative health effects. We struggle with anxiety issues, high blood pressure and unhealthy diets. Pollan describes the more relaxed lifestyles of European cultures. They take more time to eat, vacation and relax. As Americans, we are expected to have extremely high productivity rates. We simply don’t have time to dine like they do.
I want to touch upon something Pollan mentioned briefly, but I think offers great insight into how Americans view eating today: a quest for fuel rather than a sensory experience. The Puritans paved the way for a national culture that shunned indulgence in any biological instinct, be it eating or sexual intercourse (54). Given that the United States population is by far the most religious compared to their European counterparts, it could reveal that Americans have held on to the centuries-old practice of suppressing primal behavior. Looking at the numbers, the secular western nations show lower rates of obesity and chronic disease. This is not to say that religion is to blame for the sixty percent obesity rate in the United States, but it is an important component that is often overlooked.
The national health crisis and obesity numbers revealed in the early 2000s only validated the dine-and-dash tendency of most Americans. Food becomes an evil necessity that needs manipulation to be safe for consumption. People begin dieting, depriving their bodies of carbohydrates or calories only to get fatter. Dieting companies such as Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers advertise foolproof weight loss methods with no regard to actual bodily health. In this way, we Americans are reactionary and ready to take any measure when a national crisis comes our way—even if the advice is useless or harmful. This sort of environment is ideal for food industry marketing scams.
Finally, our skewed perception of food is aided by the national obsession with physical appearance. Though it affects men and women in different ways, each gender works towards an ideal with out any regard to overall bodily health. Women develop eating disorders and crash diet to attain a size zero frame. Men chug protein in the form of a vanilla scented powder diluted in water for perfectly sculpted muscles. Overall nutrition is merely collateral damage when it comes to these pursuits.
Pollan does seem to use his criticism of the Western diet and food in America as a platform from which he can also condemn the many apparent ills of America’s national character, particularly a growing selfishness. Through his example of a modern family who eats dinner “together” with each person choosing his or her own microwaveable dinner and coming and going from the table at will, Pollan depicts self-interested and self-serving Americans. He shows Americans who refuse to compromise and simply serve themselves.
Pollan also repeatedly talks about Americans’ lack of thoughtfulness about the implications of their decisions regarding food, further implying a pervasive undercurrent of self-absorption in our culture. According to Pollan, it seems that Americans do not want to change their food habits, because doing so would require consideration and effort that we simply do not want to put forth.
I beg to differ with Pollan though, as he seems to say that Americans no longer see any significance in the act of eating together. Even if we do not savor the full sensory experience of smelling, touching, tasting the whole, real foods that Pollan describes, there is something to be said for the way that food does still bring people together. Going out to eat is still for most Americans a special occasion and an opportunity for bonding, even if, as someone pointed out earlier, there is still impatience about things like the bill.
People can still be brought together over food, even if it is unhealthy. It’s not the food itself that matters, it’s the sharing of it that does. For example, just tonight someone from my dorm offered a group of us brownies that were surely far beneath Pollan’s high standards for food quality. Yet it was the offering and accepting that was important, and the act of friendship associated with it. Although there may be more selfishness today as society grows ever more fast-paced and rushed, sharing food still has significance and meaning in American culture.
The eating habits of American Western culture represent its obsession with efficiency.
Take for instance microwavable dinner meals and the multitude of fast food options. These types of meals are not the most healthy, and yet they have become much more popular than healthier substitutes. Just like technology, food is ever-evolving. People do not want to spend extra time and money on food when it can be made so simply and will “get the job done”. But in this obsession with the quick and easy food, consumers are left worse off in the long run with increased risks of health problems. Food is no longer a relationship, but rather a product. As shown by the popularity of quick and easy meals, America has become a nation obsessed with efficiency, favoring short-term fixes over long term solutions.