Map shows "poorer" states have higher rate of diabities
The article Divided We Eat is about Americans and our eating habits. It talks about how our eating habits are much worse than most countries, and how many of us don’t care about how healthy our food is. Most of us care primarily about the taste. The first paragraph instantly sets the tone. Mrs. Miller says “I have a espresso made in Allesi pot and mixed with organic milk which has been gently heated and hand fluffed by my husband.” She goes on to talk about homemade bread and imported cheese. She is showing us the great disparity between what Americans eat. While some of us have organic and imported cheese, others just grab a soda to go.
People eat food for different reasons. Some of us eat for pleasure while others eat for health, yet others eat just to stay alive. I think the food we eat tells us a lot about our personality, and also our wealth and social class. Miller tells us that many people eat just junk food. This type of food is not just unhealthy, but is often associated with lower class. As we saw in the video in class, I was amazed that parents in Appalachia put mountain dew in their child’s milk bottles. We must also understand that this was not due to the sole reason of the parent’s incompetence, but also because they cannot afford milk. Mountain dew is probably half the price of milk, and therefore is a cheaper alternative.
While reading this article, I made a connection with my own life. Miller talks about a family who disagrees on what to eat. The mother wants to buy organic food, while the mother-in-law saw no use in wasting money on the organic food. A couple of years ago, my mother got on the trend of eating healthy, organic food. She and my father often disagree on whether organic food is worth the price. My mom believes it is while my father has the concept of food is food. For the last few years, all of our milk has come from Oberweis, and we only buy the organic eggs and vegetables. This is significantly more expensive, but many people believe that if you can afford it, you should eat organic. The mother- in- law in the article makes the statement “It’s not like our food is poison”, and while it might not be poison it is definitely not as healthy.
The U.S. has not been very concerned about health until recently. We are just concerned with outer perception, and that is why most of us only care about losing weight and looking better. The article also talks about how dinner is the most important meal. Consider a single parent living in the lower class, and she wants to take her kids out to dinner before her son’s soccer game. She is not going to fork over $80 for food at the cheesecake factory, she is going to go to McDonalds and get some food for about $10. Even a wealthy parent would do the same. All of the fast food restaurants are unhealthy. We can’t get our food from Applebee’s within two minutes, and if we are in a hurry, we go to McDonalds. With Americans, time is money, and it is very important with little time to eat. This automatically makes our take our choice an unhealthy one.
As I mentioned earlier, many people simply can’t afford to eat healthy. Organic foods are much more expensive than nonorganic, and with someone just hoping to put food in their mouth, I am sure they aren’t too picky about the preservatives in their food. A good example is the one we saw in the video. The community was debating on whether to put the organic grocery store in their town, or the supermarket. The lower class was worried about how they would afford the higher priced food while the middle class welcomed the idea of fresh and healthy produce. If every Jewel turned into a Whole Foods, most of us would be worried about how to feed our families on a budget, and for this reason we are willing to trade organic for a cheaper price. The article states that “lower income families buy sugary, fat, and processed foods because they are cheaper” and I agree. People would rather eat three unhealthy meals a day compared to one healthy meal. Our brain just tells us that we are hungry, not that we must fill our belly with healthy food.
Another reason we don’t spend on food is because it is only tasted for a few seconds, and turns into crap, literally within a few hours. We are a society who like to show that we have money by spending on cars, or designer clothes, but we can’t show off our wealth by purchasing organic food because that just goes straight into our body. Food is not like a car we can drive around or a coach purse we can show off. It is just something we eat in order to get energy. We also care more about taste compared to health. All of the holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s Day include food like candy and chocolate, and when we go to someone’s house we often take a box of chocolates. We don’t ever give organic tomatoes. When we go out with friends we get some ice cream, not organic soup. Taste is what America is known for. In a recent article, a website listed the most well like foods by Americans. None of them are healthy choices, but they are all tasty. The list includes smores, chicken wings, cookie dough ice cream, and the corn dog. If only today could be like fifty years ago where everything was organic. As I am writing this blog, my face is stuffed with chocolate chip ice cream and all that matters is that it tastes good.
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