Robert Seiler
Professor Leake
WRIT 1133-63
31 May 2013
Food
and I
It
all started from the day I would consider myself a conscious being- about the
age of 3. I have had a conflicting sense of value in relation to food in my
life, but these ideas of mine, however, did not all originate within my own
mind. Though my initial struggle between eating to live and living to eat was
mostly derived within myself, many external influences have manipulated my
values towards food. Growing up in America has led me towards interest in
experimenting with various foods from cultures all around the world.
Additionally, the American influence has instilled the values of receiving food
fast and with quality. My grandparents have taught me the value heritage and
family through traditional dining and, lastly, my family, friends, and
community have made me aware of my impact on the environment in terms of food selection
that has led me to desiring sustainable and responsibly grown food products.
These comprise the values I place on food, which affects the way I eat
everyday.
In
order to understand my food values, you must know my progression of my overall
views towards food and dining. Starting from a very young age, about
three-years-old, I was a very picky eater and never really enjoyed eating
unless it was hot dogs, macaroni, pizza, or anything containing copious amounts
of sugar. I did not truly appreciate my mother’s fine cooking or my father’s
excellent grilling. I ate simply to sustain my being, and because my parents
would force me to. One thing my father told me that became a pivotal moment in
my eating career was when he told me, “There are two types of people in this
world- those who live to eat and those who eat to live- you are the second.” At
the time I did not really understand what he meant until he explained himself a
few days later. Once I understood what he was trying to point out, I began to
push myself out of my comfort zone of eating and became more social while at
the dining table. At that point in my life, when I was around 10 years old, I
began to understand to importance of not just what I was eating, but whom I was
eating with. Studies suggest that food affects your mood and with the addition
of social interaction, the time spent at the table can prove to be invaluable.
My food choices are greatly affected by this concept because I now enjoy dining
with other people whom I am close with. Though I ate many meals alone at the
University of Denver during my freshman year, I always would try to get a group
together and it would usually work out. Additionally, through my mother’s
excellent cooking and my father’s great grilling I have developed a taste for
preparing food. I have attended cooking classes with my girl friend and have
learned to prepare many of the same dishes that my family has prepared.
Overall, I’ve transformed from a person who had simply eaten to live into a
person who values eating with others in a social environment- and good food is
always key. Through this introduction into the complex world of the dining
experience, I learned more than I ever thought.
Another
key understanding of why I eat the way that I do includes the American cultural
values of food experimentation, or lack of specific cultural cuisine, and the
frequent demand of quick, easy, and tasty foods. Since America was founded by
immigrants and grew largely due to immigration, this country has never really
had a set of unique cultural dishes- at least ones we would like to make
official. This lack of food identity leads most Americans to dine in a very
diverse fashion. I, personally, have become a part of this, as most do, because
there are different types of restaurants everywhere you look. Everyday I eat
food that originate from all around the world: Mexican, Chinese, Italian,
German, American, and more. However, our curious nature of dining has also
given way to other not-so-positive food values. In the United States alone, we
consume over $115 billion in fast food and with over 105,000 restaurants
nationwide, it is easy enough to see with this statistic that Americans crave
speed, convenience, and to a far lesser extent, taste. This is something I
personally have adopted into my life, even though I consider it somewhat of a
bad habit. When I am busy with school or work I sometimes tend to eat food that
is convenient, cheap, and quick. This usually means I eat fast food like
McDonalds or even subway. However, this is not necessarily because I want to
eat fast food but rather because I see myself as in a rush and I cannot afford
to spend an hour dining at an establishment that most would deem “respectable.”
This American cultural movement has definitely affected my eating habits.
Another
important influence on my food values is the emphasis on tradition set by my
elder family members. I am the first American-born Seiler generation so the
influence of my family’s original culture has been instilled in me. Every time
I visit my grandparents they cook traditional German meals. This includes Spätzle, Bratwurst (and every type of
“wurst” you can imagine), my favorite- cinnamon apple pancakes, and more.
Similar to Michael Pollan’s family history in which he writes, “My own mother
grew up in the 1930s and 1940s eating a lot of traditional Jewish-American
fare… I never ate any of that [foreign food] as a kid, except when I visited my
grandparents.” This idea holds strong in my life as I usually only eat German
food when I visit my grandparents though I do occasionally find traditional
German food at restaurants, however, none of it has every been prepared as well
as my grandmother’s cooking, of course. This relatively consistent consummation
of traditional German food, which is my heritage, has helped my to become more
adventurous in my dietary endeavors and has strengthened my sense of heritage
as a German American. This, I feel, is a common practice amongst many Americans
whether it be Caucasian, Latino, Asian, Indian, African, and so on.
Lastly,
sustainable and responsible food growing practices have grown more important in
the American culture and to my self. Recently various statistics have led me
away from eating large amounts of meat and replaced that consumption with vegetables.
Almost 40% of the world’s grain produced is fed to livestock and considering
the pandemic of starvation that percentage is absurd. Dean Ornish, MD in his
article, “Holy Cow! What’s Good for You Is Good for Our Planet,” produced a
compilation of research that is disturbing. Ornish writes, “ A quarter-pound
burger with cheese takes 26 ounces of petroleum and leaves a 13 pound carbon
footprint. This is equivalent to burning 7 pounds of coal. When I read these
statistics in Dr. Leake’s writing class it solidified my belief in organic
foods and consuming less meat. For over a decade, organic food demand has gone
up by 20 percent per year and according to the Economic Research Service (ERS),
organic food consumption in America has gone from $3.6 billion in 1997 to $21.1 billion in 2008. This trend shows that
we as a culture have been shifting away from demanding quick and cheap food and
moving towards more responsible and ethical practices of growing our food-
especially meat products. This “organic food” phenomenon took strong root in my
family a long time ago. My mother was always preaching to me about eating
organic food because it is healthy for your mind and body. This movement has
definitely played a strong role in my values towards food and my daily routine.
There are
many factors that affect the way I eat everyday. My transition from eating to
live toward living to eat opened many doors in terms of my values associated
with food. Growing up in America led me to experiment more with various
cultures’ dishes and since this is a country of immigrants I have eaten many
traditional foods from my heritage country, Germany. Since our lifestyles are
ever-accelerating fast food occasionally becomes part of my diet though I would
not like it to be. Lastly, the organic food and anti-meat movement have become
a strong part of my values towards eating. These factors all affect the way I
eat everyday and a wrote, “Food for the body is not enough. There must be food
for the soul.”
Works Consulted
Column,
Elaine Magee, MPH, RDWebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Expert. "How Food Affects
Your Moods." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 02 June 2013.
"Impact
of Food on Mood." NaturalNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2013.
"Introduction:
An Eater's Manifesto." N.p., 27 Oct. 2007. Web. 30 May 2013.
"The
New American Food Culture." Field Notes:. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June
2013.
Ochs,
Elinor. "The Cultural Structuring of Mealtime Socialization." University
of Los
Angeles, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.
"RANKED: The Most Popular Fast Food Restaurants In
America." Business Insider.
N.p., n.d.
Web. 02 June 2013.
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