The American Fast Food Syndrome

[marmar]

From Civil Eats:



The American Fast Food Syndrome
January 13th, 2011

By Kristin Wartman


Working with people as a nutritionist, I’m often met with resistance. I try to explain making healthful food choices without using trigger words like organic, sustainable, or even local. “When I hear the word organic I think of Birkenstock-wearing hippies in Cambridge, Massachusetts or Berkeley, California,” one of my clients told me recently. Other clients have referred to whole, organic foods as “yuppie food.” There’s no doubt that food choice and diet is an indicator of class and culture, but what perplexes me is this notion that eating a diet of processed, sugary junk foods is what the “real” Americans eat.

According to food historian Felipe Fernandez-Arsmesto, food has always been a marker of class and rank in any particular society. He writes that, “Food became a social differentiator at a remote, undocumented moment when some people started to command more food resources than others.” He goes on to write that, “Class differentiation starts with the crudities of basic economics. People eat the best food they can afford: the preferred food of the rich therefore becomes a signifier of social aspirations.”

But this isn’t true in modern day America. The preferred food of the rich is now considered elitist and scoffed at by many Americans. In fact, there is data to suggest that even though many Americans can afford higher quality foods, they chose to eat cheaper and less nutritious foods. Jane Black and Brent Cunningham recently wrote about this in the Washington Post: “Many in this country who have access to good food and can afford it simply don’t think it’s important. To them, food has become a front in America’s culture wars, and the crusade against fast and processed food is an obsession of ‘elites,’ not ‘real Americans.’”

.........(snip).........

Until all Americans see industrial food for what it really is, educating on healthier food options will remain a cultural battle. We can blame specific ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup or trans-fats indefinitely, but for a large portion of Americans their cultural identity is tied up in Big Macs, fries, and Cokes. As long as the food industry continues to succeed at imbuing their products with a particular sense of American authenticity, and as long as Americans continue to buy this image, while rejecting the organic, sustainable, and local food movement as part of some liberal agenda, we will remain a country in the midst of a dire health and food crisis. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2011/01/13/the-american-fast-food-syndrome/

[arikara]

1. I get an upset stomach just looking at those photos

That is not food.

[KamaAina]

2. The difference is advertising

The preferred food of the rich is now considered elitist and scoffed at by many Americans. In fact, there is data to suggest that even though many Americans can afford higher quality foods, they chose to eat cheaper and less nutritious foods.

[kctim]

3. BS!

Americans see that food for what it is, tasty and convenient.
Stop trying to create excuses for why others don't eat how YOU want them to.
Mind your own damn business Wartman.

[Lorien]

7. So you're personally offended by the truth that fast food isn't nutritious?

It's a nutritionist's JOB to point these things out. It's free advice from an expert, not someone trying to FORCE you to not kill yourself with garbage. If you want to grow fat, ruin your health, and enrich gOP loving corporations, then by all means have at it. Darwinism will play itself out in the end.

[kctim]

9. Not personally offended

Just sick and tired of people who create excuses to explain the 'REAL' reason why people won't eat and live how the 'experts' think they should.

I do "have at it" as you say, I'm just tired of all the nosy busybody people telling me I shouldn't.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Any time I hear someone bitching about "elites", whatever side they claim to be on

I figure they've got a major axe to grind, and are taking cognitive shortcuts.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. So someone who hates Birkenstocks & Hippies is insisting on eating crappy, pesticide-laden food?

Okay, dude, knock yourself right the fuck out.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. And these are the same people who adamantly oppose universal health coverage.

Okay, then, pull yourself up by your own artery-clogged bootstraps, ya Ayn Rand worshipping goobers.

I can't help feeling there's a bit of Darwin at play, here.

[Zoeisright]

8. Yum. That loks good.

Unfortunately, it's not good for you, but it still looks good.

[moparlunatic]

10. Looks good to me

I'd rock it...........:evilgrin:

[Liquorice]

11. That looks nasty to me, but people can eat however they want. I think

what we find appetizing is learned for the most part, so while a vegan who eats very healthy finds that stuff nasty, people who are conditioned by family and culture to eat that way might see that food as delicious. It is, of course, objectively very unhealthy food.