Hwk 5

"WHY are Americans getting fatter and fatter?" (Singer, Natasha). While reading articles discussing the topic of American eating habits, a clear trend can be seen. The issue of America's decisions regarding food has been going on for a while now, but it seems to become increasingly serious as time goes by. This is shown in dominant discourses concerning America's eating habits. A discourse is a discussion that is between multiple people, topics, themes, etc... There are a set of rules for what is acceptable to discuss in the discourse and who is allowed to be a part of the discourse. To sum it up a discourse is basically a discussion involving an argument. There are two types of discourses; a dominant discourse is one which has the majority's belief. A marginal discourse is one which the minority supports.

Referring to articles such as "Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries" by Kim Severson; evidence used in the article compares research done years ago to recent findings. "The number of dinners prepared at home that included a salad was 17 percent; in 1994, it was 22 percent...At restaurants, salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner dropped by half since 1989, to a mere 5 percent" (Balzer, Harry) When data collected in the past is compared to recent data, a disturbing conclusion can be drawn: America's food choices have gotten worse throughout the recent years. While we try to digest this fact, we are always searching for different ways to turn this fact around. But obviously this is not an issue that can be solved over night, or be solved at all. It has worsened throughout the decades, in return asking many more decades for a chance of recovery.

While reading all these articles, it seemed like our past has experienced significant reforms regarding our food ways as Americans, but we continue to make more reforms. Our eating habits have been a concern for some time, but they keep worsening. In return we tend to search for a new solution to tackle the problem. Some individuals believe the cause of our bad food choices is because of fast food restaurants, others believe it's because there aren't enough advertisements going around for healthy organic foods. I think significant reforms of U.S. food ways occurred decades ago, but a reform reoccurs each time our alternate fix to the problem fails. While we are constantly bombarded with facts about different foods and their benefits (if any), the American community will never be able to follow a strict diet which will keep hypocritical doctors content. This is simply because we are not in kindergarten anymore; we can't be brainwashed as easily as youngsters are.

We tend to respond to America's poor diet by making an effort to making better choices with our food; also trying to raise awareness among other individuals. This is the outcome from comparing recent food ways to previous food ways. Each time we attempt a food way reform we are learning something new, and gathering more evidence. Such as providing pre cut veggies packed away in plastic bags which are ready to defrost at any time needed; or packaging pre made salads for one's convenience. Even though there are many efforts being made regarding our poor choices, we haven't come up with a single solution which will cause a drastic change. There are many individuals who don't show much interest with any topic in relation to this issue, but there are still many of us significantly making continuous efforts to reform America's food ways. We try to come up with different ways to fight back, but this issue is too big compared to the amount of individuals who have any care what so ever.

"Mr. Maring has developed a series of cooking classes that incorporate salient aspects of nutrition and clinical medicine. He named his scheme CHEF — for Cook Healthy, Eat Fresh." (Heron, Katrina) Because of previous food way reforms, we are becoming well aware about how serious this issue has become. In return, we attempt to make new ways to reform while experimenting with a certain idea. When it doesn't make a huge difference we attempt another reform. This has been going on for years and years, and I predict it will stay this way for many more years to come.

I don't believe that any individual has a "right way" of eating. In fact there are many pediatricians, medical students, and professors out there that are hypocritical when it comes to their personal food ways. They are supposed to be setting a "certain" example for us, but as heard from their close colleagues, we learn that they are not perfect when it comes to their own diet. I am fully aware that perfection is impossible, but coming from an environment that aware them constantly about the "right" eating habits, they should be more likely to follow it than average American citizens do. "Despite evidence that doctors have a greater life expectancy than average, they don’t necessarily look after their own dietary health...You’ll have a pretty hard time these days finding a doctor who smokes, but not nearly as hard a time finding one who eats terrible food... I came in a bit late and was struck by the surreal image of senior scientists feeding on junk while discussing solutions to national nutritional problems.“ (Willett, Dr. Walter) As a chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Walter witnesses many of the people he works with making poor choices with their food.

I think there are very few well-informed members in our society that follow a both strict and healthy diet. In my opinion he or she would probably have a diet that includes organic foods with well rounded out meals, which follow the daily requirements shown on the food pyramid. He or she will eat with their family at home, at a set time. In my mind they will strictly follow these rules because they are the masters when it comes to food; they will never encounter a problem while separating right from wrong. They will want to eat all natural foods, which will cause them to think that the consumption of food from fast food joints equal to committing a deadly sin. He or she will eat at home with their family so that they have no doubt about their family picking up on the poor American diet. This will aware their close ones about the "correct" eating habits; which in return will educate them to do the same with their families later on in their lives. They will eat at a set time because their life will be strictly organized, especially when it comes to food. He/she will think of food as an enemy, at the same time as a very important need; after all, food is a mandatory requirement for our survival.