"Reclaiming true grits" and "Eating the Hyphen" are both short essays written to try and justify their way of thinking and give insight as to why they eat a certain way. Both of the authors are rooted in different countries, however, they both give very different opinions on the food of their heritage, as well as their views on microwaveable meals.
In, "Reclaiming true grits,"Terry talks about why soul food has negative connotations in todays society. She enlightens her audience by indicating how much it has changed through the past generations. Terry uses grits as her main topic, since it is one of the most popular "soul foods" in the US. Grits started as fresh, home cooked, African American meals and is now widely known as microwaveable food. The author uses a logical appeal throughout the essay by giving dates, and even going as far as using historical references.
"Eating the Hyphen," by Lily Wong, discusses her view on being a "Chinese-American." She doesn't feel heavily influenced by her true heritage, but she also doesn't feel wholly American. Instead of defending her roots like Terry does, she describes her own eating rituals with dumplings as something she has "Americanized." And, unlike Terry, she whole-heartedly loves microwaveable meals. The author allows the reader to understand her point of view by using an ethical appeal, and maybe even making you feel sorry for the reader.
I can relate to Wong's point of view of not feeling completely Asian, nor American, since I'm half Asian half American. The rituals she describes is just her way of blending two cultures. Like when my grandma comes to visit and she replaces mashed potatoes with rice or even eats rice with her pizza (my family is super serious about their rice).
Friday, August 28, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
College Food Focus Reflection
My college experience with food and the dining halls has been FANTASTIC. And there are just so many options! A buffet you can go to for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that great Indian place, a little cafe with teas i've never heard of before, and even sushi. I could hardly find sushi in my home town, so of course I love it here. What I've had the most trouble with, is having to control myself around all this food because I have been eating my heart out everywhere I've been. In fact, I ate myself sick the other night and nearly threw up. So today I tried extremely hard to control the size of my plate, but then became succumbed to the lemon squares that I have a weakness for.
"Taking local on the road," made me think quite deeply about my eating habits. I've just been eating everything blindly, and not thinking twice about where it came from, so I feel like that story really opened my mind. In both of the stories, the authors make mention that most people of this younger generation don't do enough research, and don't consider what they are eating. I completely agree with the authors because I, too, am guilty of this. I think from now on I'll try to educate myself more in the food department.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
"Her Chee-to Heart" and "Not Just a White Girl Thing" Reading Responses
"Her Chee-to Heart" and "Not Just a White Girl Thing" represent two opposing extremes to one "problem" in western culture: The over-abundance of food. In "Her Chee-to Heart," Jill McCorkle tells the story of her obsession with junk food. This personal narrative goes into her life as a "junk-food junkie" as she describes the overwhelming sense of joy she acquires by the artificial flavors, vivd colors, and sweet-salty tastes that you just can't find in healthy food. While McCorkle embraces the over-abundance of food, Susan Bordo does just the opposite as she discusses the problems of body image in her article, "Not Just a White Girl's Thing." McCorkle discusses the problems within females view of the "perfect body image" as well as her opinions of the media.
Biases are very prevalent in both stories, as it seemed like they both tried to sway you to their way of thinking. Both stories gave you detailed explanations to the author's opinion, and both used real-life events that took place in the narrator's life in order to further their credibility.
Both stories exhibit the massive effect of American media on the world. America is the leading producer of movies in the world, so its no wonder that people around the world are influenced by western culture. This is especially true in Asian countries, where I noticed many similar trends to America. When I visited South Korea I noticed that they also put a lot of emphasis on how a person looks. Everywhere you turned you could see images of fashion models, clothing stores, and stores filled with beauty products. Not only that, but the styles were also very similar to here. It was very interesting to me to see how western culture has affected another country.
Bordo noted in her passage that women strive to achieve this body image because they wish to appeal to men, which I found odd considering it is women that set the standard for beauty. When you go into a grocery store and see magazines filled with articles on how to diet or makeup tips, you'll notice that all these articles are written by women. Never will you see a magazine in a man's perspective on what girls should wear, how they should style their hair, or any kind of makeup tips. That being said, is it really fair to blame men for women's ideals on body image? These magazines are popular solely because they play off of women's insecurities. And why are us females so insecure? Because most of us rely on the approval of others to feel good about ourselves. That is the ONLY reason issues like this have come up. That is the ONLY reason fat acceptance campaigns have skyrocketed. And it is the ONLY reason females everywhere have eating disorders.
I appreciate (but don't entirely agree with) McCorkles insight on food. McCorkle at least has the gusto to stick to her ideals and not pay any mind to what others think of her. I found joy in her piece as she expressed things that make her happy, although it wasn't an entirely healthy addiction.
I personally believe we should advocate for eating healthy instead of this idea that we need to sway everyone to thinking in one way because, lets face it, that's entirely unrealistic. By promoting health, we create a society of more productive and happy people.
Biases are very prevalent in both stories, as it seemed like they both tried to sway you to their way of thinking. Both stories gave you detailed explanations to the author's opinion, and both used real-life events that took place in the narrator's life in order to further their credibility.
Both stories exhibit the massive effect of American media on the world. America is the leading producer of movies in the world, so its no wonder that people around the world are influenced by western culture. This is especially true in Asian countries, where I noticed many similar trends to America. When I visited South Korea I noticed that they also put a lot of emphasis on how a person looks. Everywhere you turned you could see images of fashion models, clothing stores, and stores filled with beauty products. Not only that, but the styles were also very similar to here. It was very interesting to me to see how western culture has affected another country.
Bordo noted in her passage that women strive to achieve this body image because they wish to appeal to men, which I found odd considering it is women that set the standard for beauty. When you go into a grocery store and see magazines filled with articles on how to diet or makeup tips, you'll notice that all these articles are written by women. Never will you see a magazine in a man's perspective on what girls should wear, how they should style their hair, or any kind of makeup tips. That being said, is it really fair to blame men for women's ideals on body image? These magazines are popular solely because they play off of women's insecurities. And why are us females so insecure? Because most of us rely on the approval of others to feel good about ourselves. That is the ONLY reason issues like this have come up. That is the ONLY reason fat acceptance campaigns have skyrocketed. And it is the ONLY reason females everywhere have eating disorders.
I appreciate (but don't entirely agree with) McCorkles insight on food. McCorkle at least has the gusto to stick to her ideals and not pay any mind to what others think of her. I found joy in her piece as she expressed things that make her happy, although it wasn't an entirely healthy addiction.
I personally believe we should advocate for eating healthy instead of this idea that we need to sway everyone to thinking in one way because, lets face it, that's entirely unrealistic. By promoting health, we create a society of more productive and happy people.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
hungry Planet: What the World eats reaction
On September 20, 2013 Times Magazine released an online article showing photographs, taken by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, who traveled the world photographing famliles of different nations and what they consumed in a week, as well as how much money they spent on their weekly diets. The photographers traveled to 21 different countries and recorded their findings from 27 different families. The results are both shocking, as well as insightful.
Out of the sample size taken, the average amount of people per family was 6 with a standard deviation of 2.8, and the average amount of money spent was $223.92 with a standard deviation of $168.25. The Bhutan family had 13 members and spent $5.03 a week, meaning that they had over twice the amount of people in their family as the average and spent $218.89 less than the average. On the other side of the coin, Norway had 5 people in its' family and spent $731.71, more than 3 times the average. We can infer from this that Norway's cost of food is really expensive, or perhaps the family just indulges themselves, which doesn't seem likely considering none of the family members looked particularly over weight.
What I found interesting about the images were that none of the families looked malnourished or underweight, despite the fact that some families spent less than $10 a week on food. Could this mean that the human body could feasibly survive with a lot less food than we would consider "normal?" Maybe America as well as other countries who spent over $200 a week just over indulges themselves?
Out of the sample size taken, the average amount of people per family was 6 with a standard deviation of 2.8, and the average amount of money spent was $223.92 with a standard deviation of $168.25. The Bhutan family had 13 members and spent $5.03 a week, meaning that they had over twice the amount of people in their family as the average and spent $218.89 less than the average. On the other side of the coin, Norway had 5 people in its' family and spent $731.71, more than 3 times the average. We can infer from this that Norway's cost of food is really expensive, or perhaps the family just indulges themselves, which doesn't seem likely considering none of the family members looked particularly over weight.
What I found interesting about the images were that none of the families looked malnourished or underweight, despite the fact that some families spent less than $10 a week on food. Could this mean that the human body could feasibly survive with a lot less food than we would consider "normal?" Maybe America as well as other countries who spent over $200 a week just over indulges themselves?
FOOD and its Importance
Food is important in an innumerable amount of ways. Not only does it affect our health, but also defines who we are; our lifestyle, culture, and even religion. Every country and religion views food in many different ways, for some of us its sacred and for others, it has turned into a form of entertainment. For example: many religions, such as muslim, view certain types of food should not be consumed at all. Every countries has its' own form of delicacies, and ways of cooking. Some stranger than others such as balut from the Philippines! (Balut is literally a chicken embryo they eat straight from the shell.)
Food has also become a way of socializing. An example would be dinner dates or grabbing some smoothies with friends. Food brings people together. In literature, characters eating together is a sign of communion, packs being built, and even enemies trying to gain insight on each other.
Health is one of the major topics associated with food. If you eat healthy, you most likely live a healthy lifestyle and exercise quite a bit. If you eat unhealthy your risk for diabetes, cholesterol problems, heart problems, and more diseases increase greatly. If you have many ailments then you'll probably be visiting the doctor more often, and will probably spend a lot of money due to America's high cost for health resources. Eating unhealthy can cause you to spend more money in the long run. Or if you keep eating unhealthy you may even end up like my grandma who has to take a five minute water break after climbing a single set of stairs. Eat healthy. Just do it.
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