In this week's reading by Sidney Mintz, titled
Eating American, the questions surrounding an "American cuisine" are discussed as well as the impact of American eating habitats in the near future. Mintz decides that there is no true American cuisine, as there is an Italian cuisine or Asian cuisine. This stems from differences in our country's origins; a conglomerate of various immigrants representing differing ethnicities. Mintz describes a social pressure in America to assimilate: "That there are powerful pressures toward sameness, working particularly upon children, may be thought to increase the homogeneity of American food habits...by learning such behavior, people are becoming sociologically more alike, but it is not really clear that they are becoming more culturally alike" (26-27). He claims that Americans, as a whole, eat out a lot, and some foods, such as the hotdog and hamburger can be classified as American, but this does not constitute a cuisine. After he states that Americans lack a national cuisine, Mintz goes on to discuss American eating habits in general and the impact these habits will have in the future. Eating fast food, prepared and packaged food, diets high in salts, fats, and processed sugars, and low in fruits and vegetables, drinking more soda than tap water, and several others. These poor habits, if unchanged, will have a devastating impact on the American way of life in the next 50 years. Shortages and health issues will become a staple of American livelihood.
After reading Mintz's article, I had a very pessimistic feeling about the future of America as a result of our current eating habits. Throughout my education, I have been constantly warned about the ill effects of eating poorly and some popular eating habits among Americans. It is disturbing that the numbers have not been changing drastically over the past few decades; decades in which the message of poor eating habits has been disseminated to all Americans. It seems inevitable that the way in which most Americans act, not just in terms of food, but in general, will lead to events in the near future that will come as a shock to most people, but this will not surprise me.
Do you agree with Mintz that Americans do not have a national cuisine?
How can we take steps to avoid the grim scenario that seems to await Americans in the next 50 years?
Is it even possible to avoid the scenario proposed by the scientists in the reading? I'm worried that we're so far down that path already that we might not be able to do anything that could prevent it. We might be able to postpone it, but how long would that last?
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