In one of my English classes on Monday, I wanted my two students to read a short (and, admittedly, pretty stupid and boring) passage from the textbook about the world's oldest woman who, at 109 years old, ate only junk food. I asked the students if they knew what junk food was, and they had totally blank looks on their faces. I started at the beginning, explaining the word "junk," and then gave examples of junk food, pointing out that many foods in this category are fast food and/or are high in sugar or fat. They still looked perplexed. I thought more examples would help, but each time I asked them about a food and asked if it went in the "junk food" or "not junk food" category, they got it wrong.
"Is fruit junk food?" They stared at me. "No, in the United States, we say it's not junk food. It's healthy food." I said. I did the same for hamburgers and pointed out that Americans consider just about anything from McDonald's to be junk food.
"Okay, what about fish?"
"That's junk food," one student said. Only if it's fried, I explained.
"Chocolate?"
"Not junk food," they agreed.
And then it hit me. What a ridiculous concept! (Yeah, I can be a little slow.) Food is what sustains and strengthens our bodies. The concept that some food is essentially garbage is bizarre and probably isn't culturally relevant in a country where many people are just happy to have full bellies. I remembered Michael Pollan's discussion in The Omnivore's Dilemma about Americans' weird relationship to food.
When I came home and told T about this, he reminded me that our Canadian friend Sarah, a kindergarten teacher at the K-12 school associated with the University, struggled for weeks to get the parents of her students to send "healthy" snacks to school. She spoke, with horror, of watching one child eat a snack consisting of chocolate pudding scooped out of the cup with Kit Kats. After my confused ESL lesson on "junk food," I wondered whether Sarah had been making false assumptions, like I had, that food can be objectively divided into transcultural categories of "good" and "bad," "healthy" and "unhealthy."
And I'm curious to know if any of you have had similar experiences when engaged in multicultural discussions about food.
I just had this experience in the Dominican Republic. I soooo needed to detox and be healthy, and people were serving me fried salami. When I pushed for vegetables I got iceberg lettuce. It was exhausting for weeks and weeks to try to explain "healthy" food, and I never did. (I didn't think I'd have to, as most Latin American countries eat so wonderfully with fruits and vegetables, beans, etc.)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we Americans have a totally bizarre relationship to food.
Oh, and also - that weird relationship is definitely one of privilege in the U.S. In my work and life with poor people here, it's definitely about finding food that will fill one's belly, not about fancy pants food pyramids.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder about the idea of portable snack in Morocco and that child with the pudding & kitkat - was that because it was the only easily packaged and taken along thing, and also a symbol of wealth?
Liberians don't carry food; one person will go get a bowl of food and everybody shares. I know the sharing thing is big in Morocco - is that pudding/kitkat a signal that the idea of individual snacks is culturally incongruous?
In Liberia, expats always sniff at all the oil that is in the food - but I point out that most Liberians only eat once a day and they do much physical labor, so oil is a good thing. It's the people wealthy enough for a western diet who have the health problems.
Now I'm going to be thinking about this topic all day!
This is a test to see if my post is accepted.
ReplyDeleteOkay, here is my comment. prepare yourself, Jen. What I am about to say may sound like heresy to you.
ReplyDeletePeople demonstrating their "weird relationships with food" is a good summary of my many holiday meals over the last couple of weeks.
I live in the Pacific Northwest now. Most people I spend time with are affluent by international standards, well off by American standards.
Almost every time I am in a group situation where people are eating, the conversation turns to how horrible the food we are consuming is for our health. Of course, everyone condemns fat as much as possible so meat is avoided even if one is not a vegetarian. Carbs are barely acceptable and consumed with much guilt. Many people see "white" food as evil. As fruit or vegetables are being served, the comments always include where it was purchased and how incredibly organic and local it is. The word "organic" seems to be said more forcefully each time it is repeated until my little mind hears only, "blah, blah, organic, blah, blah, blah, orGANic, blah, ORGANIC, OrganIC!!"
I even received an invitation to a cookie exchange party that came with an apology!
I could continue quoting but you get the idea. People obsess about their food, where it comes from and how it is produced, it seems to me.
I am not denying that there are real issues about food production, especially the cruelty of factory farms for meat production, but really, let's lighten up a bit, enjoy the holiday food and then get some exercise.
I do think the current food fads for middle class, educated American people are self-indulgent and neurotic. Perhaps lying beneath the surface of the food police approach is the belief that if one can find the perfect diet it will result in immortality. Is food the arena in which we now deal with the existential challenge of facing death?
Oatmeal was the first miracle food I remember capturing the public's imagination. In the 80s many people believed they must eat oatmeal at least once a day to avoid early death. That was followed by the elimination fads -- no coffee, no meat, no sugar, etc.
Even though I am ranting now, I am usually a reasonable, logical person. (Ask Jen for verification, please.) So, yes, one should set some rules for one's own food intake. If food X causes you problems, don't eat it. If you are overweight, eat less -- unless you don't mind being overweight which apparently many people don't.
I guess I am saying food is a personal decision, and I find the public crusades tiresome.
Food in poorer countries is just that -- calories that allow one's body to work. Maybe today's technological lifestyles have so separated us from humanity's historical daily struggles to work hard enough so we could get enough food so we could live to work hard enough tomorrow, that we focus on only the food end of the equation.
I am fortunate about food, never having been overweight or had digestive issues. When I travel, I eat the local food and usually feel fine. To be honest, I at times struggle with a chocolate addition, but it's under control for now.
For the most part, my belief is "all things in moderation," even moderation. So did I buy the squirt can of whipped cream for the holiday pumpkin pie? YES! And I will be very happy when it is empty and can be discarded? Yes.
Jen, I read your blog all the time and feel like a free-loader because I don't respond or email you. Now that I have, would you prefer I return to my old ways?
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent. Opposing opinions are welcome.
Best wishes for a happy new year,
Kathy Williams
NOLA and Kathy, thanks for your comments! NOLA, I don't really have an explanation for the pudding/Kit Kat snack. I do know there are a lot of elements of the Moroccan diet that are rather shocking to us North Americans, like the fact that it is common to give babies Moroccan mint tea (and you know how much sugar is in that). Kathy, your post was great as well. I will readily admit that I have issues with food; nevertheless, philosophically, I absolutely agree with your principal of "everything in moderation, including moderation." If you haven't read _The Omnivore's Dilemma_, I think you might really enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that packaged snacks are both symbols of wealth, and novelty items, in many "traditional" parts of the world. Isn't it ironic that foods from traditional cultures are being introduced to the US as culinary novelties and/ or fad diets?
ReplyDeleteCitrine, thanks for your thoughts. And great photo! :)
ReplyDelete