Eating habits

 

 

USA vs ITALY

We are what we eat (Ludwig feuerbach)

 

 

Our final presentation after your comments. Please see this powerpoint attachment.

 

eating_habits_USAvsITALY.ppt

 

 

Our PowerPoint slides. Please see the following attachments.

 

eating_habits_comments.ppt 

final presentation.ppt

 

 

  

 

Our final presentation after your comments. Please see this powerpoint attachment. Our PowerPoint slides. Please see the following attachments. Eating differences between Americans and Italians: an introduction Fast food vs Slow food WHY fast food? WHY slow food? McDonald's vs Slow Food and Agriturismo MacDonaldization McDonald’s has become a symbol of the States culture and lifestyle (sometimes referred as the “McDonaldization”) and by spreading the idea of a quick restaurant meal, it has also been the cause of changing in local costumes. Slow Food Agriturismo Obesity vs skinny models Obesity Skinny models Native American dishes Louisiana Creole cuisine Three typical Louisiana dishes Native Italian dishes Venetian cuisine Three typical Venetian dishes Mediterranean diet Attitudes towards food American attitudes Italian attitudes Taste education Slow Food in School Projects Slow Food USA Slow Food ITALY Childhood obesity Conclusions: trying to reflect on what we've learnt from our research Different meanings of eating and cooking in the USA Lunch Club Different meanings of eating and cooking in Italy REFERENCES

 

Group members

 

• Alice Lonardi
• Francesca Leorato
• Lara Sbampato

 

 

TRYING TO REFLECT

 

 

Questions for Tim asked by mail:

 

1. What does food mean for you? Did you develop a meaning or a concept for "meal" based on your personal experience? In Italy, for example, we associate it with feelings of pleasure and conviviality.
2. What do you eat at the university cantine?
3. Do you follow a certain diet? And if so, what does it consist of?
4. When you go out for a meal with your friends, where do you usually go? And what do you eat?
5. Is going out with friends immediately associated with drinking alcohol?

 

Questions.

 

1. Do you usually have a quick lunch? And what about dinner?
2. Do you cook at home? And when do you cook at home, what do you prepare?
3. What time do you usually have breakfast, lunch and dinner?
4. Do you have a lot of breaks during the day? And if so, do you usually eat during the breaks?
5. Do you have a typical American dish?

 

 

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Eating differences between Americans and Italians: an introduction

 

Americans and Italians have quite different eating habits. Americans have not one typical cuisine, as Italians have, but a mix of different foods from all over the world. In the Us you can easily find Italian, Mexican, Chinese restaurants, etc. next to each other and even if you can find many foreign restaurants in Italy as well, this phenomenon has not the same proportion as in the Us.

 

The reason why Italians usually prefer eating Italian food - and only sometimes foreign one - is that Italian cuisine is an integral feature of their culture. It is demonstrated by the fact that e.g. Italian immigrants could not leave their cooking traditions on the contrary they spread them. Nowadays too,  Italians usually eat or cook Italian food when they are abroad.

 

As we have already seen Americans do not have deep-rooted cooking traditions as Italians. We might claim that the most typical American food is fast and junk food with soft drinks.

 

In the following sections we will go on comparing American vs. Italian food and its cultural meaning in both countries, moreover we will reflect on taste education – especially in the case of children – and health problems caused by wrong eating habits.

 

 

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Fast food vs Slow food

 

WHY fast food?

Fast

Cheap

Good taste

 

BUT high in fat – calories – sodium – cholesterol - sugar.

Negative and costly health outcomes: obesity – high cholesterol – heart disease - cancer

 

 

 

WHY slow food?

Freshness: local food is most likely picked within the past day or two.

Health: fresh produce loses nutrients quickly.

No genetic modification.

Preservation: buying locally grown food means supporting the agricultural landscape.

Supporting farmers: local farmers who sell direct to consumers cut out the middleman and get full retail value for their products.

Building community: it means re-stablishing a connection between the eater and the grower.

Preserving genetic diversity.

The future: supporting local farmers means helping the local farms to be there tomorrow too.

 

(Source: USA Today)

 

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McDonald's vs Slow Food and Agriturismo

 

MacDonaldization

 

McDonald’s has become a symbol of the States culture and lifestyle (sometimes referred as the “McDonaldization”) and by spreading the idea of a quick restaurant meal, it has also been the cause of changing in local costumes.

 

A generation ago, three-quarters of the meals consumed in the United States were made at home. Nowadays an increasing number of people stops for lunch at a fast food restaurant mainly because it’s fast, cheap and good taste; American families don’t have time enough to prepare a home-cooked meal and they prefer getting something to eat from one of the innumerable drive-thru restaurants on their way back home.

 

In the American restaurants french fries are for sure the most ordered dish.

'The french fry (was)... almost sacrosanct for me,' Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's Corp, wrote in his memoirs, 'its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously.' (Schlosser, E., (1998, September 3rd). Fast-Food Nation: The True Cost Of American’s Diet. Part Two. Rolling Stone Magazine (USA) (Issue 794). Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone2.html)

 

 

McDonald’s world locations map

Photo source Wikipedia Commons

 

 

Slow Food

 

“Slow food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world” (Slow Food homepage, n.d.). The organization works not only for preserving and supporting traditional ways of growing, producing and preparing food but also for protecting the right to taste in order to preserve the food diversity within the local traditions of all countries. Slow Food is actually an international organization with over 80,000 members involved all over the world.

 

Slow Food works around the world through its local groups, the so-called convivia. Nowadays, there are about 850 Slow Food convivia worldwide whose main activities are:

• building relationships with producers;

• making business in order to protect traditional food;

• organizing tasting and seminars;

• encouraging chefs to source locally;

• nominating producers to participate in international events and workshop;

• working to bring taste education into schools.

 

 

Think global, act local!

Photo source Google Images

 

 

Agriturismo

 

 

 

Obesity vs skinny models

 

Obesity

 

In spite of the high level of undernourishment on earth according to the WHO (World Health Organization) called OMS, too obesity is one of the main health problem all over the world. We can really claim that it is a global spate spread in many countries which might provoke without an immediate working very serious health problems in next years.

 

Obesity is a condition characterized by an exaggerated accumulation of overweight usually caused by wrong eating habits and a sedentary life.

 

In addition obesity can psychologically distort people’s life. An obese person is often shut out and subjected to a real social stigmatization which makes every try to socialize extremely difficult. In particular obese children are inclined to have a difficult relation with their body and peers. Therefore this alienation turns out further sedentary habits.

 

Medical complications

Obesity has been universally recognized as a risk factor of death and chronic diseases such as: cardiovascular diseases, ictus, diabetes, cancer, gall bladder and osteoarthritis. Other health problems caused by an exaggerated overweight are: hypertension, hypercholesteraemia, asthma, complications during pregnancy and menstrual irregularity.

 

Social and psychological consequences

Many people who suffer from eating disorders also suffer from one or more other psychiatric problems, such as depression and anxiety disorder. Thanks to their low self-esteem, they become major targets for social prejudice and discrimination too.

 

Skinny models

 

Nowadays, in our culture there is a lot of emphasis placed on body weight, size, and appearance: food, weight, and body shape concerns are common among teens and young adults, including men and women. We’re conditioned  from the belief that self-worth comes from external and physical appearance; for example, being thin is associated with being “hard-working, successful, famous, beautiful, strong”, while being “fat” means “lazy, ignorant, ugly, weak, unable to be a leader”. These stereotypes are widespread in our society, mainly because of the pressure that comes from the media: the media’s portrayal of what is beautiful keeps getting thinner and thinner for women and more muscular for men. Thanks to these “sick” media images and body ideals, women and men feel inadequate, ashamed and not satisfied with how they look like. Both anorexia and bulimia begin with a “distorted” body image.

 

 

 

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Native American dishes

 

Mainly, the so-called three sisters:

 

1. corn;
2. beans;
3. squash.

 

 

See http://www.en,wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_cuisine

 

 

 

Louisiana Creole cuisine

 

Style of cooking originating in Louisiana resulting from the mixture of French, Spanish, French Caribbean, African and American influences.

 

Crawfish Etouffe

Jambalaya

Shrimp Alfredeaux

Crawfish Fettuccini

Pompano en Papillote

Red beans and rice

Shrimp Creole

Chicken Creole

Trout Meuniere Amandine

 

 

Three typical Louisiana dishes

 

• Catfish gumbo
• Hush puppy
• Red beans and rice

 

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Native Italian dishes

 

Venetian cuisine

 

 

•  Bigoli con l'anitra
• Gnocchi
• Pasta
• Pasta e fagioli
• Minestre
• Polenta pastissada
• Risi e bisi
• Risotto col tastasal
• Coniglio alla padovana
• Lesso e pearà
• Pandoro di Verona
• Fritole
• Rufioi

 

See http://www.vene.to.it/cucina/default.asp

 

 

Three typical Venetian dishes

 

• Risotto alla veneta

 

• Polenta

 

• Bigoli co' l'anara

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mediterranean diet

 

 

photo taken from risogallo.it

The picture shows the eating pyramid which illustrates how much and often we should eat bread, pasta, fruit and vegetables, meat, etc. As you can see fats, oils and sweets are at the top of it that means they are that food we should not eat too often.

 

 

Nowadays Italian eating habits have only few aspects in common with the true Mediterranean diet which characteristic was based on eating natural food without additives or preservatives. Excepting some products that were necessary in winter such as meat and jam all the others were eaten immediately or in the space of few days.

 

The recipe that summarize the Mediterranean model is “pasta e fagioli” that in the past was typical of peasants’ eating. Indeed legumes have always been called “meat of poor people” as well. If it is home-made egg pasta you get a mix of proteins, carbohydrates, mineral salts, vitamins and fibres.

 

Therefore Mediterranean diet does not mean abundance of pasta and bread. First of all it is wholemeal bread and pasta is not only that one made of hard wheat but of several cereals, too. Legumes are particularly important, indeed there is not a plenty of meat that is usually poultry and bluefish.Fewfats but above all extra-virgin oil. Abundance of vegetables and fresh fruit, moreover dried fruit and wine.

 

In addition Mediterranean diet means physical training, too. In the past peasants and manual workers worked all day and could move only on foot or by not-motorized vehicles.

 

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Attitudes towards food

 

American attitudes

 

According to the type of food they want to eat, Americans are well aware of the features they are looking for.

If they choose to go out for a meal at a "fast-food", they demand an immediate service, cheap prices, variety of food; whereas if they eat in a restaurant they want to live "fine-dining" experiences and taste typical dishes, special fruits and vegetables or simply find innovative convenience foods.

 

Certain dishes such as hamburgers, apple pie, cheesecake and fried chicken, are considered typically American because they can be found everywhere in the United States.

However, every region of the United States has its specialities. As everybody knows, American cuisine is the result of "melting pot", that is that cuisine all over the world converge on it.

As a matter of fact, ethnic cuisine affects American eating habits but what's highly nationalistic is that this cuisine has been "reassessed" according to American tastes and ingredients. Some examples of this trend can include pizza, Chinese and Mexican food.

However, it is possible to find in the Usa restaurants preparing "true typical food".

 

Even if Americans seem to pay attention to what they eat, they do not do it in the correct way: they don't worry about the origin and the ingredients of their meals.

In fast foods they do not search quality but quantity and this attitude is the main clause of diseases.

As a matter of fact, food poisoning is a major problem in the Usa (7.6 million people poisoned per year); in addition, the risks linked to the consumption of fats, salt and sugar stresses the importance of prevention in order to avoid long-term health negative effects.

 

As Eric Schlosser, an author and investigative journalist, underlines in his last book "Americans have an incredibly unhealthy afttitude toward food". The fault is, in part, of the commercials because they bombard people with unhealthy but delicious food, causing delicious eating disorders.

 

Italian attitudes

 

 Italians pay particular attention to the freshness of the food they but, since they think that freshness means quality.

Quality, therefore, is perceived as an element useful for increasing the value of the variety and the uniqueness of Italian food abroad.

Their purchases are conditioned by the "safety" of food together with good taste, pleasure and the tradition.

Italians are perfectly aware of what they eat: 69% buy products with label Dop and Igp, 64% buy biological products, 53% are convinced of consuming food without Ogm.

Italians look out at the origins of what they eat, as well (80%): the fact that they know where their food comes from makes them more confident about it and motivates them to buy.

One important thing to be remembered is that Italians prefer Italian food to ethnic one with no exception.

Even if the prices of local food increase, Italians affirm that they will still buy it.

 

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Taste education

 

Slow Food in School Projects

 

Slow Food in Schools program is a unique approach to healthy and nutritious food made within the classroom: thanks to this project children cultivates their knowledge regarding the ecological and cultural traditions of food.

 

Educational benefits:

• building new curricula and lesson plans;

• improving children's knowledge about their local food and culture;

• increasing their environmental sensibility.

 

 

Health benefits:

• improvement in heating behaviour;

• fight against obesity and disease;

• positive changes in eating and buying habits.

 

 

Slow Food USA

 

Projects:

• FARM TO SCHOOL. Local farms and producers supply food for school meal programs.

• COOKING AND TASTE EDUCATION CLASSES. Focus on seasonal, local foods and how to prepare them.

• FARM TOURS AND FARMER’S MARTKET VISITS. Learning within the local food system.

 

 

Slow Food ITALY

Projects:

• SCHOOL TO FARM. Fattorie didattiche.

 

 

 

Childhood obesity

 

 

 

photo taken from flickr.com

 

 

 

Children and teenagers obesity trends in the US

 

 

The obesity problem regarding children and teenagers is particularly serious because they are exposed during their childhood to health complications, no physical training but also to psychological and digestive problems.

 

This graph shows how children obesity raised from the 1963 to 2004.

Graph taken from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

 

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Conclusions: trying to reflect on what we've learnt from our research

 

1. Intercultural competence
2. To know eating habits can help to survive in a foreign country!
3. Changing biological clock

 

 

Different meanings of eating in the Us and Italy

 

1. Different meanings of eating (e.g. in Italy food is pleasure, it is linked to conviviality
2. Different meanings related to holyday or everyday meals
3. In USA does not exist a typical dish, except from hamburger or apple pie
4. In Italy there are so many regional dishes (big variety of dishes)
5. Different timetables for meals

 

 

Eating to live or living to eat?

 

Different meanings of eating and cooking in the USA

  

In the Usa food takes different meanings related to different aspects of American culture.

 

Food means:

 

• sustenance;
• socialization;
• enjoyment;
• nutrition;
• an occasion for political argument, press coverage and legal action.

 

Cooking means:

 

• collecting recipes and cookbooks;
• follow celebrity television chefs;
• take part to competitions and food exhibitions;
• having the latest cooking equipment and gadgets;
• attending cooking courses (even at school);
• developing knowledge about food.

 

 

Lunch Club

 

Timothy said: "I never like to eat alone but I always enjoy going to have lunch or dinner with my friends or family. Five of my friends and I actually have a "Lunch Club" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Frydays where we go the food court and then sit down and talk about our day so far and other important things in our lives. It's a great way to connect with one another and maintain close relationships".

 

Lunch Club is also a specific inititiative made by Conscious Creations Inc. which aimed at bringing together people from New York City for purposes of friendship and group interaction.

It organizes a large amount of events (not only lunch but tours, dinner, workshops as well) in which people are only required to add their name to a certain list on the company's website, come to a fixed place, to sit down at to start talking with perferct strangers in order to begin new friendships. Then they could stay in touch with their new friends through the on line section called "Completed events" creating and developing a virtual community.

Once at the restaurant people are divided into tables of 8-10 people and enjoy a meal together; then if they want, they can move to another place to socialize, talk and have some drinks. All the meals last for 2 hours or more, because the project tends to avoid "eat and run" ones.

There are some particular meals in which an expert proposes a topic and lead the groups in conversation and answer questions.

All the events are organized by a qualified staff and the price is around 20-25$.

 

 

Different meanings of eating and cooking in Italy

 

Food means:

 

• pleasure; (59%)
• health;  (55%)
• nutrition;
• friendship (it's the perfect way of starting a new friendship);
• to get together (in family, with relatives);
• holidays and parties
• to deepen a relationship;
• ritual (lying properly the table, chosing the most appropriate tableware);
• to spoil oneself and one partners or friends;
• sensual approach.

 

Cooking means:

 

• fancy;
• freedom;
• relax;
• emotions.

 

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES

• Fast food. (2007, April 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved  April 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fast_food&oldid=124040198

• Slow Food. (2007, April 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slow_Food&oldid=123451282

• Yale-New Haven Hospital (1999). Does fast food have to equal fat food? In Nutrition Advisor. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.ynhh.org/online/nutrition/advisor/fastfood.html

• Slow Food (2006). Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.slowfood.com/
• USA TODAY. Hopkins, J. (November 25, 2003). 'Slow Food'' movement gathers momentum. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2003-11-25-slowfood_x.htm

• Schlosser, E., (1998, September 3rd). Fast-Food Nation: The True Cost Of American’s Diet. Part One & Part Two. Rolling Stone Magazine (USA) (Issue 794). Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone1.html and http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone2.html

• Organic Consumers Association - Compaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. Veracity, D. (July 13, 2006). America's Fast Food Giants Perfect the Art of Selling Junk Food to Children. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_1092.cfm

• Slow Food (2006). Taste Education. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/taste_education.lasso

• American Eating Habits. Retrieved April 21, 2007, from http://www.eng.umu.se/E3ht03/Manchester/Lisa/index.htm
• American food attitudes. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.lifeintheusa.com/food/attitudes.htm
• Cuisine of the United States. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.enwikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_the_United_States
• Ohio State University. Cultural Diversity: Eating in America. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5250.html
• E-Journal USA. We are what we eat: we are a nation of immigrants. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0704/ijse/rosengarten.htm
• The Endocrine Society Weighs In. An handbook on obesity in America. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.obesityinamerica.org/linksHandbookonObesityinAmerica.pdf
• Dietary trends. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/pulse/scripts/01_02/dietary_trends.pdf
• Survey tracks trends in children's dietary habits. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/mealtime.htm
• Margaret Harper. American' s attitude toward food is unhealthy. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.indianagazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3073&Itemid=2
• Native American Food. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.indians.org./articles/native-american-food.html
• American Teenage Eating Habits, Teen Snakcs, Fast Food & Teens. Teenage Eating Habits. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.annecollins.com/diet-news/teenage-eating-habits.htm
• John Ikerd. The New American Food Culture. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.web.missouri.edu
• United States Culture. Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500820/United_State_Culture.htm
• Food and wine. What does eating well really mean? Retrieved April 21, 2007 from http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/what-does-eating-well-really-mean 
• Stelvio Beraldo. La dieta mediterranea. Retrieved on 26 April 2007, fromhttp://www.sportmedicina.com/dieta_mediterranea.htm

• Epicentro: Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia, Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute. Retrieved on 26 April 2007 fromhttp://www.epicentro.iss.it/problemi/obesita/obesita.as