Final Post

The most interesting things I’ve learned about food this quarter are things about how food is connected to people on deeper levels, because prior to this class, I really didn’t think very much about what I was eating. From everything to how advertising affects us to how our food values compare as individuals or as cultures, there was always something new and thought-provoking to learn about one of the most seemingly basic elements of our lives. By looking at research about the importance of breakfast, how we pick food, or how food is made, my knowledge of not only food but how to write about it was enriched. I feel that this class helped me not only define my own food values, but explain and defend them to a bigger audience. I will go away from this class looking at food differently, and even making some changes in how and why I eat what I eat.

EE2 Draft

  As America becomes more and more modernized, long-standing traditions are losing their importance and decreasing in prominence. Food and eating practices are no exception. One such example is the idea of the family meal. According to recent studies, almost half of American families eat a meal together 3 times or less throughout a typical week (CBS). This is a significant shift from the America of a few decades ago, where a housewife prepared a meal for the family to eat together upon a husband’s return from work. Gender roles and family structures have evolved, understandably so, but this doesn’t mean that the practice of eating together should be abandoned. Even with my personal bias about the importance of the family table aside, there are researched benefits to eating as a family, including improvement to household relationships, childhood development, decreases in childhood obesity, and even curbing of eating disorders.

            Growing up in my household, eating together was never an inconvenience, or even something that we had to think about- it was just what we did. From a young age, my mother, brother, and myself sat down together first thing in the morning to share breakfast, even if it was just a quick bowl of cereal. My dad had already left for work by this point in the day, but I’m sure had he been there, he would have joined us, too. During the week, we would of course eat at school, but on weekends, lunches were eaten as a group, too. Nearly every Sunday, all four of us would come together to cook and eat a big brunch, complete with breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. As we grew older and our schedules didn’t line up so nicely anymore, some of these family meals went away, but one thing always remained constant- family dinner. Every night of the week, in unspoken but well-established tradition, we gathered around the table for our nighttime meal. Homework was halted and plans were scheduled around mealtime, even as I grew into a teenager with a separate social life. This was the time of day when we would reconnect, sharing what was going on in our lives, with lots of sarcasm and joking sprinkled in. This sounds slightly idealistic, but I can honestly say that losing those 30 nightly minutes of quality time was one of the hardest things for me about moving away to college. With this brief background in mind, I will examine the benefits of the family dinner, what made it work so well for my family, and why I will insist on continuing this practice when I have a family of my own someday.

            Family dinners have proven to be important in child development. In an article written for the journal Childhood Development, Helen Klein explains the three major ways in which regular family meals are beneficial for children. The first is stability. Children benefit from knowing that regardless of what else has happened in a day, there is something reliable at the end, bringing order and comfort (Klein). The second is individual growth. What this means is that over dinner, children can express themselves- in terms of feelings, desires, and interests. This exchange is also an important way for children to develop conversational skills both of speaking and listening (Klein). Community is Klein’s third benefit. The first community that any of us experience is that of our family. A family gathering like dinner emphasizes this sense of community, where people can express themselves and be heard in a safe environment. This may also be the reason that family meals remain important to us through our adult lives, and why special occasions like holidays or birthdays are usually celebrated with a meal (Klein). Links between academic and cognitive performance and family meals have also been studied; however, findings in different studies contradict each other, with some finding an effect and others finding no significant difference. However, the elementary benefits discussed by Klein are, for the most part, accepted. It’s difficult to quantify how crucial those 3 things are into the holistic picture of becoming a functional adult, but having experienced the safe, loving environment that family meals provided in my family, I can personally place high importance on them.

            Something easier to analyze quantitatively is the effect of the family meal on health. A study published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics observed 182,836 children and teens aged 2-17. The study’s authors analyzed factors such as weight, eating habits, and disordered eating, and compared them to meal frequency. What they found was that participants who ate 3 meals a week or more with their families were more likely to be in a healthy weight range, more likely to have healthy eating patterns, and less likely to engage in disordered eating, as compared to the participants who ate less than 3 meals a week as a family (Hammons and Fiese). A more detailed study published in Obesity focused on 16,882 adolescents ages 9-14, and compared their rates of family dinner consumption with rates of overweightness. Their findings corroborated the conclusion that less frequent consumption of family dinner led to more unhealthy weights. As the frequency of family meal consumption went up in their participants, the overweight prevalence consistently went down, with the most overweight group being those who reported to never eat dinner with their family, and the least overweight group reporting that they ate dinner with their family daily (Taveras et al). Of course, it is important to remember that the correlations found in these studies do not necessarily indicate causation. In other words, other factors, likely socioeconomic ones, could be at play; not everyone who fails to eat dinner with their families is going to end up overweight. However, it’s a connection that is worth some attention. In my experience, this could likely be explained by the varying content of meals eaten with or without the family presence. Growing up, our meals were always cooked by my mom, who prided herself in making them balanced and healthy. Some variation of protein, starch, fruit, and vegetable would be found on our plates nightly if Mom cooked the meal. Adolescents who don’t have the luxury of a parent cooking a meal for them are much less likely to eat so healthy, instead going for what’s easy, or what simply tastes good, which could be a contributing factor to the higher tendency to be overweight for this group.

            So what does this all mean? I’m not accusing anyone who chooses not to eat family meals of being wrong. But for me, the family meal, specifically dinner, is a value I hold dear. When I return home in two short weeks, I know that I will quickly resume the tradition of eating dinner with my family, and furthermore, I know that when I have children someday, they will grow up with what was one of the most important, comforting rituals that I can remember in my childhood. The research to back up why family dinner is important only strengthens my position. Even as traditions fade, this is one I will always cling to.

Works Cited

Hammons, Amber J., and Barbada H. Fiese. "Is Frequency of Shared Family Meals Related to the Nutritional Health of Children and Adolescents?" Pediatrics 127.6 (2011): n. pag. Print.

"How Americans Eat Today." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

 Klein, Helen A. "Family Dinners." Childhood Education 77.2 (2001): 102. Print.

 Taveras, Elsie M., Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Catherine S. Berkey, Helaine R.H. Rockett, Alison E. Field, A. Lindsay Frazier, Graham A. Colditz, and Matthew W. Gillman. "Family Dinner and Adolescent Overweight**." Obesity 13.5 (2005): 900-06. Print.

P9: Historical and Modern Food "Advice"

Michael Pollan and Melanie DuPuis address the history of eating and deciding what to eat in the U.S. in their articles “Unhappy Meals” and “Angels and Vegetables,” respectively. Both of these authors analyze what factors go into how Americans decide to eat, both from a historical and modern standpoint. Such factors as nutrition, social culture, and the ever-present fad diet are analyzed, but one thing that stood out in particular to me was something that was discussed in both articles but not as in depth as other issues. This thing was the influence of food industry lobbying on the advice our own government gives us on how to eat. In DuPuis’ article, she explains how a leading member of the League of Nations Nutritional committee’s close ties to the dairy industry led to skewed, if not entirely untrue, information about how crucial high consumption of milk was to a healthy diet. Pollan tells of a senator, George McGovern, who was the leader of a 1970’s Senate committee on nutrition. This committee put out a draft of a set of nutritional guidelines that recommended cutting down on the consumption of red meat, because of findings that lower consumption of beef led to lower rates of heart disease. The overwhelming backlash from the beef lobby led to not only the revision of this straightforward guideline but to McGovern being essentially forced out of office in the next election. The influence of the lobby can be seen in modern food politics, too, as our in-class analysis of food pyramids shows. The food guidelines currently published by the government have a much higher emphasis on dairy than do those published by neutral sources, and it’s not hard to see the connection- the dairy lobby is large and powerful in Washington politics. This ought to raise some major concerns for us as eaters. If the lobby for certain food groups is powerful enough to overthrow a senator or change the wording of a widespread nutritional bulletin, how reliable can it truly be? It doesn’t sit well with me that our government, who we are supposed to view as a trustworthy, legitimate entity, is essentially telling us what we ought to be eating based on who the highest bidder is. It seems that money is a factor in other organizations, too- Pollan points out that the American Heart Association charges companies for its endorsement. What it boils down to is that through money, we are being advised on what to eat by the very companies or industries that rely on us to buy their products to make a profit. This isn’t to say that my own personal eating habits are based on following the government’s ‘My Plate’ template or by which boxes have the AHA logo on them- but it does raise some honest questions about the legitimacy of the food advice we are given by prominent and powerful authorities.

In-class blog post 5/15

I honestly don't put that much thought into what I eat. I do consider the health implications of what I'm eating, as this is important to me, but for the most part, I am too busy and have more important things to worry about than micro-managing my food choices. I eat when I'm hungry and I try to have a balanced diet, making sure I eat fruits and vegetables daily. I think a lot of my food choices are influenced with what my parents fed us before we were old enough to pick our own food. My mom is pretty big on healthy eating which is where I get these values. For instance, I don't drink soda at all, because growing up, we were never given it, and were actively discouraged from drinking it. When I shop for my own food I tend to buy things like whole wheat bread, skim milk, brown rice, etc., because these healthier choices are what I grew up eating. Because it's what I had for so long, these are the items I actually prefer- I don't like white bread and soda makes me sick. Because these things come so naturally to me, I really don't have to think about what I eat very much.

SE5: The Physical and Mental Effects of Snacking

Autumn Lange

May 15, 2013

WRIT 1133: SE5

            After reading the food logs of myself and my classmates, one behavior in particular stood out as common throughout most of them- snacking. We’ve already established that as a country we are seeing a transition from a more structured three-meal-a-day plan to a more random pattern of snacking throughout the day, and this holds true for the majority of our class. But what exactly are the health implications of eating many small meals or snacks rather than three large meals? A study published in the journal Current Topics in Nutraceuticals Research set out to answer this question. They studied a group of participants who were a variety of ages and professions, analyzing their physical and mental health and comparing it to their snack consumption. Their findings are interesting and slightly unexpected. There was no correlation between snacking and physical health. The Cohen-Hobermann index of physical symptoms was used to measure the physical health of the participants; it is a validated and widely used assessment of physical health. While there was no significant difference between those who frequently snacked and those who didn’t in terms of physical health, there were very intriguing findings in the realm of mental health. Participants who snacked daily rated lower on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale than those who did not snack. This is somewhat surprising, and perhaps can be explained by the fact that many people snack as a form of emotional eating. This conclusion is strengthened by the finding that daily snackers were more likely to eat cakes, crisps, biscuits, and chocolate, which are foods more commonly associated with emotional eating. People who snacked on a daily basis were, accordingly, less likely to choose fruit, yogurt or cheese than those who didn’t snack, as well, pointing to a tendency to go for more processed foods when snacking. Reasonably, although there were not findings of a change in physical health, these foods are less healthy- and the people who consume them know it. People who snacked more frequently (and therefore ate less healthy foods) were more aware of the consequences. They rated higher in being more concerned about their health for the future as compared to those who snacked less frequently or not at all. Conversely, they rated lower in terms of caring about being healthy in the present. Foods like chips and soft drinks had a direct negative correlation with motivations to be healthy or motivations to avoid unhealthiness. These statistics numerically illustrate the problem with snacking. People know that it’s an unhealthy practice, but continue to do it anyway, despite being concerned about their health in the future. The fact that people who snack more frequently are less depressed points to a phenomenon of using food as comfort. This study’s results are not absolute, however. A much larger female group was studied as compared to males, which could have some bearing on the result. Furthermore, it is surprising that more frequent consumption of chocolates and cakes do not have negative physical health effects. Further research in this area might be recommended before we all start to stuff ourselves with sweets.

http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/919439043

In class research

I decided to search for articles about the effects of snacking on health. I found a study on the behavior of snacking and its effects on mental health and cognitive performance. I like this angle because more commonly, studies on snacking are more tied to physical health than mental health.

http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/919439042

Food log comments

After reading everyone's food logs, a few patterns are apparent. While some class members stick to a somewhat regular eating schedule, it seems that most of us don't eat at the same times daily. Especially because these journals were kept over a weekend, there was lots of late-night snacking and sleeping through breakfast. Most people also don't have the healthiest eating habits, either. Especially when eating in the dining hall, it seems that a lot of people had a deficiency in fresh foods, like fruit and vegetables.