Hw 5 - Dominant Discourses

Discourses are separations of certain groups from similar ideas. The more people who follow these ideas make it a dominant discourse. Dominant discourses have become people joining social norms that masses have followed out of sheer ignorance and lack of knowledge. The dominant discourses in the food industry have become topics of how the industry is either helping or hurting us. For example, whether to eat at McDonald's or your local green market and which one is more healthier.

Is it really the food companies fault for our unhealthiness? Some might say it is, others may argue it is the choice of the human being who decides whether to eat healthy or not. "Unfortunately, behavior changes won't work on their own without seismic societal shifts"(Singer, Natasha. "Fixing a World That Fosters Fat") It is a popular norm to blame the food companies for how fat our culture is getting, but they forget that it was their own choice to eat unhealthy and not exercise which is not really brought to light because they know they either find it hard or incapable of changing their food eating behavior. On the other hand, we may advocate that eating much healthier is obviously much better for you, the cost of eating in a much healthier diet has become expensive and the fact that "Fast-food restaurants can charge lower prices for value meals of hamburgers and french fries..." has made it easier for people to eat unhealthy.

So who has more word on what we consume and what we can't. At first my initial thought would be us of course, but in a dominant perspective we don't. Food companies offer us products that we consume ultimately giving them the power to dictate what choices of foods we eat. The voices of the government govern the food industry while we become the subjects to this industry buying and eating what is being sold. However we do have the choice to not accept what the food industry offers us and we as people could make our own produce for ourselves, but is it a stress we really want to take on ourselves. The stresses that constrict are choices in our daily routine are already too much because as we can see we either eat too much, buying food from fast food restaurants or becoming too unhealthy. Like the study made in Maine, we want something easy to get too,inexpensive and quick.


The New York Times Log In." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 29 Sept. 2010,

Hw 4 - Families Foodways

My parent's all ways said just before I was about to throw out the food I did not want to eat anymore "there are starving children in Africa, and you are throwing away your food" and I would return to table to finish what I had started. To my parents I think they find food sacred mainly because they grew up in Guyana and to know that you had food to eat was a blessing. My mom's mom always made sure her kids had food on the table to eat which my parents replicate but I find myself seeing food as a given because in New York, every corner and street has some sort of restaurant. Food here is a given and can be easily accessed for anytime we want, so rational habits are threw the roof because there is always a supplier.

Recently my parents have fallen into this movement of eating healthier and eating within moderation and it first starts with not by trying to eat healthier but creating a style or habit type of eating. For example setting goal's of making yourself eat this and this certain time everyday and no junk food in between. Knowing my parents setting these goals is like second nature for them because rationalizing their food was no surprise to them when they lived in Guyana; making sure everyone ate, but also making sure they didn't over eat or under eat. As for me though, this new change in the way I have to eat now is a completely new step because my Americanized culture gives me this opportunity to pig out whenever I want because of all these fast food restaurants and corner stores that are filled with junk food.

Culture has a lot to do with the way we eat, how we eat and when we eat because it's a common structure that all cultures tend to follow. Cultures set acquired tastes for some thing's that other cultures may find different and may not even agree with, but it is still a way people will react to certain foods. For my parents eating Curry chicken, Curry beef etc. is a certain taste that I enjoy because the type of culture my parents were brought up in also enjoyed furthermore passing it down onto me which is how I see a lot of other cultures work with their reactions to foods. I don't see food cultures dying anytime soon because of this "passed down" trait that follows with each culture.

Hw - Fast Food Insights and Realizations

In our society fast food has become so successful because of the convenience it offers. They are carefully located to where people can find and enjoy. In a study "nearly 600 adults and teens in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area were interviewed...most reported eating fast food at least three times per week."(Hitti, Miranda. WebMD Health news) In this study, the reason why fast food restaurants were so popular were because 92.3% said it was quick, 80.1% said was easy to get too and 63.6% said it was inexpensive. This made me wonder how easily it is to access a food restaurant without having any difficulty such as cooking for yourself which also in the study seemed to be an issue; 53.2% said I'm too busy to cook and 44.3% said I don't like to prepare foods myself. Realizing that this was an issue, a simple one, one could easily eliminate that issue by eating at fast food restaurant thereby improving the speed and the success of the business.

Food is a business which I never really realized until I saw how big of a franchise McDonald's and Burger King was, etc. These business narrow down on issues and needs masses of people deal with, making their business sort of this avenue out of the issue people are dealing with furthermore showing this sense of compassion towards the customer. What a great way to reel in the fish. The reason why I never really saw food as a business was because I ate a lot of home cooked meals, so I found food as a gift each time my parents cooked. Now seeing that people have their meals made by these fast food restaurants it exemplifies the essence of increasing laziness which shows, we are the fattest nation.

Hw - Food Initial Thoughts

Today, I see food as just another substance we could enjoy to past specific or certain time. We schedule ourselves to around time for breakfast, lunch and dinner making it a routine. The food we satisfy ourselves during these scheduled breaks to eat could be entirely different for each person making us who we are. Basically saying we are what we eat. The culture and the people we grew up by have a specific impact on how we choose and what we like to eat, for example at my Daycare they use to feed kids hard boiled eggs, but I hated that because my family never cooked or gave me a hard boil egg to eat, and to this day I still do not eat eggs.

I have many more questions about food and how it has its physical and mental affect on us, but for now I think just enjoying the food I like to eat normally will do just fine.