The Omnivore's Dilemma

There is a point where limited scope of the situation is a real distortion to the reality of the situation, but I guess I never actually knew just how pervasive this problem of families eating only fast food really was. I even worked in the fast food industry for four years and I never realized how bad it really was. Had I suspected? Oh yeah. I knew that my friends' families usually ate out or, at the very least, did not actually sit down for a dinner together. It was every man for himself, usually.

I certainly remember the diet craze that swept the country, but I also do not remember my grocery stores actually changing all that much. My parents tried to partake in the craze, but my brother and I remained aloof. My mom usually cooks dinner at night and although my parents would pick and choose what things they ate, everything was still made and my brother's and my habits never changed.

I definitely remember the videos that had come out about the fast food industry that was meant to show incriminating evidence about how bad the food was and my reaction was, "What? People didn't already know this? Of course it's not good for you!"

And, as I stated in a previous post, it can drain your wallet fast.

Now, the actual book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I like how he starts off with how ridiculous these diet crazes have gone when he says, "Somehow this most elemental of activities - figuring out what to eat - has come to require a remarkable amount of expert help. How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from and nutritionists to determine the dinner menu?"

Yeah, I don't know either, Mr. Pollan. Although, you could take this several different ways. Forget what has actually led us to this point, you decided to focus on actually telling people what to eat. Well, that is nice and practical. Hopefully it will actually make families healthy, but I'm going to go ahead and say that there is actually a social problem at work here.

It all starts with the beginning of the century, when women stayed home and did the chores and the men worked. Man would come home to a nice dinner made by his wife. Well, now the women work and now they're tired when they come home too, but still, somehow, the dominant mindset is that the woman should still cook the dinner. Why can't Mr. Man do it? Or why can't they just pitch in together to create a healthy meal?

I will fully admit that my mom cooks the majority of the meals at our house (that's mostly because she's the best cook), but my dad occasionally cooks, mostly grills. Since my Freshman college year when I had to survive on horrible, horrible dorm food, I have craved home-cooked meals and I actually bothered to start cooking myself. So, this winter, when I'm working on my portfolio and not going to Dairy Queen, I'll probably end up cooking quite a few of the meals. Why not? I'm fully grown, I wont' be carrying a job, and I'm staying under their roof, ergo I have the time and the obligation to cook.

There is one more thing I would like to address that he finished his introduction with:

"Many people today seem perfectly content eating at the end of an industrial food chain, without a thought in the world; this book is probably not for them."

I am not ashamed to say I am one of those people, simply because I just don't care. I really don't. When these dieting crazes and shocking videos of what's really behind the fast food industry came out, I made sure not to bother with them. I had no interest and, as stated above, was actually surprised people weren't already suspecting at least some of the dirty secrets behind the fast food industry.

At the moment, there are far more pressing issues going through my mind like, "Will I get a job? Where am I going to apply? Crap, I need to do this paper! Shiiit, I could lose my scholarship if I don't make the grade in this class!" When you're a poor college student, who doesn't have anything close to a kitchen (no, microwaves don't count) then how you're going to eat a healthy meal just doesn't factor into your daily thoughts.

I probably think of the future and what lies there far more than most people do in a life time, but when it really comes down to it, that's the future. I'm in the present and all I can really do is live in the present. Maybe once my metabolism slows down, I will actually take greater care in what I eat, but until then...I will worry about what readings I have due for classes tomorrow and the day after that.

Thankfully, I do have the added bonus that I have spent the majority of my life eating home-cooked meals, a luxury that it appears most people have not had the opportunity to do and I feel sorry for them.