Choose our own favorite food

In Pollan’s article “Our National Eating Disorder”, he mainly discussed the causations of the national eating disorder and the symptoms of the national eating disorder. He said “a scientific study, a new government guideline, a lone crackpot with a medical degree can alter this nation’s diet overnight” (PARA 3). Based on this kind of influence, American people will surprisingly found out that the food they love to eat in the past is suddenly found to be “lethal”. Another kind of reason that cause the national eating disorder is that the exotic culture’s import. Large amount of people from different places immigrate to the United State of America, thus the culture in America is certainly variety. However, different cultures certainly represent different kind of food, so it is understandable that why American people have so many choices for their dinner.

According to the author’s perspective, he claimed that the healthiness of the food and the nutritious of the food is an important factor for American people to consider when they choose the food. It is really interesting for me because I used to say the same thing in my own essay. I do believe that the healthiness and nutritious should be considered at first because it directly affect our own health. Another interesting thing I found in this article is that the author said different culture may treat the same food in different ways. For example, when talking about the phrase “chocolate cakes”, American people will say “guilt” while French people will say “celebration”.

The way I choose for my own meal is very simple, the healthy food and the comfort food. The healthy food is good for my health and the comfort food makes me feel happy and relax. For today’s dinner, I ate some rice and cabbages, I also enjoyed some French fries. The rice and cabbages is the healthy food while the French fries is the comfort food for me. 

Eating green in America

“In many folklores and literatures, green has traditionally been used to symbolize nature and its embodied attributes, namely those of life, fertility, and rebirth” (Robertson, page 470-472). It is true because when talked about green, everyone will come up with the words “spring” or “tree” or “vegetable”. The color green is always connected with the beautiful things or sceneries. However, in Chinese culture, the color green is a symbol of luck. Because the clover is green and it represents the luck, so Chinese people also take the color green as a representation of the luck. Maybe in American literary culture, the color green represents life, fertility, and rebirth, but in American food culture, the color green has different meanings. It represents the freshness, healthiness, naturalness, and environmental consciousness of the food. The phrase “Eating green” means that eating in a fresh, healthy, natural, and environmental conscious way.

         From my own perspective, I think that the freshness of the food is the first thing American people care about when they choose the food. The Subway and Ben & Jerry’s advertisements can serve as the perfect examples for my point of view. In Subway’s advertisement, the designer used the color green as the main color of the background. The reason why the designer used the color green is that he wanted to tell the customers the Subway fast food restaurant obeys the “Eating green” rules. In the middle part of the image advertisement of the Subway, there is a sentence “endless fresh creations”, which means the food served in Subway are all fresh food and the Subway restaurant will keep on invent some new sandwiches for customers to try. Under this sentence, the designer gave out the ingredient of the sandwiches served in Subway. For example: fiesta, zesty sauces, crisp veggies, and freshly baked bread. Through the ingredient of the sandwiches, customers can easily find out whether the sandwiches served in Subway restaurant is fresh or not. In the right part of the advertisement, there are some real sandwiches pictures. All these sandwiches look tempting and really fresh. The designer used the real pictures of the sandwiches to send this kind of message to the customers: our sandwiches are the best tasty sandwiches and they are really fresh.

Different from the Subway’s advertisement, the Ben & Jerry used color green in another way. The background of the Ben & Jerry’s video advertisement is the blue sky, white clouds, and the green grassland. Some cute cows are eating the green grass happily and relaxing. The explanation that why the designer used this kind of picture as the background is that the designer wanted to show the freshness of the milk used by Ben & Jerry. Because the cows are eating the fresh green grass, so the milk they made should be fresh as well, so this maybe the key point that why Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and frozen yogurt tasted so delicious.

Not only the restaurants or ice-cream shops follow the “Eating green” rules, coffee house did it as well. Starbucks, one of the most famous café all over the world, is a great example. The main color of the logo of the Starbucks is green and the straws used in Starbucks are green as well. The staff in Starbucks all wore the green aprons. In Starbucks, the coffee is often made after customers ordered and the coffee beans, milk, and creams in Starbucks are always fresh. The cakes sold in Starbucks are every day value and looks tempting and fresh. There are so many places and pieces of evidence that show the importance of the freshness of the food, so I can draw a conclusion that the freshness of the food is the first factor for American people to consider about when they choose the food.

         If the freshness of the food is the first factor that American people concern about when they choose the food, then the second factor should be the healthiness of the food. Nowadays, more and more people become vegetarians because they care about their health. They thought the meat is not as health as the meat in the past, so they prefer eating vegetables than eating meat. Consider about the healthy factor, the advertisement made some changes to show the healthiness of their products. In Ben & Jerry’s advertisement, there is a sentence in the bottom of the advertisement “Phish food frozen yogurt, 60% less fat than Phish food ice cream”. The meaning of this sentence is very clear, the frozen yogurt served in Ben & Jerry is healthy because it contains almost no calories. When tasting Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt, the customers do not have to worry about the fat or calories. Same thing happened in Starbucks café as well. Some milk and sugar served in Starbucks are fat free. Starbucks do concern about the customers health so that they prepare some fat free milk and sugar for their customers to choose.

         For the people who like to eat outside, the restaurants or cafeterias that obey the “Eating green” rules is a smart choice. But for the people who like to cook at home, the choice of the supermarket is obviously very important. Wholefood supermarket is a nice place and it follows the “Eating green” rules very well. First, the color of the logo of the Wholefood is green. Second, the food sold in Wholefood is every day value. The biggest difference between Wholefood and other supermarkets is that the Wholefood only sold the organic food. Such as: organic vegetables, organic fruits, and organic milk. Apparently, the organic food is healthier, so most American people would choose the Wholefood supermarket. From American people’s perspective, maybe the healthiness of the food is not as important as the freshness of the food, but the fresh food should another kind of healthy food.

         However, the organic food sold in Wholefood is not only the representation of the healthy food, but also the representation of the natural food. “Organic foods are the foods that are produced using the methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers” (Allen, Gary J & Albala, Ken, page 288). This sentence means the organic food is the food that grows in a natural way, no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. So it is not too hard to understand why most American people prefer buy the staffs in Wholefood supermarket, because the food sold there is healthy and natural. The naturalness of the food is a basic requirement of the healthy food and fresh food.

         After considered about the freshness, healthiness, and naturalness of the food, the fourth factor is the environmental consciousness. Maybe this is the least important factor for American people to consider when they choose the food in the past. However, nowadays, more and more people consider about this factor when they choose the food. In this part, both Starbucks and Ben & Jerry did really well. The napkins used in Starbucks are all recycled and the cups in Starbucks are all made of papers or plastics. Same as Starbucks, Ben & Jerry also used the paper cups to contain their ice-cream and frozen yogurt. The reason why these two shops only used the paper or plastic cups is that both paper and plastic cups are not so harmful to the environment. Nowadays, the pollution of our environment is more and more serious, so we have to do whatever we can to protect our one and only living place, earth.

         The advertisement of Subway and Ben & Jerry, the Starbucks café and Wholefood supermarket are great examples that represent American food value and culture. Eating in a fresh, healthy, natural, and environmental conscious way is a symbol of the American food value and culture, or what we called “Eating green” rules. However, totally different from the American food value and culture, there are no “Eating green” rules in Chinese. The main reason for Chinese people to consider about when they choose the food is the price of the food. Most of the Chinese people do not care whether the food is healthy or the food is natural, they just care about the price of the food. The cheaper the better. I do think that “Eating green” is a perfect method because it will lead people to a correct and healthy way to eat. The fresh, healthy, and natural food is better for our body health, and the environmental conscious is better for us to protect our environment. Without the pollution, the food we eat can be fresher, healthier, and more natural. So the relationships between these four factors can be treated as a circle, each one can affect other three. Nowadays, more and more American people choose to eating green because they realize the importance of the rules “Eating green” and they just want to follow the most famous American food value and culture.

         Since “Eating green” is such an important rule, it is time to create a recipe based on the principle of “Eating green”. In order to consider about the freshness, healthiness, naturalness, and the environmental consciousness, the best choice for out tables is the vegetables and fruits. “Leafy green vegetables and fruits are loaded with antioxidants, minerals, folate, and flavonoids. These all work to prevent unstable molecules called free redicals from damaging cells” (Star Lawrence, Eating green is easier and tastier than you may think).

Draft of the extend essay 1

Eating green in America

Green is representing important values in American food value and culture.

It includes freshness, environmental consciousness, and naturalness, healthiness.

Subway and Ben & Jerry’s advertisement:

The green background of the Subway’s advertisement and the green grass of the Ben & Jerry’s video advertisement all represent the freshness and healthiness. In the Ben &Jerry’s video advertisement, the cows are eating the green grass, which showed that the milk used in Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream or frozen yogurt is fresh and natural.

Starbucks’s observations:

The main color of the logo of the Starbucks is green and the straws in Starbucks are all green. The napkin and the cups in Starbucks are all recycled. So it represents the environmental consciousness. Starbucks use its own way to show the freshness and healthiness. The coffee is always made after the customers ordered and the cakes are all contain in the glass cabinet and is every day value. Some sugar and milk served in Starbucks are no calories and fat free, which lead to the healthy life style.

Green is a symbol that leads American people on the right way to eat food

“We” refers to American middle class people because the main customers of the Subway, Ben & Jerry, and Starbucks should be the middle class people in America. 

Eating alone or eating with friends

In Horwitz’s article, he did the research about where, when and how modern people eat their meal. And the result is obviously, "several people ate on their own space and ate on their own time, not the regular mealtime. Instead of eating with family and friends, most people would rather eat alone nowadays"(45-46). The author then used a simple example to prove his opinion, the soup. "In the past time, the soup is contained by a bowl or pot and a bowl of soup is quiet enough for several people. However, nowadays, the soup is changed into the single-serving package, more and more people prefer hold the soup on their hand than enjoy the soup in front of the table"(42-43). In the past, eating meals have some sociological meanings. If we eat with our friends, we can communicate to others and may get some useful information. Also, the friendship between us will be more stable. But now, more and more people eat by themselves, which means, no communication and no laugh any more. The author’s meaning by using the phrase “Eating at the edge” is to "refers to occasions when food is an additive to a situation"(Horwitz, 42).   

As for myself, I don’t like to eat alone or be alone. I prefer to eat with my friends or my family. However, I am a college student now and my schedule is totally different from my friend’s schedule, so it is hard for us to find a time eating together. Sometimes, I have to eat alone. Just like I really concern about whether eating alone or eating with friends, I also care about the regular mealtime. I force myself to eat at the regular mealtime because it is good for my health. The regular mealtime is established after several experiments did by the scientists. So the regular mealtime must be the perfect time for people to eat. So combine all the factors together, although I am now living in the twenty-first century, I still keep the old habits that I like to eat with my family or my friends and I do obey the regular mealtime. 

Starbucks: a great place for middle-class people to relax and work

        Last Sunday is a sunny day and the temperature is pretty well, so it is a great day for people to go out. Around 3 o’clock, I finished almost all my homework so I decided to go to Starbucks with my friend and order a cup of ice latte, which is my favorite drink, to relax and refresh myself. When I arrived at the Starbucks, it was full of people so that it is really hard for me and my friend to find a table. Luckily, a table in the corner is empty. We took the seat at that table and ordered two cups of ice latte. We talked together and laughed together and time just passed so quickly. When we left, there are still several people stayed in the Starbucks. I really enjoy the time I spent with my friend last Sunday because it is the time for me to stay away from the pressure and stress.

       This Starbucks is one of my favorite café because, first of all, it located on the business street, Evan’s Ave, which is only 15 minutes’ walk from my dorms. There are some iron tables and chairs outdoors with an umbrella as a decoration. Few people chose to sit outside to enjoy the fresh air and the beautiful scene. This Starbucks has two doors. One for enter and one for exit. Inside of the Starbucks, there are several tables for two people and a bar for single customers. Some sofa placed in the center of the café. All the tables and chairs inside are made of wood and the floor is made of bricks in order to be easy to clean. There is a shelf near the enter door with lots of coffee cups and several bags of coffee beans. The shelf is also made of wood. The lights in Starbucks are all small lights. Almost all of them are black, except four lights near the bar. They are red. Quite a few decorations are on the wall, just one Starbucks’s logo and some pictures. The music played in Starbucks is the light music. And the volume of the music is not very loud. So the general style of this Starbucks is more like the country style and made people feel relaxing.

       Moving further from the location and the style of this Starbucks, there is another reason why I love to go to this Starbucks rather than other cafés. Because almost all the staff are young man and woman, so they are very polite and always full of energy. They always smile to the customers and wait patiently for customers to order. With the infection of the staff’s attitude, the customers in Starbucks behaved politely as well. They talked quietly and drank softly. The staff in Starbucks all wore black T-shirts and green aprons. Most of the customers wore informal T-shirts and jeans while few customers wore formal suits. The coffee is made after the customers ordered and there is a table near the enter door that contained sugars, milk, and honey for the customers to change the coffee to their own favorite taste. All the cups in Starbucks are made of plastic or paper. And the straws in Starbucks are all green. The Starbucks’s coffee tasted really nice and the price is not too expensive. The menu in Starbucks is the cafeteria styles so that it is easy to find out the size and the price. However, not only the coffee in Starbucks is popular, the cakes are also well-known. The cakes were cut into pieces and displayed in the glass cabinet. The working time of the Starbucks is from 5am to 8pm during the weekdays while 6am to 8pm on weekend.

       Because the Starbucks opened such a long time and its setting is really enjoyable, lots of people, especially working class people, will choose to work or spend their free time on Starbucks. On Sunday, it is so crowded in Starbucks and almost all the people bring a computer or a book with them. Several people read the book quietly; some people surfed on the internet using the free Wi-Fi provided by Starbucks; the rest of the people worked on their computers. But no matter what the customers did, they all ordered a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. No one in Starbucks is in hurry. Everyone seemed relaxing and enjoyable. The most interesting thing I observed is that, there are only single customers or several groups with two people in Starbucks, no group is greater than two people.

       Obviously, the price of the coffee in Starbucks is suitable for the middle-class people, so most of the customers should be the middle-class people. Based on my observations in Starbucks last Sunday, I come up with some ideas about American food value and culture. The Starbucks is just like a living room for mid-class people because everyone in Starbucks seems happy, relaxing and enjoyable. The staff’s friendly attitude makes the coffee house more like a home. However, the way that American people relax themselves is totally different from the way that Chinese people relax themselves. American people would rather go alone or with one or two friend while Chinese people would rather go with several friends. The plastic and paper cups used in Starbucks show the importance of the recycle materials. Since the main color of the Starbucks’s logo and the straws, green, reflects another kind of American food value and culture. American people mainly concern about the green, organic, and healthy food. “Eating healthy is one of the most important things you can do to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease” (American Diabetes Association, Eating Health, PARA 1). Perhaps this is a reason why American people mainly care about the healthiness of the food. 

         

Food: an important role in communities

  The community that Cate studied in his article is the prison in San Francisco. The food he studied is the spread made by the prisoners themselves and the institution served in prison. Because the institution is bad and disgusting and the meal time is not logical, so prisoners decided to make their own food around 9 o’clock in the evening. Some prisoners made the spread by mix all the food served in institutions together; some prisoners bought the food from stores to make the spread. That’s the difference the food showed in this community. The spread is a symbol of the wealth. People who ate the spread made by the store’s food are rich while people who ate the spread mixed by the materials of the institutions are poor. So this is the role that the spread plays in prison.

  In O’Donnell’s article, he did the research about Chinese food, especially Shenzhen food. He found out that the food in China can show the differences between regions. For example, the northern people like to eat beef while the southern people like to eat fish. In general, cows are easier to catch and kill than the fish. So that’s the reason why the southern people are more nimble than the northern people. The southern people did pretty well in economic just because the food they eat trained themselves to think and react quicker than the northern people. Just like the Chinese food, Shenzhen food can also showed the history of the old Shenzhen in Old Shenzhener’s mind and the images of the new Shenzhen in New Shenzhener’s mind. When eating Shenzhen food, the Old Shenzheners will always remember that Shenzhen is like a commune and everyone worked for the common aim. However, when eating Shenzhen food, the New Shenzheners will always come up with the images of the increasing wealth and the proliferation of commodities.

  After reading these two articles, the most interesting part I find is the part that O’Donnell used the beef and fish to tell the differences between northern China and Southern China. So the food can be the sign of the communities. As a Chinese people, I can say that the beef is the symbol of the northern part of China while the fish is the symbol of the southern part of China. So I think his claim is correct and I cannot agree more. 

Reading Ying's essay

Ying's essay

Both Yusi and Ying mentioned the exigence of the food advertisement. the exigence of the food advertisement is attract consumer's attention in order to sell their products. According to my analysis, the healthy food is the most important part of the American food culture and value, while Ying also talked about eating for health. Based on my second advertisement, I said the happy food, or comfort food is also a representation of the American food culture and value. Compare with Ying's words "eating for pleasure", we almost share the same thought.

Food advertisement: a great way that show the food culture and value

  Because our world developed rapidly and stably, nowadays, food advertisements are presented in so many different ways, for example: on the newspapers, through the internet, on the television, and so on. The design of each advertisement is different as well. From colors to shapes, from sizes to styles, each advertisement is amazing and unique. But whatever the advertisements are, they all have the same purpose, or what we called exigence, to attract the consumers attentions in order to sell their products. However, the audience of each advertisement is different. Every advertisement only appeals to group of people but not everyone. For instance, the meat advertisement only appeals to the people who enjoy eating meat, but for vegetarians, the meat advertisement is useless. Although the food advertisements have the advantages, there is still a limitation. Food advertisements can be noticed only when people are reading newspaper, using internet, or watching television. So the probability is not 100 percent. Besides the exigence, audience, and limitation, the food advertisements also represent the food culture and value of a country. In order to prove my pinot of view, I will compare two different kinds of food advertisements from America to show the American food culture and value.

  The first advertisement is a image describes the Subway’s sandwiches. In this advertisement, the designer uses green as the color of the background and put the price and size of the sandwiches on the left top. On the opposite side, the image says the every day value of the Subway’s sandwiches. Under the price and size, there is a sentence: “endless fresh creations” and below this sentence are the ingredients of the sandwiches. On the right side of the image, the designer put some pictures of the real sandwiches and the ingredients of the sandwiches. From my perspective, each element has its own importance. As we all know, the Subway is a fast food  restaurant, so it appeals to the working people who have no time to cook, or appeals to the middle-lower class people because the price of the sandwich is not very expensive, only $5 per footlong sandwich. The every day value proves that the value of each sandwich is great. The sentence “endless fresh creations” means the American people like the fresh food while the pictures of the real sandwiches and the ingredients show that the American people like the tasty food. The color of the back ground is green, which represents that the health food is also a kind of food that the American people consider about. So the Subway advertisement claims that the American food culture and value is the fresh food, tasty and healthy food, and also the value of food.

  Compare to the first advertisement, the second one is totally different. It is a video talk about the Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt. The advertisement uses the blue sky and white clouds as the back ground, and some cows stand on the green ground. Then the advertisement says the frozen yogurt contains the chocolate fish, caramel, and marshmallows. In the bottom of the whole screen, there is a sentence: “Phish Food Frozen Yogurt Dessert, 60% less fat than Phish Food Ice Cream”. In the end of the video advertisement, it says: “if you taste the frozen yogurt, your smile may be a little bigger.” This advertisement is really interesting so that I saw it several times. The blue sky, the white clouds, the cute cows, and the green ground remind me of my childhood, so I believe this advertisement appeals to the children. In addition, because the video shows the key words “less fat” all the time, so it also appeals to the people who are on diet or do not like fat and calories. The ingredients of the frozen yogurt try to tell the consumers that how tasty the frozen yogurt is while the bigger smile is a symbol that the frozen yogurt will be the comfort food that makes people smile. From this advertisement, we can draw a conclusion that the American food culture and value is the healthy, tasty, fat –free food and also the comfort food.

  Although these two advertisements represent two different kinds of food, they still have some similarities. Both of these two advertisements talk about the healthy and tasty food in different way, so I believe that the taste and health may be the first thing American people consider about when they choosing the food. However, the difference between the first advertisement and second one is that the first one mentions the freshness and value of the food while the second one mentions the fat-free food and the comfort food. These are also important factors for American people to consider. So studying the food advertising is good for the food companies to improve their own advertisements because the food advertisement is a really great way that show the food culture and value of a country. 

Food advertising analysis: a great and useful method

 In the past, I always believed that the usage of food advertisements is to attract the consumers. But, after reading the article “Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising”, written by Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky, I change my mind. The food advertisements not only have the usage of attracting people, but also have the usage of analyzing the distinctions between classes. Freedman and Jurafsky do the analysis mainly focus on the Potato Chip Advertising.

Before doing the experiment, the authors choose twelve bags of potato chips and divide them into two groups based on the price per ounce. Then they examine the language on both two groups. They surprisingly find out that the expensive chips always use the complex words, negation words, long sentence, and more concern about health. Also, different from the inexpensive chips, the expensive chips focus on telling consumers the naturalness, ingredients, and process. However, the inexpensive chips are not doing as well as the expensive chips. The number of the complex words and negation words is less than the number of the expensive chips; the inexpensive chips always use short sentence instead of long sentence; most important, inexpensive chips choose to focus on the historicity and location rather than focus on naturalness, ingredients, and process. But how can food advertisements show the difference between social classes? Apparently, we can suppose that the expensive chips represent the upper class in America while the inexpensive chips represent the lower class in America. From the distinction between expensive chips and inexpensive chips, we can clearly draw a conclusion that the upper class more concern about health, organic food, and also have higher education level than the lower class (the long sentences mean higher education level). However, the lower class more concern about the location and the history of the food rather than the naturalness of the food. So one kind of food advertising can show great connections and distinctions between language and culture.

My favorite part of this article is when the authors examine the complexity of the words. When the words are longer, they are more complex. I think this method of food advertising analysis is also useful for meat advertising. In expensive meat package, it will say “organic and succulent” while the inexpensive meat package will say “fresh and juicy”.