Let's Eat Some Grits and a Hyphen or Two

Hey everyone! What is going on? This week is coming to an end but where one thing ends another begins. I’m talking about the weekend of course! Whoop whoop! Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves though. Friday is still a busy day for many of us. We have to make sure we’re caught up on all of our work before we let loose and throw the top back.

Today I’m coming to you with two different culture specific writings. The first is “Reclaiming True Grits” by Bryant Terry and to be completely honest I was really put off by how strong he came on. He talks about how fed up he is about soul food being held responsible for African Americans being obese, diabetic, as well as having heart disease. Now before reading the article I was really interested in what the article might say after reading his introduction. It says he wants to show people how to eat healthy even when they find it difficult to do so within the local community. If you read my last post then you can guess why this would interest me. Although I have access to healthy food it definitely is not convenient with my busy schedule but that’s not for this post discussion. I felt partially blamed for the stereotyped soul food even though I had nothing to do with it. To me it seemed that the only people who would agree with him is someone from his same viewpoint. I only felt attacked. He also talks about this problem beginning in the 1960’s due to the media’s portrayal of soul food. Myself being from Detroit and going to pre-game football parties with my African American friends I’ve had plenty of soul food. At least to me it was soul food. Someone from the south might not agree. I would never think to blame soul food for a group of people’s health problems. Everything in moderation!

The second piece I read was from Lily Wong called “Eating the Hyphen”. I think I was intentionally told to read this one second so I wouldn’t put down my book and feel berated. This essay was a complete 180 from the first. I found myself laughing out loud as I read along. If you’re like me then you’re probably wondering what’s it mean to ‘eat a hyphen?’ So I finally found out at the end of the essay that for Lily the hyphen represents her link between American and Chinese culture. That link just so happened to be a Chinese dumpling which she admittedly ate in very odd manner. She would separate the meat from the thick doughy skin with a knife and fork. Then only after dissection would she grab a pair of chop sticks and enjoy her meal, with ketchup. This had become almost ritualistic for her. She uses pathos to build an emotional link between herself and the reader. Bryant Terry used a form of pathos but I only felt alienated after reading it. These articles were both written to try to get the reader to understand the writers’ passions for their culture. They each took completely different approaches at trying to achieve that.

Do You Know Where Your Last Meal Came From?...

Good evening friends! Tonight I’m writing to you from the comfort of my living room after eating only my second meal of the day. That’s right, I’ve ate twice today. I’m not sure if you would even count a large coffee and a dozen donut holes from Dunkin’ Donuts as a meal but yes that was my breakfast before work this morning at six o’clock. Now if you’re asking yourself ‘what did he have for dinner?’ I’m glad you asked. I had a bowl of a double serving of brown rice, grilled chicken, sautéed vegies, medium and mild salsa, some type of white cheese, and it was all doused in Chile n’ Lime Frank’s RedHot. Of course it wouldn’t have been a complete meal without a tall glass of milk and brownie batter Oreo’s! Mmm that really hit the spot! This probably seems ridiculous to most of you but this has become a regular thing for me since I moved to North Carolina about a month ago. My wife and I finally received our furniture and appliances after our move from Hawaii but with us both working two jobs and me going to school we aren’t finding enough time to get the apartment in order. Our diets are definitely more out of convenience than nutrition. We know it’s not healthy but we’re just happy to be able to eat dinner together at the end of the day. 

After reading two stories from Camille and Barbara Kingsolver about their home grown and local food diets I feel a tad disgusted in my selection of food lately. Now I can’t at all compare my life to living on a farm because it never happened. I lived in a suburb just outside Detroit where the freshest food I saw came from the grocery store on the corner and I couldn’t even make a wild guess at where the food came from. The truth is I’ve never really thought about where my food comes from. It’s not that I haven’t been exposed to eating healthy because my friends wife is vegan and it was nearly impossible to go out to eat somewhere without her interrogating the waiter about nearly every item on the menu. I never cared enough to ask where my chicken tenders came from. I suppose it would be in my better interest to investigate where my food originates. Given my current circumstances at the apartment complex I won’t be having my own ‘harvest day’ anytime soon to make my own chicken tenders. Hopefully I’ll become more familiar with my surroundings and find healthier alternatives. Well until next time thanks again for stopping by!

Forget About What Society Thinks and Eat What You Love

Hi everyone!!! I just got back from having an amazing day at the lake with my wife and some friends. We went tubing, jet skiing, and ate at an amazing pizza place in Black Mountain, NC. Today I'm writing to you about two pieces of work about food eating disorders. They are Her Chee-to Heart by Jill McCorkle and Not Just "a White Girls Thing": The Changing Face of Food and Body Image Problems by Susan Bordo.

 Her Chee-to Heart was written very lightheartedly. Jill McCorkle takes me on a journey through her childhood of eating nearly every piece of junk-food I could think of. She thoroughly enjoyed eating anything with a high sugar or fatty content. I honestly went to the store later that night after reading it and got myself some brownie batter Oreos and milk quench my appetite for something sweet. Any health-nut reading what Jill regularly ate growing up would be appalled. Myself? I couldn't help but smile and understand that she was happy eating all of that and someone judging her for it wouldn't have stopped her. I think deep down we all wish we could eat whatever we want and not have to deal with the consequences. Now McCorkle didn't go into detail about her health or weight and I don't think that's what she wanted me to take away from her writing. She wanted me to understand the vast spectrum of junk-food that fueled her happiness as a junk-food junkie. She wants us to forget about what we are supposed to eat and grab that sugary, fattening hunk of yumminess and enjoy ourselves. I still remember when I thought I was the coolest kid at the lunch table because I would take my frozen Ding-Dong out of the freezer and put it in my lunch box with an ice pack so I could keep it cold until lunch. I looked forward to that chocolate filled hockey puck everyday going to school.

Now the second thing I read, Not Just 'a White Girl Thing', really dug into society's issues of how the human body should look. Clearly from the title I knew that she wanted me to understand that what typically was looked at as a white female, North American, financially stable, heterosexual, perfectionist issue was much more wide-spread. From African-Americans to Asians, Latins, and Europeans, they all have individuals in their cultures who deal with eating disorders. She backs this up with multiple resources and professional research studies that show social media has a huge influence on how we perceive what our bodies should look like. I completely agree that there is a definite way that the human body is portrayed in advertisements and it is depleting the confidence and self-esteem of anyone who doesn't fit that. It's terrible but there's a reason people say 'sex sells'. People are drawn to a certain body type and the reason they are drawn to it is because society has made them feel like that is what is sexy. No one should feel like their body has to be a certain way. Everyone has a right to be happy without someone making them feel inadequate.

There's a lot more to be said about eating disorders and how social media influences people to develop these issues. It's important to be happy. I strive to be happy everyday. Life is seriously so short and I can't waste it dwelling on the negative. Don't let how someone else thinks about you affect the way you think about yourself. Please if you are struggling with an eating disorder or having an issue with anything in your life don't feel like you are alone. I promise someone else out there is having the same problem or they have been in a similar situation. Either way there is always a helping hand to guide you through your stress. I hope I have shed some light on important issues in society and thanks again for stopping by =]

What the World Eats

Hello again! Thanks for coming back to see more about how food matters to me. This post is not just about me. It's about families from around the world and what their weekly diets consist of. Today I analyzed pictures and captions from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Manzel and Faith D'Aluisio. I've posted a link below so you can follow along with me as I describe what I have noticed and what my thoughts were as I clicked through each image.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats link: http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/

A common theme that I started to notice was that wealthier families from more developed countries have much more processed food and sweets compared to that of more traditional and native families who had a greater amount and variety of fresh meats and vegetables.

Image 5: Family from Chad. They spend $1.23 on food for the week!!! That is incredible. I know that there is no way I could spend only $1.23 and have enough food to get me through the week.

Image 8: Now looking at the family from Mexico you can tell they have a much larger budget for food. On the back table you can count twelve 2 liters of soda! That's almost two per day.

Images 10,13,15,20,25: I really appreciated that these families included their pets in the picture as well as what the pet eats. In image 20 I think the family from Luxemborg is holding up the chicken to show that they raise their own chickens, as well as it being noted in the caption that chicken is a favorite food in their diet.

Image 23: This family from Mali gets enough food to feed 15 members of their family using $26.39!!! I think it would be interesting to see if my wife and I could only spend that much money on a week's worth of groceries for us. 

Image 24: This family from Canada said that watermelon is one of their favorite foods but I don't see it anywhere in the photo. Let me know if you see it, okay? =]

Images 14 and 17: I noticed that both of these families included tobacco products as part of their weekly diet. I found that really interesting. My wife and I don't use and tobacco products so I would have never thought to include something like that. Does anyone reading this use tobacco and would you think to include that in your diet?

After being deployed to Afghanistan and visiting several countries in southeast Asia I have had an amazing chance to experience different cultures and the way they eat. I think these pictures give a good snap shot of just how vastly different food is used and acquired throughout the world. Thanks again for stopping by and taking the time to read my thoughts. I'm sure I'll see you again soon!

Introduction w/ Food Matters Focus Reflection

Hey you! My name is Chris Gazley and I'm currently a student at UNC Asheville. Thanks for coming to my blog and taking the time to read what I think about food. This is my first blog so bear with me please. I'll be honest on whatever I'm writing about and I welcome any criticism, negative or positive. So without further delay I want to tell you why food matters to me...

Food Matters Focus Reflection:

Food is essential to providing fuel for the body to function. Food is awesome! There are so many varieties of delicious foods that I find it difficult to decide which one I want for a certain meal. At times this can be a tad bit frustrating when it takes too long to decide. My wife and I can spend almost as much time trying to figure out what we're going to eat as it takes to actually eat the meal.

I also have another thought about food and that is I think food can be an inconvenience. Although I love food I don't like to take the time to consume it. Time is precious to me. I try to be efficient as I can but we can't always use out allotted time the best we could.

For those of you that are reading this and are not in my LANG 120 class you're probably wondering why this is so short and if this is really all I think about why food matters. I can assure you that there is much more about this particular topic but this focus reflection was only allowed about 5 minutes to write in class. So what you read is exactly what I through out on the paper on my first day of class. I hope I didn't waste your time and I look forward to writing more for you. Thanks!!!