Blog #3

The meal I decided to prepare for myself was breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of cereal, an apple, and a glass of orange juice. I purchased my cereal, which was Cheerios, the milk, and the orange juice from the local convenience store by my dorm, Carson’s. I got the plastic, disposable bowl, glass, and spoon from a store, Pick N’ Save, near my hometown. To prepare the meal I gathered the bowl, spoon, and glass and set them on my dresser. Then I went to the refrigerator and got a half-gallon of milk, jug of orange juice, and an apple. I retrieved my cereal from a bin under my bed. I poured the cereal in the bowl, followed by the milk, then poured the orange juice in the glass and set the apple in a napkin. I ate and drank everything and disposed of the utensils in the garbage.

Actually I almost completely agree with Michael Pollan’s thoughts when it comes to how American’s eat. I have been raised in a world where we take twenty minutes to eat a meal, tops. We eat in between soccer and basketball practice and rarely sit down as a family to eat together. We eat at our convenience. Since meals are often eaten on the go, they aren’t always prepared in the healthiest way (a.k.a. fast food). Last spring when I traveled to England, every time I ate dinner at a restaurant it would take at least two hours. I felt like it was taking the staff ages to get me my food, but everyone else around me was completely calm, like it was normal for service at a restaurant to take this long. It is normal for Europeans and people of other nations to take two hours to eat a meal, which makes me wonder how they have time for anything else in their lives. However David E. Williams of CNN News disagrees with Pollan and myself. He thinks people are eating at home just as much as they were a decade ago and that isn’t that big of a problem with our dietary issues.

My opinion still hasn’t changed by the meal I prepared for myself. I will be the first to admit that I don’t the healthiest food and that I don’t eat it at a slow, manageable pace, but I feel that is what our world is coming to. A busier and busier society so there is less time to just relax, sit, and eat. I hope in the next coming years, Americans will realize that we need to slow down and actually eat and savor our food instead of inhaling it.