Evolving Society and Food Cultures

When I wake up for class in the morning, I usually give myself plenty of time to get ready, go down to the dining hall and take my time with my breakfast before I need to leave to get to my class on time. I always thought that since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it should not be scarfed down and one should always give himself enough time to eat a well-balanced meal before he starts his day. However, I learned very fast that this is hardly ever the case. When I sit down to eat my meal, I notice those coming in after me are rushing to the cereal, scarfing down a bowl of sugary Lucky Charms, and leaving before I can even take my vitamins. In such a rush to get to where they need to be on time, people tend to forget the nutritional value of the fast meal they are eating just to obtain sustenance. Currently, nutritional value and quality of a meal seem to play such little roles in the fast paced lives of people, who care less and less about the quality and healthiness of a product, and more about how fast and easy they can get it. 

From places such as Subway (an establishment whose ads are proudly based around how healthy the food is for customers) beginning to add in drive-thru windows so its customers can order subs from the comfort of their own car, to an increasing number of frozen meals that can be easily heated in the microwave and scarfed down, people have begun to seek the easy way out of making an elaborate meal, which takes time and potentially costs more than TV dinners. Jamie Horwitz discusses in her article “Eating at the Edge” how people have become so accustomed to eating food that is fast and easy rather than healthy and takes a little longer to prepare. One of the examples she uses to support her argument is the Campbell’s Soup at Hand product, of which she writes, “Soup at Hand is a finely engineered, vacuum-molded, ergonomically grippable mug with a surface area enhanced for microwave radiation and sized to fit a car’s cup holder before being discarded”(Horwitz 43-44). This shows that people are not only looking for something they can easily heat up in the microwave in a matter of minutes, but also something that is able to go anywhere that they need to be, and fast (i.e., walking to work or school, or driving somewhere). With the design of the new product, Campbell’s was able to reach out to customers who wished they could enjoy some sort of hot meal on the go rather than have a cold sandwich every day or skip out on their meal entirely because they had such little time to stop, sit down and eat something, which is the case for much of society today. Horwitz also discusses Swanson’s TV dinners, invented in 1954, to further support her argument that more people are “eating at the edge.” While these frozen meal trays could not be taken on the go like the Soup at Hand, Swanson used the fact that only 20 percent of households in the United States had a television set in 1954 and used the term “TV dinner” as a way to “associate their product with something that was cool and modern”(Horwitz, 45). People are constantly looking for ways to make their lives easier and for shortcuts so they have more time through the day to get everything done that they want to get done. Swanson used the TV dinners to show people they could eat their dinners and watch television in the living room rather than have to sit at the table, which was almost never in the dining room in the 1950s. With the new frozen meals, mom could whip up a meal for the entire family in a matter of minutes, and still be able to watch her favorite program while having her dinner. Today, as shown with the Campbell’s Soup at Hand, the same basic principles apply. People are still constantly looking for something that makes eating faster and easier for them, thus the soup with no need for preparation, a spoon, or a bowl came into play. It seems all one really needs to do anymore to have a meal that consists of most of the basic food groups is pull it out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave and hit start.

Microwaves were once something only a select number of households had, much like the television set. Today, nearly all households require a microwave to fulfill the duties as the chef of the house. According to Bob Garrison, author of the article “Fast Food,” while the number of Americans that eat at home are “increasing, and have been since the beginning of the decade-2008 marked a turning point as more households prepared their meals in the microwave”(Garrison, 18). Garrison brings statistics into his article to support the fact that an increasing number of meals are prepared by the microwave. He notes that from 1990 to 2007, 20 percent of the nation’s meals that were made at home were prepared in the microwave. However, in 2008 the numbers jumped from the 20 percent to 30 percent, while the percentage of meals that are prepared on a stove top dropped from 52 percent in 1985 to 33 percent in 2009 (Garrison, 18). Additionally, Garrison reiterates Harry Balzer, a researcher, and writes, “This Cleveland researcher projects U.S. frozen food packaging demand will climb 3.7 percent each year through 2013”(Garrison, 18). This is most likely because more people are more concerned with getting some sort of meal, be it nutritional and good for them or not, faster and easier each year. Rather than cook a meal, people need something that is ready to eat faster so they can carry on with the rest of their days, or so they can sit alone and eat their heated up TV dinner while they work. 

Garrison also writes about the new designs companies are coming up with to make their products even easier and faster to eat. He writes, “Bohrer gives a thumbs up to new Marie Callender’s Multi-Serve Bakes (from ConAgra Foods), which involves microwave shielding and field modification materials that evenly heat the entrée so consumers don’t even have to stop and stir”(Garrison, 18). Companies like Marie Callender’s have begun to make it even easier for people to pop their dinner in the microwave and let it go while they do other things, not worrying about having to stop the dish to stir it so it will cook evenly through. Microwaving dishes has started to become so much of a hassle that companies are now thinking of ways to avoid the “extra work” of stopping the heating half way through and stirring the contents, then returning the dish to the microwave to heat it for the remainder of the time. This further shows how a changing society is becoming even more demanding of food that is readily at hand whenever they need it to be, and companies will keep attempting to come up with new innovative ways to keep the customers of this fast-paced world happy. At the rate things are going, the next thing the companies come up with will be a way for consumers to eat their meals immediately after they come out of the microwave, without having to wait for them to cool.

While the percentages of those eating at home out of their microwaves has increased within the last decade, the number of people eating out at fast food and dine-in restaurants is still high. In a report published by the USDA, the amount of consumer spending is expected to “continue to grow over the remainder of this decade and the next”(Stewart et al, iii). The report also states, “Americans now spend nearly half of their food dollars on meals and snacks at foodservice facilities, such as restaurants, hotels, and schools”(Stewart et al, 1). The total away-from-home expenditures, which includes all types of food consumption (snacks, meals, etc.), was $415 billion in 2002, which is 58 percent higher than what it was just ten years prior (Stewart et al, 1). These statistics show how much people have begun to throw aside eating at home with friends or family, and have become so consumed in buying food that is fast and easy to cook, or does not have to be cooked at all by the consumer. A family dinner rarely occurs within the home anymore, but more often in the car on the way to a destination, or at the table of a Wendy’s restaurant if there’s time. Dinners in the home with friends and family are becoming more of a rare occasion, while eating fast food on the go is becoming the social norm, with the concern not being to spend time with those close to you and eat a well-balanced meal, but being getting where you need to be on time, with a meal thrown in if you can manage.

Another example of how people are more concerned more with the speed and ease of preparing a meal, and less with nutritional value and quality of the meal would be Kraft macaroni and cheese. In the 1970s, Kraft’s food advertisement(right) was text heavy and stressed the fact that even for a family on a budget, Kraft was a great meal to feed the whole family. The advertisement’s biggest phrase is “How to eat well when you’re cooking for the kids,” followed with the statement that their product costs only 11 cents per ounce, and when paired with other food components can be a very nutritional meal for everyone to enjoy. This shows that in the 1970s, two important elements to selecting food were cost, as many families were on a budget, and some sort of nutritional value for the family. People were not only concerned with finding something easy to make for the whole family that kids would enjoy, but also something that was not going to hurt their wallets at the end of the day. However, the advertisement from present day is very minimalistic and does not address cost or nutritional value in any way. The advertisement(left) states, “Fortunately, ours has fewer steps,” which appeals to customers who do not have enough time to make a meal that would require more steps to prepare. While Kraft does not use this advertisement to express the dish to be healthy and nutritious, it is most likely because many times, people who are in a hurry to make something are not worrying about the nutritional value of the macaroni and cheese, they just want something they can eat fast so they can continue their day. Kraft has further catered to the needs of the consumers’ fast paced lives by coming out with Easy Mac, which provide individual servings of macaroni and cheese that can be microwaved in, and eaten right out of the bowl the noodles and cheese powder come in. Kraft macaroni and cheese, much like many other companies’ foods today, has become nothing more than a “just add water” meal that will be consumed faster than the amount of time it took to cook the dish.

To conclude, people today are so much more concerned with getting their food fast so they can continue their day that they forget about nutritional values and focus more on being able to eat a meal that is fast so they can continue with the rest of their day without little time taken out of their busy day. Our food culture and values have changed with society, and will continue to change and evolve as the people in the society do.

Works Cited

Garrison, Bob. "Fast Food." Refrigerated & Frozen Foods 22.1 (2011): 18,18,20. ProQuest. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

Horwitz, Jamie. “Eating at the Edge.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture , Vol. 9, No. 3 (2009): 42-47. University of California Press. Web. 22 Apr 2013.

Stewart, H., N. Blisard, S. Bhuyan, and R. Nayga. N.p.. Web. 23 Apr 2013. <http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/306585/aer829_1_.pdf>.