Mama-mia, Food

Here's an essay I wrote for my university:

A Truckload of Thoughts.

Since the dawn of civilization, human has always strived to advance politically, socially and economically. From the monuments of ancient times to the elephantine skyscrapers of the present, food is the prime factor behind all these accomplishments. It is food that made the world population reached the sixth billion marker. It is food has the power to kill or to heal.

This four letter word subject has come a long way through history. It was food that our ancestors raged war amongst each other; it was food that brought great civilizations to their splendor and glory and it was food that gave rise to technology. A growing population needs more land to cultivate food. When there is a land struggle issue, neighboring tribes will launch warfare against one another. To work, humans need food to produce energy. An ample supply of food will guarantee the prosperity of an empire. Ancient Rome, the Mesopotamians and Egyptians recognized the importance of food which in turn helped these great civilizations achieved their golden age and left a permanent mark in history. Food brought about technological advancement to societies encouraging them to further improve cultivation and harvesting techniques. An anthropologist once said: Food is the catalyst for progress.

In our present society where time is precious, society will always look for ways and means to carry out tasks in a fast and efficient fashion. Since the establishment of the fast food joint, our ever hasting society would make it a point to dine out with an excuse of being “In a hurry and there are much better things to do”. We stuff our bodies with huge amount of fast food classics like burgers, French fries and carbonated drinks ignoring the fact that this diet causes great harm to our body system.

As the name suggests, fast food is fast food. For the sake of speed and time, traditional wholesome cooking methods are replaced with the unhealthy deep fry technique. Tonnes of processed burger patties are submerged into hot oil. With the high temperature and the good conducting properties of oil, cooking process is extremely fast. [Adapted from Deep Frying at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_fry].

The fast food entrepreneurs claim that fast food is the way of the future; “..it is future food”. I could not imagine its detrimental effect on our health being. If majority of the crowd embraces this new fast food philosophy, I believe that the average lifespan will decrease to 50 odd years. Imagine walking down the street in the not so distant future, “admiring” the huge bulk humans have carry on themselves. It could be a “heavier Planet Earth”. Obesity is already a big issue here in the States. More and more people are dying of heart attacks rather than from automobile accidents.

Due to globalization, the fast food culture has spread to all four corners of the world promoting itself as a trend. Fashionably trendy, fast food has been assimilated to local cultures which lead to the invention of various local equivalents. In South East Asia where rice is the staple diet, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) joints have used local knowledge and integrated this worshipped grain into their menus. Their chicken dishes are served with rice. Furthermore, Pizza Hut in this region has made a few gastronomical pizzas. Browsing through their menus, one can expect unique flavors of pizza such as Tandoori Chicken, Masala and Kebab. Like the spread of Far East cuisine to the West, fast food is an exchange to the East.

Like designer clothes, fast food has a unique marquee in the market. The food industry tends to offer immediate satisfaction through the consumers’ taste buds. This is one of the strong selling points of fast food; it not only satisfies one’s hunger but bring instantaneous joy and amusement through the one’s taste buds. It is been promoted as a luxury, a social event and above all, a trend. Food advertisements on the media such as billboards, internet, and television all have something in common. Food advertisers make it a point to visit a fast food chain as if one pays a visit to a their local fashion boutique. A fashion accessory it seems, many have fall “victims” to these advertising campaign to the point many feel pressured to eat at a fast food joint because it is promoted as the “in-thing”.

“[In fact], food is the place where the needs of the body and the needs of the soul converge, to offer nourishment and the meaning in equal measure.” This phrase from Roger Scruton’s; Eating the World gave me an insight of how much food had developed into our private life until it has a significant spiritual value. I am a utilitarian. I believe that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility. Food has no spiritual value; it is tangible, physical, designed by our Maker to offer us nourishment for our bodies. A chemical factory [body] it seems, it takes in raw organic materials [food], processes it, and outputs manufactured products [energy and nourishment]. This simple illustration clearly demonstrates the role of food to our bodies. It has no spiritual value, not a “need of the soul”. If one needs food for the soul, turn to God’s word for it is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

I agree with Scruton’s description about food being perceived differently amongst cultures and people of different social classes. Poor societies have no time admiring its presentation but simply consume food for the means of survival. However, the rich view food as “a luxury, an ornament, and an invitation to excess” [Cited from Roger Scruton’s; Eating the world]. If one shall compare food eaten by the rich and the poor, it takes little effort to distinguish its [food] respective aesthetics. In a nutshell, the poor “eat to live” where as the rich “live to eat”.

Though society will have various perspectives, food will always remain a vital part of our lifes. Food will continue to evolve with our ever changing society.