America's Eating Disorder

When placed on an international perspective, the American eating disorder is, according to Pollan a result of the anxious eating that surrounds American’s problem with food. We eat too much, too quickly, and with too few breaths in between the chew. No, it is not realistic to chew each bite one hundred times for the sake of a satisfactory metabolic process, but it is also not unrealistic to chew each bite twenty times, something I know I don’t do. Rather than swallowing our food whole in a frantic frenzy, it might be time that Americans learn to chew again. It may just be that Americans need to re-learn the art of eating, despite our humanistic instinct to eat and consume, rather than eat and enjoy. Think about the society we live in – the fact that Americans need to relearn how to eat goes to show just what crisis, or what national eating disorder America is facing.

The psychological attitude surrounding Americans and food is one of hypocrisy, where the calorie and fat content in food is more important than the actual process of eating food with friends and family. Yet America still remains one of the most obese countries in the world, while across the Atlantic the French are skinny, proud and slow to eat. According to Pollan, “We could eat less and actually enjoy it more… It’s so much simpler to alter the menu or nutrient profile of a meal than to change the social and psychological context which it is eaten” (Pollan). It seems the majority of the world go it somewhat right with eating - that is uncovering the pleasure in eating rather than finding strife.

Of course what we eat as a culture is important, but as Pollan points out, Americans must relook how we eat: “The French eat all sorts of unhealthy foods, but they do it according to a strict and stable set of rules: they eat small portions and don’t go back for seconds; they don’t snack; they seldom eat alone, and communal meals are long, leisurely affairs” (Pollan). What I find most interesting is that as Americans, it isn’t solely what we eat, but it is how we eat that is breeding a generation of obese and unhealthy youth. My own eating habits define that of the typical American, where eating on the go is the norm and slow, extended meals represent a nuisance rather than a luxury (because of the time crunch in my own life). I have sacrificed the art of enjoying food for the sake of being full and functional. We are in fact in a food crisis, and in my opinion, the way we eat reflects the values of our culture. Perhaps it is time to embrace eating once again, and to embrace living in each moment rather than living in the future or the past.