In "The Problem of Changing Food Habits," executive secretary of the National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits, Margaret Mead, shows her readers what the problem of changing food habits is and how it is not contributed to one factor but instead to a multitude of factors. She states that there is already a large amount of data, studies, and experiments on this subject and now it is just is a matter of combining them and applying. Mead provides suggestions on how we can use systematic and coherent scientific background to work towards changing the diets of most Americans. She says, for example, that by using a new experiment that was done on rats preferences for food, we can work towards this goal.
Mead speaks about the Committee members and how their studies showed that cultural change and habits are a primary reason for changing food habits. But not necessarily just culture, but tendencies within the culture to pick what types of foods to eat. Like, dislike of food which is healthy, appearance over taste, and preference for foods that have minimal waste material.
Not only does she examine studies and data, but she also asks important questions about what the problem is really and how it can be fixed to solve our changing food habits. An example being, how can we introduce foods to the next generation or possibly how do we get rid of foods before the next generation so that we can actually produce change in people’s food habits. In the end, she concludes that the ultimate way to change food habits is to base them upon tradition that embodies science in a flexible way, and also to put a new sense of responsibility to the people preparing food for others to eat.
In "The Problem of Changing Food Habits," executive secretary of the National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits, Margaret Mead, argues that using both applied and pure science is what is needed to decide what foods to eat. She states that there is already a large amount of data, studies, and experiments on this subject and now it is just is a matter of combining the information and applying it to “life factors.” These “life factors” include, but are not limited to a society’s culture, religion and tradition.
ReplyDeleteMead speaks about the Committee members and how their studies showed that there are multiple reasons for why we choose to eat the things we do. The Committee showed that cultural change and habits are a primary reason for changing food habits. But not necessarily just culture, but tendencies within the culture to pick what types of foods to eat. Like, dislike of food which is healthy, appearance over taste, and preference for foods that have minimal waste material.
Not only does she examine studies and data, but she also asks important questions about what the problem is really and how it can be fixed to solve our changing food habits. An example being, how can we introduce foods to the next generation or possibly how do we get rid of foods before the next generation so that we can actually produce change in people’s food habits. In the end, she concludes that the ultimate way to change food habits is to base them upon tradition that embodies science in a flexible way, and also to put a new sense of responsibility to the people preparing food for others to eat.