Psychosociology of contemporary food

In the reading titled, “ Toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption” written by Roland Barthes he discusses certain foods differ between cultures and how food is not always food as something edible but now can be viewed as a symbolic item. He started by comparing the French and the United States uses of sugar. He started to point out how different cultures lifestyle choices and their economic situation can very well be factored in to what food and the amount of food they eat.
Barthes went on to discuss how advertising has been a big factor into what societies eat. Advertising has introduced foods into people’s lives and now people tend to feel loyal to a certain brand of food Barthes gives the example of people favoring certain cooking oils. He then began to point out that now when we look at foods we don’t always see the actual food item. We see what it is associated with. He talked about how there is a display aspect in how food is placed. These displays and what the foods are associated with vary between different cultures as well. Barthes also explained how different sorts of foods are associated with different behaviors that the food and the foods situation will evoke. Overall Barthes brought up that food is no longer just an edible substance but something that will bring out emotions and a feeling or memory of a certain situation.