Thank you all for participating in this peer day. Please feel free to review the posts and continue to post to the different days. I will be checking the blog to see if people continue to post comments. I hope everyone enjoyed the conversations......very stimulating. It makes me miss you all even more!
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One of the last questions Bob and Nancy posed to us at seminar that questioned whether or not America has a true food culture and if it does, is it grounded, or can it be grounded, in cultural tradition?
ReplyDeleteIt seems the more our conversations took place over the week our thoughts and ideas centered around an American food culture remained mostly negative while our own autoethnographies remained positive. This difference could be attributed to none of us identifying ourselves directly with an American food culture, but instead a culture steeped in tradition; for example, Irish for Jim and Italian for myself.
I sit here and try to think of positive moments spent with what I would define as classic "American" foods: Picnic foods, fast foods, and bar foods. Looking retrospectively on various child and adult experiences I am flooded with memories of baseball games, WWF wrestling events, and birthday parties at bowling allies. Smells of hot dogs, hamburgers, french fires, cotton candy, ice cream, and pizza fill my head with the sounds of people cheering, balls striking pins, and the sight of my brother getting excited every time a new wrestler took the stage. For me, this is my American food traditions. They are the foods I associate with no other culture (even though I know rationally that they have been diffused from other cultures).
Does it stand to reason then that while many similarities would exist, every American is going define traditional "American" foods differently?
Abby,
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank you for having developed and implemented these peer days.
You have done a wonderful job, and it must have been an interesting new learning experience to you as an educator.
I wish you well, and continued success in your program of study.
I continue to feel a debt of gratitude to Dr. Mc Andrews and to Dr. Owens for having introduced this estremely relevant area of study to my doctoral program
Returning to the thought for today, I believe that you have articulated an important element of the current American food dilemma.
As a culture, we are so very young, without a tradition in which our food philosophy and choices are firmly grounded.
Our society developed concurrently with the industrial revolution and with the growth of the global food business.
For that reason, I believe, we are easily swayed by any tempting treat or marketing message.
Although awareness and education are a first step, I believe that a true "sea change" in American eating habits will be difficult to achieve, especially as social inequities limit access to health education and preventive health care for so many.
Best,
Kathy Stein
Kathy and Abby, You have both perfectly articulated my thoughts about our exchanges over the past week. I also salute Drs. McAndrews and Owens for their vision in creating the FFF Seminar that brought us down this path together toward awareness and hopefully wellness in the future. Jim Hunt
ReplyDeleteIt is troubling to me that in a time of economic struggle and the positive possiblity of generating a long-lasting policy providing health care for all that insurors and government are also contemplating cuts in school lunches, nutrition and physical eduction. It saddens me also to think that are most vulnerable may being singled out with plans to punish those with chronic illness by charging higher insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments ddue to illness or state of health. Cutting access to basic health promotion and primary health care makes no sense in the long run, and those of us in a position to speak out must do so in both political action and evidence based research.By proting good health there is a return of invstment for our society that is quantifiable.
Yesterday the national media was swarming Boston trying to locate the good stories about Senator Kennedy's work. I was honored to host Katie Couric from CBS at the Brookside Community Health Center. Maybe you saw the interview on the evening news---I was on for a full 20 seconds!
In visiting the health center pediatric department with a national news anchor it amazed me how proud and grateful patients are for having access to local health care services and how respectful the staff and providers at every health center are to our multi-cultural families. One Latino woman told Katie that without the health center her baby would not receive basic pediatric care. Like Amber in the FFN her tribute to the center gives me hope for the future of our children and grandchildren.
Best to All and special thanks to Abby,
Jim Hunt
All: If you have an interest in seeing yesterday's live CBS video from Brookside Community Health Center you can link to it--by visiting/Googling my website, Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Jim Hunt
http://www.13wham.com/guides/health/story/Gillibrand-in-Rochester-Speaks-on-Childhood/I_h6R7-LnkihoH40Q3tpBg.cspx
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the stories I read on my Iphone last night before going to bed. It was posted by an ABC affiliate in Rochester, NY and very fitting for our conversation.
Thank you all for your kind words as well. I am deeply appreciative to have once again shared in this experience with you. Dr. McAndrews and Dr. Owens, as well as each of you, have influenced not only my thinking/learning, but also my way of living. Each of you is to be applauded.
Keep the posts coming, including today! I will be checking back periodically and will post the blog site for others to weigh in. It might be a nice way to remain connected and to discuss various current events, articles, movies, and pieces of literature that strike us as relevant.
Thanks, Jim, for the heads up. I will be sure to log on to the interview.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Kathy Stein
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteAs I spent a soggy late summer/early fall afternoon reflecting on our peer days, I turned to a familiar friend in my library, "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy", by Willett, and my parting wish to you all is health and happiness, whether it be as a PETA-inspired vegan, or as a disciple of Julia Child and Julie Powell.
It is interesting to note that a student came to me yesterday with a reference question on antibiotics in food animals, a question which led me to Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" and a host of other resources that have been mentioned in our conversations.
Best to all,
Kathy Stein
One last thought -- when last I checked the news this evening, I saw Domino's breadbowl pastas described as "food porn".
ReplyDeleteObviously, much work awaits us!
Best,
Kathy Stein
I spent several hours reading through all of your comments and have been carrying them in my head all day long. One posting by Kathy really resonates with me. She wrote: "Although awareness and education are a first step, I believe that a true 'sea change' in American eating habits will be difficult to achieve, especially as social inequities limit access to health education and preventive health care for so many."
ReplyDeleteI thought about her words as I went about my day.
I went to a friend's house whose twin sons are leaving for college. I hugged the boys and gave them some towels and sheets I had purchased for them as well as a mini refrigerator. Inside of the refrigerator, I had put grapes, apples, carrots, water and several bags of walnuts and almonds. I told the boys that the food was in there.
The boys' grandmother is raising seven of her grandchildren and she gets by on little more than foodstamps. After the boys left, she called me and we talked for a while. She thanked me for helping the boys and then she brought up the food. She said she is happy that the boys are going to college because they will have a chance to change their lives and she also mentioned that she knows that dorm food will be better for them than what she can provide.
She has to walk to the grocery store - a Super Wal-Mart and she says she is limited in both time and money and often buys frozen meals that are on sale. She says she wishes she had time to cut up fruit or cook with healthier ingredients. She says she also wishes that she had money to buy better quality food.
She understands its importance.
But she is powerless to act on it.
FOr her, proper nutrition is not really a matter of not knowing what to eat. It's much more about time and money.
Unfortunately, I think many people are in a similar situation.