Are you sure you want to eat that?

[[ Terra ]]

Sometimes I find what some people consider to be an appetising meal quite shocking. I like to consider myself a reasonably healthy person - I've been exercising alot more lately and I've always had a fairly healthy diet with the occasional treat. There's this show on ABC2 called Eataholics. It's a UK show about people with food phobias. Usually they're addicted to something unhealthy, like say eating only chips (or crisps as some people might call them) or eating only burned sausages, and are terrified to try fruit and vegetables. There's also that other UK show (can't remember the title at the moment) where that women goes into people's homes and teaches them how to eat properly.

What really surprises me about these shows is that they always lay out on a table the foods that these people usually eat. To me it all looks like plates of brown muck. It's all fried and junk food. Yet somehow when they ask their subject what they think of the food before them they say that they think that it looks really good and when they show them healthy foods, all those bright vegetables and fruits and even meat when it's actually cooked in a healthy manner, they think it looks bland and boring.

I get that alot of these people may have addictions to certain flavours and additives and also may have an emotional attatchment to these foods (like how I really can't identify with the contestants on the Biggest Loser struggling with the food temptation challenges) but there seems to be more than just that if you ask me. If I might refer to yet one more dodgy reality tv show, I've watched some episodes of those shows like Wife Swap and I notice that at the dinner table - if the family even eat together at the table - they often eat junk as their main meal. How does a plate of hot chips equal a meal?

So, ATG, I suppose what I'm getting at is, what makes a meal appetising to you? Is the reason that so many people eat like this due to a lack of health education or is it just laziness? What is your own personal diet like? Also, something that I really am just curious about, do your household all eat together at a table or do you just plonk yourself down in front of the tv to eat?  

[Erverain]

Well, I'm a bit of a salad dodger, so I can see where this is coming from. Green was usually a color I associated with food gone bad, like moldy bread or the like. I can still eat fruits and some veggies, but anything green gets a pretty much negative reaction from me. Then again, preparation of the food is also taken into account. For some reason, I can't stomach mashed potatoes, whereas if they are in a stew or even if served normally I can eat them.
So, where I'm going with this now derailed and perhaps vaguely useless argument is that a person's palate varies amazingly, and should therefore be considered no stranger than your own. Remember, they think you're weird too.  

[God-The-RapistV2.0]

The problem is that they have created an association, just like you have, to their food being "good" and other foods being "bad." The veggies that they see are strange and unusual and they give no reaction in the brain pleasure center because they have been eating super flavor enhanced chemical foods (or even just over seasoned foods) for so long.

Reminds me of when I was working in a Governers Inn (Best Western) in the kitchen. I Was asking the Chef why he didn't change all of the chemical filled crap and replace it with fresh ingredients. He told me that when he first started working there he DID try it and he actually go complaints about the food. People thought the whipped cream made form real cream was too bland and "chemical" tasting so he had to change back to Redi-Whipp ( A pure chemical mixture consisting mostly of oil and preservatives.)

I personally don't like to suggest that people eat garden salads because for some reason people seem to think that the six ounces of salad dressing they pour over the one ounce of lettuce is somehow not fattening.

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Art By: La Belle Isolde

 

[Erverain]

I've only once eaten at a Best Western, and it was not pleasant.
And I actually prefer homemade whipped cream. Call me nuts, but it just seems more substantial to me.
And bleh on the salad dressing. The smell is what drives me away from it. Any salad I do end up eating remains free of any dressing, no matter what kind.  

[Taeryyn]

What makes a meal appetizing for me? Hm. Not really sure. If it has food that I like in it?

My family generally ate dinner at the table. I started transitioning to vegetarianism when I was around 13, so I cooked for myself quite a bit, but I still ate at the table with them.

Dinner usually consisted of three parts: some kind of meat, rice/potatoes, and a vegetable as a side. Sometimes we'd have a "lazy supper" (that's what mum called it) of something like fishsticks and chips, or pancakes.

I don't think our eating habits were nearly as healthy as they could be, but from what I've seen, they could have been a lot worse.

My younger brother is extremely picky, and he hardly likes any sort of vegetables. (He likes plain potatoes, carrots (uncooked), peas, and green beans. That's it.) He won't eat salad, and his diet is scary. He pretty much lives off of Kraft Dinner, hot dogs, and chicken noodle soup. =x

 

[aretoo]

I'm pretty omniverous, really, and love all kinds of food, including junk and fresh fruits and vegetables. (Actually, I'm a bit of a fruit & veg snob, having grown up on a farm where I could walk outside and pick it fresh and at the peak of ripeness... but I digress.) I tend to use real butter rather than margarine, and real whipped cream (with just a touch of vanilla) rather than Reddi-Whip or Cool Whip, both for flavor reasons. *shrug* I guess a lot of it is what one has grown up with... and the people coming of age today often had families where both parents were working and didn't have time to make "proper foods", and bringing home fast foods for dinner.

Pure speculation, of course. smile  

[Mars713]

I am not adventurous with foods, but I also know that a life of cookies only, while extremely satisfying, is going to get me nowhere fast. So i try to stick with foods i know, and go from there. Of course, i also hate cooking, so i usually try to find someone else to cook for me - like my husband! haha

TV vs table: When I was younger, meals were pretty much microwaved or purchased elsewhere (McDonalds, a restaurant, etc). I used to love going over to my friends house and having dinner with her family because they not only all sat together but they also talked - about their day, about funny stories in the past, everything. Now that I have my own family, I try my best to have us share our meal at the table.  

[Izumi Iris]

I'll eat almost anything. I say almost because I have a distaste for liver and onions, or eggplant. I was never very outgoing with my food choices, mainly because at my house dinner was called "shutup and eat it". Like Tae, dinner was a meat, one or two veggies and a starch when my mother was home. When my dad was home, however, it was mostly just a patato or a bag of carrots.
Now I eat mostly fast food types, unfortunatly, but I'll eat more than I had when I was a kid. I've bought salads and such to put in the fridge, but someone always eats it first. I've recently been helping my dad put in a garden, more specifically a green house. We've planted things before, but not to this extent. Soon I'll be able to eat out of there, just seer a pork chop or something meaty.  

[wakusei]

I'd like to think I grew up getting very healthy dinners prepared for me. Now I LOVE vegetables of all kinds, and dislike eating most anything fried. Don't have much a sweet tooth either.

I drink more soda than I should, though....

 

[The Dinosaur Next Door]

For me, I eat a little of both healthy and unhealthy foods. If I had to choose, I would probably go with unhealthy food first because it's more readily available to me and is cheaper, which is a serious consideration.
I enjoy fruits and vegetables, especially avocadoes, magoes, coconuts, and other tropical foods. I also breads and pastas, as well as bacon, chicken, and some pork. I don't care for red meat, and I don't know why.
With regards to unhealthy food, I prefer strong, bold flavors and that's what started me into the junk food rut.

I kind of agree with Aretoo regarding the advent of unhealthy food and it's new popularity. I also sort of think that people are too quick to blame their behaviors on their circumstances - it's not like it's impossible for both parents to work and provide healthy food for their kids (or single parents to do the same,) it just would really suck to do it all the time. So, laziness also contributes to the new attitudes toward junk food...  

[Alarias]

It may not be impossible to go to work full time, pick up the kids from day care, take care of any errands you have (paying bills, grocery shopping, etc.), and cook dinner everyday for your family when you're a single parent but, it's definitely not something easy to do. So, I don't know that I think it's fair to call it laziness to opt for some happy meals or tv dinners when you've got all that to deal with every day.
My mom had me and my two sisters to raise by herself with no real help from any family members. So, yeah...we grew up with Ramen, McDonalds, pizza, and microwave food.
We only ever eat together on special occasions like Thanksgiving and I prefer it that way. I hate eating with people. -_-
Also, in the south it's pretty common to have a lot of fried food. We fry everything...chicken, steak, turkey.
I like foods with lots of flavor/seasonings. I can't stand eating a bunch of low fat healthy foods. They almost all taste bland to me.  

[Rica is insane]

I enjoy both healthy foods and unhealthy foods...likely because I was raised on both. Since I lived within walking distance of my grandma's and my grandma's was within walking distance of at least two of my aunts, we often had someone cooking for us.

If my parents couldn't cook for us at home they'd send us to grandma's, if grandma was sick or something one of my Aunts would be cooking....
And my family is full of good cooks x3 <3

But there were still those times we got happy meals, hell one of my fondest memories of my grandfather was how he would take all of us to K-mart just to get chili cheese fries from the little food area. I know that stuff aint healthy but it's great. :3

 

[The Dinosaur Next Door]

My mom was in the same boat with me and is still there with my sister, Ala. I don't mean to make it sound like single parents are the slackers responsible for the health issues of today's children, because I don't feel that way at all. But at least my mother acknowledged to me that she didn't feel like cooking. "Do you guys really need spaghetti, or can we go buy pizza? Will that fix your Italian craving? biggrin "
Again, I wasn't trying to be inflammatory about it, because I have nothing but respect for the people who can rise above nature and play the role of both parents. I'm astounded by their dedication. But the fact is that if it's not impossible, the only excuse for not reaching it is laziness, in this arena. It doesn't have to be a bad thing.  

[Alarias]

Oh I wasn't offended or anything. I'm just not comfortable calling that laziness. When I think of laziness I think of...me. xp
I mean when you don't want to get off the couch to change a tv channel and your remote's batteries are dead...so, you just end up watching the same show that you hate....that's lazy.
Being tired from working all day and everything...that's just...normal.  

[The Dinosaur Next Door]

Sure sure. Rather than laziness, I should have said exhaustion or something. That I can agree with.
I just didn't want you to feel like I was minimizing the value of single parents by calling them lazy (which I never took to be a bad thing.)