Our parents initiate our first experiences with food, as they cook meals for us during our time at home. But their own parents also influenced how they ate when they were growing up. So on goes the cycle of influence and food ways. In the time of talking to both my mother and father, I was able to have insight into their eating habits. My mother shared with me her newfound (as of 20 years) awareness of food and its health benefits. She tries to learn a lot about the food she is eating, checks if it has too much sugar or salt. When at the supermarket, she looks for fresh food, not the packaged or frozen items. Instead of buying meat from the supermarket, she uses the butcher as her meat supplier, where she feels the meat is much fresher.
Having grown up in the suburbs in New Jersey, her family did not have all of the opportunities that New York City has to offer. Therefore she takes advantage of having access to much fresher foods and spends her money on them as opposed to lots of processed or modified food. Her own mother she stated was the typical housewife who bought the branded foods. In New Jersey the supermarket was simply where you would go. With all of the new advertising, her mother believed that by buying the most advertised food she would therefore be buying the healthiest and best quality. Her mother was a good cook who tried to make balanced meals, but she never thought about where the food came from. This is where my own mother chose to differ from her mother in eating habits, as my mother made more conscious choices about her food and where it came from. Her father on the other hand came from a very poor family, and they ate typically what they could afford. Therefore growing up she only saw unhealthy eating habits in her father, such as foods with a lot of starch and sugar. But in the terms of influence, he did not do any cooking, so she was mainly affected by her mother’s idea of food. My mother believes that the main reason that she and her mother differ is simply because my own mother has many more opportunities for fresh food in this new era. Living in NYC provides benefits for healthier eating habits.
My father on the other hand has a different approach to food. Like my mother he too does try to eat healthy enough, at least around the house. Living in NYC he does feel that he has the chance to eat much healthier foods, but also uses it as a way to go out to dinner much more. He sees eating as a sort of event, one where the candles are lit and everyone eats slowly. His father would do the same when he was growing up, and he adapted this attitude towards food. As a child my father had 5 other siblings, the oldest of which would eat all of the food. Therefore when he was younger my father would have to scarf down food before his brother did, making food a much more enjoyable and relaxing thing for him now. Living with my mother he does eat healthily and is all for that attitude, but when under time pressure he does not hesitate to grab a slice of pizza or buy processed food. During the day food is all about fitting into his schedule, while at night when he’s not working dinner becomes more of an event. He described his mother as a mediocre cook who really did not care enough about the food she was making to understand anything about it. With such a large family they were lucky if they had all the kids at one table. When this would happen the meal would usually revolve around chicken or hamburgers. He stated that his mother would basically cook to keep the children alive. On the other hand, my father said, “ I live so I can eat.” He loves food and its taste and therefore exercises a lot more so that he can eat as much as he does. My father now takes the time to enjoy his food and experiment with it, but does not forget the factor of health, no matter how much he finds joy in eating a bag of pretzels.
Growing up with two parents who were generally health food oriented, I ate many balanced meals. I’ve always been a particularly picky eater, where from this comes I’m not sure. I do find though that my eating habits are more similar to my father’s, in that I enjoy eating to a large extent. Possibly one of my favorite things as a kid was going out to dinner and making a big deal out of the meal. As I’ve gotten older I experiment more with my foods and am open to trying new things, probably as a result of my mother. Neither of my parents found much interest in fast food and therefore I too never really made a habit of going to those restaurants. My mother would never serve hamburgers when I was younger and as I result I did not even really recognize their existence. We once went to a small town diner and I ordered a hamburger “without that brown thing in the middle”. My parent’s food ways had a much larger impact on me though when I was younger. Now that I’m older I eat out a lot with friends and have the option of going out to lunch everyday. I therefore get to pick the meals that I eat and unlike my mother I do not always consider where they are coming from. I go for convenience like my father, or whatever I’m in the mood for that day. Their parents impacted their ideas about food much more heavily because of where they came from. Growing up in NYC as opposed to New Jersey creates these generational differences. From an earlier age I’ve been able to choose the food I eat more freely, therefore lessening the influence of my parents on me. Meanwhile their parents cooked most meals for them everyday, limiting what their children were able to eat. These generational differences may be subtle, but they all seem to depend on where one comes from, as in where they live, and their access to food.
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