The Secret Powers of Food - Assignment Example

The Secret Powers of Food Eating is one of the vital needs of every human being. However, it should not be underestimated. In modern life, due to the development of culture, food plays a number of other roles in people’s lives, except satisfying basic needs for growth, development and functioning of human’s organism. Food accompanies us throughout our entire life. There is a widespread theory that food can influence people’s life more than just a basic need of consuming necessary minerals and carbohydrates. Some specific food preferences may speak volumes about one’s personality or specific features of character. If we delve into the root of the issue, we will find out that food plays a huge role in people’s lives and its impacts on their outlooks and beliefs are impressing. To justify this, I have conveyed an interview. My interviewee is Mr. Wilson, the father of my neighbor, he is 47 years old. The man was glad to share his life experience and food story with me. I have come up with some interesting ideas, based on the information given by my interviewee and the book Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger by Nigel Slater. As a result, I strongly believe that food helps people to socialize, to show one’s affection, it evokes memories, shapes one’s lifestyle and attitude to culture. To begin with, food has become an integral part of social life. It may sound like nonsense, but food plays an enormous role in socialization between people. If we think about any occasion which implies gathering of people, we probably will not come up with any example that would not include food. Every celebration, holiday, date and even some official meetings always include some sort of ingestion – lunch, dinner or a pair of cocktails. Possible reasons of it may be that by means of food people interact nonverbally. It brings interlocutors together and helps them to relax and communicate freely. With the help of food a positive atmosphere is created which provides a beneficial outcome of any meeting. Furthermore, we may claim that food is a way of showing one’s love and care. It is through food that every mother shows her children how much she cares about them. I’ve interviewed my neighbor’s father, Mr. Wilson, and he told me what food meant to him and to his family. When he was a child, Mr. Wilson used to live in a city, but his weekends and summer holidays he spent at his granny’s, in the suburbs. There was a little farm there with plenty of fruit and vegetables and some domestic animals, such as chickens, gees and a few pigs. His grandmother always tried to show her affection to her beloved grandchild by means of food. As a result, Mr. Wilson always ate fresh greens and meats from their home garden. However, there were no cows at his granny’s farm, so all dairy products were bought from the local market from people they knew and trusted. This is how his granny cared for him, showing her love and the desire to satisfy the boy’s childish wish for yummy food. This was extremely important for Mr. Wilson, as a child. All kids consider food to be the way of communication. Little children perceive the world around through touches, smells and, most important, tastes. And if a child is surrounded with delicacies and positive food impressions, he or she will feel parents’ love and attention which is crucial for proper psychological development of every child. There is an explicit parallel between Mr. Wilson’s experience and Nigel Slater’s book in terms of using food to express love. In one of the chapters the author tells us how he cooked a smoked haddock for his father. It was not just the wish to satisfy the father’s hunger, it had a hidden subtext. The boy wanted to show his love and affection to his father, Nigel wanted to make something pleasant for him. And the most appropriate tool for that appeared to be food. Except simply nourishing the body, food performs a great role in constructing person’s outlooks and attitude to life. Everything we eat and everyone we share our food with may influence on how we perceive the world around. The brightest example of expressing one’s emotions, motives, feelings and moods through various tastes and smells is Nigel Slater, the author of the book Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. In his culinary autobiography Slater tells about a period of his life which covered his childhood and adolescence. His story does not focus on exact events, it tells the reader about mouthwatering fragrances Nigel felt and different meals he cooked and tasted. The reader finds out about dramatic life changes of the author only from the background of food descriptions. His life changes are not emphasized openly, only mentioned among other things. This book is magnificent evidence that a person can see the surrounding world not only through paints and shades, but also through tastes and smells. Another way in which food impacts people’s lives is evoking memories. Everyone of us has a special meal or a peculiar smell of food that brings about good or bad memories, priceless images of the past. For most people these are positive images which are connected to some family celebrations or major events, such as Christmas or a wedding day. This can be seen in Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. Nigel says that his Christmas memories smelled with “warm sweet fruit, a cake in the oven, woodsmoke, warm ironing, hot retriever curled up by the Aga, mince pies…” Just imagine this mixture of fragrances. It immediately makes you feel happy, calm and safe at home. I believe that for every single person there are specific tastes and smells that remind of Christmas and my interviewee is not an exception. As every child Mr. Wilson adored this holiday and all the hustle during the preparation to it. He likes the taste of home-made cookies that always reminds him of how they gathered altogether with his family at Christmas Eve. However, the “sweetest” memories for him are not connected with Christmas. The smell of overfried bacon is extremely precious for him. It was long ago, when Mr. Wilson met his future wife and they started dating. He still remembers the first breakfast she cooked him. “It didn’t a bit look like bacon and eggs, more like pieces of coal in fat. But I still think of that marvelous morning each time my wife cooks me breakfast. It’s been 17 years since then”. Another major role of food in life of every person is shaping the lifestyle. Our food preferences and eating habits may change our attitude to health and the world around. The choice of some specific food or drinks influences general behavior of a person. The vivid example of this is vegetarianism and veganism. The reason why most vegetarians and vegans refuse eating meat, fish and other products of animal nature, such as milk, cheese and eggs is not because they find that food unhealthy. They are mostly guided by moral and ethical motives. It is argued that animals are similar to people. They are alive and killing them for food is a crime against nature and ethics. However, there are exceptions. Some people may eat meat despite their ethical views. My interviewee, for instance, could not stand the look of raw meat. Mr. Wilson was a tender and vulnerable child and loved animals very much. This is the reason he could not help his granny cook any meal which included meat. However, he was not a vegetarian, he even enjoyed eating meat, especially granny’s meat pie. This is an unusual combination of morals and eating habits. There is also another way in which food affects people’ lives. I am talking about relationships. In this paper it was already mentioned that food is an essential part of socialization. But in terms of relationships, family relations in particular, food is a tool of building family hearth. If we think about a happy and harmonious family we will come up with the images of a family dinner, a beauty-housewife who prepares delicious meals, a thankful husband, praising his wife, and joyful children, excited about tasty food they are about to eat. This is how such a trifle like food unites the family and expresses care, solicitude and harmony. However, it does not always work. In the book by Nigel Staler, the author makes a confession that his mother “never was much of a cook”. She cooked meals only because it was her duty, “they simply had to be done”. The situation in my interviewee’s family is completely different. Preparing family dinners and serving the table has always been a pleasant experience. All in all, I can claim that food indeed plays an immense role in shaping people’s lives and personalities. Eating is not only the process of satisfying one’s hunger any more. It is a symbolic procedure that conveys various meanings. Food changes our lifestyle, influences our relationships and brings about memories of the past. All of us sometimes turn to food for comfort, to help us get over stresses and to control our emotions. The whole life story can be told only from food memories of a person. That is why we should pay more attention to food and discover its secret powers. Works Cited Slater, Nigel. Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. New York. Gotham Books, 2004. Print. Read More