Chili Spaghetti and Social Habits and Cultural Practices - Essay Example

Chili Spaghetti and Social Habits and Cultural Practices Life has been changing at an alarming rate. Not a singlesphere of life has not gone through the changes witnessed, be it culture, socialization, economics, and people’s lifestyles. There is an interrelationship between cultures, social, economic and lifestyle aspects of people’s lives. Changes in economic statuses of people, essentially denoted by increased income levels changes people’s culture, their social statuses and lifestyles. The affluent class has different cultural and behavioral practices with the poor or low-income earners. Eating habits are part of the differentiating elements of these groups of people. Pictured is Chili Spaghetti that is dominant food among the affluent in the society (Levine 2667). Chili Spaghetti represents a highly processed food, characterized by high sugar content, low roughages, weak nutrition, and high fat content. This fast food is prominent among the wealthiest people who have little time for eating. The wealthy prefer Chili Spaghetti because they have less time for the kitchen, preparing decent and nutritious meals. As such, they eat Chili Spaghetti and other fast foods, a culture now catching up with most of the Americans. As people become increasingly busy, they have adopted new cultures, particularly in their eating habits. Further, the evolution of the American culture highly value Chili Spaghetti, snacks, and other fast foods (Levine 2667). This has thus an increase in consumption of highly processed foods. Fries, Chili Spaghetti, and an assortment of other meals served in fast food joints feature in the American diets. The increased consumption of Chili Spaghetti defines the shift in the American eating habits, to a culture embracing such meals, oblivious of their negative impact in their bodies (Popkin, et al. 6). Social Habits and Cultural Practices Produced By Chili Spaghetti People’s eating habits defines a lot about their culture and social practices. People who take time to prepare decent meals have a culture of healthy eating. Additionally, they embrace highly social life with high levels of exercise. On the other hand, people who eat fast food like Chili Spaghetti have a culture of poor eating habits and are less social, mostly regarded as lazy (Popkin, et al. 6). While these assumptions could be untrue, mostly, they are an expression of the reality. Socially, people who eat meals such Chili Spaghetti fall into a particular social class, the affluent, and the high middle-income earners. The affluent and the high middle-income earners are most likely the group to engage in such eating habits owing to the social nature of their lives. Affordability is one of the biggest contributing factors to this trend. The rich can afford to eat Chili Spaghetti as well as buy processed foods (Popkin, et al. 15). The poor on the other hand cannot afford these meals every day, particularly because Chili Spaghetti in a decent restaurant retails at quite a high price. As such, the poor and low middle-income earners will opt to eat from their homes. Moreover, the busiest class of Americans associates with Chili Spaghetti. Culturally, extremely conservative people in the society are not likely to eat Chili Spaghetti. Not every culture allows its followers to consume Chili Spaghetti or any other fast food prepared in a fast food joint. Even when this is possible, some cultures prohibit some kinds of foods such as the Chili Spaghetti. In fact, some cultures will not eat Chili Spaghetti because they do not know the particular manner of preparing it. They cannot trust Chili Spaghetti because they do not know the cook and they doubt whether the meal understands their culture. For example, some Indian cultures detest consumption of Chili Spaghetti because it contains meat that has a religious connection. Others like the Arabs believe that mealtime is an extremely important part of a person’s life and family and hence they cannot consume Chili Spaghetti because it denies them such precious time. These people thus eat together, mostly as a group. It is most unlikely that they will eat Chili Spaghetti. However, a typical American does not have cultural affirmations that seek to regulate the kind of food they eat, or even when to eat. In fact, the American culture in general does not consider the person who prepares a meal. As such, Chili Spaghetti is thus popular with native and typical Americans. Political and Economic Context of Chili Spaghetti Only people who have the money to spend can afford Chili Spaghetti from Cincinnati and the McDonalds. Subsequently, favorable economic conditions within the country promote such eating behaviors among the people. Compared to the less developed countries, Americans have a high likelihood of eating Chili Spaghetti. Factors contributing to these not only focus on the income levels of these people, but also the level of technology in the country. Less developed countries have less technology for processing foods like Chili Spaghetti. Even if they could afford this technology, the low-income levels do not allow people buy readymade meals as Chili Spaghetti on a regular basis argues Prentice (2006). Furthermore, these countries’ agricultural technological knowhow does not match with that of America, thus saving them high levels of chemicals through GMOs (Prentice, 2006). Although there are increased risks of people in these countries becoming obese due to changing eating habits, these rates do not compare with those of Americans who consume Chili Spaghetti. Not all parts of America however suffer from this problem. Cities, urban areas, and high-end areas are the worst affected regions, with diet related sicknesses being on the rise in these places (Levine, 2011). On the other hand, people in rural America get fresh produce from the fields, thus having healthier meals than those in the urban areas. Wealthy Americans face a bigger danger of poor eating habits as they have more money to spend on junk food like the one Chili Spaghetti compared to the low and middle class Americans (Pereira, et al., 2005). Increasingly, more people after realizing the damage poor eating habits have on the American population have started food revolution campaigns, if the works of Oliver (2010) are anything to go by. Politics, especially on people’s living conditions feature more often than not. The government holds the role of protecting its people from issues such as hunger and poverty. However, during poor economic conditions as was witnessed during the great Depression and the recent economic slowdown of the 1980s, the government received criticism from the public for failing to offer its people proper living conditions. It took the intervention of President Roosevelt through the new deal for America to save masses from hunger and starvation (Policar 23). Affordability of food commodities takes considerable amount of time in political debates. A slight increment in consumer prices, mostly staple food commodities, gas, and electricity spark chaos from the political divide (Piurko, et al 540). Whether politically engineered or not, more so through changes in taxation, or changes in levels of inflation cause for mass action from human right groups and consumer federations protecting the rights of the country’s citizens. Chili Spaghetti and Human Behavior and Preferences Different factors affect human behavior as demonstrated by Chili Spaghetti. People’s level of income and social class influences their behavior and preferences with reference to food. While most of the people will prefer to eat from home, others even carry meals to work because of their compromised income levels, the rich will eat Chili Spaghetti from the restaurants, whether they have families or not. Additionally, advertisements influence human behavior. The Chili Spaghetti advert manifests a nicely looking meal, prepared from fries, spaghetti, and minced meat. This creates the perception that Chili Spaghetti is a healthy meal, while in reality it is not. Such catchy advertisements create desire among people to taste the Chili Spaghetti. The result of this is a change of behavior from healthy feeders to unhealthy feeders. Moreover, the bandwagon effect also influences consumers’ behavior. People do not live in isolation and will belong to a certain social grouping. If this group was eating Chili Spaghetti, to embrace such eating habits, then an individual, whether principled or not, to gain membership into that cadre of people has to adjust his behavior to conform to the group’s practices. Architectural Component of the Chili Spaghetti ad Advertisers know that the creativity with which they develop an advert determines the how much it will capture the needs and desire of the people. Effective advertisements have a high visual appeal that the company hopes to communicate to the customers. The appealing nature of Chili Spaghetti ad offered by Cincinnati has a great appeal to the people. Visually, the colors portray a typical meal made of spaghetti, fries, and minced meat. When the Chili Spaghetti ad gets into the mind of a consumer, the effect it has is overwhelming. People want to have a taste of the Chili Spaghetti, whether they consider it healthy or not. The words describing the meal, “precooked” and “microwavable” describe the growing American culture of buying readymade food that reduces their efforts in preparing. One only needs to microwave the Chili Spaghetti and they are having a ready meal. Works Cited Johnston, Josee, Michelle Szabo, and Alexandra Rodney. "Good food, good people: Understanding the cultural repertoire of ethical eating." Journal of Consumer Culture 11.3 (2011): 293-318. Levine, James A. "Poverty and Obesity in the US." Diabetes 60.11 (2011): 2667-2668. Piurko, Yuval, Shalom H. Schwartz, and Eldad Davidov. "Basic Personal Values and the Meaning of Left‐Right Political Orientations in 20 Countries." Political Psychology 32.4 (2011): 537-561. Policar, Helen Joy. "The Shadow Of The American Dream: The Clash Of Class Ascension And Shame." Revision 31.1 (2010): 19-31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 May 2014. Popkin, Barry M, Linda S Adair, and Shu Wen Ng. "Global Nutrition Transition And The Pandemic Of Obesity In Developing Countries." Nutrition Reviews 70.1 (2012): 3-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 May 2014. Appendix Picture Read More