Easy-To-Cook Food and Its Impact on Our Lives - Essay Example

Easy-to-Cook Food and its Impact on our Lives Introduction Family lifestyles today are different. Half a century ago, stay-at-home wives were expected to be consummate homemakers, bustling about the kitchen, baking bread, bottling fruit preserves, pickling vegetables, and so on. In some cultures it was not uncommon for the mother of the family to slow-cook a cauldron of beef over a wood fire for two days until the meat practically melts from the bones. All so wonderfully delicious – and taking forever to prepare.. This will not do for the family of the 21st century. At a time when women opt for a career, traditional roles are redefined and other members of the family are expected to share in the daily tasks – most especially, and including, cooking. Because of the need for greater efficiency without sacrificing quality in meal preparation, enterprising business has turned towards the processing and packaging of meals and food ingredients, and the development of kitchen appliances that speed up the cooking process. These products have come to be a permanent feature of modern living, which begs the question: do easy-to-prepare meals impact life positively or negatively? The position of this writer is that it does, and does so positively. The impact of easy-to-prepare meals Let us first describe what “easy-to-prepare meals” include – or rather, what they do not include. They do not include fast foods and junk foods, since these type of foods do not require any preparation at all on the part of the consumer, and often are not even considered nutrition. Empty calories are decidedly not under consideration when one speaks of easy-to-prepare meals, which essentially are meals that are nutritious and substantial as much as they are simple and quick. First and most apparent benefit that comes from quicker meal preparation is the savings in time and effort for the cook. Few families could afford the services of a permanent cook to prepare family meals, which means that usually it’s mom, dad, or an older sibling who does the cooking. Expectedly, family members have things to do and places to go, and it is not uncommon for both parents to hold jobs. The demographics gathered by government agencies show the unmistakable increasing trend in the number of women leaving home to work: "In 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force. Among women age 16 and over, the labor force participation rate was 33.9 percent in 1950, compared with 59.8 percent in 1998. 63.3 percent of women age 16 to 24 worked in 1998 versus 43.9 percent in 1950. 76.3 percent of women age 25 to 34 worked in 1998 versus 34.0 percent in 1950. 77.1 percent of women age 35 to 44 worked in 1998 versus 39.1 percent in 1950. 76.2 percent of women age 45 to 54 worked in 1998 versus 37.9 percent in 1950. 51.2 percent of women age 55 to 64 worked in 1998 versus 27 percent in 1950. 8.6 percent of women age 65+ worked in 1998 versus 9.7 percent in 1950. Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Changes in Womens Work Participation "As more women are added to the labor force, their share will approach that of men. In 2008, women will make up about 48 percent of the labor force and men 52 percent. In 1988, the respective shares were 45 and 55 percent." Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Womens Share of Labor Force (Heithfield, 2004) It is not hard to imagine that more and more, the task of preparing the morning and evening meals and the take-out lunches will fall on a family member who has to rush off to or from work or school. The convenience of easy-to-cook, tasty and healthful meals is thus not a small blessing. For not only are time and effort economized, but families realize financial savings in dining at home than eating out, which would have been the consequence had home-cooked meals with short preparation times not been available. Another advantage is that easy-to-cook meals prove to be a better choice, quality-wise, than comparable alternatives like eating out. The preconceived notion is that quick-cooking meals would prove bland and unwholesome. The truth is that surprisingly creative dishes have been concocted by culinary professionals, gastronomic delights that “take just five minutes to pan-fry” or “slow roast while you relax”. This is the tag line of Easy To Cook, one such business that produces quick-preparation meals such as: Pork sausages and lentil casserole with tomatoes, onions and red wine. Smoked haddock fillets with a rich cheese sauce and fresh spinach. Chicken Cordon Bleu, succulent British chicken breasts stuffed with prosciutto and Denhay Cheddar cheese. Duck meatballs with spiced mango sauce made with fresh coriander and smoked paprika That businesses would go to great lengths to create such gourmet dishes and market them as ready-to-cook products is not surprising, given the huge market that has sprung up demanding quick-to-prepare food. Wilkins (2005) estimates that today, there are about 30,000 food products available to consumers in supermarkets. The size and diversity of this industry is testament to the fact that quick-preparation meals have become institutionalized in modern-day society. Contrary to misconceptions, quick-to-prepare meals, rather than force a departure from established traditions, actually enhance family relations. Our modern lifestyle does not make it easy for the nuclear family to maintain the strong bonds its counterpart enjoyed fifty years ago. Gergen (1991) calls the emergent family form "the saturated family." The members of the modern family “feel their lives scattering in intensified busyness,” creating “family turmoil and a sense of fragmentation, chaos, and discontinuity.” (Gergen, 1991) . With all the pressures confronting the family, a deliberate effort should be made to create a time and space where the family can nurture and strengthen each other and the ties that bind them. The most natural venue for this would be the family meal at the end of the day. Memories of mum’s succulent fried chicken or dad’s special salad, shared amidst a lively discussion of the events of the day, could be so vivid and heartwarming as to sustain one during difficult times even in adulthood. Nowadays, while mum may not prepare her fried chicken from scratch, nor dad his salad, recourse to quick preparations does not diminish the care with which the meal was prepared. It merely allows them the flexibility to get it done within the shorter time available. Should we be concerned with the possibility that processed easy-to-cook food may not be safe? Not more than would be expected from the purchase of fresh, unprocessed, ingredients, and even much less than the risk of ailments from habitually eating fast foods. Institutions and agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, and concerned private groups such as Consumer Federation of America and Consumers International, act as national watchdogs whose objective is to protect the national health by ensuring safety standards of commercial food preparations are met. Their vigilance ensures for us that products we purchase bearing their seal of approval are germ-free and hygienically prepared. Strict regulations require that the nutritional contents of packaged and canned foods are explicitly printed on the labels or package, so consumers are properly informed of possible health implications. As to the alternative course – dining out in fast foods establishments and snacking on junk foods – such transparency in the nutritional contents is not made available to the consumer. High profile advertising and attractive packaging drown out information campaigns on the health risks posed by these alternatives. Research points to a disturbing trend in obesity levels worldwide that is directly linked to fast food and snack intake. Consider: Worldwide 400 million adults are obese and 1.6 billion are overweight. (WHO, 2006) Worldwide, 155 million children are overweight, including 30-45 million obese children. (Lobstein et al, 2004) Obesity levels have risen sharply across the globe. Even in those countries that have historically had lower rates of obesity, there is now evidence of increasing overweight. (International Obesity Task Force, 2005) In the Americas, the United States is by far the fattest country: 31% of adult males and 33% of adult females are obese. (International Obesity Task Force, 2007) The portions in fast food restaurants across the globe are between 2 to 5 times larger than 2 decades ago. (Ledikwe, 2005) In the US snacking contributes about one-fifth of total daily energy for adolescents and is excess calories. (Adaire, 2005) In the US consumption of chips/crackers/popcorn/pretzels tripled from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s and soft drinks intake doubled. (Sturm, 2005) It is undisputable that, if the trend continues, we will see unhealthy children maturing into unhealthy adults which will comprise the future of our society. This problem has to be addressed now. Conclusion It is clear that without the sensible, well-planned easy-to-cook meals currently available in the market, people on the go will have little choice but to turn to unhealthy substitutes to cope with the demands of a busy lifestyle. On the other hand, sumptuous meals, created by chefs with an eye toward nutritional content, produced in a standard, hygienic procedure and monitored by government regulatory agencies and consumer groups, is nothing short of a godsend for the contemporary, busy family to enjoy a pleasant family meal together. Easy-to-prepare meals have changed the way we live, in order to preserve what is truly valuable in life. References Adair, LS. and Popkin BM. Are child eating patterns being transformed globally? Obes Res. 2005;13:1281–1299. Easy To Cook as may be seen at http://www.waitrose.com/food/productranges/easytocook.aspx Gergen, K.J. 1991. "The Saturated Family." Networker, September/October, as seen in http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu13se/uu13se03.htm Heathfield, S. (2004), “Business Women in the Workplace”, Business Women in the Workplace, Kelly Young, About.com. International Obesity Task Force / European Association for the Study of Obesity.  EU Platform Briefing Paper. EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.  International Obesity Task Force, Brussels, 2005. International Obesity Task Force. Global Obesity Map. IOTF, London, 2007. Ledikwe JH, Ello-Martin JA, Rolls BJ. Portion sizes and the obesity epidemic. J Nutr. 2005;135(4):905-9. Lobstein, T, Baur, L, Uauy R. IASO International Obesity TaskForce. Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health  Obesity Reviews 2004; 5:4-104. Sturm R.Childhood obesity -- what we can learn from existing data on societal trends, part 2. Prev Chronic Dis. 2005;2(2):A20. Wilkins, J. (2005) “Seeing Beyond the Package: Teaching About the Food System Through Food Product Analysis,” Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, Volume 8, Number 1. World Health Organization.  Obesity and Overweight: Factsheet No 3011. Geneva 2006 World Heart Federation as seen in http://www.world-heart-federation.org/press/facts-figures/obesity/?0= Read More