Food and Eating - Research Paper Example

? Research Design and Analysis on Food and Eating Data Outline I. Introduction II. Descriptive Summary III. Grouping of the Data a) The Emergence of Fast Foods and Restaurants and the Decline of Classic Dining (analysis and interpretation of the data) b) Eating Problems: Obesity and Anorexia Nervosa (analysis and interpretation of the data) IV. Conclusion and Research Design for Follow Up Research INTRODUCTION Food, without a doubt, was one among the basic and indispensable needs of human beings in order to live. Foods of different sorts existed in our society because of many reasons which primarily was because of supplying people their needs of it. Unfortunately, regardless of the fact that food was an essential part to sustain our daily living, it could also offer people a wide array of negative outcomes. In this regard, this essay would dwell on examining the sociological understanding and relevance of food and eating in the society through the analysis of the given set of data. DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY The data which was utilised for this study were collections of newspapers and magazine clippings which had talked about foods in general. There were a total of eighteen (18) food and eating article clippings which had covered a wide – ranging issues. Each of the following clipping was distinct from the other. The first entitled ‘This Modern Life Minor Diners’ discussed how the pre – teens and teens had been so into dining out. According to the article, the occurrence of families eating together less and less often was because the young folks would want themselves to dine out in restaurants without the presence of their parents. Pizzas, strawberries and double – cream Frappucino, cinnamon chocolate cakes and others were usually looked forward by different youngsters depending on the differences on their ages. The second was on ‘Schools Put Chippy Out of Bounds to Fight Fat.’ It was an article that tackled how schools in Borough had made an effort to somehow prevent the obesity crisis through prohibiting students to leave the school’s vicinity during lunch breaks. In this case, pupils were left a much healthier option of foods available in the school canteen instead of the widely - offered fried chicken, chips and pizza in the different fast food outlets. The third which was labelled as ‘Seaweed Signals Lunch Box Snobbery’ discoursed about how competitive middle – class moms had been engaged in a challenge of what to pack inside their children’s lunch boxes. Taking into consideration the health and nutritional value of the food they were eating in school, aduki beans, arugula leaves and seaweed sachets should be included as advised to be their packed meals. However, foods of this sort had indicated that their lunch boxes would be rejected. The fourth was ‘Teach Cooking to Tackle Obesity, Jamie Tells MPs.’ Since most people in Britain did not know how to cook, in cases of economic downturn, they still had to depend on buying ready – to – eat foods in wide array of fast food outlets. For him, Britain was facing a health crisis because of parent’s lack of awareness to nourish their families with the right food everyone because preparing their own meals would guarantee the nutrition of their family. Instead of the high calorie, fattening, oily and unhealthy foods, cooking food for the family would assure the high in nutrition meals. Thus, it did not only make them save money from preparing meals but also would serve as preventive measures against obesity. The fifth was an article on ‘Tim Hayward Traces a Radical Shift that Has Transformed the British Attitude to What We Eat.’ According to the article, it was the television, as a mass media, which had urged the radical change of Britain from the healthy meals prepared by moms to the unhealthy meals available in lots of fast food outlets. The sixth clipping was on ‘Nigel’s Classic Hake with Green Sauce.’ Basically, it was a lecture on the recipe of how to do the said food. Unlike the prevalent ready – to – eat foods in UK, Nigel Slater showed his healthy recipe of a very simple fish dish cooked throughout Spain. The seventh was entitled ‘A Decade.’ It was an account from 2001 to 2011 on the remarkable food – related events such as a food and mouth disease outbreak in 2001; James Oliver set up a foundation to help train the youngster in restaurant business in 2002; household spending on foods and drinks had increased 52.4% in 12 years in 2004; an expected 33% increase of sales in the organic produce market in 2005; airing of Hugh’s Chicken Run in which the free – range poultry increased by 35% in 2008; James Oliver’s 30 – Minute Meals became the fastest non – fiction book in 2010; and the increase up to 4.5m visitors in Borough Market in London in 2011. The eight was ‘Cut Crazy Food Waste, Says Boris’ in which Boris Johnson requested to reduce food waste and save money since it was the case that the edible foods had been wasted being thrown away. The ninth was entitled “Death of the Dining Room” which claimed that the classic eating of eating together in the dining room had put to end. The culinary chores were just put into the pleasure of writing of recipes. There had also been a decline of servants so people had to prepare their own meals. The tenth was on ‘After Struggling for Four Years with the Eating Disorder, Jemima Owen, Now 20, Turned to the Internet for Help’ which had basically tacked about how a girl who suffered from anorexia nervosa was helped by the internet through blogging in her attempt to stop her eating disorder. The eleventh was on ‘Anorexia Facts’ that had stated that an approximation of 60,000 people in United Kingdom was suffering to anorexia nervosa. A total of seven (7) girls and one (8) boy out of 1000 were affected by this eating disorder. The twelfth was on how ‘To Make a Sandwich a Work of Art You Need the Perfect Canvas’ which had taught to make a healthy sandwich through special combination of nutritious seeds. The thirteenth was a clipping of ‘Cheap Eats for a Week’ which was a Monday to Friday healthy food menus of Singapore noodles, salmon fish cakes, vegetable pasta bake, mushroom omelette, and hearty fish pie, in which each were provided with recipes. The fourteenth was entitled ‘Costa Eyes Global Growth as Coffee Defies Austerity Age.’ On the whole, it talked about how the premium – priced espresso chain, Costa Coffee, had been growing its revenues despite the era of austerity. It had even grown larger than the branches of McDonalds in UK. The fifteenth was on the restaurant news, the most - talked about openings in London. These included Pall Mall which was famous for its gentlemen’s club, Cuisine de Bar by Pollane which was well – known for its bread of heaven, King’s Cross and The Office Bar and Restaurant known for its classic menu. The sixteenth was a photo clipping of Elizabeth King Delica Tessen. The seventeenth was on ‘Soul Food’ by Nobu Matsuhisa where he had said that he learned to cook with the heart through his mother who had used to prepare him food very different from the western breakfast. The last was an untitled clip on Colin Lighten, Frances Soar, Steve Rogers, and Wing Yip’s accounts. All were talking about their particular experiences of foods. GROUPING OF THE DATA Going through the particularity of the set of data had enabled me to come up with the following themes such as obesity, fast foods and restaurants, anorexia nervosa, globalisation, unhealthy foods and healthy foods. Further analysis and grouping of themes had facilitated me to categorise them into two (2) groups: (a) the emergence of fast foods and restaurants and the decline of the classic dining, and (b) the eating problems: obesity and anorexia nervosa. The Emergence of Fast Foods and Restaurants and the Decline of Classic Dining The first category, the emergence of fast foods and restaurants and the decline of the classic dining, was developed because it could be observed from the data how people in United Kingdom had become so dependent on them. Not only that, it was the case that different fast food outlets and restaurants like McDonalds, Costa Coffee, Starbucks and others had branched out increasingly. With this prevalence of fast food outlets and restaurants, the traditional family dining together at home had declined. As defined by Pereira, et al, fast foods were regarded as foods which were convenient, quickly – served with minimal waiting time, energy dense that were high in simple sugars and salt, bigger in size than the usual serving size of home – cooked or restaurant foods, but were low in micronutrients and fibre (36 – 42). The number of fast food chains had proliferated dramatically ever since the early 1970s and had even turned out to play a huge part in people’s eating habit (French et al. 1353 – 1359). The same trend was observed in United States. According to National Restaurant Association, three (3) out of ten (10) consumers agreed that the foods available in a fast food or restaurant were elemental in their daily living. Our data even showed how fast foods had become very popular especially among the youngster in United Kingdom. This pattern was also true in United States for according to Lin et al., on the average, adolescents used to visit a fast - food outlet twice per week (2 -10). Meanwhile, in French, Story, Neumark - Sztaine, Fulkerson, and Hannan’s study (1823 -1833), their survey among a total of 4,746 students of 11 to 18 years old had found out that about 75% ate at a fast – food outlet just a week before the interview. However, the emergence of fast food outlets and restaurants could be explained largely by globalisation and capitalism. There were different fast food outlets and restaurants which had originated from different parts of the globe with the aim of making profit and accumulate more wealth. McGrew had defined globalisation as the increasingly interconnectedness of culture, people and economic activity around the globe in which the developments in one region could result to affecting the some aspects of the community in the other region of the globe (345-364). Globalisation had a very big role in the food processing and the fast food industry. It allowed the radical change in the marketing of food as well as the distribution system. It had resulted to the development of internationalisation of distribution systems of food. As an effect, there was an increase on the patterns of food consumption. Moreover, this global change had resulted to this urbanisation. According to Schmidhuber and Shetty, urbanisation had led to more people dining in fast food outlets or restaurants instead of eating at home (5 – 6). With globalisation, it had reshaped our society since it had reduced the barriers to trade and investment. Globalisation had driven the food industries to be more competent and for them to gain more and more consumers. With this, it was shaping and transforming the society. Moreover, the emergence of fast foods and restaurants could be explained further with the food industry’s aim of making more and more profit. Capitalism, as defined by Torney, was an economic system which had included the creation of goods and services in order to make profit or income (10). It was the case that even if UK was experiencing recession, according to International Markets Bureau, the fast food industries were still successful of increasing a 2% value terms in 2009. From this it could be suggested that even in times of economic recession, people would just rely on fast food outlets for food. It could also be suggested that the given increase of people relying on fast food outlets for their foods had meant a decline of classic dining at home. On the one hand, because food industries were working under an objective of accumulating more and more profit, they really did not care what nutrition they could serve its consumers. What mattered most was that they could gain profit from its customers. Eating Problems: Obesity and Anorexia Nervosa On the one hand, the second category was developed because both obesity and anorexia nervosa were eating problems which were distinct from each other. Even though these two were much different from each other, both could affect the society. These two issues were health concerns that should be given attention. It did not just emerged instantly but had something bigger to cause it. Indeed, it was the people who had greatly depended on fast food outlets for foods were the ones mostly suffering from obesity issues. The blame of these obesity concerns should not be put greatly on the fast foods alone. People should also be responsible for their high dependency on the food industries driven by the capitalist system whose aim was just to make profit from the consumers. These fast food outlets did not take into consideration the nutritional value of the foods we, people, used to buy from them. This was because their objective was just to make more money from people. On the one hand, many had criticized the fast food industries. One among them was Spurlock in his documentary film entitled “Super Size Me” in 2004. This video had just gone to show that fast food industries made foods which were not really healthy. Consumers could be vulnerable in purchasing them for the reason that these foods were just cheap, quickly – served, big – sized and high calorie density for an individual in which these food items had gone beyond their average recommended dietary intakes (Prentice and Jebb187 - 194). Thus, consuming fast food meals at a certain amount would cause people to gain weight. In 2004, Ebbeling et al. (2828 - 2833) did a study entitled “Compensation for Energy Intake from Last Fast Food among Overweight and Lean Adolescents.” In their comparison of the caloric intakes of those with “unlimited fast food days” and “no fast food days,” they figured out that the obese teens had accumulated higher calorie intakes during their fast food days than the days when they were not eating on fast foods. On the one hand, Philipson and Posner had made a literature on obesity in 2008. It was the case that the economic literatures on obesity were highly considering the increase of caloric consumption as a leading cause of obesity. Moreover, this trend was observed to be stable with the given growth on availability of fast foods. Cutler et al supported this view as they found out that obesity was more associated with the increase of calorie intake rather than the decrease of energy expenditure (93 - 118). To sum up, indeed, there was an observed strong evidence of relationships between consumption of fast food and obesity. Given that foods available in fast food outlets were high in calorie (French et al. 1353 – 1359), that could explain why eating in the said food outlets had contributed to the growing number of obese people in United Kingdom. Again, taking into consideration how capitalism as a system had influenced the society, these fast food industries were not up to providing its consumers a healthy meal but a meal that would put them on an advantageous stand of making profit. With the high dependency of people in fast foods had marked the decline of the classic dining at home. It was seen in a stance of why cook when you could purchase foods that were quick to serve and cheap. Of course, globalisation still played an important factor on the decline of the healthy foods because fast food outlets had flourished and were supported by its consumers. Thus, fast food industries had facilitated in making people suffer from obesity issues. On the one hand, the other eating problem, anorexia nervosa, as claimed by the American Psychiatric Association, was characterised by the intense and obsessive anxiety of gaining weight as well as being overweight even if they were underweight. This could be explained by Puhl and Heuer because according to them, obese people were highly stigmatised in the society in which the mass media had served as a special convincing illustration of how the social stigma put on obese people (941 – 964). It was the case that people who were overweight and obese were often than not, laughed at and stereotyped in various shows in televisions as well as in movies (Fouts and Burggra 473 – 481). Thus, with their fear of being stigmatised and stereotyped because of being fat, overweight or obese, anorexia nervosa as a psychiatric disorder could be a possible result. According to Lozano, anorexia nervosa had higher probability of occurring in populations where obesity was much more widespread (933 – 940). According to Polivy and Herman, anorexia nervosa as an eating disorder was correlated with poor body image, self – concept as well as self – esteem (187 – 213). CONCLUSION AND RESEARCH DESIGN FOR FOLLOW UP RESEARCH Taking a broad view, based on the examination and analysis of the given set of data which were a collection of newspaper and magazine clippings on food and eating, it could be said that the particularity of obesity, proliferation of fast foods, unhealthy foods, healthy foods, death of the classic dining, and anorexia nervosa, could be all explained with their relationship to each other by looking it at a larger stance through a sociological point of view. Indeed, it was the case that the fast food outlets had become very widespread in United Kingdom which could be explained by the concept of globalisation. Thus, with the given global changes, society had emerged to more urban one. With the high increase of number of fast food outlets which had provided foods that were cheap, with minimal waiting time and would be served quickly, high in calorie, high in salt and sugar, but were low in nutrients, as well as the great number of people who were consuming the foods offered by these fast foods, indeed, the traditional dining at home was put to a decline. The healthy and full of nutrient foods that could be prepared at home were no longer prevalent nowadays. Given this situation, the United Kingdom society had been suffering from eating issues which one among them was obesity. Since most people had greatly relied for their food needs on these fast food outlets, they were consuming foods which were high in calorie. Continuous food intake of this sort would result to making people overweight or even obese. Moreover, obesity was not without any issues. In fact, obese people were stigmatised and stereotyped in our society which was obvious in different media such as television and movies. It was also the case that anorexia nervosa, a psychological eating disorder, was also associated in places where there was high prevalence of obesity. Since the society was seeing obesity as a violation of the norms, it was now stigmatised. In this regard, the stigma and stereotype that were attached with obesity could somehow explain those who had excessively feared gaining weight. However, there was a need to further investigate the relationship between obesity and anorexia nervosa in order to further explain their sociological relevance. Despite the associations that anorexics were much more present in areas where there were more obese people, there were not much sociological explanation that had accounted to this observed relationship. On the overall, for me, it was the case that I had greatly considered the growing need to dwell on the health issue of anorexia nervosa in relationship to obesity and its impact to the society more. The growing number of people suffering in this psychiatric eating disorder most especially in the Western population must be given more attention. Its effects were serious that could not just affect the individual alone but the society as a whole. Since the data that was utilised for this analysis was based through the available clippings of food and eating, there was still a growing need to focus and explain anorexia nervosa through a sociological stand point. Given the sensitivity of the issue and that the data showed that only one (1) in 600 anorexics felt free to discuss their eating disorder to their parents, I would propose a follow up study using a qualitative methodology. This follow up interview will attempt to understand how anorexics view obesity and how they see themselves. Also, this qualitative study will also try to understand how society can deal with anorexia nervosa. Through using a qualitative approach, it would allow me to provide the needs of the research for rich information on the issue. According to Lincoln, qualitative research was generally referred to the collection and interpretation of material in which the objective was to uncover meaning and to understand the experience (275 – 289). This approach would allow me to interpret, understand and explain the phenomenon in its relationship to the society. Using this qualitative paradigm would allow us to gain rich information that could account for this social phenomenon. Since according to the literature reviews, adolescent females were the most often sufferers of anorexia nervosa, I would like to interview at least four (4) and at most ten (10) anorexics. Though according to the data, only eight (8) out of 1000 were affected by this eating disorder. The help of the doctors will be considered in searching for and recruiting the anorexics. Since adolescents will be interviewed, those who are below eighteen (18) years old will be asked permission to be interviewed as well as their parents’ consent. Only those who will agree to be respondents will be interviewed. All responses as well as their identities will be held confidential. Given that qualitative research is limited in making generalisation but can only yield indications, this proposal would be further backed up by quantitative research. According to Cohen (36), quantitative research was a research which used empirical methods and statements which were expressed in numerical terms. The second phase research, a quantitative research, will aim to look on how the society sees those who suffer anorexia nervosa. Through the quantitative approach, a structured questionnaire will be used. However, there will be a few items that will require an open – ended answer in order to further explain themselves. Since adolescents are the ones suffering most from this eating disorder, I would like to interview adolescent girls from 12 – 18 years old from one private school in United Kingdom. Not all the adolescent girls will be interviewed but only a representative sample of the universe. The age and the grade or year level quota will be set in order to ensure that the sample will be representative of the population of adolescent girls in the said school. Furthermore, this two – phased research methodological scheme would enable me look at anorexia nervosa as a social phenomenon. It was not only the case that I could possibly know through the adolescents suffering from the eating disorder how they see themselves and how they view obesity but could also allow me to look at anorexia nervosa through the perspectives of the others who are not suffering from the said disorder. 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