Food is a fundamental aspect of any particular culture and transitions arising in food culture could show alterations in a society’s cultural environment. This study’s main purpose is to comprehend and understand foods and pop-culture and the behavior of American consumers concerning the ethnic food and sub-continental foodstuffs in the American food market. The study majorly focused on descriptive design to come up with answers for the questions. Survey on interviews and government data was used, where two interviews were used and two government sources as well. In the course of the study it was observed that American food culture has transformed over time in a period of two decades. The study’s conclusive remarks indicates a positive trend in the suitability and opinions of American people regarding sub-continental foods. Nevertheless, it is a complex occurrence to comprehend food culture and the changes that occur as a result of pop-culture. Due to the selected sample, limitations and study design of the study could be influenced.
Key words: Food Culture, Sub-continent, Ethnic Food
Introduction.
Globalization in the recent years has greatly affected lives in every way possible due to the advancement in communication modes which has changed how people interact with one another and the quick transportation has made travelling common. Just like transportation and communication food markets are also not excluded from globalization effects. This is brought about by increased trade among countries and local foods being introduced in the global market. Diversification of flavors, and traditional foods gaining popularity across boarders leads to rapid growth of the food industry. There are different uses of food in depending on the culture, discomfort may come up if a particular person is not familiar with specific food. According to Kittler et al 2016, foods are related to different groups of people living in a specific culture and it symbolizes status in a society.
Restaurants of diverse ethnicity are rapidly growing in the United States of America especially in cities like China town and Seattle. According to Lavik " Bugge (p.24) at least eighty seven percent of Americans eat one meal from home every thirty two days. This proves that American citizens are promoting cuisines from other cultures and also opting and advocating for modern foods and fast foods. Increase in restaurants that characteristically present food with modernized spices indicate that the acceptability of innovative and new tastes. Pop culture has played a big role in the food industry through influencing the number of fast food restaurants and “McDonaldization” in the current regime.
Research Question.
Basing on the adverse advantages and disadvantages of food to pop culture, this study leads up to the following research questions; what is the influence of food to pop culture? The research also attempts to answer the question: what are the perceptions of individuals and the influence of pop-culture to foods?
Literature Review.
The literature review targets at determining the evolution and of foods and how pop-culture has influenced this evolution and the food the food industry at large. Pop-culture has influenced the food industry such as in terms of creativity in preparing, taste and packaging. People’s food choices are greatly associated with the individual’s ethnicity or cultural identity. According to (Fatima, et al 28), ethnic foods often represent the variety of tastes and cultures and these foods are focused in relation to the cultures. Due to literature shortage about related topics, no consistent figures about American food market was found but the findings presents a distinct comparison of cuisines in the American market.
Introduction
The purpose behind the study is to examine how pop culture has influenced food industry in America and how food has influenced pop culture and human beings in general. The research aimed at understanding whether current eating trends and type of foods eaten currently has any influence to human health and the benefit of eating such foods. Interview samples concerning the topic of study was used to gather information. Food culture and comparison of cuisines in terms of popularity is also discussed.
Current Trends
An increasing trend in America toward consumerism has been evolving in the recent years which reflect that many people eat away from home. With the increase in use of herbal supplements, specific foods for specific groups of people such as athletes, children or women, and the convenience use of functional foods, many citizens in the United States and other developed countries tend to consider low-fat, low calorie and simple natural foodstuffs. Fast food industry in America worth’s approximately 198.9 billion dollars the figure is further expected to rise to close to 223 billion. Majority of this extensive market is includes drive-thurs and on premises restaurants. Globally, “Americanization” of food and diet has been embraced through the rapid growth of fast food restaurants as well as convenience foods. This diverse growth has been greatly influenced by popular culture not just in the United States but also most of the developed countries across the globe. However, in developing countries the need for basic foods is high and the various governments are working with the food industry to cub food security.
Representation of burger and fries (fast foods) in the American food industry.
Obesity and Malnutrition
Classification of whether an individual is obese, underweight or overweight is determined by BMI (body mass index) which measures an individual’s body fat in relation to their weight and height. An individual is considered obese if his/her body mass index is more than 30. Increasing rate of obesity is recorded in the United States and is currently regarded as a national epidemic in most of the developed countries even though concerns are currently raised that concern cause stigmatization on obese individuals.
According to an interview on preventing childhood obesity, Dr. Lattimore explains that approximately 16-21% of children and even adults are considered obese. Current foods and pop-culture are the main reasons of obesity. According to Lattimore (p. 36) a bottle of, 200z, contains 250 calories with no nutritional value, every day an individual consuming 200z of soda must expend as much calories as they take in in a single day. To avoid obesity children adults must be physically active every day when they consume sodas and other foods with too much calories and fats. In the current era, children consume less milk which is rich in proteins, nutrients and has minimal fat but instead ought to take fast foods and convenience foods and end up in the risk of being obese. In spite of the rising rate of obesity in most developed nations, malnutrition and self-imposed starvation are a common problem both in developed countries and developing countries.
Dinning Out
In the course of the twentieth century, money spent on food that is eaten away from home and the number of restaurants internationally has been increasing steadily. Many people today opt to dine at fast-food restaurants, cafes or even prefer to buy food from certified street vendors. Restaurants of diverse ethnic origins such as, Chinese and Japanese, are slowly cropping up across the United States providing citizens with variety of new foods to taste and try out. The increased popularity of fast food in the United States is commonly known as “McDonaldization”. According to Ohio Medical Group (p. 42) 50 million Americans are served every day in fast food eateries with over 56 gallons of carbonated drinks every year. The also states that seventy five hamburgers are sold every seventy five seconds at over 35 000 locations of McDonalds. These statistics prove that over three quarter of America’s population prefer dinning out rather than eating home prepared meals.
Dinning out has reduced slightly within heavy users in ages of between 18 years to 35 years but the increase is still on the other age groups. Internationally, preference for speedy and portable meals has greatly popularized dinning out is steadily gaining popularity with increasing number of restaurants and eateries many countries. This popular culture among people has led to many eateries to offer large sizes for nominal extra fee. However, dinning out and buying foods from fast food vendors and eateries has been linked to the rapid rise of obesity in United States of America.
Functional Food
Functional food is considered to be the whole of the enriched food that has the capability to provide health benefits that is beyond the endowment of the nutrients that are needed by the body when they consumed as part of diet. The functional food industry in United States of America comprising the food and beverage sector, is one of the food industry that is experiencing gradual growth in the current years. Functional food market has gradually increased from 176.7 billion with the compound annual growth rate of 7.4% in the year 2013. In specific the functional food sector is experiencing a 6.9% compound annual growth in United States of America. The functional food beverage is experiencing the fastest growth in the industry with a 10.8% compound annual growth rate. The growth of this functional food is propelled not only by the innovations on the food industry to develop new products to meet the demands of their consumers but also the health advantage associated with consuming the functional food. Functional food in most cases have been labelled to have the potential to reduce the risks of developing conditions or diseases , for instance the Oat Cereals manufactures claims that oat bran has the ability to reduce cholesterols that has the ability of reducing the cholesterols which will play a major role in preventing serious heart conditions.
YEAR
SALES IN BILLIONS
2015
180.6
2016
183.4
2017
187.9
2018
189.2
Table 1: sales of functional food in the United States of America from the year 2015-2018
Dieting
About half of the United States population try to either maintain their weight or reduce weight every year even though two thirds of the population are overweight. In an attempt to reduce weight general public end up buying weight loss pills, herbal supplements and drinks that help cut weight. Individuals also join health clubs and exercise tools in an attempt to reduce weight and improve their health. Bad eating habits and consuming foods containing too much calories and fats influenced by pop-culture leads to overweight and in order to reduce this overweight individuals relent to dieting to reduce weight. According to government statistics an estimated 47 million Americans try to lose weight every year and most of Americans spent close to 33 billion US dollars to purchase weight loss products. According to Yager (2010) the common kinds of diets that most individuals use is food focused and supplements that are based on diet. Drink focused diet such as banana diet or grapefruit diet emphasize consumption for just, or less foods. Some diets include commercial food or beverage that has to be purchased.
Convenience foods
Convenience foods are foods that do not take too much time to prepare and therefore they only need to be heated. The foods are mostly not healthy compared to foods that are cooked with basic ingredients. These foods are sold in portion-controlled that packed in single packaging to facilitate good portability. Currently, convenience foods are greatly influenced by pop-culture and conditions such as urgency, fatigue and insufficient time that influenced humans to rely on convenience foods. Despite the effects of convenience foods to human health, it also has benefits as well. In 2018 revenue accumulated from convenience foods amounted to 67,998 billion US dollars with the industry expected to expand annually by 3.8% (CAGR 14).
Ethnic Foods
Most Americans today eat foods that originates in other cultures but not American. Most foods eaten today did not originate in the United States but they have been modified to match the taste of the population. In the recent years there has been an increased integration of ethnic cuisines in the American food industry with foods from ethnic communities in countries such as Asia, India, Japan, and Vietnam among others. Statistics show that Americans are willing to pay more money to eat ethnic foods in the recent years.
Type of restaurant
Price rank in 1986
Price rank in 2014
French
1
1
Japanese
6
2
American
5
3
Continental
3
4
Italian
2
5
Spanish
7
6
Greek
12
7
Korean
13
8
Indian
8
9
Mexican
9
10
Southern
4
11
Chinese
11
12
Vietnamese
10
13
Thai
14
14
Table 2: Awareness and pay of foods in the United States Cuisines
As noted in the findings and survey concerns toward pop culture and food grows steadily and calls for discussion of how pop culture and food influence each other both negatively and positively. Data from government related articles provide interesting insights to the study. Changes in the American food industry are clearly brought out when considering the change of food from eating American food to trying out diverse foods from other countries and ethnic communities. considering the interview conducted by Warber, Lattimore explains that current foods in the society lead to higher risk of obesity particularly to the young children who eat too much of the food which contain large amounts of calories and don’t exercise therefore end up being obese a negative effect of foods of the current American regime.
According to the interview on the level of popularity of ethnic foods, unique flavors and inclusion of other spices create a unique selling point of such foods. To answer the question on of awareness of culture, manager from American restaurant explained that Americans make the largest group of people to diversify on foods, many American work hard to bring in cultural favors to the American society. In considering the interviews, the key viewpoints about ethnic restaurants has confirmed that there is a similarity in connection to the literature. The data on food and pop culture roves that fast foods, convenience foods and eating away from home lead to unhealthy eating and end up causing health problems to the consumers such America’s biggest health problem: obesity.
Conclusion
Food is an important necessity to humans and can be placed even before shelter and clothing. Food also considered as a symbol of cultural identity, health, social status and hospitality. Cultural shifts and pop culture are slowly rising and gaining prominence with the increase in global age. Human beings in general are currently feeling the positive and negative influences of pop culture and its relation to the food industry and vice versa, but the influences are particularly felt in developed countries United States of America being inclusive. In this study perception and behavior of American consumers towards the food industry is elaborated, and brings out the fact that food culture and food sub continental of food is changing over time. A number of reasons could result to such changes such as the urge of people to taste new foods, travelling, immigrants who may introduce ethnic meals to the citizens of a particular country, cultural contacts or widespread outreach of products among other factors. The results of this study do encourage and give appropriate ways and insights to research further in the case of pop culture and food.
Suggestion for Future Research
From the research study, it is evident that the food industry and pop culture are facing interrelated challenges. If forthcoming researches could possibly focus on the challenges affecting the two aspects and attempt to offer enhanced recommendations with the main objective of improving the food industry sector and popular culture. This would enable healthier eating regardless of existing pop culture.
Works Cited
Bugge, A. B., " Lavik, R. Eating Out. Food, Culture " Society. (2010).
Fatimah. U. Z, H. C. Murali, " Slleh, R. Foodservice Hygiene Factors: International Journal of Hospitality Management. 2015
John C Crotts. Global alliances in tourism and hospitality management 2012
Moore, Victoria L. "Effects of Obesity in Elementary School Children after No Child Left Behind (NCLB)." (2016).
Yager, Susan. The Hundred Year Diet: America's Voracious Appetite for Losing Weight. Rodale, 2010.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Advancing health equity for Native American youth: workshop summary. National Academies Press, 2016.
Heidelberger, Lindsay. Qualitative analysis of diet, physical activity, and body image of children using focus groups and Photovoice and quantitative analysis of dietitians' perspectives on integrating sustainable agriculture into professional practice using survey methodology. Diss. University of Minnesota, 2016.
Schultz, Duane, and Sydney Ellen Schultz. Psychology and Work Today: Pearson New International Edition Course Smart textbook. Routledge, 2015.
Ogden, Cynthia L., et al. "Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012." Jama 311.8 (2014): 806-814.
