Reflections on Eating Habits and Who a Person Is

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Reflections on Eating Habits and Who a Person Is

There is one memory I possess which is directly related to food. I was four or five and I was hurt badly by my brother. My mother tells me she knew I was seriously hurt because I actually sat still for thirty minutes straight. Well, to take my mind off of my pain, my mother offered to make me my favorite meal at the time. The part I remember is that when she gave it to me, I did not like it, and this was my all time favorite food. Have others of varying backgrounds and ages also had the same shaping experiences with food that I have? My eating style reflects who I am and who my parents are, but it does not reflect on where I was raised.

To determine what a person's eating style even is, one must look back at the upbringing of the individual. I interviewed three very different men, each of a different age, with a different background, and inevitably, a different upbringing. Zach, 18, was raised here in Raleigh, but also lived in Poughkeepsie, New York and South Bend, Indiana; Sander, 52, was raised outside of Chicago, but has lived in Denver, St. Thomas, Tucson, and Raleigh. While there are some similaritities among the mens' food styles, the differences stem from upbringings in different times by people of different values.

Zach grew up in a typical middle class family with two children. He claims ancestors from Germany, Great Britain, and Norway. As a child, he was fed mostly health food, organic and wholesome but bland. A typical meal involved meat, fruit, vegetables, and milk. He was allowed some junk food as his favorite food was hot dogs and mayonnaise. Today, Zach enjoys a more flavorful diet, his favorite food being lasagna because of the different textures. His family taught him to eat everything on his plate, but if that was not possible, to save it for another day. For guests or special events Zach likes to prepare spaghetti because it is wholesome and because it is not an everyday food. Even though Zach is now a student in college he still meets his father for dinner every Tuesday night to talk.

Sander was raised by a more affluent second generation Jewish Polish family in the suburbs of Chicago.

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