Modernization created conveniences. The workaholic culture (coupled with high living costs) created a population of people that are too tired and stressed out to care about themselves. A system that doesn’t care for underprivileged people created food deserts, where things like fresh produce are nearly nonexistent, yet instant noodles and Kraft mac and cheese are in every corner store (hence why it’s not uncommon to find obese poor people in the US). It’s the perfect recipe for disaster.
You said things like gardening, cooking from scratch, and eating fresh food is an alien concept to Americans. It is now (more often than not) because of the things previously mentioned, however, it always wasn’t that way. So there’s been a shift culturally which was most likely influenced by factors beyond our control.
While I can’t speak for all Americans, my childhood wasn’t that different from how you described yours. I grew up in the suburbs approximately 30 minutes away from a major city. Between my childhood and now (I’m 26), I would say there has been a big shift. While we still consumed more junk than we should, it was normal for people in my city to go to the farmer’s market (or Amish market), local delis and bakeries, and use these ingredients to create homecooked meals and desserts. My school used to take trips to the local farms to pick apples and pumpkins. I remember in elementary school, we baked pumpkin bread as a class and we planted string beans.
If you were to look at the percentages of overweight/obese adults in the 1990s and early 2000s compared now, you will notice a jump.
When you factor inflation rates over the years coupled with stagnant wages, then the source of the problem becomes clear. The living costs in the country are becoming more and more expensive, which results in many households having to spend more time at work. Things like gardening and cooking a meal from scratch is a time privilege that many can no longer afford. Most Americans don’t have time. As a result, people opt for microwavable meals and fast food/takeout joints and scarf it down in the little amount of time they do have to eat. As work and convenience became a higher priority, self-care became an afterthought.
When both of my parents started working full time during the day and my brother and I became super busy with our high-level sports teams, there were days where there was simply no time to cook. My parents had to rush home from work, drive us to practice, our away games/tournaments, and miraculously find time to put food in our mouths before bedtime. They did their best however, it clearly didn’t work for everyone.
Since the major food companies found they can profit from processed foods and foods full of chemicals, they made these things readily available in grocery stores worldwide. Remember when I mentioned food deserts? For neighborhoods or cities like those, the options are even worse.
At the same time, there’s the diet industry producing processed “weight loss” products to an unhealthy, stressed-out, desperate, overweight population by creating plans that set people up for failure by making them hungrier than before. People forgot how to eat because every few years the diet trends constantly change (e.g. low-carb or low-fat diets). Diets are rebranded under a new name. Before it was the Atkins diet and now the keto and carnivore diets are now trending to combat the vegan trend. So now people are confused about which way is healthier.
The American food culture is so out of whack because people forgot how to eat, so they rely on major businesses and “social media influencers” to tell them how to eat. It’s a weird phenomenon.
When I returned home from college in 2015, I stopped by those local markets feelings surprised that they were still up and running. It made me realize that it’s not that Americans don’t give a shit about their health per se, to some time is truly a luxury and privilege and for others who could make it work if they really tried, use their excuses as a crutch and take the easy way out. This change in culture is sadly being passed down to the next generation, and it’s a shame that is has come to this. Americans in suburbia and the big cities have become out of touch with their old healthy habits.
When you go into the more rural communities, you’ll find that things aren’t so bad. In 2014, I took a trip to Montana. It was normal to see stands on the side of the road where you can get freshly picked berries and fruit preserves. While waiting for a table at a restaurant feeling hungrier than ever, we walked to a nearby corn stand and munch on some fresh corn and peas where we had a nice conversation with the vendors and their family business. It was nice to see a thriving agricultural community for once.
I’ve noticed that modernization globally has caused people to slowly but surely adopt conveniences into their lives. My mother grew up in a rural town in Jamaica. When I visited her hometown, I saw how it was normal to see your dinner alive before eating eat and the abundance of fruit trees, but if you were to go into the modernized cities, you’ll see fast food joints. Now, I currently reside in Taiwan, where I work with children. Given how much time those children spend sitting and seeing what some of them eat for snacks, I will not be surprised if they end up heavier and less healthy than their parents and grandparents when they grow up.
The national or regional cuisines of certain countries and/or ethnic groups sometimes tend to be heavy, filling dishes because the food choices once reflected a population of people that were either poor and needed something to hold them over for a long time and/or people who worked hard labor in the fields on factory jobs and needed the extra calories. Nowadays, people of those same cultures spend most of their day sitting, don’t move as much earlier generations, have more access to foods with no nutritional value (and opt for that over tradition), and some continue to eat like they’re still working hard labor. It reminded me of an article I read about an Indian woman who no longer eats her country’s cuisine because they don’t use healthy ingredients anymore.
While Americans are the butt of everyone’s jokes when it comes to unhealthy looking people and food, this is actually a trend that’s spreading more worldwide. Modernization has blessed us many ways, but it’s costing us our health ranging from problems associated with poor diet to bodies that lack proper functionality and mobility to our brains being overstimulated with technology.
