Feminine Food

At the grocery yesterday, I was browsing the aisles of the grocery store when I came across something strange. In the energy bar section, next to the famous Clif Bars, I found something called a Luna Bar: the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women. As a product of Clif Bars, these Luna Bars are specially designed with unique vitamins and minerals for women.

While the idea seemed to have good intentions, this irked me quite a bit. Why should women have to have a different energy bar then men? Why was the original bar made for men, and had to adapted to fit the needs of women? From a feminist lens, this phenomenon can prove to be quite troublesome.

Upon further examination of Luna Bars vs. Clif Bars, the distinctions between the two become quite clear. The packaging says a lot about the product, with Clif Bars bolstering a tough man rock climbing in the mountains, while the Luna Bar displays a calming scene with night skies and people doing yoga. For a company to have to tone down the so called 'manliness' of their original product to fit the needs of women shows the male domination of this industry.

It seems as though most foods are geared towards one gender over another. For example, a nice and juicy steak is considered a manly food, while a chopped salad is considered feminine. A man would be caught dead ordering a light salad for their dinner, while a woman would most definitely frowned upon if she were to order a large steak. In many languages, such as French and Spanish, all nouns, including all foods, are assigned their own gender. This may be interesting to examine: are the gender assignments in other languages reflective of their societal tendencies?

In French, the word salad is in fact feminine: la salade. And as you might guess, the word steak is masculine: le bifteck. This shows that our language matches the way this food is thought of. Maybe the language usage has something to do with it and maybe it doesn't, but all I know is that the way in which we speak about things certainly reflects their societal norms.

Peace out, and rock on.

Counting Calories

My best friend has just begun an incredibly daunting task: counting calories. Whatever the end goal may be, from losing weight to looking good for spring break, we soon learned that counting calories can take over your life. No more random snacking throughout the day, no more chocolate chip cookies, and no more late night snacks.

When you count your calories, you become extremely aware of how much you really eat in one day. Everything really adds up by, which made it seemingly impossible for my friend to stay under 1220 net calories a day. She has to record every little thing that she consumes, from every sip of coke to each meal, and is constantly thinking about it.

So this got me thinking. Why does dieting or counting calories take over our lives? Why is it that when we diet, it is all that we think about? What gives it that power?

In short, we are controlled by the food that we eat, and cannot eat for that matter. Most of us who diet or count calories have an end goal in mind, like a specific weight or a size to fit in to, and will do anything, even count every single calorie consumed, to achieve it. I hope that my friend doesn't get too obsessed with counting calories, as it can easily spin out of control.

The thing that can be the most dangerous about counting calories is the guilt that it causes. Having a bowl of ice cream after dinner makes you feel awful when you are finished, or going 100 calories over you limit can ruin your whole day. Guilt or bad feelings can lead to more serious issues that may even risk your life.

So a word of advice, when you decide to count calories or diet, know that you are in control of your food, and your food is not in control of you.

Peace out, and rock on.

Our McDonald's World

Yesterday, I had a chicken nugger Happy Meal for lunch. And a couple of weeks ago, I also had a chicken nugget Happy Meal for lunch. They were practically identical; each had salty, hot fries, and four crisp nuggets complimented with a refreshing Diet Coke. But there was also something starkly different between the two: I had one in India and one at home.

While in India, I craved the comfort of American food, and was overjoyed to to enjoy my happy meal. Somehow, I was able to have the same food in a foreign country that I could at home, and it tasted exactly the same. It seemed odd that I could travel over 7,000 miles to a whole different world and be able to order the same chicken nugget Happy Meal, and I wondered what could have caused this.

Globalization.

Our world is becoming increasingly globalized everyday in almost every aspect of life, including our food. McDonald's, for example, has globalized its business so that one can eat a Big Mac almost anywhere in the world. The phenomenon of the globalization of food brings up many issues, and I would like to address some of them in this post.

First off, the globalization of the food industry can be viewed both positively and negatively. Check out this article for more information on these views. On one hand, the increasing globalization of food can overrun the local and traditional foods of certain areas, becoming overpowered by the presence of the common food in chain restaurants. When custom food or small restaurants are replaced with large, globally recognized chain restaurants, traditions are being threatened. Unique food habits can die out, creating a lack of individuality and an increasing amount of uniformity.

On the other hand, the globalization of the food industry can be viewed as positive change. Globalization can serve as a unifying force, a trend that brings us together all over the world. We can begin to experience the same things, eat the same food, and begin to live in more similar matters. Overall, we are more connected as a planet.

I'm not sure what to think of the globalization of our food industry. It could create problems, it could prevent them, but most importantly, it must be recognized. You may not always be aware that it is happening, but it is. It took me grabbing some fries in India to recognize it, but now I am aware of the power and the influence of global food companies.

My Indian Happy Meal!

Peace out, and rock on.