Eating Habits in USA

[realema]

Eating Habits in USA

Eating is inseparable element of life. But in many countries it's something more than just appeasing energetic demands. It's part of culture, developed by many hundred years old tradition. That's why we have so many different eating habits and kitchen in different countries. Influenced by climate conditions and affected by richness of natural resources, they achieve nowadays appearance.

People in USA say that we should always eat what we enjoy, not what is good for us. I think that eating what we like is not very good for our body. What about that people who eat only hamburgers and hot - dogs because they like them?People who eat always what they enjoy aren’t healthy. Food like hamburgers or hot - dogs is very dangerous for us. We don’t know what there is in it. Americans like food from other countries especialy Italian food like pizza and spaghetti is not helthy too. people in the USA almost always eat in restaurants , or in fast food bar like McDonald's becouse all the time work, and don't have time to cook in a house, or they are lazy.

[dorsty]

Three meals a day used to be the standard eating pattern for Americans, but the rule likely will be five meals per day soon, according to Christopher Wolf, publisher of The Food Channel. The traditional three-square-meals-a-day regimen already is going by the wayside, he told the World Future Society. Many people skip breakfast or even lunch, catching snacks here and there to survive. One survey showed that 10% of Americans eat lunch in their cars on a regular basis.

Rather than taking time to sit down and eat a balanced meal, they spread their meals through the day, having a doughnut or bagel at midmorning and chips, fruit, or a candy bar in the afternoon. This new pattern--variously termed "grazing," "mouth surfing," or "refueling"--is evolving as a result of dual-income, fast-paced lifestyles.

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Keeping on the straight and narrow a full-time job Staying on track "In the future, this grazing phenomenon will be formalized into a recognized pattern of five meals a day. Not only does |five a day' better fit our living habits, but scientific studies show that an increased number of smaller meals is actually healthier for people."

Wolf offers a meal schedule for the year 2005, complete with some suggested new names for meals: 7:00-7:30 a.m., Daystart (breakfast); 10:00-10:30 a.m., Pulsebreak; 12:30-1:00 p.m., Humpmunch (lunch); 4:00-4:30 p.m., Holdmeal; and 6:30-7:00 p.m., Evesnack (dinner).

Other trends in eating habits foreseen by Wolf include:

* "Shop-o-tainment." Supermarkets are trying to make the shopping experience more fun by introducing entertainment. Restaurants are striving to provide unique environments--perhaps an atmosphere reminiscent of other countries or times, or even a place of pure fantasy.

* Cuisine fusion. In much the same way that broccoli and cauliflower can be combined to make a new vegetable called brocolflower, so can different cuisines be combined. Cross-cultural cooking may include Chinese-Cuban, Japanese-French, and Mexitalian.

* Cause cuisine. Food for activists may include organic fruits and vegetables in recyclable wrappers and containers, sold by companies that promise to use part of their profits to promote various causes.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

[jeare]

Since 1987, Parade magazine has tracked the eating, food shopping and diet habits of Americans in an annual survey.

In the first of a three-part HealthWatch series, The Early Show takes a look at the results of Parade's 2005 survey called "What America Eats."

"I think the headline is 'People are getting the message,' " magazine senior editor Fran Carpentier tells co-anchor Harry Smith. "They're getting the message that what you eat is really such a component of a healthy life, and a good life, and maybe even preventive in terms of disease and illness."

This national mail survey was done in March with 2,088 adults between the ages of 18 and 65.

"When we look at what they're doing, there have been a lot of improvements but it's kind of a mixed bag," Carpentier says. "I think we talk a good game better than we're playing it."

Summarizing the findings, Carpentier says, "If you ask the average American what you want to eat, he would say the same only better."

Of those surveyed 84 percent say they try to eat a well-balanced diet; 77 percent say they lead a healthy lifestyle by eating more vegetables, salad and chicken; and fruit is the No. 1 snack among adults (76 percent).

Yet Americans still have that "reward" mentality — 87 percent eat dessert one or more times per week.

One in four pays no attention to nutritional facts and figures. And more than half of those surveyed (59 percent) are familiar with the USDA food pyramid but don't really follow it. A quarter of them (26 percent) are not even aware that new dietary guidelines and food pyramid were released in January.

The biggest changes are that Americans are not dieting — only 25 percent are currently on diets to lose weight. But they are making lifestyle changes such as eating smaller portions and reducing sugar intake.

People do not want to be regimented or structured, and don't want to deny the occasional carb, fast-food lunch or dessert. Most (76 percent) say eliminating an entire food group from one's diet is unhealthy.

The survey also found that Americans are leaning more heavily on convenience foods. Fifty-one percent now consider "homemade" to include frozen veggies and bagged salad. 21 percent eat cereal for dinner two times per week. And even holidays are not immune: 34 percent would prefer to cater holiday meals or go out to eat.

Only 4 percent avoid preservatives, processed and fast foods. "There really are not very many Americans who are kind of hard core in terms of making the best decisions," Carpentier says.

[eric]

some health providers, though, advocate having several small meals or snacks a day instead of large ones. this makes it easier for us to digest what we eat.  the main problem with having several snacks is we tend to stick to fatty food like doughnuts,chocolates, candies and virtually anything we can get our hands on.