Sociology and Food: what do I eat, and why?
Food is a necessity in everyone’s life yet the accessibility to this food varies in a multitude of ways. My family grew up only 2 minutes from a grocery store so access to food was never an issue when it came to looking at transportation. For others, this was not the case and it made frequent grocery shopping a lot more difficult. My family would normally visit the grocery store for a “big shop” once a week, but we also had the ability to revisit the store if we needed something last minute. Here we would pick up produce items such as fruits and veggies, meats, dairy, and frozen food and snacks. I was never a big meat consumer other than ground turkey or chicken. I did however grow up on a lake, so cookouts occurred almost every weekend, where we then cooked hamburgers, hotdogs, and threw together a pasta salad. For most people, food such as these are very expensive and sometimes even far out of the way. Making time to prepare these foods is never easy and takes lots of time and money. Looking at my lifestyle compared to my parents or even my grandparents is very interesting, and I learn a lot about different accessibilities or lack thereof in many aspects of our lives. Since COVID my grandmother stopped visiting grocery stores so finding time to place a mobile order is much easier for her, whereas for my family, stopping at the grocery store on Sunday or even on the way home from work is better suited for our lifestyle. My family tends to shop on the outside of the grocery store where you find more whole foods and fresh produce whereas my grandmother shops for processed foods that have longer shelf life and are easier to prepare. My family has the ability and need to prepare foods for every meal as we are a family of 4 and are constantly on the go. With this being said, we have less time to meal prep and prepare ourselves for the week, so we tend to look for snacks that are already prepacked and in smaller portion sizes. My grandmother on the other hand is on her own and rarely leaves the house so meal preps are not important, but she also doesn’t need to shop for snacks as she is usually home for every meal and only cooking for herself. She definitely goes out less frequently than us so again, making sure her foods last longer is something she always looks for. It is really interesting how much access to a grocery store, time to prepare foods, medical conditions, and our life schedules have the ability to affect what we put into our body. More times than not the foods we buy and put into our body aren’t about our own choices but rather more influenced by our lifestyles and our busy schedules.
