This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or psychotherapeutic advice. If you are experiencing an acute psychological condition or need professional support, please contact a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or crisis service.
Have you ever noticed that you (or your friends) come back after a vacation or holiday with a pound or two? Maybe it's the very tasty French baguettes or the excessive absorption of Italian pasta. Or maybe someone enjoyed a buffet in Vegas to sample as many foods as possible from different countries.
During the holidays, we all tend to be hedonists in the real world, indulging in unusual, luxurious food and drink that we might not be able to afford on a normal day. We live in the moment and succumb to gluttony.
Most people in everyday life try to choose healthy food because they think about the future - we want to look and feel good tomorrow, next year and decades to come.
However, we sometimes make exceptions in honor of a positive past. Related to this are traditions that involve abundant feasting: ¸holidays, birthdays - in every culture you can find a variety of dishes that have symbolic value. Therefore, sometimes you have to modify your menu.
Food is closely related to traditions and culture. At least some eating habits you learned from your parents, who learned from their parents, who learned from their parents, and so on. drinks
East vs. West
If you look at global obesity rates, you'll see that the United States has one of the highest rates of overweight in the world — while the Japanese, by contrast, are near the bottom of the list. Why? In both the US and Japan, food is available, one might say, excessively; education in both countries is at a high level - as are indicators of daily stress, the length of the working day and vacations.
One of the fundamental differences between Asian and American cultures is our view of food: some see it as a source of sustenance, while others see it as a source of pleasure. Asians value restraint; the Okinawan saying "hara hachi bu" ("eat until you're 80% full") perfectly reflects their future-oriented approach. In the USA, you won't have to look for a long time for a cafe with an all-you-can-eat sign, which attracts visitors so much. Instant gratification and convenience are the rule rather than the exception for us.
Accordingly, life expectancy among Asians is higher (the number of people who have survived 100 years is higher in Okinawa than anywhere else in the world); diseases related to age and the cardiovascular system are much less common in them. Unfortunately, the obesity epidemic continues to rage, and for the first time in history, American children (Generation X and Millennials) are predicted by researchers to live shorter lives than their parents.
Food consumption and a national time perspective
Representatives of different cultures have different approaches to enjoying food. The French are usually hedonists in the present, but selective hedonists in the future: they don't gorge themselves to the point of giddiness, but they also don't deny themselves anything - they eat what they like, but they prefer a reasonably small size. Not only do the French enjoy their food, but they also do it slowly: they are known to spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes eating. The French try to dine outdoors, combine food with socializing, and take a walk after eating.
From an early age, the French form an idea of healthy food, learn to appreciate the national culinary reputation and try to preserve food traditions. However, obesity is spreading more and more in France, because many modern people prefer to eat ready-made food and not spend time on its preparation: French youth are gradually getting used to more high-calorie and sweet snacks.
Scots, who have even more obesity problems than Americans, consume sugary foods and drinks, pastries, fatty meats, and their famous Scotch alcohol in large quantities. In addition, there are many smokers among Scots. In the past, Scots followed a healthy diet with a balanced content of grains, fresh seafood, meat and vegetables.
The radical changes in eating habits are probably due to the fact that Britain became the first country in the world to experience industrialization. In the 1800s, the mass migration of people from villages to cities began, and along with their old place of residence, people left behind healthy eating habits. Today, among the working population, you can still find a desire to eat "interpretive" food. However, the temporary perspective of the negative past keeps people in the grip of negative eating habits that destroy their health.
Italians have a temporal perspective of the positive past when it comes to food: they value family recipes very much, and they also strive to spend time together as often as possible. Italians treat food as something to be savored, cherished, studied, enjoyed passionately, leisurely and in good company. They really appreciate long lunches and dinners; although the portions in Italy are more than generous and the dishes served are many, they include all food groups and not a lot of sweets. Of course, on special occasions, Italians can afford desserts.
In Italy, they prefer to bake or grill rather than fry; They use fresh olive oil and use saturated fats in cooking, unlike us. Like the French, Italians emphasize the social aspect of eating and try to go for a walk together after eating. Another important difference between the Italians and the French and the Americans is breakfast; they usually eat little in the morning, while we can eat a huge portion after barely waking up.
Gone are the positive and negative experiences related to food
A few years ago, we interviewed a dozen middle-aged women and found that all but one of them had a "special" dish, usually a dessert, that their mothers prepared for them as encouragement or a way to cheer them up when they were feeling sad or down. . Women shared their memories of this pleasure with pleasure, describing it in detail (sometimes even telling the recipe). The only woman who did not have such a dish was very surprised when she learned about the prevalence of this phenomenon. She later said she was grateful to her mother for not instilling food addictions in her.
In addition, each of us has our own sad experience or at least a horror story from the lives of acquaintances: people cannot stand even the smell of certain foods that were force-fed to them in childhood - often this torture turned into long battles at the common table. But there are no winners in such battles.
We choose
The epidemic of eating disorders raging in the country is linked to emotional instability and a debilitating imbalance of temporal perspectives related to nutrition. It is absurd to deny that the collective consciousness about food is guided by feelings rather than taste, tradition and common sense. We associate food with a wide variety of emotions: love and acceptance are associated with food in the family circle; the feeling of praise or shame is associated with whether you ate "good" or "bad" today; the feeling of care and security is inseparable from the time when there is enough food, the feeling of lack and moral decline - from the hungry years.
But we - adults - must be able to rely on both negative and positive experiences, making rational, mature food decisions. Our bodies and health reflect the choices we make every day. It is interesting to consider how temporal perspectives influence what, why and how we eat.
We tend to think of ourselves as independent individuals, and therefore downplay the level of influence of culture or social connections on what we eat, how much, when, and where. However, a recent study clearly established that obesity is determined by social connections to the same extent that it is influenced by genetics. We recommend reading the book "Connected by One Network" by N. Christakis and J. Fowler (United Press, 2014); its subtitle perfectly defines the theme: "The Amazing Power of Social Connections and Their Impact on Our Lives." The weight of any individual directly depends on how obese his partner, brother, sister and best friends are. When excess weight is perceived by society as a normal phenomenon, it is very difficult to overcome the desire to fill the belly - and there are not far to extra centimeters in the girth.