Essays: writing 7

                                          Modern trends of food and popular culture

As the trends of the popular culture change, the trends of food consumption change too. It goes without saying that eating as a process and food in general is a vital element of the contemporary pop culture. Therefore as it has been mentioned above the eating practices of the society very often change correspondingly to the course the popular culture takes. As the pop culture supplies the society with its basic values, it also provides the eating pattern. According to the popular culture trends nowadays it is very popular to be an active, successful and physically fit person. The contemporary era of consumption and high activity postulates that people spend little time in their houses in order to be active and successful enough. This decreases their opportunities to get proper nutrition and therefore they face the necessity substitute the “normal” food by something. This “something” turns out to be some sort of dietary supplement. It is obvious that the popular culture presses down the population to consume low-fat products and to count the amount of calories they consume daily, weekly and monthly. The problem is that these dietary supplements do not substitute the vitamins required by the human organism. Modern people avoid solving the problem of excessive activity and lack of fresh food with the help of fast food restaurants which are located not far form their offices. In other words, the modern trends of food in terms of popular culture reveal the fact that people started avoiding fast-food consumption and are oriented to whole foods.

Whole foods become the number one solution provided by the popular culture. “If you want to be healthy and sexy – consume whole foods” – is what they actually say. The whole foods are unprocessed goods at all or go through minimal processing. This “unrefined” concept makes sure the organism obtains all the necessary elements it needs and saves the human organism from such ingredients as fat, salt or sugar. As fat, salt and sugar are the main causes of obesity and excessive weight, the whole foods prevent the body from unhealthy changes. Garden fruits, vegetables, unpolished grains, unprocessed meat, fish and milk are among the most popular whole foods that are considered to be acceptable for a healthy lifestyle by the popular culture. Popular culture is now solving the problem of fast-food consumption which it has created earlier. And this is the reason the modern markets are overflowed with healthy and sometimes expensive whole foods.

Mass Media “loosing weight and diet” focus

Millions of people try to lose some weigh every single day of the year. They look at what popular culture offers and seem slim healthy attractive people. This results in strong guilt complex because of being overweight and a stress in the realization of the necessity to lose it. Why people try to lose their weight? It primarily happens due to the fact that the pop culture sets the pattern of taking overweight people as an “unpopular” phenomenon. As a consequence overweight people cannot feel comfortable looking the way they do and start looking for a way out of extra-pounds. It is common knowledge that popular culture controls its audience. Years ago it provoked the fast food boom. Nowadays, the pop culture tries to control it through the introduction of a great variety of diets. Correspondingly, the Mass Media is focused on the diet and all the necessary equipment for exercising.

Popular culture dictates that nowadays is “popular” no just to be skinny, but to have a healthy lifestyle including: whole foods, weight loss pills, herbal dietary supplements, and spa and sport clubs. The pop divas suggest their personal diet plans and therefore give people the hope that they can become as good looking as they are and as “popular” as they are. As Mass Media is the reflection of the values of popular culture it provides people with solution for losing weight.
Conclusion

The modern diet change has occurred a lot due to the popular culture influence. The diet nowadays is changing to the fast food avoidance and whole foods focus. As this change is closely tied to popular culture people constantly try to lose weight and become as good-looking as the men and women idealized by the pop culture.

The popular culture has a tremendous impact on the way of life of people and it can be observed almost in every sphere of social interactions. It influences the way people dress, the way they look and of course what they eat or do not eat. Such totality makes the popular culture dictate people the rules of how thin they have to be and what they have to consume in order to achieve it. In such a way popular culture does not only completely change the diet of people but also strictly controls it through the whole foods focus.