Eating on the Edge

The idea of eating on the edge from Jamie Horwitz is definitely one of the most pivotal discussion points of our time, and Horwitz develops this point with concrete facts of our culture's eating styles and patterns. He first links food and cigarettes to have an overwhelming correlation in the way they are used and the way they chemically interact with our minds. People smoke cigarettes because they act as an additive to a situation; this doesn't add anything sustainable to the situation it is merely something to do during that time. Over the past twenty years, our society as allowed the principle of eating to encompass a feel of "snacking" instead of just meals, and this shows in the obesity statistics as well. In this way, food has developed to become more of an additive than and definitive, says Horwitz.

This idea of eating on the edge implies that our society is laying the groundworks for accompanying a style of eating that is very quick and unhealthy. Horwitz mentions soup for example. People once had to cook the entire can of soup and serve it in their own bowls while they sit down and enjoy the meal. Now, this same soup is being sold in a personal, microwaveable container that could be consumed on the go. This is why we are seeing a drawback from healthy portions as well as a reasonable obesity rate, which our society doesn't have.

As Horwitz expands on the idea that people's meals are becoming more and more varied in regards to location, I saw a parallel to how my life so far. Just from being apart of this change over the past 15 years there has been a massive difference in eating styles and societal norms in this sense. In elementary school, I used to be lucky if I got a couple cookies from the Oreo package for lunch from my mom. I saw a drastic change in middle school, almost 6 years later, when I received a new package of "Grips" cookies. This package was full of smaller cookies; it had a peel off corner for easy, on-the-go consumption of the cookies. My first thought was, "when am I going to need the functionality of these Grips if I am sitting down eating lunch?" This was when I first saw a change in how marketing is affecting how we eat as a society.