Everybody is a 'foodie'

Most people are a statistic when it comes to socioeconomic status. They fall in some kind of range of factors such as age, sex, years of education and profession. And these factors do have a certain degree of correlation to them. You will see that people with college degrees are way less likely to have tattoos than people without college degrees. Same goes with everything else in life: what kind of house you have, what kind of car you drive, what your goals in life are. You might think that you are unique but most people fall pretty well in their statistical destiny. And that’s why poor people are really fat.

It might seem paradoxical and confusing at first. The novice would assume that if you have more money, you can spend more on food. And food makes you fat, right? Not quite the case. In America, you will be hard pressed to find families completely without food like you would in Zimbabwe. But there are a lot of people who don’t have a lot of money to spend. Most of them have adopted the philosophy “Beggars can’t be choosers”. What does that mean for those unfamiliar with the quote in context to relative poverty? It means that those who are generally in the socioeconomic class colloquially termed as ‘poor’ will take whatever they can get. If they are picky about the nutrients in the food, or how many calories it has then it as simple as just not eating. And in America people do not go hungry. So the latter is not an option.

The food that these poor people eat does its job, but at a cost. Everybody has food in their belly at the end of the day, but what exactly what that food is composed of is food of very high calorie density and low nutritional content. Basically what it is saying is that if you eat Taco Bell and McDonalds every day, you will have get fat and have high blood pressure. And America being the great country it is, places that serve the general low cost high energy food make money and a lot of it, thus fueling others to get in the game and offer even more of the same kind of high calorie low nutrient food. For the ones who would like to eat healthy food but have a restricted budget their options are also limited.

The people colloquially termed as ‘middle class’ are not confined to the same problems that the lower class people are confined to. They can afford to add more nutritional benefit to their food instead of eating lots of grease simply because they have the money to. The truth of the matter is that everybody in America now enjoys fast food, despite its risks. It is not confined to any social class. It has become a part of our culture just like the 4th of July or free market capitalism. Everybody enjoys it simply because it is not bad particularly bad tasting food that you can get in a minute anywhere you are. Today is the age of instant gratification.

This why sub shops like Quiznos and subway do so well in making money. They try attract the middle class people who realize that nutrition and staying healthy is a vital part of good health, even if it comes at a price. And they realize the food that they put in their mouth has to taste good as well as give them a sense of satiety. Now McDonalds wants to catch up. To cater to the middle class people who are willing to spend a little more for healthier, better tasting food for their 20 minute lunch break, they have introduced special “healthy combos”. Basically they are combos with less calories and more nutritional benefits than your Big Mac or Double Quarter Pounder with cheese. But who really goes to McDonalds to eat healthy anyway?

Another simple fact. Americans love to eat out. You can’t change the essence of what is ingrained in the culture. In November 2008, Americans bought 1% percent more at restaurants than compared no November 2007. Even during the midst of an economic collapse, Americans somehow seemed to increase how much they spent at a restaurant. People might postpone a new car purchase or a new coat, but they will not postpone eating out. Even if they have to set for lower eating quality standards, they will still go out with the same frequency. That’s why fast food joints like McDonalds profited from the economic downturn.

That leaves the question. Where do the rich people. Once again the answer simple and complex. They are the ones who weekly go out to those expensive grills and fancy restaurants and get smoked salmon for 37 dollars. Why? Because they simply have the money to indulge themselves. To a poor person that is 37 hamburgers that could feed a few mouths for a significant amount of time. But to the rich person eating out at expensive restaurants, it’s not so much as feeling full and enjoying the food as it is a sense of accomplishment and self worth. That’s the complex answer. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs says human necessity is a pyramid consisting of five levels. At the bottom of the pyramid is the physiological needs to function such as eating and breathing and towards the top is self-esteem, confidence, and achievement. Those who can afford to eat out in expensive restaurants and enjoy fine gourmet cooking do so because their most basic needs are already fulfilled, whereas ‘poor’ peoples basic needs are only sometimes. For these rich people, they are at the stage in life where they want to try new and interesting foods by high profile chefs not for the food itself exactly, but for the whole experience. Since they can satiate their hunger any time they want, to them, eating or making good quality expensive food is not unlike what a trek across Botswana would be to the avid thrill seeker. Its living life on the edge.

So where does the middle class fall into the pyramid of needs? They are not at the bottom like the poor people, yet they are not exactly always near the top either. For them they experience the best of both worlds. They are the ones who are the pragmatists and adventure seekers at the same time. They get fulfillment and self worth going to the casual family diner a lot more times than not. They are the ones who know how to appreciate what good food is also are willing to fork over the extra money to have their taste buds stimulated in a way that they have never been before.

That’s why there is a huge variety of multicultural restaurants in the United States. That Thai restaurant down the street or that Chinese you order when you and your associates are working late into the night on some groundbreaking material. People, especially those with some kind of educational background, usually try to deviate from the normal meat and potatoes if they can. People are innately curious, and if they have the money to do so, you will satisfy your curiosity. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs says so.

So what it comes down to is that everybody would be a “foodie” in some way or another. We essentially make a living to get food for ourselves and for our families. And even though some families labeled as ‘poor’ cannot afford to always make and enjoy their own food and the families that are labeled ‘rich’ can enjoy whatever food they please, we all still like to eat. And a testament to that is what the dinner table symbolically represents to the American Family. It represents a sanctuary within the sanctuary of home to contemplate over contentious issues. It is a place to receive emotional support, and overall a place where people gather to share in a common experience of pleasure by fulfilling ones physiological needs, whether it be at some fine restaurant right in Downtown, or just the Waffle House down the street. So as you can see, people are all ‘foodies’ some way or another.

Socioeconomic class really just defines really you go about being a ‘foodie’. That gap is starting to be bridged rapidly as society adapts to the needs of its people. Less than 30 years ago, society was a different animal to tackle. Women generally stayed at home and were expected to provide for the family. There were cooking shows for them to watch to spur ideas, because the TV was the only form of dissemination of new cooking ideas to a massive audience. Today, women generally have hopes for an ambitious life, thus there is less time to devout to the kitchen. To keep up, society also had to evolve too. Now there are whole channels on TV devoted to cooking. You can look up almost any type of recipe for any kind of food on the internet. Not to mention a whole host of videos on YouTube and elsewhere that will break down cooking step by step all the detailed recipe that only a ‘foodie’ could master.

If people were not inherently ‘foodies’ by nature, then the Food Network would not exist. Grocery stories wouldn’t be nearly as spacious as they are today either. Socioeconomic class just defines what kind of ‘foodie’ an individual is, quite the same way medium rare and a medium plus are still both steaks.