Family Food Chain, Essay Example

The three people I chose to interview from the three different generations were my grandfather, my father, and then my little brother. My grandfather does not live with us so I interviewed him via skype and it went well. I come from an Italian family so we all mostly enjoy Italian dishes that are attributed to our cultural traditions. When I interviewed my grandfather, I first asked him what kinds of foods he ate as a kid. He mostly ate at home since his family could not really afford to dine out a whole lot. His mother was an excellent cook and most of the food my grandfather ate was homemade from whole foods. As part of family tradition, my grandfather always ate with his family at dinner time so that each family member could share how their day went.

As an adult, my grandfather spent a great deal of time cooking the receipts he learned from his mother. He told me he could never make the Italian dishes as well as she did, but he tried. I would always visit my grandfather for holidays and I have tried his cooking first hand; I must say it is always pleasurable. His favorite dish has always been lasagna. He made more use of the oven than the microwave when cooking because he says it makes for a crispier taste. In his adult life however, he did start to enjoy more processed ice cream from the grocery store.

As an elderly man now, my grandfather stays away from processed foods to help keep track of his health. He says he sticks to the healthy whole foods that his mother taught him to prepare. He is in great shape for his age and I think his consistent eating habits have a lot to do with this.

My next interview was with my father. As a child, he carried the same traditions at dinner time that my grandfather did with his family by eating dinner together for each family member to share their day. My father did not really learn how to cook however as he always more was interested in his academic studies in business. That explains why my mother does most of the cooking. As an adult, he does believe in healthy eating habits but also enjoys junk food occasionally. His favorite dish is my mother’s home made spaghetti.

The last generation I interviewed was my younger brother. While interviewing my brother, I noticed that he and I share many of the same eating habits and opinions. Both of us are in the generation where food is the most exploited through media channels and advertisements. He admitted that many foods are very addictive to him, such as his favorite cereal, Lucky Charms. Most of the food he cooks is in the microwave because it is all frozen and ready to eat upon heating. In the interview he stated that his favorite dish was a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut.

Based on the results from the interviews as well as my own experiences, I would say that the most change has occurred between my father’s generation and me and my brother’s generation. I think that this is due to the fact that our generation hosted the technological boom. There are more television sets, computers, and overall media outlets in my generation than in my father’s and grandfather’s. This means that there is more room for food companies to advertise their products. Me and my brother’s generation also has experienced the most processed food with many addictive chemicals. My father and grandfather did not experience these kinds of foods in their generations because technology simply was not as advanced as it is now.

The one thing that has remained constant over all three generations was our family dinner tradition. Regardless of the food we eat, or how we get it, all of my families always get together at dinner time to share our day with each other. This is important to me because it brings us closer as a family.

Nutrition professionals across these three generations would probably agree that my father’s and grandfather’s generations were the healthiest in terms of getting proper nutrition. I and my brother’s generation is filled with foods that are highly processed with weird chemicals in them. My father thinks it is odd that the Food and Drug Administration approves most of it.

My personal reflections from this series of interviews can show that I feel strongly about our family traditions at dinner time. I do feel that my generation is more exploited to fast foods and processed junk foods and this is not very healthy for us. My grandfather and father got to experience more healthy eating habits and not only were they healthy, but the dishes were actually very delicious.

In the future, or at least in my family’s future of eating, I hope to continue the family tradition of bonding together at dinner every night. I also hope to clean up the eating habits that my generation is picking up and take more after my grandfather’s generation. The next time I visit my grandfather, I am going to ask him to show me his mother’s lasagna recipe so that I can keep it running in my family.