Pass the Leafy Greens Please...You Are What You Eat.

I remember the first time that I stepped foot in my best friend's house.  The smell coming from the kitchen was overwhelming.  I had never smelled anything more disgusting in my life!  No matter where I went in the house I could not escape the smell.  My friend was Indian, and her mother was always making traditional Indian cuisine when I would be over at her house to hang out.  I remember seeing the yellow curry for the first time on a plate and being asked if I wanted to try any.  Of course, being twelve years old, I said no.  I didn't even give the food a chance because of my ethocentricity.  I was judging my friend's food as inferior to my own food because "ours is right and superior and smells good and theirs is wrong and inferior and smells bad..." (You Are What You Eat, Rappoport).  However, as I grew older, I began to try new foods, and eventually found that curry sauce was absolutely delicious!  I remember the first time my mom bought a bottle, I used the sauce on everything...it took me awhile to get out of that ethnocentric mind set when it came to food, but once I had left it behind, all the different flavors became part of my pallet that I enjoyed eating!


It's ironic for me to think that five years ago I never considered eating like my friend, but today I eat almost identically to her.  I am a vegetarian, just as she is, and through that I have discovered so many new foods that I never would have tried before.  For example, tofu is one of my favorite snacks!  Most people look at tofu (pictured below) and remark at how disgusting it looks, and I don't blame them, but people need to give foods a try before they judge.  

Foods most definitely reflect who we are.  I had never really thought of food defining who I was, but if I look at what I eat in a typical day, it is all drawn back to who I am and who I was raised as.  For example, I eat a very healthy cuisine consisting of vegetables, fruits, protein, etc.  I did not take eating into my own hands until I began to be a serious runner.  The article I read, "You Are What You Eat", said that, "Adolescents in athletic programs may begin to follow the dietary recommendations of their coaches..."  I found this to be incredibly true because I always listened to my coach about what and what not to eat because I thought that it would help me with my running.  I have recognized that when I eat healthy foods, I am more likely to be happy throughout the day and feel good during a workout rather than when I eat junk food, I feel unhappy with myself and end up having a stomach ache later on in a run.  So what was the point of this?  Food reflects who we are.  My healthy eating habits are a reflection of my devotion to athletics.  Also, food can be a reflection of social status.  The article said that our food preferences reflect our social class.  For example, people who drink white wine are seen as people of high social status, while people who drink whiskey are seen as low social status individuals.


Food...who knew such a simple concept could grow into something so large!  Food is even associated with music!  Imagine walking into a Chinese restaurant and hearing Hispanic music.  It just wouldn't go together!  You would expect to hear something more calm and serene in a Chinese restaurant, and something upbeat in a Mexican restaurant.  This is known as a norm.  Norms are the expectations, or rules of behavior, that reflect and enforce values.  


Norms and values often go hand in hand.  What we value is what we use as a pedestal for what is good, and what is bad.  For example, in Sociology class, we saw the conflict of values occur in our deliberation over Euthanasia.  Our question was, "Should our democracy permit physicians to assist in a patient's suicide?"  I was one of three out of the entire class who thought that this should not be allowed in our country.  Although I am looking at it from a religious perspective, where we do not have the right to choose when to end our life, there are also other arguments that support my point.  For example, allowing this law to pass could result in moral detachment from death.  People would begin to see that if death is acceptable, that the law is bendable.  Also, under the Hippocratic Oath, which many medical schools teach to their students, doctors promise that they will not give deadly drugs to patients upon request.  Euthanasia completely breaks the oath, as it is assisted suicide.

Could you really let yourself be stuck with guilt of permitting your own loved one's death to occur?  How would you make the decision to pull the plug?  Could you do it for your own mother?  Your mother who loved and raised you for your entire life?  This unnecessary guilt is placed upon an individual who has to make the decision for someone who cannot make a conscious decision for themself about their own life.  Euthanasia could lead to the killing of innocent people, such as the Nazis did to the mentally disabled, homosexual, and gypsies for no fault of their own.

However, some might watch a video like the one below and wonder how euthanasia could not be allowed...

Yes, this recent story makes you think, but did you see the picture of the woman and her three children towards the end of the video?  Her children must have loved her, and would probably have not wanted to see her go.  Although the lady was unable to see, she was still able to move around and to express herself with her words.  In her case, euthanasia seemed selfish.  She was leaving behind her children, her loved ones, her family...

Everyday we are faced with questions of values and norms.  They could be on the scale of the social norm of food, or on the much larger, grandiose scale of Euthanasia.