Eating In America: A History
By Waverly Root and Richard de Rochemont
Ecco 1981
By Betsy Erickson
The land of plenty, now the land of TV dinners, the United States has not fully declared its independence from Great Britain. It still has much fighting to do- especially with regard to foods and cuisine.
Professional journalists and world travelers Waverly Root and Richard de Rochemont made the history of America’s food and cuisine come to life and took readers on a journey from the discovery of the New World to today in their book Eating in America: A History. Their analysis of historic foods and cuisines provides an understanding of the dilemma of America’s poor quality food and diets by the world’s standards while blaming the English and the beliefs of the Puritans.
It all started with the Indians; the Indians saved the unaccustomed lives of the early English settlers. Thanksgiving is a celebration of this unselfish act of the Indians, but the cooking of the unresponsive Americans remains the cooking inherited by the British despite all of the influences by other settlers- French, Spanish, etc. The French influenced a new cuisine and educated settlers. Processed and canned foods as well as preservation chemicals came about as the country expanded westward leading to poor quality of food and diet of Americans. As the centuries have turned, America finds itself undernourished with low quality standards for cuisine.
Root and Rochemont give thought-provoking reasoning behind our undernourished and poor quality state. For example, refined white flour made its way onto the scene when a new method to mill white flour was discovered. This method saved a couple of dollars, but it stripped the flour of its nutritional kernel and germ of the wheat while making it less prone to spoil. Changes like this haunt Americans as they consume their sandwiches on anything but nutritious white bread.
However correct Root and Rochemont may be about the decrease in nutrition and quality in the US, it is snooty to say that Anglo Saxon cuisines are poor quality and uneducated as most of the book suggests. They blamed the English for the alcohol consumption habits today as well as our sweet tooth, because apparently no other country eats more sweets than Britain- while the United States is a close second. If this is the so-called information age, we have enough information to know what we should and should not eat. Centuries ago, the English may have had an effect on our cuisine, but that is not the cause of the drinking habits or sweet tooth today.
The puritanical fear of the two of the most deadly sins- gluttony and sloth, Rochemont and Root claimed, are the culprits in corrupting Americans’ approach to eating as a necessary chore and thus explains the poor quality. The United States is one of the most obese countries in the world; there is obviously no puritanical root fear of gluttony. There is, perhaps an exaggeration or an incorrect conclusion for today and disrespect for the beliefs of our founding fathers found in this book.
With information overload, incorrect conclusions, and yet thought-provoking reasoning, this book includes some personal prejudices and snobby attitudes of the writers but also great insights to the under and over nourished state of this country. If these insights are taken to heart, it could lead to healthier lives tomorrow. Like the cliché “you don’t know where you are going unless you know where you have been.”
