Kevin’s Food Autobiography
Rocky Mountain oysters (buffalo testicles), may be the oddest food Kevin can remember eating in his almost twenty years of living. Kevin has no fear of any food. He will try anything you put in front of him and he believes this fearlessness in the food realm stems from his father’s fondness of trying just about anything. Although Kevin will try whatever you put in front of him, he will not always enjoy it. In fact, he still holds onto a few of the same food aversions today that he did as a child. Kevin’s eating habits have come a long way from his younger years, when the simple truth was he had a general dislike of almost every fruit and vegetable. Today’s Kevin enjoys most foods although he still has the slight childhood fear of fruits stemming from his younger years of life.
It is important to understand how Kevin gained the food habits he had as a kid and learning about moments in his life that helped to expand and create the eater he is today. Kevin’s habits, tastes, and aversions can be attributed almost exclusively to his surroundings, mainly his family. Up until middle school Kevin could be classified as the typical American kid of the late 90’s or early 2000’s. Kevin like many other young kids of his age group enjoyed any kind of meat, pasta, bread, or any other non-fruit or non-vegetable you gave him. These aversions too fruit can be drawn from Kevin’s family. No one in his family was ever a huge fruit eater, and so as a child Kevin was not exposed to lots of fruits. As a child he thought they all had a bland taste and an even worse texture.
How Kevin became the eater he was as a child can be traced to his family’s eating habits; specifically, the eating habits of his grandparents. Kevin remembers when he would go stay with his grandparents for a couple weeks during the summer each year, and his grandma would make meals filled with onions and other vegetables. Kevin couldn’t stand these meals as a child because they featured such food items, but worst of all Kevin’s grandmother wouldn’t let him leave the dinner table until his plate was empty. The feeling of being forced to eat food made Kevin dislike fruits and vegetables even more. Although his grandma was only trying to help Kevin have better food habits, it ultimately created a regular occurring event that Kevin dreaded. In hindsight, these actions hurt his food eating development as a child. For years this went on and it was not until Kevin got into that his middle school years did his food tastes and habits develop.
The singular moment when Kevin’s eating habits began to finally expand can be traced back to seventh grade and a trip to a neighborhood friend’s house for dinner. Typically, they ate what he liked such as, pizza, hamburgers, and pasta, but on that night they had something Kevin had never tried, chicken Caesar salad. Now Kevin was faced with two options: not eat and go hungry or force himself to eat the “dreaded” vegetable called lettuce, which he never ate simply because it had no taste, and he did not like the crunch of it. Kevin chose to eat the salad and to his surprise he realized that salad was not as bad as he had made it out to be in his head. Kevin’s first “leap” into salad opened the door to ending his childhood eating habits; soon he was eating broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn, and his personal favorite, asparagus. Why was Kevin able to try salad at this moment in his life rather than earlier? It was the perfect storm for changing his food habits. He had reached the age in his life when he was trying new things all the time and food was one of those “new things.” Also when teenage boys are around their friends they never want to show they are afraid of new things. Reaching this point in Kevin’s life was critical to establishing the type of eater that he has become today.
Today, Kevin does not necessarily have a specific label as an eater, he will eat everything; sometimes too much of everything. He often has the problem of overeating, which is a common problem among Americans today as seen by the rise of obesity across the country. Kevin runs about two miles a day, he justifies in his head that he can eat whatever he wants because he will just run it off the next day. Every so often Kevin has a period of about a couple of weeks to a month where he will try to eat more healthy, steering clear of the fried and over processed foods and sticking to salads and other healthier options. In order to take his food habits to the next level Kevin hopes to move from periods of healthy eating to eating healthier at all times in his life. Kevin’s family and his cultural surroundings have shaped his eating habits from the day he was born and continue to play a role in how he eats today. As Kevin continues to grow up and learn more about the negative effects of eating poorly he challenges himself to implement eating healthier foods into his everyday lifestyle in order to help him live a longer happier life.
Kevin can honestly say he has learned more about food in the past three and a half months then he has in the past three and a half years. He has never been one to critically think about his eating habits, from what are the specific foods he eats health affects to where does the food come from. This has been the biggest change that ISS 310 has brought to Kevin’s life and he believes it could be a great change in his life. Kevin will never completely stop his consumption of meat, but he now practices reducing his meat intake in his daily diet, and has been successful over the past couple of weeks. The most important piece of information that Kevin will take away from class is that food is not something that should just be thrown in our bodies to fill us up. Food is something that should have a more important focus in Kevin’s life, and help to make him healthy while he helps to make the world more sustainable.
Rocky Mountain oysters (buffalo testicles), may be the oddest food Kevin can remember eating in his almost twenty years of living. Kevin has no fear of any food. He will try anything you put in front of him and he believes this fearlessness in the food realm stems from his father’s fondness of trying just about anything. Although Kevin will try whatever you put in front of him, he will not always enjoy it. In fact, he still holds onto a few of the same food aversions today that he did as a child. Kevin’s eating habits have come a long way from his younger years, when the simple truth was he had a general dislike of almost every fruit and vegetable. Today’s Kevin enjoys most foods although he still has the slight childhood fear of fruits stemming from his younger years of life.
It is important to understand how Kevin gained the food habits he had as a kid and learning about moments in his life that helped to expand and create the eater he is today. Kevin’s habits, tastes, and aversions can be attributed almost exclusively to his surroundings, mainly his family. Up until middle school Kevin could be classified as the typical American kid of the late 90’s or early 2000’s. Kevin like many other young kids of his age group enjoyed any kind of meat, pasta, bread, or any other non-fruit or non-vegetable you gave him. These aversions too fruit can be drawn from Kevin’s family. No one in his family was ever a huge fruit eater, and so as a child Kevin was not exposed to lots of fruits. As a child he thought they all had a bland taste and an even worse texture.
How Kevin became the eater he was as a child can be traced to his family’s eating habits; specifically, the eating habits of his grandparents. Kevin remembers when he would go stay with his grandparents for a couple weeks during the summer each year, and his grandma would make meals filled with onions and other vegetables. Kevin couldn’t stand these meals as a child because they featured such food items, but worst of all Kevin’s grandmother wouldn’t let him leave the dinner table until his plate was empty. The feeling of being forced to eat food made Kevin dislike fruits and vegetables even more. Although his grandma was only trying to help Kevin have better food habits, it ultimately created a regular occurring event that Kevin dreaded. In hindsight, these actions hurt his food eating development as a child. For years this went on and it was not until Kevin got into that his middle school years did his food tastes and habits develop.
The singular moment when Kevin’s eating habits began to finally expand can be traced back to seventh grade and a trip to a neighborhood friend’s house for dinner. Typically, they ate what he liked such as, pizza, hamburgers, and pasta, but on that night they had something Kevin had never tried, chicken Caesar salad. Now Kevin was faced with two options: not eat and go hungry or force himself to eat the “dreaded” vegetable called lettuce, which he never ate simply because it had no taste, and he did not like the crunch of it. Kevin chose to eat the salad and to his surprise he realized that salad was not as bad as he had made it out to be in his head. Kevin’s first “leap” into salad opened the door to ending his childhood eating habits; soon he was eating broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn, and his personal favorite, asparagus. Why was Kevin able to try salad at this moment in his life rather than earlier? It was the perfect storm for changing his food habits. He had reached the age in his life when he was trying new things all the time and food was one of those “new things.” Also when teenage boys are around their friends they never want to show they are afraid of new things. Reaching this point in Kevin’s life was critical to establishing the type of eater that he has become today.
Today, Kevin does not necessarily have a specific label as an eater, he will eat everything; sometimes too much of everything. He often has the problem of overeating, which is a common problem among Americans today as seen by the rise of obesity across the country. Kevin runs about two miles a day, he justifies in his head that he can eat whatever he wants because he will just run it off the next day. Every so often Kevin has a period of about a couple of weeks to a month where he will try to eat more healthy, steering clear of the fried and over processed foods and sticking to salads and other healthier options. In order to take his food habits to the next level Kevin hopes to move from periods of healthy eating to eating healthier at all times in his life. Kevin’s family and his cultural surroundings have shaped his eating habits from the day he was born and continue to play a role in how he eats today. As Kevin continues to grow up and learn more about the negative effects of eating poorly he challenges himself to implement eating healthier foods into his everyday lifestyle in order to help him live a longer happier life.
Kevin can honestly say he has learned more about food in the past three and a half months then he has in the past three and a half years. He has never been one to critically think about his eating habits, from what are the specific foods he eats health affects to where does the food come from. This has been the biggest change that ISS 310 has brought to Kevin’s life and he believes it could be a great change in his life. Kevin will never completely stop his consumption of meat, but he now practices reducing his meat intake in his daily diet, and has been successful over the past couple of weeks. The most important piece of information that Kevin will take away from class is that food is not something that should just be thrown in our bodies to fill us up. Food is something that should have a more important focus in Kevin’s life, and help to make him healthy while he helps to make the world more sustainable.
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