The title essay shows how enslaved Africans used their creativity to adapt and put together a cuisine that helped them to meet the conditions of the New World. The cuisine they formulated was symbolic of their use of food to generate and maintain a hope of freedom. Through the discussion of such things as the history of sugar, its mass production and consumption, to the fulfillment of the preconceived and increased wants/needs of the American consumer, Mintz shows us how eating is influenced by an array of outside forces, inclusive of demands of war,

The United States is a melting pot of cultures and we tend to homogenize the cuisines of other cultures so that we can have our own. We fuse cuisines but we don’t invent cuisines. Our Chinese food is not Chinese food at all but American Chinese food, just like our pizza taste nothing like pizza in Italy. It is in “the course of the development of these new goods, their character is altered, and the manner in which they had been prepared is likely to be modified.” (Mintz, 115) In many situations the foods we re-develop are altered to suit the demands of the ever growing consumer, to save him money, to appeal to a broader audience of consumers thus generating more revenues. The foods we reinvent are in many cases cheapened and simplified. We homogenize these cuisines because our nation is heterogeneous. The consumer industry in the United States relies on the consumer to appreciate and repurchase the products available to them. In order for the industry to generate more revenues it is necessary for each and every product to appeal to a general audience rather than a selected few, this is why we tend to homogenize cuisines in the United States. There are also other reasons we homogenize cuisines. Much like the African Creole cuisine, over time the regional cuisines in the United States fuse together and adapt, however they are not creating a new cuisine, just reinventing an older one. It will take more than 2 centuries for us to forge our own “national” cuisine, (not one of fast foods and processed crap) that is if the American people allow it, but for them to allow it they must want it first.

Since we are a consumer industry, everything that we eat has meaning. Our society is focused on appearance and that reflects on what we eat. Everything containing sugar is thought to be fattening yet “the tendency to snack remains important in American eating habits.” (Mintz, 120) We are centered on exercise and maintaining the “perfect” body structure. This leads to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which are more common in females than in males. These disorders are so widespread because we persistently advertise and focus on the point that anything other than being perfect is unacceptable. We see this in all the models and actors, how they act, how they look, what they, and they foods they commercialize. Britney Spears on the commercial for Pepsi says “hey I drink Pepsi and it’s so good all of you should drink it too!” Jason Alexander tells us to eat KFC chicken, which isn’t even real chicken. So while we are repeatedly told how to look, we are also told to consume all the products that make us unhealthy, sending a mixed message. The problem with bulimia and anorexia nervosa has stricken the majority of the female teenage youth in this country. It is no longer about weight it is more about their insecurities and survival. Women who are afflicted by these disorders feel like they have to do these things otherwise they will not be accepted and thus they will not survive. O

Some topics in this essay:
Sidney Mintz, America Europe, McDonald’s Chef-Boyardee, Jason Alexander, African Creole, French Japanese, American Chinese, American European, , Uncle Ben’s, american cuisine, fast foods, homogenize cuisines, chinese food, fast food, hope freedom, etic approach, food generate maintain, emic etic, rely fast, generate maintain hope, maintain hope, symbolic food generate, meet conditions world, cuisine formulated symbolic,