Sarah Ash, an associate professor in the department of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences and the coordinator of the undergraduate nutrition program, explained Americans’ ways of eating today by examining social, economic and scientific factors that existed during the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century last night.

     “Americans are living to eat instead of eating to live,” she said.      

 Ash teaches over 1,000 students a year in a wide variety of classes, including one on U.S. food history.

“This presentation was about the understanding of relationships Americans have with food through history and learning,” Ash said.

Ash’s presentation included different topics such as the first health reformers, the television, technology and science as they influence Americans and foods.

“A lot of food issues that we have today chase back to food reformers,” Ash said.  “They focused on how you shouldn’t have anything stimulating.”

Daniel Lucas, a library worker who attend Ash’s presentation, said he found the effects of morality and features on Americans’ diets are based on missed information from health reformers that Ash discussed in the presentation.

“We’re in the same place we started back with our eating habits but perhaps we moved more to a scientific basis,” Lucas said. 

Ash said the country is very young.

“Our ancestors sought food that was sweet to their diet,” Ash said.

In addition to American history, Ash said Americans apply chemistry and technology to foods.

“We have an idea that our morals for food are based on a technology-driven country,” Ash said. “I try not to be negative about it but it’s hard because we’re so into technology and it makes it easier to access any foods we want and now it’s a hobby.”

    Cindy Wanny, a senior in biochemistry, said the program inspired her to choose healthier eating habits and take advice from health professionals.

“Now I have seen people being careful about their dietary habits,” Wanny said. “I am sure that there has been a larger change in the eating habits of society.”

At the end of the presentation samples of popular foods from the ’30s through the ’80s were available for tasting. The dishes included a 1950s fruit cocktail and Spam buffet party loaf, a 1960s Tang pie, and 1940s M&M’s.

“We have a notion that stimulating substances are now okay,” Ash said. “We have access to a tremendous variety of foods and it is also inexpensive, which contributes to our overconsumption of foods.”

Ash also talked about television and its effects on the importance of foods.

“To me it’s fascinating that if you watch the Food Network you see a lot of sexual image or appearances,” Ash said. “Because of television, food has become secondary. People are not aware of what the chef is making.”

Ash said food programs have lots of slow motion and more emphasis on the foods chefs are making.

“In the sexually aspect of food networks, eating is a pleasurable activity,” Ash said. “It gets pretty roguery in the programs.”

Ash said Americans are just as gullible as they ever were and people should probably eat less and exercise more.

“In the late twentieth century quantity reappears as a theme of ‘right eating’ with moral values that remain part of our collective consciousness,” Ash said. “There is a much younger cultural association.”