Band 8+: Nowadays, the traditions and customs relating to the food we eat and the way we eat are changing. Why is this happening? Do you think this kind of change is positive or negative? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

There has been significant changes to the culture and traditions around the food we eat in recent times. This essay will enumerate the causes of these changes, discuss some of the positives, however submit that the negative trumps them all.

Delving into the details, I believe the cultural and traditional changes we have observed as regards the food we eat is as a result of changes to our lifestyle. More people now live in urban areas, live a fast life and their way of life appears more sophisticated. Owing to these reasons, they get their food and groceries from supermarkets where mainly processed foods, genetically modified foods are sold. Also due to the busy schedule of most urban dwellers they tend to eat more factory prepared meals which look aesthetically appealing and takes only a few minutes to prepare. Shifting to these manner of meals has some advantages, some of these is because it allows them to have more time for work, attend business meetings, more time for leisure therefore making them live a more productive life.

Turning to the negatives, our new eating culture has been shown to be detrimental to health. The more people gravitate towards processed foods, factory prepared meals and genetically modified foods, the less healthy their diet becomes and a likely increase in health challenges.These kind of eating habits have been closely linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pregnancy miscarriage and cancer. On the other hand, such medical conditions are rarely seen in societies where natural and organic diets are still well entrenched. In countries such as Japan, Peru and Kenya, where most of the population eat organic diet, the prevalence of these morbid health conditions is very low. This is in contrast to nations like Germany, Canada and Britain, where the food culture had changed majorly to that of processed meals, concurrently the incidence of these devastating health conditions has skyrocketed. This has lent credence to the submission that recent changes in our food culture have significant negative health impacts.

In conclusion, the influence of modernization on our eating culture can help us to be more productive in our work life, however, this cannot be compared to the grave negative impact it has on our health.