There’s practically no place where you can go and grab a cup of coffee that doesn’t serve food with it. So we can ask ourselves only one question – when did food become so important? Not only are we constantly talking about food and making memes a la “me without food” or “when someone offers me food,” but we can go to the other extreme as well, and be quite picky when food is concerned. Bottom line: everyone is obsessed with food, for one reason or another. So, we tried to understand this trend of the Generation Yum and see if it has more good or bad sides. Take a look.
On the positive note
Eating is a sociable activity
First of all, if you think about it, it’s always better to eat with someone than doing it alone. This is the reason why many cafes offer different types of dishes lately, and the trend of going to a restaurant to grab dinner is more and more popular. Just as sports and music were the bonds that connected friends, food has joined the club. Millennials flock to restaurants daily, and it’s an activity that many of them simply adore. The bar has been raised even higher in the last couple of years when many restaurants wanted to be different – vegan, vegetarian, Mexican, gluten-free restaurants can be found all over the globe, and millennials seem to enjoy them quite much.
Eating is healthy
Regardless of the title of this paragraph, we will not be stating the obvious. However, it seems that millennials found out about the benefits of food, so they try to pay extra attention to the way they eat and their overall diet. Many of them stopped eating meat, dairy products or even gluten, knowing that it’s not good for their body. This is a good thing, as they are fully aware of what good things eating resistance starch, for example, can do to their body. Could it be because of the technological advances and the myriad of articles that are out there for everyone to read, or is it because we have different options and we tend to choose the healthiest one? Be as it may, being a picky eater and paying attention to the things that you eat can seriously enhance your health – not only physical but mental as well.
Food is photogenic
With the rise of popularity of different applications such as Instagram, the demand for food skyrocketed as well. It seems as Instagram, and similar apps have motivated people to not only eat good food but prepare ,it in an aesthetically pleasing way. It’s not only important what you eat, but you how to eat it. Another reason why food is important in this, photogenic department, is that it’s there for a short period. A meal at a restaurant is not like the AirBnB apartment that you rented last year – this dish is present only for that moment as it’s meant to be digested. It’s the memories that remain, and many tend to advertise that certain meal and eat it because they want to. This business is extremely popular at the moment, and it’s the reason why the food industry will continue to grow even more in the future.
On the negative note
Being obsessed with food can lead to malnutrition…
Having so many options to choose from definitely affects us in many other, negative ways as well. Because many opt for diets to have a healthy and fit body, and combine it with exercises, certain people start developing eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Unfortunately, this problem is very common in the gay community – 6% of all men have eating disorders, while 42% of those 6 are gay men. The constant pressure of achieving the ideal physique can bring one into a dangerous relationship with his body and the food he’s eating.
…and obesity
Other people are on a different side of the Venn diagram. Thanks to the wide pool of dishes and meals that we can choose from daily, certain people’s brains start to find food irresistible, which can, later on, lead to obesity. And things don’t become easier for those who are already obese since their brain doesn’t think about being hungry or not – it only perceived food as something that simply has to be digested, no matter when.
To sum up – yes, this generation is obsessed with food, and there are pros and cons to it. However, as is the case with everything else, you simply need to have control and not let food control you. It’s a great thing that we can eat whatever we want during the day and that we have so many options to choose from, but at the end of the day – that’s food that’s meant to keep your body healthy. So keep it that way.