The Cooking animal
Michael Pollan’s article The Cooking Animal, describes the decline of home cooked meals and its effects. Cooking, he says, is what separates us from animals. It’s how we became civilized. By making us come together and share food, we learn about each other and ourselves. Although its importance, cooking is rapidly declining in modern times. What was once a daily ritual is now becoming a special occasion. Replacing cooking is convenient, yet horribly unhealthy, processed foods thus worsening the already increasing obesity problem. ”The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity” (Pollan 583). Pollan explains the importance of home cooked meals and it’s correlation with obesity and how we have fallen in the trap of the corporations. He explains how the mass producers made hard to make meals cheap, processed, and convenient leaving us to be forever doomed unless we made dire changes. Pollen raises many thoughts and facts about the importance of home cooked meals, all of which I completely agree with. Cooking is what separates us from animals. When our ancestors learned the ability to cook the new nutrients allowed them to evolve differently. Cooking not only provided us with much better nutrients but provided us with the means of creating our culture. When we gather with other people and eat together, we share ourselves (Pollan 582). When I first read this article the above statements just clicked with me, it all just made so much sense. I knew that cooking is important but crediting it for mankind’s evolution was new to me. When I read this part of the article I couldn’t help but to imagine a group of Neanderthals eating around a fire, slowly creating their own culture. Cooking is very important to many great cultures and can tell us much about said cultures. My family are big advocates of our Mexican culture so food is definitely very important to us. I’ve eaten with American, Indian, Lebanese, Vietnamese, and Egyptian
Cited: Pollan, Micheal. "The Cooking Animal." The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader. By X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 581-85. Print.