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Zhaorui Huang
Nature/Society
Atsushi Akera
30 November 2012
Ethnographic Essay II: Not Just the Calories
Introduction
Why do we eat? From the biologys point of view, we eat to get the energies we need to
move, to think, and basically to live. After studying our food culture through ethnography, it was
shown this is no longer true, no longer the reason why we eat. Society has affected why we eat,
and how we eat. Over the thanksgiving break, I took note of what, when, where, and how we eat.
This included dinner with friends at the RPI commons right before thanksgiving break, lunch at a
local diner on the road with some not too close friends, late night breakfast with some old close
friends at Dennys, causal usual branch with my family at our local restaurant, and of course, the
Thanksgiving dinner with family. In the beginning, I was not interested, thinking this will be
boring, but I ended up with many interesting observations I never really noticed before. In the
end, the reason we eat is not just to get energies anymore. It has become a social experience.
Also, the society encourages in many different ways to eat more than we need to eat, more than
we want to eat.
Eatinga social experience
Did you eat yet? Wanna come eat with me? I hear this very often when I am in my
room with my doors open. We dont like to eat alone. Eating has become something we do with
our friends, family, and people we want to talk to. While I was eating my last meal at the

Commons before Thanksgiving, I noticed most people there were not eating; they were
socializing with eating on the side. Dinner has become the time to update your friends on how
your day went. Most of the people at the Commons were in a group of two to six, laugh and
talking with each other. Most of the people are talking more than eating. Many of them sit there
and listen with their empty plates for up to half of an hour, taking a sip or their soda once a
while. Usually, the bigger the group, the longer it takes them to eat. I also noticed a trend on
how often people used their cell phone. The people sitting alone check on their cell phones often,
while the active big groups just have them on the table.
When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of a lot of food, and family reunion. After actually
paid attention to the details, much bigger portion of the time was used to hang out with the
family. I arrived at my step sisters house for dinner at around 4 pm. From 4 pm till about 5 pm,
we updated our families on our latest news while watching the football games on the TV. Actual
eating took place from about 5pm to 5:30pm. When we were stuffed with food, we told more
stories about things we have done. After our stomach made some valuable room, we devoured
the deserts. Then we talked about more stories that we thought of. At the end of the day, I
remembered more about the interesting stories than how the food tasted.
Another place the promoted socialization was Dennys with my old high school friends.
Right when I walked in, I heard the new catchy popular song along with the bright and warm
coloring of Dennys. I also noticed American history related pictures on the way, giving a feeling
of half history museum and half home-like. Most of the booth were seated for two people but can
easily fit four when additional silverwares were added. I can easily imagine couples enjoying
their romantic dinner at the low lighted booth. I quickly also noticed the child booster seat, 55+
senior menu, and healthy foods menu, and children coloring papers, making Dennys suitable for

almost everyone to socialize. The drinks arrived very quickly before we even ordered our food
while the food took over 30 minutes. The drink definitely quenched us to talk even more.
Overall, we were at Dennys for almost two hours, and the actually eating time was less than 15
minutes. I felt like it was more like we rented the booth to talk and the food was just the extra.
Eating is not just because we feel hungry anymore. It has become something to do with
friends and family, whether it is going out or at home. The society as a whole has turn eating into
a social experience. In many ways, eating has bonded us closer together.
Super-Sized Society
It is no surprise we as a society are now eating more than ever. At each of the location, I
took note of how much we eat, and why do we eat so much. Starting at the Commons in RPI, the
buffet style of eating allows us to eat more. Walking down different sections of already made
food, it is like food shopping for the stomach. We grab whatever that looks good, as much as we
want. After eating what we got, we can get even more if we want to. Only things stopping us
from eating are the pain from the oversized stomach and fear of getting too fat and unhealthy.
Similar all you can eat foods are available in a lot of other places as well. Dennys offers all
you can eat pancakes for only around $5. My local diner offers all you can eat breakfast for about
$10. So much food and so much variety, it would not make sense to not over eat.
Variety is only one of the reasons we eat more than we need. On average, it takes about
15 min to actually eat my food. It was faster for finger food, and a little slower for the
Thanksgiving dinner. It takes time for the food to get to our stomach and for us to realize that we
are food. When we eat so fast, we still feel hungry when we already ate enough food. Very often,
I would eat a huge meal when I am really hungry, and wonder why I ate so much afterwards.
Especially for fast foods, after shave down two hamburgers, I would feel fuller than I want to,

but when I was still eat that second hamburger, I still felt hungry. It was not until afterwards that
I feel the effects.
The prices of food also effects how much we eat. At Mcdonalds, It is cheap to order five
hamburgers from the dollar menu. While in diners, most people only order one hamburger. The
low cost of the food due to industrialization and cheap materials like corn definitely help us to
eat more. People tended to eat more cheap processed and mass produced food.
I also noticed a trend in the size of portions of food and drinks. The amount of food I can
fit on a typical dinner plate is too much food for me. During thanksgiving, the dinner plate was
even bigger than normal. As a result, I unconsciously got even more food to fill the empty spaces
on my plate. At the two diners I observed, I also noticed all the food filled the whole plate. If the
burger didnt, the fries that came with it did. All of the food on most of the plates looked like it
contained more than the recommended amount of calories per meal. Many times, I would find
the food on the plates are just a little more than what I want to eat, but I felt guilty not finish my
food. So I ended up shaving the last bit of food down. Since almost everything has bigger
portions than what we want to eat, almost every place offers boxing the food to go options.
However, many of the food I took home ended up spoiling in the fridge after a month or two
anyway. The cups we use to hold drinks are quite large too. At all the places, I would see the
cups for drinks were at least 16oz. For soda, thats over 60g of sugar and over 200 calories. And
thats not counting the free refill we get. I also noticed drinks were provided as early as possible,
so we can have some calories to sip on while looking at the menus at the diners.
It is not all our fault that we eat so much, society encourages us in many different ways to
eat more. From bigger portions, buffets, finger foods that can get eaten really fast, and cheap
food, it is easy for us eat more than we need, more than we want.

Conclusion
I am aware that my pointed of view is not completely neutral. Since I lived in China for
12 years, I feel like what I think is a normal portion of food is smaller than what most Americans
think. Eating with chopsticks definitely make eating finger food seem really fast. Also, amount
of people I observed over this ethnography is very little. Peoples behavior may very well be
different for different area, social status, and cultures. From the other sides, people I observed
might think what I thought were interesting normal. For some people with high energy
requirements, like athletes, eating 4,000 calories a day might not be too much for them. Overall,
my observations may be opinionated, but they still support my findings.
At the end, I was surprised I had learned so much from watching people eat for four days
at different locations. Before society stared impacting us, during the hunters and gathers time,
the only purpose of eating is basically gain energy to do stuff. Now, in the 21st century, eating is
social event. We try to find friends and family to eat with us, to talk while waiting for the food
and eating it. We also try to find food to go with other gathering events, like meetings, reunions,
and parties. Socializing is eating and eating socializing. Not only this, sociality is also
encouraging us to eat more. Food and drinks everywhere are now bigger portions, with refills. If
you dont like a certain types of food, dont worry, walk two steps and there are five more types
of food.