After seeing such a topic, the first view that comes into my mind is fat, abdominous man with a hamburger or hot dog and a bottle of coca cola in his hand. But this view is not contrived. It is a widespread known fact that most Americans eat a diet that’s too high in fat, cholesterol, and calories, and too low in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and complex carbohydrates. According to the statistics, today, about 65% of adults and 15% of children and adolescents in the US are overweight or obese. The physiological mechanism causing the increase in obesity is no mystery: Americans eat more calories than they burn, and the excess energy is stored as fat. Junk food is very popular in America, and that‘s the reason why Americans are called „fast-food nation“. Their fast food restaurant chains also have been very successful at introducing American style fast food around the world. Nowadays almost in every country you can see such names of fast food reastaurants as McDonald‘s, McChicken, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken etc. where hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, coca cola etc. are provided.
As the melting pot of many different cultures, the US has also become the mixing pot for many different countries, and we have a rich variety of foods to choose from. Americans are all from different cultures, and they adopt other‘s, so you will see that they are eating food from all other countries. What i mean is that Americans eat pizza and spaghetti often even though not all Americans have Italian blood. The same is can be said for tacos and other mexican food. Of course they prepare their food differently. I mean chinese food in America (e.g. Chinese egg rolls) is not the same as in China. That is true for American- Mexican and American- Italian food also. Of course, not all of their food is so fancy. Americans like meat and potatoes very much too.
A second thing to be said about American food is that the US is very big and they have a lot of regional variation. For example, in New England they eat a lot of seafood, in New Orleans they eat spicy food, and in the southwest and Texas, they eat more Mexican food. In cities people are more likely to eat food from other countries, and in the country people are more likely to eat meat and potatoes and corn (the word corn here means „kukurūzai“, not „grūdai”; the British use the word “corn” to mean all grain). It is from the Indian (native American) diet that this come from. Americans also eat a lot of beans (which is from the Indian diet too) and cheese.
What is more, subcultures of America have unique diets too. For example, black people in the south eat a lot of fried chicken and watermelon. While Mexican- Americans eat a lot of Mexican food (e.g.Mexican tacos).
Speaking about corn, in American Indian folklore, some tribes believed that quiet spirits lived inside of each popcorn kernel (and it was almost sacred). When their houses were heated, the spirits would become angrier and angrier, shaking the kernels, and when the heat became unbearable, spirits would burst out of their homes.
With the opening of movie theatres, across the USA early in the 20th century, popcorn became a part of the new excitement. When TV became popular in the 1950s. popcorn sales made a sudden rise. As families started buying television sets, they were changing their life-styles and staying home more and consuming popcorn as they watched television. Nowadays all this became even a tendency. We cannot think of any cinema where popcorn isn‘t sold. Popcorn became an inseparable part of cinemas.
Many Americans are at risk for diseases that are linked to eating too much fat and cholesterol. Surveys have found that only nine percent of Americans eat fruit and vegetable servings a day and, on a typical day, 11 percent consume no fruit, fruit juice or vegetables at all. Fruits and vegetables are very low in fat and contain no cholesterol.
As for the drinks, Americans drink similarily to Lithuanians. They drink juice, milk, water, coca cola etc. What concerns alkohol, whiskey and brandy are probably the most popular hard drinks. Vodka is more popular among young people. Beer is lighter and less rich and actually not such tasteful as European beer.
Another thing about America is that, as i have already mentioned, they eat a lot of junk food. They like chips, candy, cookies, biscuits, soda pop, quickbreads, hamburgers, hod dogs etc. Hamburgers, fries, hot dogs, apple pie are foods that we identify Americans with their culture. Therefore i want to speak about them more.
Hot dogs are also called frankfurters, frank, weenie, wiener, dog and even red hot. A cooked sausage that consists of a combination of beef and pork or all beef, which is cured, smoked and cooked. Seasonings may include coriander, garlic, ground mustard, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and white pepper. They are fully cooked but are usually served hot. Hot dogs are among America‘s favourite foods. According to the statistics, every year, American people consume on average 60 hot dogs.
What concerns hamburgers, i think there is no more american food than hamburger. As the statistics show, American eat, on average, three hamburgers a day. They eat them everywhere, but mostly on the run. It is hard to go more than half a mile in the United States without finding a drive up window ready to sell you a ready made burger to eat on your way to
anywhere. The American hamburger is a relatively recent creation. Hamburgers were not commonly made in America until the early 20th century. The first hamburger fast-food chain was White Castle, founded in 1916 by J. Walter Anderson of Wichita, Kansas. He sold five cent hamburgers along with french fries and colas. White Castle thrived along with other fast-food operations. However, fast-food did not become a significant part of the American landscape until after World War II. Richard and Maurice McDonald chalked out a design for a new type of hamburger restaurant on a tennis court in 1948. By 1990 there were almost 11,803 McDonald’s, 6,298 Burger King’ s, and 3,721 Wendy’ s fast-food establishments in the United States. Other fast-food chains were developed to market main products such as chicken, pizza, tacos, sub-sandwiches, etc. Today, 160,000 fast-food restaurants serve more than 50 million Americans daily. These businesses generate sales in excess of $65 billion annually.