HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

            After doing farther research I found that dominant discourse means the specific people who have ideas that often overpower other people’s specific opinion. Prior to thinking about the topic it seems that the dominant discourse is held by the media, government, and doctors. As thoughts over the topic of dominant discourse of food continue I find it is a shared discourse. The American people who continue to eat fatty, unhealthy, fast food, consist of over half the country. Doesn’t that put them some how in the dominant discourse of “foodways”?

            After reading the article, “Told to Eat Vegetables America Eats fry’s” from the New York Times, It becomes apparent that the American people do pick what they eat. The people control the food industry by only eating fatty foods. It is a shared dominant discourse. The food industry being discussed in this article is the baby carrot. It says that the people only eat the foods that they are told are unhealthy. The baby carrot company decided to label itself as junk food so that people would feel better about eating its food. The other discourse is the food industries. They have a shared dominant discourse with the people. They are always trying to alter there food to make it seem as fatty or American as possible so that people will buy it.

            When looking at “food as medicine” you see a similar shared Dumont discourse. Medical professionals are always telling people to eat healthy. I am not positive if that counts as food as medicine but it makes scene. It is confusing to me when I see so many doctors who are 300lbs. They control most of the discourse of the topic of food but not the actions required to be healthy.