While I was studying my business degree in undergrad, I had a fascinating marketing project which my friend and I really enjoyed doing. My teacher inherited several old issues of different magazines, dating back to the 1950’s-1970’s. The assignment was to pick a theme in the magazine and analyze its presence and development throughout the issues. One of the magazines offered was Family Circle, which was the one we chose for this assignment.

My friend and I decided to analyze the food ads in the various issues which were available. Even though our study was flawed since we lacked three decades worth of issues between the late 1970’s to the earlier part of the current decade, we noticed that the ads fell under three themes: foods promoting different health components it contained (ie – an ad promoting the benefits of eating almonds), “diet foods” (ads promoting that a particular product was low in fat) and “convenience foods” (an archetype being Betty Crocker products).

I don’t recall all of the points of our analysis, but there were a large number of convenience products in all of the issues in the earlier issues. At the time, this was quite educational since I didn’t know when such products like Betty Crocker came to the market. Sociologically, it made sense since during that time in American society many women started working and didn’t have as much time for “home-making” tasks and therefore needed easy products to make in lieu of making baked goods from scratch.

In comparison to more recent issues, there is a great emphasis on convenience and diet items, in addition to emphasizing different foods favored by kids (since this magazine caters to moms, despite that yours truly is a loyal subscriber).

We greatly enjoyed this assignment because it was different and encouraged us to examine society through a different perspective. Even though some of the particular items have changed, the tendency toward and the reliance on convenience foods still exists. Unfortunately, some of these foods aren’t necessarily that healthy due to the preservatives added to these products. So it appears that we have to choose (for those people who are aware of the other side of the discussion) between the pleasures of convenience or health preservation.

I feel uncomfortable proclaiming that we should do away with all microwavable dinners, processed cheese, and prepared lunch-ables because a large segment of our society simply isn’t at that level yet to make the changes in their day-to-day lives. People are on the run and find it hard to set aside time to actually prepare their meals and therefore rely on the ease of buying a cereal bar or a meal at a local take-out restaurant. Since I know what it’s like to be in that situation and have exhibited similar practices, I understand the struggle. Yet, at the same time, I think that people should make more time for “slow food” in their lives – less fast food, and snack meals and more home cooked, family-oriented meals. Even making the decision to have 1-2 sit down meals a week can be a great start. By the way – aren’t we Jews lucky that we have shabbos?

A few weeks ago I decided to make a batch of granola to have for breakfast for a few days instead of having either dry cereal or oatmeal. It was great change, and I noticed that week that I actually prepared all of my dishes that I ate that work week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). It was a good feeling, even though I didn’t actually grow or prepare the ingredients. But hey – there is always room for growth!

I got this recipe from Aviva Allen’s website and you can get it by clicking here.