Slashdot Mirror
Think I'm Not American? Pass the Hamburgers.
purkinje writes "Immigrants and their children may choose to eat American food as a way to fit in, a new study found, which may help explain why immigrants catch up to the country's obesity levels in 15 years. The researchers cast doubt on some subjects' Americanness, asking if they spoke English or saying they had to be American to participate; this provokes what psychologists call stereotype threat, the fear you'll confirm negative stereotypes about your group. White participants weren't affected by these comments, but Asian-American participants were more likely to list quintessentially American foods — burgers, BLTs, mac and cheese — as their favorites when the researchers called their status as American into question. They were also more likely to order and eat those dishes, consuming an average of 182 more calories than their non-threatened counterparts."
A funny hybrid of these scenarios came up when I saw the little Mexican (I mean REALLY Mexican, most likely anchor babies as I know several of the moms were illegals) kids next door with Taco Bell. It made me laugh, because essentially Taco Bell is an awful version of fresh Mexican food you'd generally not choose if you had the ease of access to the real deal in that town. Yet it's still Mexican(ish) and convenient, and cheap, so they got both sides of the deal.
America doesn't really have a "food identity" though. It's all just bland, greasy meat smeared with hot sauce, or burnt bacon with hot sauce, or stuff that is sold as "cheese" in the US, industrial sealant in the UK and most of Europe, and illegal in France and Switzerland.
They eat some pretty disgusting stuff in the US, usually made by taking something that wasn't brilliant to begin with, then either boiling it until it's grey or burning it under a hot grill, then dumping hot sauce on it.