It's amazing how strong this mental erasure of food is, to the point of overriding individual tendencies. I recently lent my car to a guy who is the epitome of

It's amazing how strong this mental erasure of food is, to the point of overriding individual tendencies. I recently lent my car to a guy who is the epitome of do-it-yourself. He lives in a tiny house that he built himself, complete with electricity, running water, and sewage. He drives ancient cars because he would rather know how to fix every part of them than have an actually reliable car. He doesn't cut his own hair, but he does odd jobs for a friend in exchange for amateur haircuts. He works construction because making commitments longer than a month or two out undermines his sense of independence. He avoids getting medical care because it's something he doesn't understand. So what's in my car when I get it back? A 7-11 pizza slice container. This guy doesn't cook -- at all. The guy who connects his own sewage line, who is so obsessed with relying on his own understanding and judgment that he won't go to the doctor, will put anything into his body, from any source, without question, as long as it's an easily recognizable form of food. I wouldn't put too much stock in traditional foodways, either. The people who practice them are happy to do so on weekends and special occasions and are grateful for the easier option that fast food and frozen food provide them, because traditional foodways tend to assume that the people executing them are not working full time. Traditional foodways that are resistant to change are a small step up from fast food anyway. With few exceptions, they're just as deadly to people who have sedentary lifestyles. The physically strenuous lifestyles and financial restrictions that made them make sense in the past are mostly gone.