When I was in 6th grade my family and I moved to Kronberg, Germany. Visiting a place and living there are two different things. When you live in a place you must adhere to the culture, respect the traditions and of course be willing to except new social norms such as the food choice. When I lived there, we always ate meat. Whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner, some type of meat was involved. We ate lots bratwursts, schnitzel, pork and beef. We had a joke in my family that whenever we move back to the states we would all become vegetarians. I noticed that in the United States a lot of meals are served with the side of vegetables or fruits but in Germany the meals were served with even more meat. The vegetables grown in Germany are usually used in stews or soups rather a side. These social norms of Germany influenced how and what we ate as a family with every meal, especially when we went out to eat.
This social norm can be connected to the societal issue one being health issues such as cancer and the other to obesity/nutrition. By eating too much meat a person can become overweight very easily. While we as humans need protein in our body eating meat with every course, three times a day, seven days a weak is not healthy by any means. A study proved that 60 percent of the men and 43 percent of the women in Germany are overweight due to meat consumption. This meat consumption can also lead to the risk of getting cancer. If a person eats too much red meat it has been proven to increase the risk for colon cancer. While Living in Germany my family and I did not encounter cancer, however we did experience the weight gain. Over the course of living for one year I gained 15lbs. Based on this analysis I believe that the social norm should include eating meat like the Healthy Eating Pyramid suggests, however with a side of vegetables or fruit for a variety of nutrition.
Greetings, I’m Jake. Here is a link to my post!
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/03/food-choice-and-social-norms-5/
I can relate to what you went through in Germany, though I have never lived outside of the United States. I visited Egypt for 2 weeks when I was in 10th grade and spent the majority of days eating traditional Egyptian food (delicious, by the way). It was a bit eye opening eating pigeon, which is completely normal in Egypt, as I do not know of a place in the United States I could order pigeon. Another social norm that I observed while I was there was the overwhelming amount of dishes that involved plants and/or lacked meat. Our diet here, and in Germany, is heavily reliant on meat, but there are plenty of healthy alternatives out there!
Hey, I’m Ian. You can check out my post here: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bJb. Your post drew me in because you mentioned you lived in Germany, I think that is awesome. Our societal issues both dealt with being healthy or unhealthy. My social norm dealt with my cousins and I eating watermelon as a competition while your social norm is eating meat for every meal. I can’t say I disagree with meat as a side dish though. Who doesn’t love meat? But from a health standpoint you are correct, in order to prevent health complications, a proportionate amount of vegetables should be served.