Horwitz

Horwitz argues that the way in which people eat their food has changed because the way people experience time has changed. She talks about the shift from eating meals at set times in the company of others to eating meals and snacks alone and on the go. The eating schedules of people on long flights gives a good example of how people cannot always plan their time around meals (Horwitz 46). Horwitz’s beliefs that this inability and declining importance of creating schedules around meals is not only something that people on flights experience, but is a growing part of American culture. She also talks about how food-packaging designs have changed to fit this new lifestyle and how many restaurants stay open late to accommodate people’s food needs. Horwitz gives the example of Cambell's Soup at Hand as a product that has capitalized on the new culture of eating, "None leave behind the pot, stove, bowl, spoon, or table more fully than Campbell's Soup at Hand." (Horwitz 42)

a surface area enhanced for microwave radiation and sized to fit a car’s cup holder before being discarded

I think Horwitz’s observations are true, and something I have experienced at college and at home. During the week when I have a busy schedule with classes, working, and doing homework it is usually not easy to find time to meet up with friends and eat a meal. I usually end up grabbing some packaged food from a coffee place to eat while I do homework on a break between classes rather than eating with others. At home I noticed the family dinners that were so common when I was a kid decreased to just a few times a week as I got older. When I got a car and started working or going to friends’ houses more often after school I was rarely at home when the rest of the family was having dinner. Even if I was home, often one of my parents wasn’t home from a meeting or my sister was at practice so I would just make my own food and eat while I did homework or watched tv. With the fast paced and work focused culture I think that it has become more difficult to have a set eating schedule and this means on the go meals are much more common.