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Fast Food Replaces Grandma's Cooking

Across the globe, traditional diets fade

By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 2, 2007 9:54 AM CDT

(Newser) – Every nation has its traditional cuisines, but in today's fast-paced, globalized culture, cheap, fatty Westernized food is crowding out ancient preparations and presentations. Diets define who we are, Time reports, and in the modern world, once-unique food is becoming culturally homogenized. Global influences traditionally enriched flavors and techniques; today, the changes are less beneficial.

A large midday meal in the company of several generations of relatives is a relic of more agrarian times when women stayed home. Children fail to develop a taste for traditional flavors; instead, they want what they see on TV. And worldwide brands are truly everywhere: "I've never seen a village where you couldn't find a Coke," says one researcher.

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Children receive food at a dining room run by the Spanish NGO, Children Without Frontiers,  in Matagalpa, Nicaragua May, 4, 2007.  Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega will inaugurate on May 5, his new social assistance program called Zero Hunger'' aimed at helping the poorest 75,000 inhabitants living in rural communities...
Children receive food at a dining room run by the Spanish NGO, Children Without Frontiers, in Matagalpa, Nicaragua May, 4, 2007. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega will inaugurate on May 5, his new...   (Associated Press)
G.B. ENGLAND. London. Girls eat hamburgers in a fast food restaurant in Poplar, east London. 2005. (LON71105)
G.B. ENGLAND. London. Girls eat hamburgers in a fast food restaurant in Poplar, east London. 2005. (LON71105)   (Magnum Photos)
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