Bibliography

References

Bloom, Harold. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. 1st ed. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009. Print.

García Márquez, Gabriel. Chronicle Of A Death Foretold. 6th ed. London: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.

Katie, Chocolate et al. "Chocolate Covered Katie – The Healthy Dessert Blog". Chocolate Covered Katie. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Katie, Chocolate. "Thin Mint Cookie Overnight Oats". Chocolate Covered Katie. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Wicks, Joe. Lean In 15. 1st ed. London: Bluebird, 2015. Print.

Conclusion

Overall, we can see that food language has varied greatly from traditional cookery books to the small digestible information found within Goodful and Tasty videos. The dramatic increase of social media outlets has allowed access to a number of different ‘gurus’ into our personal lives. Joe Wicks being the main example, he was able to utilise Instagram to its full potential, using colloquialism and hashtags (#) Joe built a rapport with his viewers. It is almost impossible not to see him anywhere as he has dominated every social media outlet, from Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter. Information is merely a finger tap away, no longer are we bound to researching for hours on end from books in order to find what we are looking for, it is simply within our reach in a matter of clicks.

The idea of instant information has impacted on the way in which we digest and understand things, if a video is longer than 30 seconds more often than not people get distracted and lose interest. Health has stepped forward in recent times, more people are aware of what they are eating and what they shouldn’t be eating. With this being the case we can see why people are so infatuated with health gurus like Joe and Katie. Joe has the ability to show you how to make a healthy dinner in a matter of seconds, whilst Katie does the same but incorporates the ‘bad’ in a healthy manner. Without social media this take on food would not have become as popular as it is today, thanks to these outlets more people have access to a number of different ways of cooking and new ideas. I, for one, am so glad that I found Joe as my attitude towards food has now changed… For the better.  

Is Vegetarianism for you?

There was one novel that I read when I just turned 18 that really made me consider becoming a vegetarian. That novella being Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, A Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Now, if you aren’t familiar with this book, let me give you a quick summary. Santiago Nasar, a young man who is thought to have taken the virginity of a young woman named Angela Vicario, is murdered by her brothers. The story is non-linear and throughout you learn that the village was aware that the murder was to take place, but no one did anything to help.

Now why did it make me want to become a vegetarian I hear you cry!

Well, throughout the novella it is laced with grotesque images of meat and they always reference to a significant ‘smell’ of Santiago Nasar. The most significant image for me was the scene where they describe his murder as though they were gutting a pig and that really highlighted to me that there really is little difference between the gutting of a human and the gutting of an animal.  

 “Santiago Nasar’s horror when she pulled out the steaming guts to the dogs. “Don’t be savage,” he told her. “Make believe it was a human being”

Nasar appears to have the exact same outlook as myself, as you can see he is truly horrified as he witnesses his maid skin and gut a rabbit before his very eyes. The barbarity is too much for him and little does he know that he too has the same fate as the rabbits.

 

“Trying to finish it once and for all, Pedro Vicario sought his heart, but he looked for it almost in the armpit, where pigs have it. Actually Santiago Nasar wasn’t falling because they themselves were holding him up with stabs against the door. Desperate, Pablo Vicario gave him a horizontal slash on the stomach, and all his intestines exploded out.”

The most poignant part of that image for me is not the guts exploding, but rather Pedro’s struggle to locate the heart. Referring to what he knows best (he is a pig farmer and slaughterer), he reduces the human body to an animal no longer distinct in character. Nasar becomes yet another pig to slaughter, essentially a lump of meat. This imagery really made me consider the idea of eating meat in another light, why is killing an animal any different to a human?

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This notion is heavily laden in today’s society, aside from religious reasons for not eating meat, there has been a great increase in the number of vegetarians and vegans in the world. Documentaries such as “Cowspiracy”, which confronts the impact of mass meat farming on our environment, have convinced many people to opt out of having meat on their plate. Not only will this help the environment, but it will save a lot of animal lives. So, if you’re like me and find it difficult to remove meat from your diet (thanks mum and dad), or if you just could not imagine having a meal without it. Try to go 1 or maybe even 2 days meat free, the environment will thank you for it and so will the animals you saved!

Goodful - Healthy Food Videos

“Inspiration for living a more balanced life” – Goodful

Thanks to the introduction of rolling videos on Facebook (roughly 15-20 short videos in succession of one another) finding new recipes and new dinner party ideas are no longer limited to cookbooks or online cooking resources. This new accessibility means that many people (young and old) have the chance to recreate these recipes at home, but what is it about these videos that have made them so popular?

As you can see these require little effort to engage with them, in a matter of 40-80 seconds a whole meal has been prepared before your very eyes. Unlike cookery programs that normally run for at least 30 minutes per show, with roughly 2-3 recipes shown in that time, these short videos allow you access to a multitude of recipes in a fraction of the time.

The only words that we do see in the video are simply a list of the ingredients as they go in, there is no elaborate voice over describing what each ingredient is bringing to the table. The simplicity of it all highlights that the food is the main attraction of the video, the lack of description is shown through the actions in the videos. There is no need to be directed as the direction is visibly clear throughout, although, if you do require any further instructions there is always a link posted beneath the video.

Danny and I have attempted to make several of the recipes we have found on Goodful, the only time we ever use the further instructions is solely to obtain the list of ingredients; rather than manically trying to scribble them down as you watch the video (which I will admit I have tried doing in the past, until Danny kindly pointed me in the right direction). However, the only thing that these videos are severely lacking in, is a connection to the host. Unlike Joe and Katie, there is no story – there is no connection to the food that you are going to recreate and eventually eat. It is essentially there to just satisfy your food cravings.

Is there an issue with the lack of connection? 

Due to their popularity, I would have to say no, as we can gain a connection through our own personal adaptions to the food we are being presented. By adding your own adaptation this allows you to show off your own skills to your loved ones and make them a meal that means something to you. You can start to make your own food stories thanks to the convenience of Goodful and use them as "inspiration for living a more balanced life".

Sugar - The Sickeningly Sweet Sinner

What do you associate with the word ‘sugar’?

Images of sweet shops, filled with an array of different goodies – ones that I could easily polish off in a short amount of time given the chance. Happiness, joy and perhaps a rather large sugar rush? All of these associations appear to portray sugar in a rather positive light. However, in recent years sugar is no longer viewed in the sweet and positive way in which we have grown to love this food. In fact, sugar is now becoming the enemy thanks to Jamie Oliver and his campaign for a tax on sugar. Even Amsterdam’s head of health service, Paul Van der Velpen, has gone so far as to say that sugar is in actual fact a drug. (Full Article)

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Are they wrong? Well, let us go back to our association with the term sugar. The terms: sugar rush and sugar fix, all ascribe to the notion of a thrill. We want to eat something that will fill us with pleasure for a matter of moments. So, if we were to replace the subject of what we are describing to an illegal substance would we need to adapt our description in any way? Not at all. 

Words such as ‘addiction’ and ‘cravings’ are associated with both illegal drugs and our beloved sugar. I am sure all of us have craved the sweet smooth, creaminess of chocolate the same way in which a drug addict craves the sweet hit that their preferred drug gives them. However, we appear to distance these two acts, even though they are essentially the same thing.

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If we binge too much on sugar we gain weight, increase our chances of diabetes and increase our risk of heart disease. Yet, we still crave sugar? Joe Wicks even admits to having a sweet treat now and again, ‘Guilty’ became his catchphrase for when he felt the need to indulge. By using the term ‘guilty’ we can understand Joe’s association with sugar and desserts. He knows that by indulging he is being ‘bad’ to his body, hence why he feels remorseful about his addiction. However, that doesn’t stop him.

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With the rise of Facebook videos, instant sugar fixes are now available as virtual fixes. Tasty being the best page for indulgent food videos, all of their food videos are decadent and appealing. No longer are we bound to descriptions of foods and recipes in cookbook, but we not have the ability to visualise exactly how the recipe should look throughout each process. This heightens more senses than the standard approach to cooking and makes it easier for novices to concoct something up as they have a step by step visual guide. Food videos give us another dimension of the term addiction, as even I can admit that I am addicted to living my cravings through watching decadently sweet food videos online! 

Join me on my next post where I will be discussing Tasty's much healthier sister, Goodful and how meat is not as popular as it used to be! 

Chocolate Covered Katie – The Queen of the Healthy Snack

As you can possibly tell from the title, today’s post will be centred round the internet sensation that is Chocolate Covered Katie. A girl after my own heart, Katie loves a sweet treat and would you believe her favourite snack is chocolate. With a similar outlook to Joe Wicks, Katie began with a food blog and on this blog she would post recipes of her healthy chocolately creations just for the fun of it. Again, very similar to Joe she began to yield thousands and thousands of followers. Her ever increasing group of followers has led to her to be the writer of a blog that is now “the #1 source for healthy comfort food recipes on the internet”. Katie has also released a cookbook called Hello Breakfast! but today I will be focussing on what made her blog so approachable to her legion of followers.

I first discovered Katie when I was researching new recipes for overnight oats. Danny is obsessed with them but was getting tired of the recipe offered in Joe’s cookbook, so trawling through the depths of the internet I discovered these:

Thin Mint Cookie Overnight Oats 

The thing that was so attractive to me about this recipe wasn’t the fact that you could have chocolate for breakfast (everyone’s true dream) but rather the way in which Katie sold this recipe to her followers. She depicted an image that tied into her explanation of how she concocted this recipe, as she was “walking up 14^th street in DC this past weekend, I almost ran right into a troop of Girl Scouts who’d set up camp in front of the Trader Joes, (Girl Scouts are smart… they know where the crowds will be!) Later that morning, one of my friends arrived at brunch with two boxes of Samoas in hand. There is no escaping Girl Scout cookie season. Might as well embrace it!”

Seeing as I am from the U.K and have never visited America, this little story allowed me to picture in my own mind the hustle and bustle of American life. By linking this recipe to a story, Katie is able to build a connection between recollection and recreation. This little anecdote, not only makes you want to read onto the recipe but it gives you a personal insight into her life and really helps you understand who is sharing their memories with you.

Again, much like Joe, Katie’s tone is conversational, friendly and reminiscent. With almost all of her recipes there is a short little story or anecdote to really immerse you and sell the idea of how whatever you are about to create, will remind you of the real thing. What with this being a blog, there is less of a formality than if this were a cookbook. In contrast to a cookbook where there is a small brief description of the recipe, rarely is there an in depth depiction of what inspired this recipe to come about. Whereas, Katie has the ability to use her blog to really open up to her followers and give you a small personal insight into her life. 

Blogging offers something which traditional cookbooks cannot, a personality.

Katie has truly adapted social media for her gain, her site is laced with permalinks to Pintrest, Instagram and Facebook. She constantly engages with her followers, she asks questions on her site to really understand what her followers want. Social media allows you to gain an understanding between yourself and your followers, it maintains relevancy. It’s as though that person is really a part of you and your life as you have a connection with them virtually. Katie has really honed in on this concept and by being so open she has managed to maintain a huge following and it may also have something to do with the fact that her recipes are delicious! 

Avocados - The Great Green Superfood

Avocados – possibly the biggest food internet sensation of the past year. Everyone and their mother have been talking about the little green super-fruit and its health benefits. They contain vitamins B5, B6, C, K and the list goes on, they contain more potassium than a banana and there has even been studies to suggest that they can prevent cancer, as well as aid in weight-loss. What more do you want from a fruit?  

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My first introduction to the fruit was actually found within Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, where they are seen as a significant symbol for the protagonist Esther Greenwood.

“Avocados are my favourite fruit. Every Sunday my grandfather used to bring me an avocado pear hidden at the bottom of his briefcase under six soiled shirts and the Sunday comics. He taught me how to eat avocados by melting grape jelly and French dressing together in a saucepan and filling the cup of the pear with the garnet sauce. I felt homesick for that sauce. The crabmeat tasted bland in comparison.”

With The Bell Jar having been originally published in 1963, this coincided with the release of these little green gems into shops everywhere in the U.S.A and U.K. Avocados, were the most fashionable party piece at any dinner party, more commonly known to be stuffed with prawns and Marie Rose sauce to be known as the staple 70’s dish of ‘Prawn Cocktail’.

As you can see, Esther did not like to conform to the conventions of those around her. Rather than swooning at the traditionally chic presentation of the soft crabmeat mounded into the small well of the creamy avocado fruit, Esther longed for the rather unusual combination of melted grape jelly and French dressing. Avocados invoke an almost comforting memory of Esther’s grandfather, this is a great example of food summoning memories of the past. Many people would most certainly turn their nose up at the thought of hot grape jelly and French dressing, yet it fills Esther with great comfort as the strong flavours propel her back to a fond memory that she shared with her grandfather. Food has the ability to take you back; it is as though every time you eat something it leaves a reference on your taste buds, one that can only be reignited when those tastes hit the palette once more. 

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Thanks to the social media movement we are currently faced with, we too are no longer conforming to the traditional standards of food. No longer do we now fear the word ‘fat’, it has now been proven that mono-saturated fat (the ‘good’ fat found in Avocados) can lower cholesterol if consumed often enough. Avocados are now a staple part of a healthy diet in today’s society, they are versatile and adaptable. Due to their intense creaminess, they can be used as a dairy substitute for many, there isn’t many things you can’t do with an avocado now. As you can see from my recipe below, you can even use them to make delicious cupcakes! Hopefully they can be as comforting for you, as avocados were to Esther! 

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Dark Chocolate & Avocado Cupcakes 

I first made these little gems with my cousin Michaela, we were just trying to find a healthy alternative to our favourite snacks. We were so surprised by the outcome of these, they are surprisingly delicious! 

They only take 25 minutes to cook and roughly 15 minutes to prep - so in 40 minutes you have got yourself a delicious snack that not only tastes great but is good for you as well! 

Ingredients

100g Dark Chocolate (I would suggest nothing higher than 70% cocoa as they may become bitter)

200g Caster Sugar 

4 Large free range eggs (make sure they are at room temperature) 

100ml Soured cream 

200g Self raising flour (if you want to be even healthier you could even use wholemeal flour)

300g Ripe avocado flesh 

180g Icing Sugar

1½ r tsp Lemon juice  

    Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4 and line your muffin tin with some paper cases 

2. Break up your chocolate into small pieces and melt gently over simmering water (you can do this in the microwave, but be careful not to burn the chocolate). Remove the bowl from the heat and allow to cool. In another bowl, beat together your butter and sugar until light and creamy. Once they have been beaten together, begin to add the eggs. one at a time (if you add them all at once there is a risk that the mixture will split)  making sure everything is well combined. 

3. Now you can begin to stir in the soured cream, do this slowly. Shortly followed by the flour and the cooled melted chocolate (please ensure this has cooled down enough as if it is too hot it will end up melting the butter you have spent a lot of time and effort to make fluffy). Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes until they are firm to the touch. Once cooked allow them to cool on a wire rack (this stops soggy bottoms and nobody likes a soggy bottom) 

4. Whilst they are cooling you can now make the topping. Using an electric whisk, combine the avocado with the lemon juice until you have a smooth consistency, making sure there are no lumps. Now slowly add the sugar, slowly increasing the speed of the mixer as you go (if you would like to make the icing sweeter just add more sugar, it's completely up to you!) 

5. Once you have achieved the consistency and taste you like spread the icing over the cooled cakes. If you want to make them look pretty you can shave some dark chocolate over the top and Voila! Healthy (ish) cupcakes for you to enjoy! 

Leave me a comment if you manage to have a go at these cupcakes! I promise they are really delicious! Follow me onto my next post where I talk about another famous blogger and their food! 

Joe Wicks - The Instagram Sensation

Now, if you don't know who Joe Wicks is (A.K.A The Body Coach), then quite frankly you have been living under a rock for the past year.

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Joe is the king of Instagram, I was first introduced to him by my boyfriend (Danny) just before he became the household name that he is now. A mobile was thrust in front of my face and I was welcomed to the world of Midget Trees. 

Midget Trees

Ever since then I never really looked back, I followed him on every form of social media, attempting to recreate the food that he made in his short and sweet videos. Joe had this amazing ability of capturing the attention of millions within a matter of weeks and he was an internet sensation.

He now has a fitness DVD and 3 recipe books, with a fourth coming in the near future. We cannot get enough of this guy! But why?

Let us start at the beginning, Joe utilised social media for his own gain. Instagram had recently reinvented itself, no longer fixed to photo uploads, the introduction of 15 second videos sent the social media world into a frenzy. It is here that the #leanin15 tag that we associate with Joe was born.

Joe never imagined how quickly this would catch on, stating in his first cookbook “to begin with, no one was watching my videos, and my neighbours thought I was mad. They often heard me singing or shouting, ‘Bosh, that’s Lean in 15’ and ‘Oooh, midget trees’ (that’s what I call broccoli, by the way!)…To my surprise, within a few months, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world were following along”

Hashtagging (#) and catchphrases were beneficial to propelling Joe into social media superstardom. This created a very relaxed and informal way of viewing healthy food, Joe used social media to create a connection with his followers. It’s as though you have a friend talking you through how to eat healthier and make the right choices. However, you can see that he is not just a fitness robot but he is human too, laced through his posts are photos of sweet treats that we all love to feel bad for eating. Joe even says that he thinks “people respond well to me, because I don’t eat perfectly all the time, and I never pretend that I do.”

This friendly relationship and attitude is carried on through the way in which he writes in his cookbook “Lean in 15 – The Shift Plan”. There is an extremely conversational tone throughout, which of course you could argue is the case in many other cook books. Although, unlike his rivals, Joe maintains this friendly and approachable tone in every aspect of his book. Choosing to stray away from the customary short introduction to the dish paired with a regimental set of instructions that leave you little room to adapt the recipe to your liking. Joe adapts this concept but removes the formality from the method and ingredients.

For example, his recipe for ‘Tomatoes, eggs and chorizo’ lists the measurements for the ingredients with the final one being chopped parsley, which you only have to add ‘if you’re feeling fancy’. In his instructions he offers an alternative to a frying pan lid (which I am sure the majority of people do not have to hand at home), stating that ‘a big dinner plate or a sheet of foil should work’, this really opens up the accessibility of this meal, there’s no longer anything that could hinder your ability to knock this up at home, unless you don’t own a frying pan! He rounds off this recipe by telling you to “Sprinkle with chopped parsley, if you like, then gobble it up straight from the pan”. By suggesting that we should ‘gobble’ it straight from the pan, really highlights the informality of cooking for Joe, this isn’t michelin star cooking, these are recipes that are meant to be easy and fun and most importantly, delicious.

This casual friendly tone and the informality with regards to method, really allows you to adapt each recipe to make it your own and I feel that Joe’s attitude and outlook really makes you engage a lot easier with his cookbook for healthy recipes than others.  Joe’s personality really shines through in all the outlets you can find him on and you can truly see how passionate he is about his work and lifestyle.    

Follow me onto my next post where I will be talking about the most popular superfood of the moment and looking into how it became such a phenomenon!  

Introduction

Food is EVERYWHERE. 

We live and breathe it at every moment (well at least I do). 

If I'm not eating, I am pondering what my next meal will be. Even craving things I know I shouldn't have if I want to look good for that well deserved beach holiday in the summer. 

We live in a society now where everything is pretty much instant. Fast food has been with us for quite some time, but with the introduction of PrimeNow my food cravings that were merely just a small thought in my forever hungry brain, can be delivered to me within a few hours. The best part of the deal being, I don't even have to leave my home, it's all done via an app on my phone. (F.Y.I only on the odd occasion am I that lazy)  

How we view food has completely changed recently too, thanks to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. I don't think I have gone a day without seeing a quick 15 second video showing me how to prepare a fabulous looking dish that looks so simple, yet when I attempt to make it... the end result isn't as promising!

Along with this, I feel as though we are more aware of what we are eating. Clean eating is becoming a really big thing, what we put into our bodies really reflects how we appear on the outside. Essentially, we are what we eat! 

Please follow me on my journey of discovery - in this blog, I aim to explore different food bloggers, their writing style, why we are so obsessed with food videos and how technology has truly revolutionised our relationship with food.