Nowadays we all tend to turn or meals into sheer cultural experiences. This is to say, we have let ourselves so much influenced by whatever is being posted on social media, that we no longer care about the amount of wasted food, as long as the food we consume looks in a certain way.
However, besides the waste that is being produced, there is also the issue of our diet that should be our main concern, as not always the food we see online is good for us.

Changing eating habits

While we are so busy trying to copy whatever dish we see on TV, we are also slowly ending up losing the pleasure of cooking. Preparing food, especially the fancy one we see displayed on commercials, can be quite exhausting after an eight hours working day. Therefore, we come fast to the conclusion that we should order instead of wasting any minute on cooking ourselves. The real risk of this fast changing industry refers, nevertheless, to the fact that we tend to lose sight of what we should actually eat in order to be healthy. With all these recommendations coming from all sides, there is so little room for clarity on the topic.

The evolution of our eating standards

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<time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2016-09-27T02:55:14-0400" data-timestamp="1474959314000" dir="ltr">
Tue 27 Sep 2016 02.55&nbsp;EDT
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<time datetime="2018-08-18T07:15:44-0400" data-timestamp="1534590944000" itemprop="dateModified" dir="ltr">
Last modified on Sat 18 Aug 2018 07.15&nbsp;EDT
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<img alt="Omelette with mushrooms" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/52e086644fe4e5425f4104bf18ac7bbbc5faaa28/0_0_5472_3648/master/5472.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d8178cb0dd8c204c175960f524676588" width="700" height="467">
</picture><figcaption dir="auto"> ‘We’ve forgotten that dinner can be as easy as an omelette packed with veg, using whatever’s left in the fridge and ready in 10 minutes.’ Photograph: Alamy</figcaption></figure>Whether you follow dude food restaurants, fine diners or wellness advocates on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/instagram" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" data-component="auto-linked-tag" dir="ltr">Instagram</a>, like many other Australians you’re consuming hundreds of images of delicious-looking food each day. Today meals are prepared and consumed for audiences of millions on TV and social media, or at live events. Eating has become a cultural pastime and what you choose to eat is a marker of your identity.But this isn’t necessarily good news for our diets or how much food we waste. Figures show that Australians waste <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/australians-waste-10bn-of-food-a-year-and-gen-y-is-largely-to-blame-says-report" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">14% of their groceries</a> each week, and up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jun/06/australia-75m-tonnes-food-waste-ugly-food-solve-problem" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">7.5m tonnes of food</a> each year. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/26/australians-diet-worse-than-thought-csiro-report-finds?CMP=soc_567" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">another new study</a> shows we’re not as healthy as we thought.What has foodie culture done to our relationship with food?<img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/13125945e1878a4a3d208696984d85aa274d3a82/0_168_5919_3553/master/5919.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=df185aeb3e39dbd249adba6f722d3f33" width="130" height="78">Numerous academic reviews have highlighted that people’s attitudes towards food have a strong influence on how much is thrown into the rubbish bin. With 50% of us using food-saturated social media at least once a day, and spending around <a href="https://www.sensis.com.au/assets/PDFdirectory/Sensis_Social_Media_Report_2016.PDF" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">12 to 14 hours each week</a> on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, “digital food” is influencing our offline eating. The “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/the-masterchef-effect-20100722-10lsg.html" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">MasterChef effect</a>” has of course contributed to the gourmet going mainstream. But the tilt towards foodie-ism isn’t solely due to the hit TV series. Over 2m food blogs and the filters, flatlays and food porn of Instagram have created a middle-class trend of self-declared foodies.Our standards of acceptable food have become higher, perhaps even unreasonable, to the point where supermarkets turn away food that doesn’t meet rigorous standards. Growers are left with little choice but to toss their produce, a practice that’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/powerful-supermarkets-push-the-cost-of-food-waste-onto-suppliers-charities-54654" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">alarmingly common</a>.“Every time we look at food shows, they show us this exquisite produce and beautifully prepared plates,” Ronni Kahn, CEO of OzHarvest, said on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-08/eat-ugly-ozharvest-founder-wants-an-end-to-food/5656948" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">Radio National</a> in 2014.Once we do purchase the smooth green beans and perfectly round lemons that made the cut, we have the best intentions of showcasing our newly-acquired food knowledge with elaborate recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi or Heston Blumenthal. But, sometimes a better offer comes along, as is the case for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/australians-waste-10bn-of-food-a-year-and-gen-y-is-largely-to-blame-says-report" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">many Gen Ys</a> who plan their meals poorly. Or we might cook with a recipe one night and then feel bereft of ideas for using the rest of the strange ingredients we bought. Time is also a problem.“Social media is flooded with perfect-looking meals, decorated with colourful fruit, veg and edible flowers. The general public don’t have the time to make all their meals look picture perfect,” accredited dietician Joyce Haddad says.Hurried, overwrought and poorly planned: cooking for ourselves has become stressful. Meanwhile, letting others cook for us or deliver our food is becoming too easy, with two-hatted restaurant meals a Deliveroo ride away.We’ve forgotten that dinner can be as easy as an omelette packed with veg, using whatever’s left in the fridge and ready in 10 minutes. Tricked-out classics from the current crop of favourite chefs disguise the fact that many of their dishes, like duck-fat roast potatoes, are based on once-simple recipes. <img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4e70a97db376328efdc57a59102cd651eb7c0a1e/0_1564_4401_2641/master/4401.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=91e5aedbaf2d4eb699ea776061cb3b4e" width="130" height="78">It’s unsurprising that, despite our fixation on food and cooking, <a href="http://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2016/Cmon-Aussie-Your-diets-a-shocker" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">Australians have poor diets</a> that feature too few vegetables and too many indulgences. As we’ve become surrounded by diverse images of food, from #fitspo to #foodporn, our choices have become more arduous. And potentially misinformed, as every new food trend contradicts the last.“I think people are getting really confused. They’re following different diets every week, which is making them cut out or restrict food groups. Then at one point, they’ll lash out on non-core food [processed or high-energy food],” Haddad says.As Michael Pollan argues in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, there’s a deluge of options, information and marketing on-hand when we try to answer the question of what to eat.With that comes the burden of making “good” choices, whether they’re good for your health, the environment or your Instagram feed. Unfortunately, with food now considered a cultural product as much as it is an essential, it’s our health and the environment that are losing out. <h2>
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The rise of the everyday gourmet has created an online food culture that could be making our diets and wasteful habits worse

Is foodie culture destroying our ability to eat simply?

Changing eating habits

The evolution of our eating standards

Juliana L.'s ideas are part of this journey:

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