Eat faster, save the economy!
Well, that's the idea implied in an
article I read in the New York Times Evening Digest called “Fast
Eating, Fast Growing.” The
article, boiled down and simmered, is about a study that examined the
relationship between how quickly the people in a given country eat
and how quickly that country's economy grows. What they found was
that the countries that scarfed down their Big Macs had faster
economic growth than countries that savored their Brie and Foi Gras
(not entirely sure what Foi Gras is, but I'm sure that there are
people who savor it*).
After I asked
myself the obvious question (“Who pays for these rather odd
surveys, anyway?”), I thought for a while and realized that these
findings horrified me. Yes, horrified. I'm all for a good, solid
economy -- we could certainly use one of those right about now, even
what with most “experts” being in agreement that we may possibly,
maybe, just hopefully could be, starting a recovery from our
now-nearly-two-year-old Economic Downturn (or “Troubled Economic
Times,” or “Great Recession,” or “Humbling Reminder That It
Could All Go 'Phissssst' At Any Moment”) -- but I have looked into
my crystal ball (it's actually a Magic 8 Ball and it said, “Unclear”)
and have seen the future.
Three days from
now:
“Hey, Bill?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Yeah, I just
read this study that says that our economy will grow faster if we eat
faster, so I'm reducing everyone's lunch hour to a lunch fifteen
minutes.”
“But, boss ...”
“I recommend
bringing a sack lunch from now on.”
“But, boss ...”
“Or you're
fired.”
“I'll get right
on that, sir.”
Pretty soon we'll
be eating our sack lunches while typing away on our computers in our
cubicles, listening to the insect-hum of the fluorescent lights
overhead. But our economy will be in tip-top shape!
What I want to
know, though, is where in all this economy-improving did the idea get
lost that the reason we want a good economy is so that we can feel
secure and happy, NOT just so that we can have a good economy for
good economy's sake (let's see how many times I can say “economy”
in the same sentence -- that was five).
If an improved
economy comes at the expense of the enjoyment of life, then was it
worth it?
Maybe it's just
the fact that I like food. I enjoy eating it, relishing it, and I
rebel against anything that pushes me to eat faster so I can get on
to doing something else. There's a distinct difference between
slowly chewing a slice of perfectly-seasoned steak, reveling in all
those oozing flavors, and chomping on the same slice of steak before
belting it down the gullet like a frat boy throwing back shots of
Jagermeister.
Really.
Nowhere is it so
written that the more time we spend in our cubicles at work, basking
under the life-giving rays of the fluorescent lamps, the happier we
will be. I refuse to state the clichés here -- Gotta stop and
smell the roses, money doesn't buy happiness, Big Tom's Used Cars:
Best Deals Around! -- but I have to think that there's something
intrinsically worthwhile about savoring your life, and if savoring
your life starts with savoring your food, then maybe the French, who
spend something like an average of a hundred and thirty-five minutes
a day at meals, know something that we Americans, who spend an
average of seventy, don't.
Or maybe I'm
wrong, and we should just go gobble down another burger on our
ten-minute lunch break.
*Foi Gras: the
fattened liver of a force-fed duck or goose.
***
The author would write about this
topic longer, but he's off to interview some ducks and/or geese about
lunch.
[Photo Caption: Is enjoying a meal a thing of the past?]
