Topic 3. Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare.

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live?
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


Sample essay 1

Man, through the ages, has undergone many changes, from a period when he hunted for his food
to the present era when man is dependent on preprocessed foods. During this period not only has
man changed his mode of eating but his whole lifestyle as well. In pursuit of more in this
competitive world, man no longer has time as he once had. He is caught in a race against the
clock. A person who finishes more in lesser time is considered more efficient. This pressure to do
more in less time has affected his eating habits as well and, as a result, man no longer has time to
cook food. Early man's only objective was to seek food to sustain him and his family. Nowadays
finding food has taken a back seat to other priorities, such as career and education.

Food is no longer of that importance. This is not an encouraging trend. People are too dependent
on preprocessed or precooked food, which no longer has the freshness it once had. Such foods
loose their mineral and vitamin content and are not as healthy as fresh food. That is why the
number of diseases is also rising. People have also shifted to high calorie content food like French
fries, pizzas, and ice cream, etc., which is causing obesity, fatigue, etc. As man is becoming busy
and too involved in his busy schedule, he has no time even to take care of his own personal needs.

Furthermore, cooking is an art which is dying out. People once enjoyed cooking . It was a means
of eliminating stress and tension. People were once able to relax during this time and reflect on
their lives.

People may tend to argue that by using precooked and preprocessed food they are efficiently
using time and can use this precious time saved for other purposes. But is it really worth it? This is
a question whose answer can invite much speculation about whether by saving this little time we
are inviting lots of other problems, which could easily be avoided. It is actually making our lives
not simpler but more complicated. We have lost many of the simpler things in our lives, like the
simple acts of selecting our evening meal, preparing it, and enjoying it with our loved ones, and
we are worse off for it.

Sample essay 2

Nowadays, wherever we turn our gaze, we can see different types of food that are easier to
prepare. For instance, we can buy frozen foods in a supermarket and just prepare it in a couple of
minutes, whereas before it could have taken us maybe hours to prepare this kind of meals. I would
accept that this so-called improvement has changed our lives, but I believe that there are some
drawbacks as well.

It is true that these kinds of food do not involve hard work to prepare, but food that is easy to
prepare generally has some artificial ingredients mixed in it that makes it "easy-to-cook". If we
take time to read the ingredients, we would definitely come across words like preservatives or
artificial flavorings. It was just a couple of days ago that I came across a newspaper article which
stated that someone was poisoned because he ate this type of food. He was hospitalized for almost
a month.

Not having to cook has also taken the fun out of cooking. Cooking is an art, but in today's world,
this is no more true. People are so busy with their work that they just rely on this simple foods.
The invention and production of this foods have made people lazy not only for cooking but also
for a well family get-together. It was not like former times when families would sit together and
eat freshly baked food. Instead, they are getting these artificial things with minimal nutrients in
them.

Cooking in the yesteryears was much better than today's. People would spend more time in the
kitchen, preparing the food in the way that they liked it. This brought families closer together and
also contributed to the high quality and nutrition of the food. Granted, people are busier nowadays
and do not have as much time as they did in the past, but I believe that people have forgotten the
importance of healthy, fresh food and of the time a family spends together preparing the food. So,
I would say that having food that is easy to prepare has had many disadvantages.

Sample essay 3

It can not be doubted that our eating style has encountered a revolutionary change in the last few
decades. It is the change in the type of food that has had the greatest influence. Not only have the
recipes of certain food types have been altered, but also absolutely new ones have been created.
Examples include yet are not restricted to beef hamburgers, potato chips, and cola drinks. All of
these changes contribute to making food preparation as fast and easy as possible. It cannot be
neglected that modern cooking facilities play a dramatic role in this trend.

Some people regard this trend as a spoiler of our lives. Their argument focuses on two main
points. First, many newly emerged types of food have not the essence of a "complete meal" as
defined by nutritionists. To add to the problem, these food types are often served alone. In fact,
there are many medical reports warning people from depending upon such fast meals in their food.
Other reports indicate a high potential of malnutrition among those who are "addicted" to the
common duet of burgers and cola.

Second, the advantage of gathering family members around a meal at home is lost. Fast prepared
food types are usually eaten outside home. With the absence of regular family meetings,
relationships are likely to be weaker.

Others think that fast prepared food types do improve our style of life. This opinion comes
especially from busy people, working wives, and younger people. They believe that we have many
things in life more important than eating. Time spent on food preparation is considered wasted by
them. Wives will have more time to take care of their families' souls not just stomachs. Family
relationships will get stronger. Business men and women will have more time to concentrate on
their business without worrying about food arrangements. In general, people will have a greater
opportunity to take care of their minds and hearts. Reports estimate the time spent on food
arrangements as a large percentage of our lives.

I agree with that food preparation should take its necessary time and care. Otherwise, the time
saved in food preparation can lead to longer times of headache or even of staying in hospitals
suffering from malnutrition.

Sample essay 4

The twentieth century has brought with it many advances. With those advances, human lives have
changed dramatically. In some ways life is worse, but mostly it is better. Changes in food
preparation methods, for example, have improved our lives greatly.

The convenience of preparing food today is amazing. Even stoves have gotten too slow for us.
Microwave cooking is much easier. We can press a few buttons and a meal is completely cooked
in just a short time. People used to spend hours preparing an oven-cooked meal, and now they can
use that time for other, better things. Plus, there are all kinds of portable, prepackaged foods we
can buy. Heat them in the office microwave, and lunch at work is quick and easy.

Food preparation today allows for more variety. With refrigerators and freezers; we can preserve
a lot of different foods in our homes. Since technology makes cooking so much faster, people are
willing to make several dishes for even a small meal. Parents are more likely to let children be
picky, now that they can easily heat them up some prepackaged macaroni and cheese on the side.
Needless to say, adults living in the same house may have very different eating habits as well. If they don't want to cook a lot of different dishes, it's common now to eat out at restaurants several
times a week.

Healthful eating is also easier than ever now. When people cook, they can use new fat substitutes
and cooking sprays to cut fat and calories. This reduces the risk of heart disease and high
cholesterol. Additionally, we can buy fruits and vegetables fresh, frozen or canned. They're easy
to prepare, so many of us eat more of those nutritious items daily. A hundred years ago, you
couldn't imagine the process of taking some frozen fruit and ice from the freezer, adding some
low-fat yogurt from a plastic cup and some juice from a can in the refrigerator, and whipping up a
low-fat smoothie in the blender!

Our lifestyle is fast, but people still like good food. What .new food preparation technology has
given us is more choices. Today, we can prepare food that is more convenient, healthier, and of
greater variety than ever before in history.