What's the best description of how you eat?

I'm health conscious when I can afford to be, but usually I just eat whatever's available.

I'm health conscious when I can afford to be, but usually I just eat whatever's available.


Basically, so am I.

What's a traditional diet?

Traditional.  I like meat and can't let it go.  I do try to eat healthy, though. 

What's a traditional diet?


For North American Anglophones, the traditional diet consists of mainly meat and starches like potatoes, bread, corn, etc... also native vegetables like squashes, leafy-greens, and others are staples of the average diet. The typical "well-rounded" meal here consists of a serving of meat, a serving of starch, and a serving of vegetable. The main meats are beef, poultry (chicken and turkey mostly), and pork, but many people also consume wild game products (venison, moose, fowl, wild swine, etc...) that are killed by either someone in the family or by a close friend (since wild game is not typically sold by grocers).

Depending on one's particular ethnic background, significant variations may occur. In Mexico (and with many Mexican-American families) one sees much more rice, beans, chiles, and use of animal products that are not traditionally used by North American Anglophones .

The cuisine of the North American Francophone population, mostly centralised in the Canadian province of Québec but also present in other parts of Canada and in the American state of Louisiana, also differs much from the traditional Anglo diet. There is also a major divide between the cuisine of the Québécois, Acadians, and their relatives the Cajuns. Food in Québec is very similar to food in the rest of Canada, but is also heavily influenced by European (specifically French) cuisine. Moose was at one time common in the more rural areas, and stews are a common thing. Acadian diets contain much more seafood, as most Acadians are located in the Maritime provinces. Cajun food is an entirely different monster. The diet consists of more seafood (such as crawfish and shrimp, among others of course), more rice, and the food is much spicier. Common Cajun dishes are crawfish étouffé, boudin sausage, and the world-famous gumbo.

In all the socio-linguistic categories, geographical location also plays a large role in dietary constitution. However, with the growing reliance on Supermarkets and imported foods, most fruits and vegetables are available year round in every part of the US and Canada. Also, with the urbanisation/suburbanisation of the US and Canadian populations, wild game is becoming much less a staple of the North American diet than it once was. And what a shame, because it's very good. All this is more or less standardising the typical American and Canadian diets, so there is much less variation. There are a few other forces at play here as well, such as the waspification of ethnic-whites and more recently other minorties as well. An example would be found among the Jewish-American population, where the traditional dietary stipulations of Kashruth are more commonly ignored in favour of the standard (Anglo) American diet, and therefore it is not uncommon to find a Jewish person chowing down on a ham sandwich and washing it down with a big glass of milk (a very unkosher concept indeed).