On Jul 04, 2004, at 5:35 pm, Ken Stuart wrote:
>> • Second, a number of cultural factors have come into play that tend
>> to increase the amount of food eaten by various sectors of the
>> population.  These include:
>>
>> - efforts, through the culinary art and the food processing
>> industry, to increase the palatability and general attractiveness of
>> foodstuffs
>
> This claim is countered by the fact that the blue-collar people who
> know zero about cuisine and eat the junkiest and least palatable of
> food, are more obese than upper-middle-class white-collar people who
> watch cooking shows and go to expensive restaurants.

I had interpreted the original statement to include things like 
refining, salting and colouring foods rather than fancy sauces and 
carrots carved into roses.  Palatability is all relative anyway- give 
me a plate of microwave curry and chips smothered in gravy, and a plate 
of veal cutlets in a red wine sauce, and I could find you both a person 
who would devour the chips and look in disgust at the veal, and another 
who would be the exact opposite.  Although, in the case of 
"blue-collar" food, palatability equates more closely to addictiveness 
than quality.

Ashley