Food is one of the most social gifts we have, and it holds an importance unlike anything else. The bond between mother and child forms over the feeding of that child, with the infants’ body held close and secure, eyes intent on the parents’ face. Before we can even feed ourselves, we learn that food equals intimacy. When families or friends come together, we do so over a meal prepared together in the kitchen. We bond with our friends, sipping wine and chopping vegetables, articulating to each other whatever troubles may haunt us. When predicaments grow overwhelming we turn to comfort food; ice cream for breakups, shepherd's pie for a rainy day, chicken noodle soup for colds. And when we are falling in love, food is offered as the first timid gesture towards intimacy.

Food is such an important part of our livelihood, but in general Americans are beginning to care less and less about the quality of food and more about what is the cheapest way to fill our grocery baskets. The simple intimacy of sharing a meal with loved ones has lost its fashion, and it's not surprising how detrimental this is to our children. Future generations are learning less about what a nutritious and inclusive meal looks like. Growing snacking trends and less meals as a family are beginning to take a toll in the worst way as more than one-third of the American population is obese and suffers from medical conditions from poor eating habits.

Although it is common knowledge that Americans over eat, it is surprising to find we spend less on our food than any other country even though we are eating more. Americans are spending much more on snacks like protein bars, chips and beef jerky, while overall grocery spending has remained almost flat, according to data provided by Nielsen to The Huffington Post. Worldwide, snack sales rose 2 percent to $374 billion for the year ending in March. This means than on average, people are preparing less meals and are less attached to their food in general.

USDA data shows that in 2010 Americans spent 9.4 percent of their disposable income on food, which equals 5.5 percent at home and 3.9 percent eating out. As a nation, we spend far less of a percentage on our food than we ever have before. For example, in 1929 we spent 23.4 percent of our disposable income on food, which equaled 20.3 percent at home and 3.1 percent eating out. People are spending less and caring less about the food we consume, even though this is one of the most basic necessities of life.

Not only are we spending much less of our money on food, we are also eating out far more than ever before. We are also getting more and more of our meals at restaurants to eat at home. Frozen and pre-prepared foods have become the norm in many households because people want to spend less time on preparing meals themselves. What is this teaching our young ones? Well, with what the trends show, we should be more concerned with what we aren't teaching our children, and that is how to cook.

What stands out is the growing dominance of what the studies call the “secondary eating patterns,” that is eating and drinking while simultaneously doing other things, hence why buying snack food has become so popular. Just focusing on preparing your meals and enjoying them has becoming a thing of the past, especially among the younger generations who lack the ability and knowledge of how to prepare healthy and nutritious meals.

One solution to the obesity epidemic would be to start teaching better food literacy in schools. Food literacy entails understanding the systems through which food progresses from soil to table and back to soil: how food is grown, processed, transported, acquired, prepared, and consumed, and how waste is managed. It includes recognizing the impacts on individuals, communities, and the natural world of our food-related decisions and actions.Food literacy promotes the knowledge, values, and skills that enable effective action on behalf of healthy people and resilient communities in harmony with nature.

Often, it is lower-income children that are affected the most by the trend of buying cheap, non-nutritious foods. To ensure every child has access to food literacy education, we must begin teaching low-income elementary children cooking and nutrition to improve our health, environment, economy and future.

We must remind ourselves that food should be used to celebrate, along with the basic sustenance food provides. Having good food available in such abundance is certainly a cause for gratitude, and being able to share it with others even more so. There is little chance that we Americans will ever be able to sit down every day with friends and family for hours on end over multi-course meals; although moving in that direction may help us realize how detached we have become from our food.