Convenience food helps companies by creating growth; but what is its effect on people? Disastrous, according to an historian at Queen Mary, University of London. "For people who think cooking was the foundation of civilisation, the microwave... is the last enemy... The communion of eating together is easily broken by this device that liberates family members from waiting for mealtimes... The companionship of the camp fire, cooking pot and common table, which have helped humans to create collaborative links for at least 150,000 years, could be broken."

Meals have certainly suffered from the rise of convenience food. The only meals regularly taken together in Britain these days are at the weekend. Indeed, the day's first meal has almost disappeared. In the 20th century the leisurely carnivorous British breakfast was replaced by the cornflake; in the 21st century, breakfast is vanishing altogether a victim of the quick cup of coffee in Starbucks and the cereal bar.

Convenience food has also made people forget how to cook. One of the apparent paradoxes of modern food is that, while the amount of time spent cooking meals in Britain has fallen from 60 minutes a day in 1980 to 13 minutes a day in 2002, the number of books and television programmes on cooking has multiplied. But perhaps this isn't a paradox. Maybe it is because people can't cook any more, so they need to be told how to do it.

Convenience food also has an impact on health. Of course, there is nothing intrinsically bad about ready- to-eat food. But these days it is easier for people to eat the kind of food that makes them fat. Three Harvard economists, in their paper "Why have Americans become more obese?", point out that, in the past, if people wanted to eat fatty hot food, they had to cook it. That took time and energy, which discouraged consumption of that sort of food. Today mass preparation of food has taken away that limitation.

译文：

    方便食品通过增加产量来促进公司发展，但是它对于人们的影响是什么呢？对于那些认为烹饪作为文明社会基础的人而言，微波就意味着死亡。大家一起进餐的美好时刻很容易由一种心得发明而打破，它让人们免于去等待进餐时间。食品历史上第一次伟大变革处于破灭的危险当中。营火、蒸煮罐和餐桌合为一体帮助人们协作生活已有15万年的历史，而这种关系即将被毁灭。

    传统的用餐模式确实遭到了新兴方便食品的冲击。目前，在英国，仅有的正规形式的一同进餐是在周末进行，富裕人家一直努力来保留这种归属感的象征。的确，每天的第一餐已经几乎消失了。在20世纪，英国休闲早餐因玉米片受到冲击；在21世纪，早餐正在消失殆尽，它成了新巴克速溶咖啡和麦片粥的牺牲品。

    方便食品也使人们忘记了如何烹饪，现代饮食中存在一个明显的矛盾：花在烹饪食物上的时间已经从1980年的每天60分钟降为2002年的每天13分钟，而关于烹饪方面的书和电视节目却大量增加。但也许这并不矛盾。有可能是因为人们已不再会烹饪。所以他们需要学习如何去做。也或许是因为人们买书仅仅是因为业余爱好（就像高尔夫和游艇）而不是为了去做家务。烹饪已不再是家务而已经变为一种业余爱好。

    尽管每个人的生活都离不开厨房，但是厨房器具日渐成为一种摆设而不是去使用。MS的新书《买高价品》就是针对那些愿意花钱的中层水平的消费群体而写的。他说海盗锅（发热量几乎是其他炉灶的两倍）的工业模式促使推进了家居“厨房如影院”潮流的发展。它们的价格从1000美元到9000美元不等，而75%左右却从未用过。

    方便也影响着食物的健康。当然，就方便食品本身而言并没有什么坏处。人们没有比吃一个苹果更健康的了，所有超市都出售一系列有利于你健康的方便食品。但是人们想吃的苹果的数量是有限的。目前，吃到使身体发胖的食品更加容易了。三个哈佛经济学家在他们的论文《为什么美国人变得更加肥胖》中指出，在过去，如果人们想要吃高热量食品，它们必须去烹饪。好吃的薯条需要两道工序，一次煮，一次炸。需要花费时间和精力是人们降低了这类食品的消耗量。大量的现成食品取消了这种限制。如今任何人都不用非得去写薯条并且亲自烹饪了。谁有这个时间呢？