Food&Drink, Topic Summary and Questions

[Vanessa]

No: HPFGUIDX 28046

[snipped: much of a really good essay!]
> 
> QUESTION 1: Why do neither teachers nor students ever eat: Rice, 
> pasta, fish, salad, fresh fruit (with the exception of 
strawberries)? They live on a diet of the most heavy and unhealthy 
food imaginable

I think a simple explanation works best; the food is described from 
Harry's POV (I know it's a cop-out...but...).  there may well be 
steaming bowls of brussel sprouts, roast parsnips, and side salads, 
but he's hardly likely to notice these in comparison to the roasts 
and puddings. (We also don't get a blow by blow account of every-day 
meals very often, for all we know they do have a curry every Tuesday, 
and fish on Fridays)
The same is true in real life - I remember, when my mum used to ask 
me what I had had for school dinners, I'd reply "Fish fingers" 
or "burgers", without a mention of the peas, mashed potatos, 
sweetcorn, etc.

> 
> QUESTION 2: What do you think of the attitude towards the "popular 
> drugs" coffee, nicotine and alcohol JKR confers to us by means of 
her books (cigarettes are never mentioned, alcohol mostly has 
unpleasant consequences and nobody ever drinks coffee in the 
wizarding world)? A clear message for Muggles like us or a sign that 
wizards are simply  different and don't need certain things?

I think some of this may be due (wait for it) to Harry's POV.  At my 
secondary school (that's 11 - 18) I know for a fact that several of 
the teachers used to imbibe in the lunchhour at the local pub (The 
Primrose), and many of them were smokers.  I didn't, however, find 
this out untill I was 17 and started frequenting the pub at lunchtime 
myself, or indeed, untill I was allowed to venture into town during 
lunchtimes, and would catch the teachers smoking in dingy coffee 
shops.
I would imagine that wizards and witches have their own weaknesses, 
especially 'magic' tobacco (c.f. Gandalf for details).  The teachers 
at Hogwarts are obviously to professional/cunning to get caught!

[skip some Q's]


> QUESTION 5: Vernon and Dudley Dursley are fat. Aunt Petunia is 
> skinny, in spite of sharing the same meals. So far, we haven't 
heard  of fat wizards, albeit their food is, to say the least, 
hypercaloric.  Might this be an indication that Petunia is the one 
with yet  unrecognized magical powers?

I think the more likely explanation is that, after running around 
after Vernon and Dudley, and worrying about Harry, Petunia has a 
metabolic rate which would outstrip an atheletes'!  I can think of 
several families in which 'well-rounded' men and children are 
constantly serviced by a haggard, skinny, weary mother, who, even at 
mealtimes, is constantly getting up to check this or that, worrying 
about how everyone else is finding the meal, and ends up pushing her 
food round her plate until it goes cold...
>