What is it about Americans and food? We love to eat, but we feel guilty about it afterward. We say we want only the best, but we settle for--and even heartily enjoy--junk food. We're obsessed with health and weight loss but face an unprecedented epidemic of obesity. Perhaps the answer to this am- bivalence lies in our history. The first Europeans came to this continent searching for exotic spices. Instead, they got the lowly spud. The first cash crop wasn't eaten but smoked. Then there was Prohibition, intended to curtail drinking but actually encouraging more creative ways of doing it.

The immigrant experience, too, has been one of dissonance. After all, assimilation means eating what "real Americans" eat, but our nation's food has come to be defined by imports--pizza, say, or hot dogs. And some of the country's most treasured cuisine--southern cooking--comes from people who arrived here in shackles.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that food has been a medium for the nation's defining struggles, whether at the Boston Tea Party or the sit-ins at southern lunch counters. It is integral to our notions of health and even morality whether one abstains from alcohol for religious reasons or eschews meat for political ideals.

But strong opinions have not brought certainty. Americans are ambivalent about what they put in their mouths. We have become suspicious of our foods, especially as we learn more about what they contain.

And yet, the ritual of food still thrives in the American consciousness. It's no coincidence, then, that the first Thanksgiving holds the American imagination in such thrall. As the following stories show, it's what we eat--and how we share it with friends, family, and strangers--that help define America as a community today.

The colonies: Old ways in a new world

Wild rice: Harvesting tradition

The American Tavern: A revolutionary meal

Slaves: They changed what we eat

The gold rush: California cuisine

Chinese takeout: In praise of chop suey

Age of expansion: National cuisine

The Civil War: Battlefield rations

Meatpacking: Don't read this over dinner

Health food: Utopia in a cereal bowl

Prohibition: The booze-ban backlash

Sliced bread: The greatest thing, period

Refrigerator: The birth of cool

Timeline: A history of food in America

Going global: The world's table

WW II: A wolf at the door

Prepared products: Fresh from the can

Fast food: A national treasure

Gayelord Hauser: Healthy celebrity

Seeds: In praise of variety

Pork: Building a better pig

Immigration: A tasty melting pot

Supermarkets: High tech at the checkout

Red, white, and blueberry: What is American cuisine?