final short post

The most interesting thing I learned about food was the importance of breakfast.  Right now I have a fast metabolism, but later in life I wont.  Eating healthy will only become a bigger and bigger deal, so I should probably start while I'm ahead.  It was also learning about where chickens and eggs come from, although I still am not sure which came first.  I have progressed as a writer in building a more solid argument.  I feel as if I can write a better paper than before I came into this class.  I learned to assemble my thoughts in a clear and concise manner before I started to write.  By doing this, I know what direction my paper is headed.  And I am able to keep it more on track.

What has the food come to?

After reading these two pieces I have given more thought to how what I eat is dictated by the media.  From when I was a little kid I was influenced by the television, as it decided for me what was good and what wasn’t.  I wanted Frosted Flakes not because I knew they tasted good(they actually do).  I wanted them because the commercials with “Tony the tiger” were sweet.  Now I think about how everyone went through a Vitamin Water craze solely because in the name it says “Vitamin.”  How stupid.  Is the water better for anyone than normal water on a Vitamin Water-less diet is?  Doubt it, it’s just smart marketing that sucks people in because they read vitamins and assume it is good for the body.

Pollan and Dupuis make the point that the media influences what people want to eat.  The media can relay information from scientists who are all-knowing, and can dictate what is good and what isn’t for the body.  If they find out a new type of vitamin, chances are people would go ape shit for whatever food it may be in.  Main point being that people are influenced too much by the media and news, in deciding what they should eat.  That is why I live by this motto, “eat what tastes good.”  Pollan’s piece also gave some advice on ways to avoid this socialization in the way we eat, in order to know what’s going in, and keep healthy.  Dupuis’ piece was less focused on the now, and gave a broader sense of food and why people eat what they do.  There was a slight history of they first instances of a single person convincing others to eat they way “they should.”  It started with religion but has clearly spread.  Most things we eat aren’t actually food, they are just combinations of different chemicals to form some tasty substance. 

That being said, what exactly is food?  Does it have to grow out of the ground?  Vitamin Water surely doesn’t.  Does it have to be all-natural? That’s what organic is for, right?  Food comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes, so it’s what you make of it.  Keep it healthy, or add lots of powerful tastes.  One way you might not know what exactly you’re putting into your body.  Have caution, but try to keep a healthy, free choice diet.

observations on SE5

I found two topics interesting for these short essays.  Breakfast & Binge Drinking.  Dont think they're related? Guess again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZDv9pgHp8Q

It turns out that eating breakfast helps a person have a healthier diet, with less over eating later in the day.  It also turns out that binge drinking can impair brain function later in life.  This includes memory and speech.  If you haven't seen epic meal time.  You should really watch the video posted above.

Breakfast - A Healthy Start (SE5)

            When looking through my food journal and those of other classmates, one trend stuck out.  What I saw over and over is that not many students eat breakfast during the week.  I’ve always been told that a breakfast helps make your day better, but that is only a claim.  I’ve been told that eating a healthy breakfast will make a student preform better on an exam, but is it true?  Can eating one small meal before starting the day really have such profound effects?  What about health implications?  I know it is bad to eat right before bed, so is it bad to eat when you get up; to eat while the body is still in its drowsy state? 

            To guide my quest for information I decided to revert to the “Health Reference Center Academic Database.”  The article I chose was about the nutritional benefits of eating breakfast.  They surveyed young to middle aged people, “…the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of adults aged 19-to-64-years(Gibson, 1).”  Since college students are typically 18-22 years old, I figured we applied to this age group, despite the missing age of 18.  The participants were surveyed for a week, which yielded to 12068 potential breakfast eating occasions(Gibson, 1). 

            Taking this 12,068 potential opportunities and dividing it by seven days, yields to 1,724 total participants in the survey.  Taking 64-19 gives 45 total different ages.  Now assuming there were an equal number of people for each age, we have 1,724/45=38.31 people per each age.  Knowing that, we can multiply it by the 5 years of college students included in the study giving us 191.5 out of 1,724 total people fitting the category of college-aged students.  To give an easier idea of what I am talking about, that was roughly 11% of the entire study.  Looking back on this I could have set up a proportion with the ages and number of people, but either way I would have arrived at the same conclusion.  Math set aside, we now have an idea of how relevant this information is. 

            The study found that when people ate breakfast, their diet for the rest of the day was drastically improved.  This makes sense to me for one simple reason.  Eating breakfast gives the body energy from food right away, so it has something to run on.  If the body doesn’t get this energy, it will eventually need it later, and probably much more.  Filling your gas tank half way before you run out will let you go a lot longer than running it to empty, then needing a full tank of gas instantaneously, when you really need it bad.  Eating breakfast with carbs (cereal) proved to result in healthier choices for the rest of the day.  Diets lower in fats, SFAs, and higher in proteins and carbs resulted(Gibson,1).  “Compared with skipping breakfast, micronutrient intakes were marginally higher on days when non-cereal breakfast was consumed but 30-90% higher on days where cereal was consumed.(Gibson, 1).” 

            This study shows that a good breakfast can lead to healthier choices throughout the rest of the day.  A good start leads to a good finish.  Breakfast is better had than not, and in the long run, a good breakfast can impact one’s health a lot.  If a person were to eat cereal every morning, then not crave the foods that are quick energy, but unhealthy.  Their body would most likely receive better food throughout their life.  That being said, before when I calculated that 11% of this study was relevant in age to college students, I no longer think that is relevant.  This is because these students will one day become 64 year old men and women, and healthy eating habits aren’t limited to one age group.

Source Citation

Gibson, S.A., and P. Gunn. "What's for breakfast? Nutritional implications of breakfast habits: insights from the NDNS dietary records." Nutrition Bulletin 36.1 (2011): 78+. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 15 May 2012.

observations on food journals

I noticed a few trends in everyone's food journals from over the weekend.  First, they all range from Friday through Saturday.  Second, there is a lot of chicken consumption.  A LOT.  Third, a few people ate oranges.  Maybe they're healthy? Maybe they're just some of the only good fruit in the dining halls? Who knows.  Fourth, it seems to be a trend that people ate (to generalize) at least one meal out over the weekend.  That is all.

Food Diary (Top Secret)

Friday May 11, 2012

9:50

Got out of engineering connections headed to Nagel and picked up a

·      breakfast burrito

o   egg

o   chorizo

o   cheese

o   pico de gallo

o   lettuce

·      Starbucks mocha cappuccino

12:45

Nelson Lunch

·      Ham and American cheese melt

·      Bowl of cantaloupe and yogurt

·      Orange

·      Rootbeer

8:41

·      Jimmy johns beach club on wheat

·      Water

Saturday May 12, 2012

11:00

·      sea salt and vinegar chips from JJ’s

3:00

·      pepperoni cheese steak from south philly

7:00

·      alpha phi formal

o   cheese and crackers

§  goat cheese? Cheddar? Swiss?

o   Bread

o   Chips & guac

o   Chicken with orzo and cooked tomatoes

o   Broccoli carrot

o   Cheesecake w/ strawberries and chocolate straw w/ red strawberry sauce

Sunday May 13, 2012

6:31am

·      water

1:30

·      Omelet with green chili, ham, tomatoes, and spinach

·      Biscuit with gravy (containing sausage and peppers)

·      Glass of milk

·      Glass of apple juice

6:08

·      Pepper

·      Mushroom

·      Sweet potato

·      Lettuce

6:30

·      Cheeseburger melt with grilled onions and pickles

·      Sweet potato

·      Nachos

·      Two glasses of milk

6:48

·      Water

7:30

·      Chicken fried rice and orange chicken

·      Apple juice

EGGS!

A recent meal I had that I enjoyed was scrambled eggs yesterday morning from the omelet bar in Nelson dining hall.  I started with three fresh eggs.  Then I asked to have ham, green peppers, and tomatoes added.  Kimberly, my favorite omelet chef, threw all my vegetables on the skillet.  Once they were heated she poured the eggs on.  We made some casual conversation, the eggs cooked up, and cheese was added.  I then turned it into a sandwich; the breakfast was delicious.  I came away from the dining hall feeling like a champion.  I was ontop of the world, a delicious meal in my stomach, high in protein, and probably other healthy things that are part of that non-fat breakfast.  The main components of this meal, the eggs, are what I will be examining.

It turns out that jungle eggs were the first known eggs to be domesticated.  By 3200 B.C.E. India was domesticating these eggs(Kritchevsky, 558).  The world hadn’t upgraded to the now-famous chicken egg yet; but we were well on our way.  “The first domesticated fowl reached North America with the second voyage of Columbus in 1493. (Kritchevsky, 558)”  The eggs folks ate way back when surely weren’t those of chickens, or consistently, but none-the-less they were undoubtedly eggs.  “Hen's eggs are the most common source of egg nutrition. In 1989 the three largest egg-producing countries were China (140,900 × 10⁶ eggs), Russia (84,600 × 10⁶ eggs), and the United States (67,042 × 10⁶ eggs)(Kritchevsky, 560).”  Hen’s eggs might be the most common, and might be what I ate, but other types of eggs are eaten around the world.  Take caviar for example.  Those are eggs.  And they definitely don’t come out of a hen.  People still enjoy them, but they made a much different type of food.  They make a food with less cooking options.  A hen’s egg can be poached, scrambled, cooked over easy, omelet-tized, and not to mention the possibilities of baking with an egg. 

There is big controversy over what is happening with factory farming of chickens.  It is my belief that this factory farming is mainly for their meat and not for the eggs.  Before the 1920s chicken meat was not common in the American diet. Female chickens were valued on the farm for egg production(Farm, 71).  Chicken meat is a huge part of the American diet.  Today at lunch I had the choice of a chicken or steak burrito.  At dinner they were serving chicken as well.  Its everywhere.  Christopher Cook claims that boneless chicken is the most popular and also the most labor intensive.  The conditions in factory farms aren’t just bad for the animals, but also for the workers.  They are often injured due to the unsafe conditions and high expectations that they are forced to meet.

Laying hens are much different than the broiler chickens that are harvested for their meat.  Here is some information about the economics of these mass produced animals.

 

(Farm, 58)

These 343.5 million laying hens produced nearly 90,000,000 eggs in 2005. See figure below.

(Farm, 73)

With laying hens only the females are valuable.  The males are of no value because they can not produce sufficient body meat compared to the broiler chickens.  They are sorted when they are only 1 day old and the male chickens are simply thrown out where they will suffocate or ground up in a high-speed grinder(Farm, 72).  The hens are forced to lay as many eggs as quickly as possible.  When their egg production slows down they are starved so they will molt and lay their final egg.  The hens are confined to extremely small cages that have been banned in other countries.  But not in America(Farm, 73).

            After all of this research and reading I have discovered more about the brutal truth behind factory farming in our country.  I have uncovered a lot of information, but I have only begun to scratch the surface.  Our economy demands so much food that we must resort to such brutal methods.  Maybe it is more due to capitalism and the selfish quest for money, animal rights set aside.  Knowing what hens go through makes me want to eat eggs less.  But that is easier said that done.  Eggs are one of my favorite foods and one person’s refusal to eat them will do nothing in the big picture to improve farming practices.  In other countries forced molting is banned, or battery cages are banned.  I believe that it would take new laws to really change the way the whole farming industry operates.  This doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything at all though.  I am more curious to find out where the eggs I eat come from.  Are they free range or organic?  Buying these types of eggs is more expensive, and I highly doubt Sodexo concerns itself with such minor problems.  After all they just want to make money too right? 

Source Citation 

Kritchevsky, David. "Eggs." Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon H. Katz. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 558-562. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 8 May 2012.

"Farm Animals." Animal Rights. Kim Masters Evans. 2007 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 57-86. Information Plus Reference Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 May 2012.

Cows and Tomatoes

Pollan’s “An Animal’s Place” although very long, was very interesting.  After reading those twelve pages I feel like I cant remember the first argument he made, but only the last.  He brought up many noteworthy points like why animals need to be killed.  It is one, natural, and two, completely implausible to say that due to their right that they shouldn’t be.  Animals kill eachother all the time, and humans have been doing it for ages.  Although the way animals are treated and killed, is wrong.  The farm he talks of at the end is a very interesting concept.  It appears to be self-sustaining, and the animals all help each other cycle through life.  They aren’t cramped up in square foot cages, pooping on top of one and other like chickens in a factory farm.  They have room to roam and be free, to enjoy life.  That is, before they do eventually meet their end.  This piece was the most interesting due to the evidence that back up the author’s argument.  There were tons of examples of the points he wanted to convey.  There were examples that were hard to read due to the graphic nature of what was being described.  It is sad how heartless we, as humans, have become; and how selfish we are in our conquest to expand and grow.

Estabrook’s Tomatoland had some startling facts.  It started off saying that one third of the nation’s tomatoes come from florida; and then continued to talk about how terrible they are and for the people who harvest them.  Although I do believe many of the points made in this article were true; there were no citations for many of the claims made.  Many points sounded like they were merely assumed, and did not have factual evidence to back them up.  There was obviously reason behind them being said, and probably factual information, but I felt like it was more to prove a point than build a legitimate argument. 

Cook’s “Infographic” touched on many points that Pollan’s writing did.  It really focused in on the malpractices of the chicken industry, and how workers are mistreated.  Workers are subjected to terrible deathly conditions, just like the animals they prepare for consumption are.  In a way it makes me happy to hear that the birds are in a sense, fighting those who do them in.  This brings me to a point that was also covered in Pollan’s writing.  I do not wish pain on the individual person who harvests the chicken.  Chances are, they are an immigrant who definitely isn’t making much money, and doesn’t have many more options.  I would have to be a terrible person to wish someone in such an unfortunate position any harm.  But when it comes to humans as a whole, I strongly say that it is well deserved that we suffer some for what all these “dumb birds” are being put through.  We are destroying them, not literally since populations are through the roof, but metaphorically speaking.  They are being subjected to such inhumane conditions, the people in charge should be in jail.  The problem is the American people.  There is such high demand for such meats, that this seems to be the only option.

...What did you say was wrong with 'MERICANS?

Pollan diagnoses Americans as having an eating disorder for a few reasons.  First off he says that we are constantly going through “fads” deciding new diets that determine how we should and should not eat.  These diets catch on fast and are gone even faster.  They happen for a few reasons.  One, scientists are always analyzing food and the things that make it up.  Nutrients, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, etc.  With this scientific analysis of food, people are told what is good and what is bad even though they cant even see these things.  Surely fats are bad, but he says that they will diagnose a part of something we have been eating for years as deadly.  He lacked an example for this part, but I can see the point he tries to make.  Americans rely too heavily on science for all explanation rather than just human instinct. 

            Secondly, Pollan argues that Americans have a bad style of eating.  Our eating habits are not good or our bodies.  This is true for a number of reasons.  Food is marketed to everyone, and from a young age people eat things that aren’t good for them due to tricky marketing techniques.  Also, food is becoming easier to eat; more and more meals can simply be microwaved.  This causes breaks in what once was the typical American eating schedule, 3 meals, dinner, most importantly with the family.  Marketing techniques also advertise certain foods as “low carb” or “low fat” these words will cause a health conscious eater to buy their product.  Scientists constantly manipulate the structure that makes up most foods, and in return they aren’t as natural or balanced.

            Americans think of themselves as a health conscious people, but the percentage of unfit, even obese, people, begs to differ.  We eat on a weird schedule.  Food is marketed to us in a way that allows us to eat on our own time.  “The result is a nation of antinomian eaters, each of us trying to work out our dietary salvation on our own(Pollan, 3).”  We snack too often, we eat too much, and we have lost our once healthy eating schedule.  The most interesting point Pollan makes is this, the reason for our unfit, fat, nasty lifestyle is not due to the food we eat.  It is due to the way we eat it. 

            The way I eat isn’t really laid  down into any cookie cutter type mold.  It changes daily.  Being a busy student makes this tough, but there are a few rules I try to live by. 

·      One, always eat some fruit.  Why? Fruit is one of my favorite foods, it is sweet, and turns out its healthy for you.  Win win. 

·      Two, eat whatever you want, whatever looks good to you, whatever sounds appealing.  I do keep health in mind, but knock on wood I’ve have a fast metabolism my whole life so why should I start to care?  Anyways, all bad things are pumped out of the body with a little exercise right? 

·      Three, try to touch all food groups, sounds like a 3^rd grade lesson, but turns out the people who told you that were probably right when they said it. 

·      Four, try to eat more smaller meals.  I am all about snacking.  I will eat two small lunches. You may see a problem in that but I don’t.  Quite frankly I don’t care if you do, because I’m going to keep doing it.  Why would I like a food baby?

·      Five, don’t eat too much right before bed.  Why? Someone once told me its bad.  Plus breakfast will taste that much better the next morning.