Reflection of Writ 1133

This course has opened me up to the whole concept of Food Cultures and Values.  While I eat multiple times each day, and pick my foods I never noticed how both the subconscious and conscious decisions effect my life and the society I live in.  Readings from so many different authors and about so many different topics brought a much larger perspective on food from a traditional home cooked family meal to prison, spreads, asian heritages, animal slaughter, economics, politics, health issues, to McDonaldization and our fast paced lifestyles.  These are all such important issues different issues and it was extremely interesting to see how they relate people from all over the world, different eras or classes, genders or races by something as simple as food.  It really showed me that many issues that we worry about can be boiled down, or at least identified in small everyday activities.  And from that even the choices we make on seemingly mundane tasks can have a large impact on society both for the better and for the worse.  I will use this information to make more informed decisions about food. I will use the information to read more into my values, and make choices throughout my life that will impact me and others in the ways I value.  Also noticing other people’s views on Food Values showed me how different people who I assume are similar to me can be.  Showing respect to this is important.  

The research writing in this course was really interesting and useful to me.  I will use information about how to cite, how to begin research, how to use the facilities around Denver to my best ability.  Using short essays and blog posts to develop ideas and creativity before jumping into larger research essays helped the process, as well as getting feedback from classmates was interesting.  The way food was so easily relatable made learning the research writing techniques much easier than say attempting to write research essays on more technical subjects such as science, yet what was learned will be easily transferred to other such topics.

Extended Essay First Draft

An Active Eater’s Manifesto

Ever since I was a child I have spent my days playing tennis, soccer, tag, skiing and biking.  My grandmother is eighty years old.  She plays tennis three times a week, goes swimming each morning, attends lectures at the University of Toronto and finishes the crossword puzzle in the newspaper every evening.  Her whole life she has been an active person through body, mind and soul.  I believe my values of activity and energy in all parts of life were bestowed upon me by her.  I remember early mornings as a child waking up with the sun to walk to the grocery store to get a newspaper.  Before we left we would have a quick bowl of cereal and a glass of water, as she believed we needed the energy to get to the corner store.  While it was not a special meal by any means, it was just the beginning of her food practices that I have come to rely on.  After a few hours of reading the comics, other members from our family would awaken and while they ate a hearty breakfast, my grandmother and I would be eating brunch.  Later lunch followed by what my grandmother referred to as ‘cocktail hour’ followed by a late dinner was her mantra.  All the meals were and are fun and delicious.

Now-a-days I am an elite athlete and as of last fall a full time student as well.  Some days I wake up at five in the morning drive an hour to the ski hill.  I train for a few hours before heading back to Denver to make it to class on time.  After finishing classes I have skis to prepare, stretching to do, not to mention homework.  My days, just like many peoples, are fully filled, mind, body and soul working their hardest.  Fitting meals into my life could be difficult, but I would not survive, let alone excel at the things I want to without healthy energy filled meals.  

Keeping a consistent energy level is necessary to be able to last throughout each day as well as the accumulation of hard days.  An active lifestyle in itself can help to maintain an energy filled body.  Certainly sleep in required, yet my years as an athlete have taught me that certain foods or food practices do not work.  Sugars and caffeines feel good in the moment yet can lead to an energy spike, and then low.  When one is required to be performing well all day, an energy low can be detrimental.  Luckily I have grown up with an energetic and active family which has helped me to develop key aspects of keeping a healthy diet that can maintain the active eater.

My first and most important piece of advice comes not in the form of food.  Water is the key to life.  It is the main component of the human body, yet we rarely consume it.  My grandmother always ensured I started my days with a large glass of water in addition to the orange juice I desired.  She was ahead of her time. According to Dr Susan Shirreffs the ‘pre-exercise hydration status of an athlete is vitally important’.  She goes on to explain that ‘dehydration is common for many athletes’ and that ‘dehydration levels between 2% and 7% of body mass can significantly affect performance’ (Coe and Williams, 262) .  Many people are consistently dehydrated yet are so used to the nagging effects that they do not even notice.  I myself am often guilty of it.  As an athlete we are often told that 8 glasses a day of pure water is the minimum for any human, and those doing physical activity require even more.  The moment you begin to feel thirsty you are already at the first stage of dehydration, yet after spending a day on a cold mountain, a hot chocolate seems more appealing than ice water.  There is a common misconception that all fluids are hydrating this is not true.  Caffeinated drinks may bring temporary energy, but the dehydration they instill is much more long lasting.   It has been found by Professor Patrick Ritz that ‘water intake tends to decrease with age’ though dehydration can be linked to frailty in bone fractures, brain functions (including dementia) impaired muscle function and diseases associated with aging’ (Coe and Williams, 261).  I hope that I, who like my grandmother starts her day off with a large glass of water, will not suffer from any of those symptoms.

The second most important piece of diet I have found is in the practice.  Eating many smaller meals a day as opposed to two or three larger ones can help keep a person consistently energetic without feeling the slowness of over eating or the ache of a starving belly.  This practice helps the body digest nutrients better than shocking the digestion system with a large, hard to consume meal.  In a study conducted by Toschke and Küchenhoff on the relation between meal frequency and childhood obesity they found that “Although infrequent consumption of huge meals appears to favor fat deposition, frequent consumption of small servings adding up to the same total caloric intake does not.”  This means that while a person eating less meals may be eating the same number of calories, fats, etc. the body cannot digest all of it so it stores the energy as fat.  If the food is eaten in smaller portions the nutrients can be digested and used as active energy.  

In order to be able to follow this one must be prepared.  Going from one activity straight to another, you don’t want a vending machine snack to be your only option.  Travelling with trail mix, cut up veggies or some other energy filled snack can help keep you going from one meal to the next.  Again eating portioned foods is important.  Often in American food cultures when people hear of a new diet trend it becomes an additive to their current diet instead of incorporating it. In Pollan’s essay Unhappy Meals he depicts one of our latest health trends as ‘eat more low fat foods, and that is what we did’ yet the original goal of the fad was set about by McGoverns recommendations of eating less fatty meats and milk products (6).  So if eating three large meals used to be the norm, switching to six meals does not mean you eat six large meals.  The food intake should be the same rather spread out over the day with a brunch, or ‘cocktail hour’ in between breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My final piece of food advice should be a part of your life regardless.  Enjoy it. Enjoy the lifestyle you are living, the people you are with and the food you are eating.  If you don’t enjoy the food you will not be able to build healthy habits.  In this case I cannot give food advice as how people prefer their food is their own preference.  Taste is the most important part.  We developed the sense of taste for a reason to detect sweetness which signals carbohydrate energy or bitterness which could be toxic.  Do not as Pollan in Our National Eating Disorder believes we have, ‘lose all confidence in your sense of taste and smell’ when picking out foods (2) .  If you are having to choke down tofu or protein shakes in order to get some recommended health benefit they probably are not working.  They will definitely not work in the long run as you will probably discontinue to consume them.  

Finding healthy foods you like to prepare and eat is the only way you will continue to follow a healthy diet.  So if hamburgers are your top craving then work with that.  Find whole wheat buns, perhaps grilled chicken instead of a frozen patty or substitute fries for salad.  There are ways to work around every desire and no one is the same.  Not even the way we metabolize food is the same.  Pollan states in Unhappy Meals that ‘the specific ecology of your intestines helps determine how efficiently you digest what you eat so the same input of 100 calories may yield more or less energy depending on the proportion of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes living in your gut’ (6).  So finding out what works well and tastes good for you is important and if it that means having a cookie for dessert then I am all for it.  A small indulgence is better than a binge any day and you might begin to find that the more you consistently eat a healthy diet the less you begin to crave the unhealthy one.  This works the other way too so developing habits towards the right side can help with long term change. 

Looking back over my manifesto of an active eater I realize the only way to stay true to one’s food values is to have goals that are balanced and possible to achieve.  Deciding to cut out sugar or fat does not seem to do anyone any good.  My goals are to have a diet that can help me to maintain my active lifestyle for the rest of my life.  Keeping that as simple as possible I believe that this is an achievable goals as long as one puts in a small amount of effort.  Carrying a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated, keeping a consistent food intake by balancing meals frequently and between activities.  And of course opting for tasty healthy choices.  “Worrying about food is not good for your health” Paul Rozin concludes (Pollan, Our National Eating Disorder, pg 4) So eat a cookie if you want to, have a cup of coffee but stay hydrated and stay energized.    

As I write this I can feel my stomach growling and realize it is time for a snack.  I aspire one day to be an eighty year old avid skier with a fully functioning mind enjoying life with the same vigor I do today.  There is no way a body mind or soul can work properly if not being fed enough to fuel it.  So like a nice car a body must always be oiled and fed premium fuel on a regular basis to keep it running perfectly far into the future.

Works Cited

Coe, S., and R. Williams. "Hydration and Health." Nutrition Bulletin 36.2 (2011): 259-66. British Nutrition Foundation, 12 May 2011. Web. 18 May 2013.

Pollan, Michael. "Our National Eating Disorder." N.p., 17 Oct. 2004. Web. 19 May 2013.

Pollan, Michael. "Unhappy Meals." N.p., 28 Jan. 2007. Web. 19 May 2013.

Toschke, Andrea M., and Helmut Küchenhoff. "Meal Frequency and Childhood Obesity." Obesity Research 13.11 (2005): 1932-938. 12 May, 2013. Web.

A History of our Quest for the Perfect Diet

Our American Culture thinks too hard about what to eat and then eats too much of it.  After reading Pollan and Dupuis’s essays on how our society chooses its food, now and in the past I was shocked to see how things came full circle.  Because we don’t have a long food history or culture and no common faith in religion we seem to rely on trends that continually change for advice on what to eat.  This is not working as we don’t even seem to listen to our own advice.  As Dupuis nicely put it “most American’s have listened to sermons of moderation while eating away to excess” (34). 

Instead of looking to find the right combination of foods to have a healthy balanced diet we have looked to change the foods to fit our dietary needs.  The invention of the graham cracker to avoid white bread.  The invention of low-fat foods to avoid getting fat yet “oddly America got really fat on it’s new low-fat diet” jokes Pollan, yet seriously this was the beginning of our diabetes and obesity filled society (5).  Instead of eating regular amounts of home grown vegetables, meat that has been raised well or whole grains we have grown to eating large amounts of food choked full of extra nutrients.  But do the added nutrients do the trick or is it the foods found in nature combined with their natural nutrients help our bodies? Pollan seems to think the whole foods are important.  For example antioxidants appear to help prevent cancer, “at least thats how it seems to work in the test tube.  Yet as soon as you remove these molecules from the context of the whole foods they are found in...they don’t work at all” (6-7).  

Instead of looking for the magic health compound; a vitamin, a calorie, an angel, an antioxidant, we should be looking for the magic foods.  Dupuis raises the question “What to eat?”.  Through his food history he discovers that “we are a nation that has always tried to eat a perfect diet but we have always failed” (43).  I think the key to a perfect diet is simplicity.  Simple combinations of meat, grain, vegetables.  Simply what is available and local.  Simply thought out without looking to the  magic solution. Simply enough that fits on one plate and simply not eating once one is full.

Choices in Food Selection.

I decide what to eat based upon health, ease and cost.  I eat what is available to me at a cheap price as efficiently as possible to give me the nutrients and energy that I need to perform well each day.  Since eating at the dorms food is easily accessible to me I spend those saved minutes to find the most healthy and tasty option that I can find within what is there.    I use values of healthiness and taste to inform and influence my choices because these are beneficial to me on the long and short term.

Eating More Often to Cure Obesity

The obesity epidemic is slowly taking over the developed world.  People are eating more and more food.  They are driving cars instead of walking, and playing video games instead of sports.  These subtle lifestyle changes are becoming detrimental to their health as not only body image is at stake anymore.  Obesity is a precursor to many serious health problems such as diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease and cholesterol problems.  Changing ones lifestyle can be a difficult endeavor.  Becoming more healthy and active when overweight can seem a hefty task but this is necessary especially for parents.  17% of american children are overweight and this is most strongly associated with parental obesity and low physical activity, according to Andre Toschke and Helmut Küchenhoff (1932).

Toschke and Küchenhoff completed a study to link meal frequency to childhood obesity.  They measured the stature, sex and weight of 4370 German school children between the ages of 5 and 6, while their parents filled out extensive surveys on all the risk factors for obesity (1932).  The risk factors included number of meals served on plates per day, level of education of parents, obesity of parents, length of breastfeeding, hours of television watched, snacking throughout the day, eating alone or in front of the television, siblings and smoking during pregnancy (1934).  The main thing being surveyed was daily meal frequency and content.

While the other factors clearly play into the overall lifestyle and reason the child is obese, the number of meals eaten each day showed significant data.  Surprisingly the more meals eaten per day, the less obese the children were.  There were many more obese children eating three meals a day than there were eating 5 or more meals per day.  

Children eating only three meals a day are likely to snack throughout the day. Having a meal defined by a plate lets people finish a meal feeling satisfied whereas an open bag of chips will continue to be nibbled at until it is also finished.  This can result eating past the point of being full.  Eating only three times a day would leave the child extremely hungry at meal time meaning they are more likely to gouge on their food. According to Toschke and Küchenhoff “infrequent consumption of huge meals appears to favor fat deposition while frequent consumption of small servings adding up to the same total caloric intake does not” (1937). The body is able to process fats and other nutrients well in small portions but when it is faced with digesting huge meals it resorts to storing the food as fat on the body. 

Another example Toschke and Küchenhoff quoted was a food restriction trial on boxers.  In order to lose weight to fit into a weight class one half of the boxers consumed only two meals a day each 600 calories, while the other half consumed six meals a day at 200 calories each (1937).  Both groups showed a similar amount of weight loss but boxers eating two meals lost more muscle and less fat than those eating six meals.

Children suffering from obesity as children are very unlikely to undo this problem going into adulthood.  The changes need to be made while children are still making habits and these habits must be healthier.  While there are many ways our society can combat childhood obesity as easy one will be to instigate multiple small meals throughout the day.  This will help their metabolism digest their food intake instead of storing it as fat as well as giving the children consistent energy throughout the day so that they can be more active as well.  The children in this study alone were only 5-6 years old, there is no way they have to continue their unhealthiness into adulthood.  Parents need to help to monitor the food intake of their children as a way to combat obesity.

Works Cited

Toschke, Andrea M., and Helmut Küchenhoff. "Meal Frequency and Childhood Obesity." Obesity Research 13.11 (2005): 1932-938. 12 May, 2013. Web.

Research for SE 5

http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/1030735032

Comments of Classmates eating habits.

After reading classmates’ blogposts I found a very common breakfast food to be eggs in some form or another.  Also people tend to eat more than three “meals” a day, including an extra early breakfast or late dinner as well as a snack sometime mid afternoon.

Three Day Food Journal

Wed May 8 2013

9:45 - Egg, English Muffin, Yogurt, Water

12:00 - Muscle Milk

1:00 - Sandwich; ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo. Fries, Water

5:00 - Sushi; California Rolls

9:00 - Roast Chicken, Roll, Greens

Thurs May 9 2013 

9:30 - French Toast

1:00 - Sandwich, Soup, Pop

7:00 - Sushi

Fri May 10 2013

9:30 - English Muffin w/ creme cheese

1:00 - Sandwich - Bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato

4:00 - Egg rolls, dumplings, noodles

9:00 - Lamb, vegetables, bread, ice cream

Rice: The Staple Food

Just like many millions of people on earth, rice is a staple in my diet.  Although I do not have a Filipino or Asian background, much of my diet is influenced by these cultures.  White rice, brown rice or sticky rice all seem to end up on my plate often yet I have never stopped to think about how and why this food has made its way across the world to me.  Looking into the production, health benefits, economics and ethics surrounding it will help to provide a full background into rice.

Rice is the most consumed food according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.  20% of the world’s dietary energy supply or calories are consumed through this carbohydrate.  In addition to that rice also supplies the eaters with fibre, riboflavin, niacin and thiamine, all of which are vital to the health of humans (International Year of Rice). Because rice is so important to the survival of many people, it has come in high demand.  Demand for any product results in the rise of prices as well as the increase in production.  Both of these things are beginning to hurt the rice agriculture business and those who depend on it. 

Rice was first domesticated around 10 000 B.P. (Before present) (Conyers)  This developed from a single grain around south east Asia or the northern middle East and was brought up by Neolithic people into China and Japan where it prospered and many different variants of the grain were slowly developed.  Rain-fed lowlands are where rice prospers naturally and the land preparation harvesting techniques nowadays are very similar to the old ways (IRRI).

The lands of the rice fields are tilled but only enough so the roots can take in as much water yet not so much that any water is lost through the soil.  The preferable field is hard and has more than usual rainfall (RRI). Often plants are transplanted in order to keep preferable variants of rice as well as not to waste as many seeds.   Manual harvesting is the common practice in Asia and Africa where migrant or annual workers will spend days cutting crops with small hand held tools (IRRI). While this is incredibly hard work, it provides a necessary income to millions of workers around the world.  

In America, the history of rice is not a pleasant one. Slaves in South Carolina were forced to work on rice fields of which neither the workers nor owners knew much about the process.  Much of the knowledge was brought by the African slaves and therefore the American rice system looks much like the African system (Opala) Recently there have been more issues of exploitation within the rice agriculture business.  Commercial agriculture businesses have been taking advantage that the majority of the world relies on the rice industry for survival.  RiceTec, a rice company out of Texas has taken out patents on many strands of rice meaning other fields cannot grow or sell those strands (Clement) In other instances companies have used genetic modification to make superior strands that would help people in developing countries that do not have access to all the nutrients necessary to survive (Clement).  Instead of using these adaptations for positive work, they are instead charging incredible amounts of money for their own gain 

Other rice companies have been adopting mechanical harvesting or sowing techniques which are cheaper (Kamoshita).  This is taking away from millions of poverty ridden people’s jobs.  Irrigated fields have increased and now produce nearly 75% of all rice in the world (IRRI) The use of irrigation has led to the exploitation of lands that are not suitable for rice growing as well as result in an incredible waste of water.  Since the intended paddies for  rice do not soak in water, the irrigated fields need much more water just to keep the rice plants at their intended water level (Kamoshita).

After completing my research on rice I have realized how important rice is to life throughout the world in many senses.  Culturally it is a staple for people in asian, african south american and many other countries around the world.  Economically it has become one of the biggest players in the commercial agriculture business and on a personal level the work it provides supports the lives of many people worldwide.  The way americans most often eat rice, in its bleached white form, many of the health benefits are lost.  That being said it is one of the healthiest carbohydrates available and even the processed version is not far off the natural form.  I am convinced that eating rice, for my own benefit and to support the industry is important and a positive thing for both. While there are some flaws in the production and harvesting ethically it is a fairly good food.

Works Cited

Clement, Matthew. "Rice Imperialism: The Agribusiness Threat to Third World Rice Production." 55.9 (2004): 15-22. ProQuest. Feb. 2004. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/213205603>.

"International Year of Rice." Rice and Human Nutrition. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, n.d. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.fao.org/rice2004/en/f-sheet/factsheet3.pdf>.

Kamoshita, Akihiko. "Historical Changes in Urban Rice PRoduction Systems in Tokyo Japan." Plant Production Science 10.3 (2007): 245-69. J Stage. Web. 6 May 2013. <https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pps/10/3/10_3_245/_article>.

Opala, Joseph A. "South Carolina Rice Plantations." Rice, Slavery and the Sierra Leone-American Connection. The Gullah, n.d. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/02.htm>.

"Rice Production and Processing." IRRI. International Rice Research Institute, n.d. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.irri.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=9151&lang=en#land>.

Cruelty in Food Production

Our food is being produced in ways that benefit the industry not humans, animals or plants.  After reading Pollan, Estabrook and Cook, I am truly disgusted by how our food is produced and how the people in charge can let this happen.  Pollan and Cook discuss the ethics and cruelty behind the animals we eat on a daily basis.  Our disconnect from both the animals lives and those that work with them is so large that most consumers do not even think twice before eating meat.  It is not that humans are inherently cruel to animals, in fact according to Pollan there has been a large increase in animal cruelty laws passed recently though “Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig -- an animal easily as intelligent as a dog -- that becomes the Christmas ham.” (1-2)  

The slaughter house is something consumers are more aware of yet still reading Cook’s infographic, I was shocked to hear about the abuse that workers go through as well as the animals.  In some places people needing welfare are forced to work in slaughter houses and are subject to a multitude of potential injuries.       Safety is not taken into account by the inspectors or USDA.  Things do not seem much better for workers on the fields.  When Estabrook asked Molloy “if it was safe to assume that a consumer who has eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store, fast food restuarant of service food company in the winter has eaten a fruit picked by the hand of a slave, he corrected my choice of words. “It is not an assumption. It is a fact””. (xvi)  

On a whole the USDA does not appear to take into account anything but the money they are making.  Fields in Florida are not even the correct climate to grow good tomatoes yet they continue to do so in order to make the greenest hardest ones that will last the longest. Safety of workers, cruelty to animals, or taste and healthiness of food do not seem to matter in our current food industry.

Pasta Production

I am researching Pasta.  Here is a source on the differences in Production of Pasta throughout the world.