Eating: A Moral Choice

One idea both of these pieces of writing stress is America’s emphasis on health and how our health relates to our morality. In today’s society, we consistently ask ourselves what is the right thing to eat for our bodies and our heath, focusing on the nutrition of foods rather than foods as a means of taste. One point Pollan stresses is that our definition of health has changed over time. Through scientifically engineering food in order to implant the most important nutrients, this process has actually reduced health in people because the nutrients are not working in their natural way. One food issue today America struggles with is being deceived by the language on the packaging of foods. The foods titled low-fat, unsaturated fat, and low cholesterol are actually the foods we need to avoid. Instead of eating “silent” foods that thoughtfully sit in the produce section we become confused by the health restrictions we have put on ourselves and how language affects this interpretation. By choosing to follow the leads of food companies, we choose to eat the more “healthy” option in the same proportions versus choosing the diet involving “avoiding something our great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize.”

            Dupois piece of writing takes Pollan’s piece a step further in analyzing how our desire for a good diet reflects on our social reforms and personal morality. Since early history in America, the idea of self-control and self-betterment have been emphasized, and these ideals have eventually even been applied to our diets of choice. Dupois implies that eating healthy is similar to a cleansing of the soul. In addition, another fact both Pollan and Dupuis focus on is how our food culture is specifically Americanized and specifically targeted towards the middle class. This is where the preliminary problem exists. America’s middle class is the prime example of how our vision of health has become so skewed that we are now unsure of how to handle our diets and health decisions. 

Observations Concerning Particular Foods and Dietary Habits

When looking through other’s journals concerning nutrition and dietary habits, I found it really interesting what Aaron said about eggs and their contribution to health. Being a vegetarian, I rely heavily on eggs in my diet for their protein and for their taste, so hearing all these facts made me less concerned about how many eggs I decide to eat a day because I know I’m getting proper protein and amino acids, which can be difficult when eating meat is not an option.

Another food I found interesting was Dani’s observation of many students at DU eating yogurt on a daily basis. This is also something I personally do in order to make my meals look more healthy and to put food in my stomach. What I found interesting was how yogurt has more benefits than things like milk because it is better fitted for those who are lactose intolerant and it has microorganisms which benefit the digestive system. 

Snacking and Skipping Meals

My main observation when looking at our food journals was a majority of people tend to snack often during the day, which could be due to time constraints or lack of appetizing choices at the dining halls. While some of us tended to eat healthy, delicately prepared meals, some of us got quick, unhealthy meals on the go with lots of going out to eat away from the dining halls on the weekends.

            According to David Crawford, writer of Snacking Behaviors of Adolescents and their Association with Skipping Meals, 87-88% of adolescents from ages 12-18 snack at least once a day, which evidently leads to an increased chance of skipping meals, another common theme among students at DU. The main problem many adolescents have is snacking too much on unhealthy food items. Snacks provide 25% of our total energy intake needed for one day, and by over-indulging on this salty, crunchy, tasty foods, unhealthy food patterns involving too much snacking have lead to the increased obesity rates seen in youth all around the country (Crawford). As I eat flaming hot Cheetos while writing this essay, I realize I am also a huge culprit of the snacking food trend.

            Regular meal patterns without constant snacking are important because they provide greater dietary diversity, healthier food choices and higher nutrient intake. However, due to lack of time and temptation of unhealthy snack options, a majority of people tend to snack. According to the study conducted by David Crawford, snacking occurs more often in urban areas in people with higher incomes and education levels. This observation could very well explain the eating habits of many DU students. With education being a primary focus in a majority of student’s lives, eating full meals becomes secondary and snacking becomes frequent. The study also stated that a majority of people snack most often after or during school, with females snacking more often than males (Crawford). 

            What is most shocking about this study is the potential correlation snacking has with skipping meals, which could lead to even more unsafe, unhealthy eating habits. In adolescents, 20% of students skipped breakfast, 12% skipped lunch, and 2% skipped dinner (Crawford). This is also another observation I personally relate with. I often tend to skip lunch during the day due to a hectic schedule, too big a breakfast, snacking during the day, and irregular meal times. I often get hungry when the dining hall is closed, so snacking in order to cure starvation is the only real alternative. In addition, those who snack late at night while doing homework are more likely to skip breakfast, which could potentially explain while some food journals often lacked a breakfast or contained a breakfast almost too small to be considered a real meal. Not only does snacking lead to skipping meals, snacking can tend to lead to other secondary health practices. Those who skipped meals more often were more likely to drink alcohol, smoke, and participate in unhealthy weight control behaviors like dieting and binge-eating (Crawford).

            As seen through DU student’s eating habits and the survey conducted, snacking often and skipping meals in more than common. This unhealthy practice can often lead to health concerns, which can affect one’s work ethic, sleeping patterns, and everyday life. While many DU students attempt to eat healthy, the options available make this alternate lifestyle difficult. In order to change this prevalent eating habit, a wider variety of healthier snack options need to be provided by selling more health foods and removing less healthy options. I hope to benefit from this change by eating something like a fruit or vegetable instead of flaming hot Cheetos. 

Works Cited

Crawford, David. "Snacking Behaviours of Adolescents and Their Association with Skipping Meals." International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. BioMed Central, 17 Sept. 2007. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/4/1/36>.

Thoughts on Food Journal

The food journals we looked at were surprisingly less identical than I had expected. However, a majority of people tend to snack often during the day, which could be because of time constraints or lack of appetizing choices at the dining halls. While some of us tended to eat healthy, delicately prepared meals, some of us got quick, unhealthy meals on the go with lots of going out away from the dining halls on the weekends. A majority of parts of meals tended to be carb-loaded: being either pizza, pasta, or toast.
Overall, many meals tended to be somewhat small, leading to more snacking throughout the day.

a less than healthy food journal

Warning: I was gone all weekend at a fraternity formal, so my diet was thoroughly worse than usual. Due to the rowdy weekend, my consumption of food was pretty much forgotten and I was close to starving all weekend.
Thursday: 10AM: wheat toast with butter and honey, greek yogurt with granola, and lemon-lime gatorade
12:45 PM: Cheetos and a class of water
2PM: berry yogurt parfeit
630PM: noodles and company. Whole grain tuscan linguini (consists of broccoli, onions, red peppers, and mushrooms, with noodles and wine sauce) with a side of flat bread and water
Friday: 930 AM: onion and spinach omelet with hot sauce, hash browns, wheat toast with butter, and water
1 PM: noodles and company again. Same meal of tuscan linguini
7PM: cheese pizza from dominoes
Saturday: 10AM: nutri-grain bar and breakfast bread
2PM: goldfish as a snack
8PM: ceasar salad, ravioli with white cream sauce, garlic bread, and tiramasu
Sunday: 10AM: nutria-grain bar, berry flavored.

"Cheese Head"

Cheese appears in a majority of the meals I eat. Whether it be macaroni and cheese, an omelet sprinkled with highly processed cheese from the dining hall, or cheesecake, I have always really enjoyed cheese for its taste and variety. Cheese is a basic, popular food item given its own little space on the food pyramid. As most of us know, cheese is made from the milk of animals, the most common animal being a cow. However, different cultures use different animals in order to retrieve their milk. Greeks use mares and goats while Early Egyptians used camels. Cheese can be made into a variety of forms: raw, pasteurized, sweet or sour, whole, skimmed, or cheeses made with extra cream (Credo Reference). A majority of cheese today is produced in factories and can be chemically created in order to produce a plethora of flavors and designs. For example, the bluish tints found in bleu cheeses is made from mold. Holes in swiss-cheese are formed by bacteria, which produce a gas that gets trapped in cheese, thus creating holes. Although it may sound like an unsanitary process, microorganisms allowed to develop in cheese during the ripening process are the main reason why cheese is so diverse in flavor and taste.

Through the use of science, like microbiology and chemistry, producers of cheese can use the milk protein casein and other complex lactic acid processes in order to create your basic block of cheese. (Credo Reference). All of the different kids of cheese are categorized by the methods used to create them, their place of origin, and the types of milks used in their making. Hard cheeses are cheeses like Parmesan, Romano, Cheddar, Gouda, and Provolone, each type of cheese improves with age. Soft cheeses like Gorganzola, Muenster, Cottage, and Ricotta are all cheese made to be consumed within a short period of time. There are also cheeses for the health conscious, cheeses with low-fat and low salt-content like Baby Swiss, Montrachet, and Bucheron. Throughout the history of production and the combination of cultures, today there is an unending amount of choices of which cheeses to eat, each cheese saying something about where it was made or the story that went into making it.

History of cheese in America originated in Wisconsin, the cheese capital of America, also known as America’s dairyland. Today, Wisconsin has over 600 styles and varieties of American cheese. But why Wisconsin? When Europeans immigrated and colonized America, they found climatic conditions in Wisconsin suitable for farming, which eventually lead to cattle farming, and the storing of the excess milk they removed from cows lead to the formation of an abundance of cheese (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board). In the mid 1800’s, the first small scale industrial cheese factories were made, using neighbors cows for milk and producing cheese to sell to neighbors. In 1859, cheese became considered fully industrialized by Hiram Smith, a farmer on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The cheese industry in Wisconsin further expanded, and become economically influential for the state. The industry grew and grew in prosperity until today, where there are 12,000 dairy farms with 1.26 million cows. This makes 20,630 pounds of milk per year and a large amount of this milk goes to the production of cheese. No wonder Wisconsin is known nation wide for their cheese, they produce 2.6 billion pounds of cheese a year (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board).

What I found most interesting about my discovery of cheese production and history is something I already knew. The variety of cheeses that can be made leaves me dumbfounded. The prime ingredient in cheese is milk, and I had no idea how many methods and intricate processes go into the formation of good cheese, and good cheese only gets better with time. In terms of my personal relationship with food, learning this information has only improved my relationship with cheese. It makes me excited to try all the types I have yet to experience, widen my horizons by trying a cheese made from camel milk instead of the traditional cow. I plan on going to one of the cheese festivals Wisconsin provides, or maybe go to a cheese and wine tasting event when I make it to the age of 21. Although I am somewhat disgusted with the amount of microorganisms and bacteria used in the creation of cheese, this is something I can ignore because my love of cheese overcomes my thoughts about eating mold. Even though I am not from Wisconsin, I guess you could consider me a “cheese head.”

Work Cited

"cheese." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Credo Reference. Web. 07 May 2012.

"Join Us on a Tour of Wisconsin's Storied Cheesemaking Past." History of Wisconsin

Cheese. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, 2012. Web. 07 May 2012.

<http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/wisconsin/history_of_wisconsin_che

ese.aspx>.

Meat vs Morality

Both Pollan and Cook’s articles discuss how the meat industry affects our society. These articles talk about the moral compass of Americans when it comes to eating meat and the safety of workers who must deal with the grueling conditions that come with providing individual Americans with 75 pounds of chicken per year.

Pollan’s article focuses on the “humanity” and treatment of animals, discussing how a recent phenomenon has made cruelty towards animals seen as a form of discrimination. What I found interesting in terms of preparation and production is when Pollan talks about how animals are slaughtered, stating the decreased amount of contact between humans and animals has lead to a more demoralized attitude towards animals, thus allowing more people to be carnivores because not many people are in direct contact with animals anymore. This “out of sight, out of mind” mentality has allowed many Americans to become desensitized towards the suffering and pain animals feel when enduring the conditions of a meat farm. In contrast to this argument, Pollan also discusses how dependent domesticated animals are on humans, and without humans, these animals would have a lower life expectancy anyway. In order to propose a solution to the “either look away or become vegetarian” dilemma, Pollan suggests proper treatment of animals on a meat farm, allowing animals to live a full life as a cow, chicken, or pig. The only problem I see with this solution is larger domineering companies tend to cut corners and slaughter animals in a way that is most efficient in order to make a profit.

Cook’s article on the other hand talks about the impact meat industries have on workers. With multiple injuries, diseases, and low incomes, the fast paced, high stress conditions have made it difficult for workers to work in slaughterhouses. Both of these articles work to expose the harsh conditions that come with producing meat to our large population. I think it is important to expose more people to this type of information so our community can see how an industry focused more on profit than morality is affecting a majority of workers and animals themselves.