A. Experiential (change diet, change shopping, change how you prepare food, how you eat). Note, if you select a change in how you do food that includes your family or would be weird to your family, please get parental/guardian consent and support!


After reading the book and watching the movie Food Inc. I honestly felt like eating meat would be a challenge for me. The animals are treated horribly, I can't stand eating meat knowing how its processed. I would like to become a vegetarian, but slowly. I'm at the beginning of my project of becoming a vegetarian so I started out slow. I stopped eating beef first, since the condition cows go through is the saddest to me. Not eating beef will be strange, my family eats I guess what most people would call traditional American food. I can't imagine the forth of July without eating a hamburger or a hot dog. But even if I wanted to eat beef again I think I would only be able to in moderation. I tried eating beef last night as a test to see if I could even eat it the same. It took me a while to even start eating, I was hesitating. I finally took a bite and was very surprised. Beef had tasted different. All I could think of was the poor cows being covered in their own feces, and how each pack of ground meet is made of hundreds of other cows not just one. The beef tasted like a bunch of different flavors, a bunch of bad ones. I felt bad eating the food and afterwords I had felt sick. I would give up beef but something that's holding me back is that its seen in my family as weird. My dad thinks vegetarianism is weird but i think for the same reason most people do, its just normal now to eat whatever is convenient. I've decided that beef is not only cruel but it also makes me sick. Beef is something I probably shouldn't come back to.


Next experiment would be to give up chicken. This unfortunately is probably going to be a temporary challenge. I know cows and chickens are both treated cruelly but I enjoy chicken more then I do cow.


This experiment of vegetarianism is a small step in my plan on eating healthy. My family is trying to each healthy too, without dropping meet. Hopefully my sister Sahara can help me eat healthy. As a vegetarian and a former vegan, she had to research which foods she could eat and knows what ingredients are unhealthy so she can help me pick out healthy foods to eat.  She can also help me stay on track, it will be a lot easier to stop eating unhealthy is someone else is doing it with me. 

Food Diary

Using the link you gave, my calorie goal should be 2307 a day

Wed. 29

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Poppyseed bagel and cream cheese
Cream cheese calories: 290.7
Poppyseed Bagels calories: 72.86
Vitamin water (xxx) : 50

Dinner: Chicken stew with rice
Chicken stew:

• Garbanzo beans: 91.0
• boiled celery: 18
• Stewed chicken (without skin):  247.8
• Boiled potatoes without skins: 67.08
• Carrots: 6.790
• Green Peppers: 3.248
• Soup, vegetable with beef broth, canned, condensed: 81.18

Glass of water: 0

snacks:
Linden's Butter crunch Cookies: 225

Total: 1153.658 calories

Thursay. 30th

breakfast: nothing

Lunch:
Medium Mcdonalds fries: 380

Dinner:Chicken stew with rice
Chicken stew:

• Garbanzo beans: 91.0
• boiled celery: 18
• Stewed chicken (without skin):  247.8
• Boiled potatoes without skins: 67.08
• Carrots: 6.790
• Green Peppers: 3.248
• Soup, vegetable with beef broth, canned, condensed: 81.18

Vitamin water (xxx) : 50

Snacks:
UTZ chips:  150

 total calories: 1094.072

What you see a lot of is the media using a persons title to perswade the readers view on food and health. In the article "Doctors Orders: Eat Well to be Well", a 64 year old doctor named Preston Maving tries to promote healthy eatting to his community through his coworkers. The title doctor means he is a medical professional,  many assume all doctors are smart and know everything about the human body. Many also see doctors as trust worthy since their job is to help you be healthy, so since this Dr. Preston Maving says that the right way to live is to eat organicly many will assume its true because hes a doctor. This also causes people to look up to doctors leaving them to think they will have better health if they live like a them.  However, this causes a steriotype for doctors that they should all be healthy. "A nurse who works at the Hospital for Special Surgery on the Upper East Side openly acknowledges that vegetables make her gag. Still, she begged to not be publicly identified because she is in the health care field and knows that she should set a better example.".  "Set a better example" implys that doctors are our role models. Role models are suppose to do the "right" thing, so for her to openly admit she hates vegtables would cause people to ridicule her since doctors in our eyes should be healthy. What people aren't seeing is that doctors are human being like everyone else, why is alright for you to eat unhealthy but not for a doctor to?

The media also uses many excusises for why American's don't eat healthier. No one wants to admit they are worng, so the media tries to blame others sorces for America's health problems. In the article " Fresh Vegetables where fast food reigns", they basically say that many don't eat healthy because of they can't afford the organic foods and the food sorces that surround them like fast food resteerants. "The idea is to provide fresh food to communities where obesity, diabetes and high-cholesterol problems are epidemic and where local food options tend more to fast food than healthful ones." It is true that fast food is more affordable and faster to prepair then organic food, but that doesn't mean it right to eat it all the time. Everyone knows by now that fast food is unhealthy for you, there are plenty of affordable healthy food options besides fast food that aren't organic ether. They also fail to mention in the article that it isn't just eating unhealthy food that causes health problems, but it's also lack of excersize.

Hw 4:

 

Fridge set up:

My fridge is always set up the same way, drinks on the top shelf, left overs or dinner on the shelf under it, cheese and cold cuts in the drawer, vegetables and fruit on the shelf under it and in the crisper and tomorrows dinner is thawing on the very bottom level of my fridge. The side doors are mainly just condiments like tomato sauce, salad dressing and mustard. There isn't much in my freezer besides ice cream, bocca burgers and bacon.

I have to admit that most of the healthy food in my fridge belongs to my sister Sahara. Ever since she became a vegetarian a few years ago I have noticed we have bought more vegetables and less meat, so her bettering her eating habits is helping the rest of the family with theirs. At the super market, my sister buys all the tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, etc... where my dad buys the diet Pepsi, chips, ice cream, cookies, ect... 

Sahara Interview:

Me:How do you think the way we were raised effected your eating habits?

Sahara:I would eat whatever they put in front of me because whatever they were raised to eat I eat. You don't really question it you just ate it and soon adapted to the type of food and habits. Basically Lot's of meat and side vegetables.

Me: Yeah that's basically still what dad makes. So explain why you no longer eat dad's meals and why you are a vegetarian

Sahara: Because as I got older I didn't just eat what my family gave me anymore. I explored more options and after researching the topic and reading up on it I realized vegetarianism was for me.

Me: What aspects of dads cooking and eating habits do you think you share?

Sahara: Well I learned to cook from watching him so yea I guess we cook the same. I also have the problem of snacking a lot like he does. Eating junk food doesn't really go with vegetarianism. 

Me:What would you say is yours in the fridge?

Sahara: A ll the obvious vegetarian stuff like the tofu, rice milk, and bocca burgers. But the vegetarian stuff we all use isn't exclusively mine like the vegan butter, vegan mayonnaise and the fruits and vegetables.

Me: would you say your diets better then the rest of the families?

Sahara: Yes and no. When I actually discipline myself and eat my vegetables then yes. But when I slip and eat unhealthy things like excessive amounts of bread or junk food no. But I guess I would say yes overall since I will never eat meat again so I'm free from all the unhealthy additives they put in meat that you guys get. 

My parents have different eating patterns. My dad constantly snacks and likes to eat little amounts of potato chips or cookies through out the day. However, my mom can go days without eating. My mom doesn't like to cook and prefers my dads dinner to hers, but if my dad doesn't cook or serve a dinner she wont eat anything. I have always found it odd that my mom would pick not eating over preparing her own dishes. My sister was once a vegan, but due to the limit amount of food she could eat she chose to be a vegetarian. I guess I get my eating habits from my dad. I took unfortunately like to snack and I might do it too much through out the day. I don't make my own dinner so I still eat whatever my dad gives me which is usually pizza, burgers, stew or chicken. However, since Sahara's change of diet we haven't only been eating better but we have also been eating in moderation. I decided to fix my own plates now instead of my dad because he gives me too much food. My dad also eats healthier by eating a sandwich for dinner once and a while instead of fries or something else less healthy. 

     People see food as such a great importance because they enjoy the experience of eating. Since eating satisfy our taste buds, we enjoy tasting many different flavors. This causes people to eat for many reasons besides survival. Eating has now become the cure for boredom, emotional disarray, and daily problems. Eating out of boredom lets you feel as if you are doing something when you are really not. Many people eat to forget their problems and their emotions. In these cases, the person usually eat "comfort" food like ice cream because it's has a taste many people find appealing, sugar. Other "comfort" foods include many other deserts like chocolate or cookies. The thing about food is that it causes a person pleasure so people enjoy the experience of eating because it causes them to feel happiness.

     I enjoy eating sweets, but prefer the sweetness from fruit then the sweetness from candy. Many of my favorite foods are fruits and the taste of good fruit is just so satisfying. However, I eat candy more often then fruit. The reason for this is that candy is more convenient. All kinds of different candies are sold all around in the city whether its in drug stores or the subways. However,  finding a ripe piece of fruit takes longer and is less convenient so even though I enjoy the taste of fruit better, I settle for candy. When it comes to food, convenience seems to be key. Many people will settle with food they don't actually want to conserve time or just to satisfy their tastes right away. Everyday, many students settle for the the restaurants around the school because there isn't enough time to eat somewhere further. People also settle with whatever food is around them when they don't have enough money. If there is a place with decent food and cheep prices, I would rather eat there then eat nothing because I cant afford what I want to eat.

    Another thing that I find interesting about food is how they pump chemicals into certain foods so they will taste a certain way. I remember watching a movie where they show factory workers finding chemicals to put into their burgers so that costumers would believe the burger was prepared a certain way, like when they prepared bacon to be sold they inject the meat with liquid smoke so the bacon tastes as if it has been smoked when it actually hasn't. It's also strange how they put a chemically made flavoring of a different food into another one like candies that are flavored to be cherry. The flavor of an actual cherry and the chemically made cherry flavoring are totally different (ones much sweeter) but it causes us to think that the chemical is actually what cherry is suppose to taste like.