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Score: 27/50

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Middle Eastern Practice Test

56%

(28/50)

Food Unit Reflection

It’s been about a week since we started our food unit in class, and it’s definitely changed my view when it comes to food. When we first started the unit, I’m not going to lie and say that I had an open mind towards the concept. My family tends to think in the way that, this has worked for us thus far, why do we need to go and change how we’ve been doing things? It’s never had any effect on us directly, so why should we change how we live? I feel that this whole unit has been extremely eye-opening to me, and I will try to persuade my parents to see what’s really going on, so that maybe we can change how we do things at home.

                When we first started watching the video, I had almost completely convinced myself that everything I was about to hear was just a bunch of organic activists who think they’re better than everyone else, trying to tell me what to eat. What I found was so much more than that. During the Food, Inc., I found many disturbing facts that made me look at my food a little more. What really got me were the legal situations. Why were there so many laws protecting the food industry? Kind of like the oil pipes in the BP incident, if nothing was wrong in the first place, why did they need so much protection? Something has to be wrong there, otherwise nothing would be hidden.

                After recording the food log, I felt like I really haven’t been seeing the big picture. Weekly, I don’t consume a single ounce of organic food. I’ve always eaten the brands that my mother buys without question. Your parents are supposed to know everything about what’s healthy for you, right? It’s interesting, because the same week we did the food log, I got in an argument with my mom about the food companies and processed products. She puts a lot of her faith in the authorities, which is something that I will never fully understand. We had a sort of, debate, if you will, about what was going on in the food industry, and who was really to blame when it came to those cases of E. Coli poisoning.

She argued with me that since humans began eating meat, bacteria such as E. Coli have always been infecting our meat, and that’s why we have to cook it. She argued that the case with the boy and the fast food restaurant was completely at the fault of the restaurant, for not cooking his meat properly.  I have to say that her point of view does make sense, but I still cannot agree completely.

I know for sure that there are new germs in our meats now, germs that are not as easily cooked out. I also don’t completely trust that just cooking the meat can get everything bad out of it. Some bacteria are so powerful it could take hours to cook all of it out. I think that there is always a chance that diseases can get into foods, and after seeing the “farms” that processed food comes from, I know that a big part of the reason meats get so many diseases is the sanitary conditions that these animals live in.

Cows aren’t supposed to eat corn. Biologically, they are made to eat grass, and so that is what keeps them and their meat healthy. When I talked to my mom about the conditions that the cows are under, including their food supplies, her answer was, “Well, it’s easy to say that all we need to do is this, or the only thing that needs to change is that, but doing it is a whole other obstacle.” On this part of it, I do have to agree with her. If we want to change the way our food industry works, it will take a lot of time, money, and effort to get things right again. There is no saying just how much of each we will have to give up, or how much we have available in the first place.

Coming home from a dance rehearsal tonight, I heard on the radio that within 25 years, our supply of helium, the 2^nd most common compound in the universe will be completely gone. If something that big can happen so quickly, we are obviously losing other resources just as fast, if not faster. Something needs to be done, and soon.

At the moment, my family is still the group of people that doesn’t really take reason seriously. My parents will probably never by organic foods, unless some extreme change of events occurs. I’m not happy about this, but I know it is true, and there isn’t much I can do about it. I am certainly not comfortable with the way our food industry works, and every time I look at a piece of food that is not organic or is obviously processed, I have a hard time not thinking, I know where that comes from, and it’s not right for humans or for the animals.

Will I be able to make an immediate change in my family’s daily life when it comes to their diets? Probably not. Bu I do know that I have a chance of effecting the government, at least in some small way. This unit has inspired me to make a goal for myself not to visit any fast food restaurants for at least six months.  After those six months (if I don’t go any longer), I will evaluate how I feel about my energy and health. I think that processed foods are not only hurting the environment by limiting resources and space, but they are also hurting our bodies. The processing food goes through to make it taste better than what it’s really made out of involves adding lots more salts, sugars, and fats that can be terrible for your body. That’s why organic food tends to be healthier.

I feel like if I can get myself to have more control over what I eat and the company I get it from, maybe I can have more of an influence on my family’s day-to-day decisions. Maybe, after some time, I can get my stubborn parents to put some organic foods in our shopping carts, even though it might cost a little more. In the end, its possible that it will cost a little less overall. Our community can only handle processed foods for a short time longer before something needs to be done. I am seeing that it is our generation that needs to be setting the standard, and this unit has inspired me to do as such the best that I can.

Word count: 1,130

Food Log

Monday:


Dinner- Spaghetti and Milk

Noodles: San Giorgio

Sauce: Newman's Own

Redner's Ground Beef

Milk: Clover Farms (1%)

Tuesday:

Breakfast- Tea

Regular Lipton
Tap Water
 Clover Farms Milk (1%)

Lunch- Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Granola Bar w/ water bottle

Peanut Butter: Jiff 

Bread: Old Tyme Split-top Wheat Bread

Granola Bar: Quaker Oats

Water: Redner's Water

Dinner- See Monday

Wednesday:

Breakfast- See Tuesday

Lunch- None

Dinner- Pizza and Soda
Pat's Pizza
Coca-cola

Snack- Candy Corn

Branch's

Thursday: 

Breakfast- See Tuesday

Lunch- See Tuesday

Snack- Granny Smith Apple and Juice

Product of USA

Ocean Spray (Cranapple)

Dinner- Wendy's Baked Potato and Orange Drink

Plain Potato

Fanta

I went to the grocery store on Sunday and noticed that for Kashi/General Mills, there is a replacement organic cereal for almost every breakfast. I also saw that Georgio's mushrooms sold organic regular mushrooms, but their shittacki mushrooms were non-organic. Redner's grocery store doesn't have very many organic foods, so they don't have an isle dedicated to organics; they only have a separate cereal section for Kashi products, which is an organic company. I also noticed that not only did they charge less for farm grown shrimp, but the wild shrimp were a lot bigger and healthier-looking as well. 

Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100698919291781865497.000492588904cb9483f2a&t=h&z=6