THURSDAY
11- Water, Chicken Cordon Bleu
6- Chicken Ceaser Burrito, Lemonade
FRIDAY
12- Beef/Mushroom Saute, Lemonade, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
2:30- Jalapeno Chips
6- Chicken falarma (rice, chicken, falafel, humus, pickles, Tahini sauce, cilantro sauce), pomegranate Lemonade
SATURDAY
11- Pretzel, Water
2-Pizza w/ Sausage, Lemonade
5:30- Pasta w/ Marinara, Meatballs, Garlic Bread
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Chocolate and its Making
Nothing can
beat the sweet taste of Cadbury milk chocolate as you take a bite and it slowly
melts in your mouth. Savoring the sweet flavor, we feel like all chocolate was
made to be this way. Of course what we don’t realize is that chocolate did not
just come prepared this way. A football shaped pod from the Theobroma cacao tree, also known as the
cacao tree, is where this story to the chocolate bar begins.
First we
should learn about the climate for the cacao tree. The Theobroma cacao tree originated in the Mesoamerican growing region,
which spans from Latin America down to the northern part of South America.
While the exact origins of the cacao tree are unknown, it has been discovered
that the Olmec people, “who lived along the Gulf of Mexico as early as 1500
B.C.” were the first people to cultivate the cacao tree and grow it in small
gardens of their own (Lopez 14). The only place suitable for the cacao tree is
in the hot, humid environment of the tropical rainforest. The rainforest has a
unique ecosystem that remains hot and humid year round and continually has an
average temperature of eighty degrees Fahrenheit (Lopez). The rainforest also
has about “eighty to four hundred inches of rainfall annually” (Lopez 9). These
growing conditions are very specific to the rainforest and are hard to
reproduce in other areas of the world. One of the benefits of the rainforest is
that they have trees of varying heights, which help to shade the cacao trees
from some of the sunrays, as well as help to keep it a humid environment. The
trees also keep most of the sun blocked off of the ground, which creates a rich
environment for “decaying vegetation” like dead trees and fallen leaves where
insects, fungi, and other creatures thrive (Lopez 10). This environment
enriches the soil, which helps the cacao tree grow.
We never think about chocolate ever
becoming a rare commodity, but at the rate of deforestation, this could become
a very real possibility. We know that it is hard for the cacao tree to be grown
anywhere else but the rainforest, because of the difficult environment to
reproduce, so by destroying the rainforest, we risk the loss of chocolate and a
whole host of other food items in the process. It is predicted that at the
current rate of deforestation, the rainforest will be gone within forty years
(Lopez). While this may have nothing to do with chocolate directly, the
importance of the rainforest in chocolate production is key to giving it
optimal conditions to grow. Knowing this is eye opening to what is going on with
our food production. We can sit by and let the rainforest be destroyed, but in
doing so, we let our common commodity in every house become not so common.
Things like advocating for the stopping of cutting down the rainforest can help
to keep our beloved chocolate stay ours.
Some of the
most interesting things that I found, besides where cacao trees are grown and
the threatening extinction of chocolate, is the way that cacao beans are
transformed into the chocolate bar we think of today. The first step is to
harvest the cacao pods from the trees and bring them back to where they will be
processed. This process is very labor intensive and there are no machines that
can do it, unless they might rupture the pod. The pods are then split in two
and the pulp and seeds are put into water, in order to allow for the
fermentation process to go underway (Lopez). After the fermentation process,
the seeds are left out to dry (Lopez). From the drying stage, the beans are
then roasted, which helps to determine the different flavors of chocolate and
the different types of chocolate (Lopez). The husks on the outer part of the
cacao bean are removed after roasting, which are then discarded, and the cacao
nibs are then ground up into a paste (Lopez). This paste is made into chunks,
which can then be shipped to countries around the world and processed (Lopez).
From here, the big brand name companies like Lindt, Cadbury, and Hershey’s all
essentially add sugar to the paste to make it creamy and sugary like we know
it. This makes the smooth chocolate bar that melts in our mouths as we take a
bite.
We really
do not realize how fortunate we are to have a thousand different types of
chocolate. One of the longest lasting arguments that I have heard in relation
to chocolate is whether or not European or American chocolate is better. Many
American’s think that the American chocolate is better, and many Europeans
think their chocolate is better. While doing research about chocolate, I found
a man named David Lebovitz who posted about this argument. He is an author of
cookbooks about baking and chocolate and comments that it is not the
“industrial chocolates” that interest him but in fact the “chocolatiers” that
are doing “quality work” (Lebovitz). Lebovitz has an interesting position about
the argument because it is more about the specialized chocolate than the
industry chocolate we think of. I know now that there can be many places to
look for things like chocolate (unless the rate of deforestation destroys it
all). We need to be more open about our food choices and more willing to try
new things.
Works Cited
Lebovitz, David.
"Chocolatiers and Chocolate-Makers." David Lebovitz: Living the
Sweet Life in Paris. 14 Jan. 2007. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/01/chocolatiers-an-1/>.
Lopez, Ruth. Chocolate the
Nature of Indulgence. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Print.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
What is Food?
In our
country, we are very far removed from our food. We do not see every little
thing that comes to us in nice, neat packages; we do not see the chicken that
was grown in darkness all of its life; we do not see its life ended and made
through a processing plant. We as consumers are ignorant to the making of what
we call food today.
There has
been a rise in people wanting to know the origin of where their food comes
from. Many famous critics like Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan have come out
and informed the public about what they are really eating. A man named
Christopher Cook tells about how there are plant workers with “upper-body
disorders” that are not treated because the companies do not extend the
benefits they should. The productions of things like chicken is not a clean
business in the slightest. Also, things like tomatoes are picked when green and
have gas used to make them ripe, meaning that they become tasteless to the
public.
We as a
public cannot let things like the production of our food become what it is
today. There are too many things that we do not know in our food production
that we should fight to change that. These companies keep these secrets from us
because what we want is cheap food, nothing else. If we can stand having
slightly more expensive food for something of better quality, then we can
improve our standard of living ever so slightly. I think that we as a public
should take action for the process for the food that we eat.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Real American Diet (or Not)
“The American way of dietary life undergoes yet another
change.” Pollan makes an interesting point that we do not have a set cultural
value in Amercia that makes our dietary values stable. Any “lone crackpot with
a medical degree can alter this nations diet overnight,” according to Pollan. We
can really see through Pollan’s argument that America is as whimsical as a
child. One day we eat our vegetables, the next day we don’t and eat something
else. The dietary values in our country are not as stable as a country such as
France. Pollan explains a study about how people in France are more likely to
associate pleasure to food where American’s will not. In France, when asked
about chocolate cake, they think “celebration” where as American’s think
“guilt.” This shows the cultural identity of America and how we shun everything
that is thought of as being bad for us.
I really
like the tone of Pollan’s essay. He is highly satirical and very sarcastic
about the values of American culture. The tone is really communicated through
the word choice like gorging, quackish, and crackpot. These all are very
detailed negative words that are used to show just how bad the American dietary
values are. I also really like the point that he makes because it is somewhat
similar to my essay that I just wrote. I talked about the value of needing a
healthy choice while really just indulging in the same chocolate cake that is
always in the house.
When I was
reading this I found a lot of things to ring true. There are times that meals
are eaten on the go and not really enjoyed, but I also think there are people
that enjoy food. Many of my friends have called me a foodie, and I would say I fit
that description well. My family takes the time to prepare each meal before it
is made and then enjoy it around the dinner table. We enjoy the food that we
make because it has some value since we just spent the time making it. I would
say that I like to enjoy food because it can be a good social bonding
experience. Not every person is simply jumping into the fat-free diet because
its said to be good, but of course, not everyone is staying away from it. In
our culture, we have an interesting mix of people that do all different types
of things, not just what Pollan says we do.
Monday, April 30, 2012
EE1 Final Draft
When
walking around downtown Denver, anyone is privy to the overabundance of fast
food options available. In the first nation to introduce fast food, it is
completely normal that fast food joints would be found along every corner, but
does that make it a good thing? Fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King
are simply suppliers of cheap food, but no one said that it has to be healthy. These
multibillion-dollar fast food chains invest millions of dollars in
advertisements to keep the public hooked on the idea that they can find a lot
of healthy options in their restaurant. While in reality, the majority of their
options are high calorie options. Also, eating at a fast food restaurant require
no movement to get a meal, while instead people can go through the drive
through. But can laziness and unhealthy habits all be blamed on massive fast
food companies? We as American’s have kept this convenience because, even
though we know that healthy is better, we have some attachment to this style of
eating. All of these different ideas about nutrition affect our cultural
beliefs and the ways we act. These encompass much of what we have been taught
to do since we were young and started to eat our vegetables. In America, we
champion the idea of healthy food, yet we continue to surround ourselves and choose
for ourselves these unhealthy food choices when eating.
One
of the biggest ways we can see that America wants to promote healthy choices is
by looking at the advertising of companies. In the first Naked ad, on the left
side of the picture below, we see a lot of this health conscious advertising
come into play. The first add procures its health conscious advertising in its
design and rhetorical strategies. The main focus in the ad is the runner, running
behind the bottle of Naked juice located on the bottom right of the ad. This
focus conveys to the viewers that people who drink Naked juice are able to
receive the energy they need in order to run and maintain their energy. This
sells the idea that, with Naked juice, people can keep a healthy lifestyle and
be motivated to workout. The tagline on this ad also illustrates how
advertising companies are playing to the healthy ideals in the American
mentality. “Our machines don’t run on added sugar or preservatives and neither
will you,” conveys to the viewer that by choosing Naked juice to drink, instead
of something like soda, they will be healthier already (Naked Juice Co). By buying
Naked juice, the viewer does not put preservatives in their body, making the
healthy choice. There is also the tagline “That’s our Naked truth” at the end of
the ad (Naked Juice Co). This expresses to the viewer that everything communicated
on the advertisement is the complete truth from the company’s mouth. Telling
the viewer that the ad is completely true makes the viewer trust the ad more
and makes them feel at ease with their choice. The advertising companies are a
good example of showing how the public views health because they do many
studies to show what is popular in public opinion. Healthy choices are what
people want so food-advertising companies conform to that demand. Viewing an ad
like the Naked ad, we see that, in America, we hold the idea of health high in
our minds.
While
still having high fitness and health values, we continue to be a culture that
values fast food, making the unhealthy choices instead of the healthy ones. Fast
food companies “saturate the airwaves, newspapers, and magazines” according to
Bridget Murray’s article “Fast food culture serves up super-size American’s”
(Murray). While the Naked advertisement is an example of something that could
be considered healthy, fast food is something that is not. According to Murray,
the food is “high-fat [and] high-sugar” in its content (Murray). The advertisements
from these companies may seem like they sell healthy choices in their chains,
but the real fact is that the food is not healthy in the slightest. All of the
chain fast food restaurants have led to an unhealthy America. In a report about
obesity in 2011, the results found that “twelve states now have obesity rates
over thirty percent” where “four years ago, only one state was above thirty
percent” (Trust for America’s Health). This exponential increase in obesity
across America is due to the ease and accessibility from the fast food chains
that can now be found all across the world. The fact that there is a food chain
at almost every street corner shows that it is not usually the healthy food
choices that we go for, but instead the convenient choice.
Not
only do food companies assail us with ads, but they also take convenience to a
new level. According to Murray, most American’s are getting “less exercise than
ever” and are “walking less and driving more” (Murray). This idea of
convenience is contradicting what Americans hold as a need in society. As the
Naked ad shows, the need for a petite figure is very important in society, yet
walking less and making unhealthy choices will not help to achieve that ideal.
By indulging in the fatty foods of the food industry, it does nothing to help
the wanted image of American’s. Kelly Brownell, a Yale University psychology
professor, shows convenience and how America has become lazier as a country.
Brownell explains that when pumping gas you can “punch in the Fritos, the
Twinkie, and the Coke, and somebody brings it to your car” (qtd. Murray). This
decline in physical activities and the increase in high calorie food are
creating an obese America. Our food choices as a country are ones that are
unhealthy, while we continue to understand that we should choose better to look
better.
One
of the easiest settings to see the choices people make about food is in a food
court. Let us take the food court in Park Meadows for instance. In Park
Meadows, there are many fast food chains like Panda Express, Taco Bell, Sbarro,
Chick-fil-a, and Dairy Queen. Being located so conveniently in the middle of a
shopping mall, it can provide any shopper with any choice of fast food that
they could want, along with the carbohydrates to keep them fueled to shop. The
style in the food court is to order whatever food item is on one of the
multiple menus, then wait for it to be prepared, pay, then get the prepared
food and find a table. It is similar to a cafeteria line, where food is put on
paper plates, and then we have to find a table wherever we can. While part of
the process requires some physical exertion, the theme of an unhealthy diet
continues to remain the same in this sub-setting of society. Almost every item
on these menus has at least one healthy choice in it, but the majority of food
on people’s plates is the same greasy, high calorie food that can be served
anywhere else. Shopping can be seen as a way to burn off some of the calories,
but there is not enough physical exertion to counteract the amount of calories
that are consumed. Furthermore, even when we face the choice of having healthy
food, we are more prone to select the unhealthy item, because we know it from
the bombardment of TV ads that we see every time we turn on a TV.
If
an American was told to name one thing that would be the food of American’s
they would come up with an interesting list of things like apple pie,
hamburgers, hot dogs, and maybe even macaroni and cheese. Almost all of the
symbolic food items of American culture can be summed up into heavily
processed, high calorie food. For many American’s, it is the item that strikes
the fondest of memories in each persons heart. Geoff Nicholson in his article
“Eating White” talks about eating a “cheese sandwich” that consists of “white
Cheshire cheese on white bread” with a “glass of cold milk” (Nicholson 21).
This meal is something that invokes a memory of Nicholson’s mother and her need
for white in every meal she ate. The sensation that Nicholson has is similar to
the American people and their memories of hamburgers, hot dogs, and macaroni
and cheese. This fondness is one of the strongest reasons as to why Americans
continue with their high fat diets. An example of contradictory views can be
found in children. They always complain about not wanting to eat their
vegetables, yet they want to grow up to be strong. This contradiction is much
like the American mindset where we would like to be skinny without any of the
work. The yearning for health is powerful, but American culture shows that we
are more likely to stick with our high sugar, iconic foods then the broccoli on
the plate.
In
a culture full of double standards, America continues to want a healthy living
without any of the work. We are a nation that chooses the Big Mac over the
salad. We are a nation that makes us think that we need to be healthy, while personifying
the complete opposite. This may sound like it is a bleak picture for the future,
but we cannot count out America just yet. In the past few years, there has been
a rise of organic food on the market and a call for healthier choices to be
made readily available. The need for bigger portions has gone down, and there
is no more “Super-Size” option at McDonald’s to reflect this change. While we
may still be a society of double standards and of higher expectations than are possible
to achieve, when we want we can be prompted into action. We can, as a people,
continue to ask about our food and how healthy it is. We can step away from the
artificial food the fast food companies continue to feed us. A healthier
America is in sight if we stay active, get healthy, and make the right choices
with our food.
Works Cited
"F as in Fat: How
Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011." Trust for America's Health.
July 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.healthyamericans.org/report/88/>.
Murray, Bridget.
"Fast-Food Culture Serves Up Super-Size Americans." American
Psychological Association (APA). Dec. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/fastfood.aspx>.
Nicholson, Geoff. “Eating
White.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 10.1 (2010): 21-23. Print
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Rough Draft to EE1
When
walking around downtown Denver, anyone is privy to their choice of fast food
meals of their picking. In the nation of origin for fast food, it is completely
normal that fast food joints would be found along every corner, but does that
make it a good thing? Fast food chains like McDonalds and Burger King are
simply suppliers of food that is cheap, but no one said that it has to be
healthy. Of course, it doesn’t help that these multibillion-dollar fast food
chains invest millions of dollars in advertisements to keep the public hooked
to the fake ideals of a healthy meal in their restaurant. It also doesn’t help
that fast food restaurants have made food something that you do not need to
move for, but instead go through the drive through. But can this all be blamed
on massive fast food companies? Or are they just the enablers? Could it be that
American’s have kept this convenience because, even though we know that healthy
is better, we have some attachment to this food? These ideas affect our
cultural beliefs. These are things that we have been taught to do since we were
young and starting to eat our vegetables. In America, we champion the idea of
healthy food, yet we continue to surround ourselves and choose for ourselves
these unhealthy food choices when eating.
One of the
biggest ways we can see that America wants to promote healthy choices is by
looking at the advertising of companies. In the first Naked ad, on the left
side of the picture, we see a lot of this health conscious advertising come
into play. The first add talks about many things in its design and rhetorical
strategies. The main focus in the ad is the runner, running behind the bottle
of Naked juice located on the bottom right of the ad. This focus conveys to the
viewers that people who drink Naked juice are able to receive the energy they
need in order to run and maintain their energy. This sells the idea that, with
Naked juice, people can keep a healthy lifestyle and be motivated to workout.
The tagline on this ad also illustrates how advertising companies are playing
to the healthy ideals in the American mentality. “Our machines don’t run on
added sugar or preservatives and neither will you,” conveys to the viewer that
by choosing Naked juice to drink, instead of something like soda, they will be
healthier already (Naked Juice Co). By buying Naked juice, the viewer does not
put preservatives in their body, making a healthy choice. There is also the
tagline “That’s our Naked truth” at the end of the ad (Naked Juice Co). This
tells the viewer that everything communicated on the advertisement is the
complete truth from the company’s mouth. Telling the viewer that the ad is
completely true makes the viewer trust the ad more and makes them feel at ease
with their choice. The advertising companies are a good example of showing how
the public views health because they do many studies to show what is popular in
public opinion. Healthy choices are what people want so food-advertising
companies conform to that demand. Viewing an ad like the Naked ad, we see that,
in America, we hold the idea of health high in our minds.
While still
having high fitness values, we continue to be a culture that values fast food. Fast
food companies “saturate the airwaves, newspapers, and magazines” according to
Bridget Murray’s article “Fast food culture serves up super-size American’s”
(Murray). While the Naked advertisement is an example of something that could
be considered healthy, fast food is something that is not. According to Murray,
the food is “high-fat [and] high-sugar” in its content (Murray). The
advertisements from these companies may seem like they sell healthy choices in
their chains, but the real fact is that the food is not healthy in the
slightest. All of the chain fast food restaurants have led to an unhealthy
America. In a report about obesity in 2011, the results found that “twelve
states now have obesity rates over thirty percent” where “four years ago, only
one state was above thirty percent” (Trust for America’s Health). This
exponential increase in obesity across America is due to the ease and
accessibility from the fast food chains that can now be found all across the
world. The fact that there is a food chain at almost every street corner shows that
it is not usually the healthy food choices that we go for, but instead the convenient choice.
Not only do
food companies assail us with ads, but they also take convenience to a new
level. According to Murray, most American’s are getting “less exercise than
ever” and are “walking less and driving more” (Murray). This idea of
convenience is contradicting what Americans hold as a need in society. As the
Naked ad shows, the need for a petite figure is very important in society, yet
walking less and being lazier will not help to achieve that need. By indulging
in the fatty foods of the food industry, it does nothing to help the wanted
image of American’s. Kelly Brownell, a Yale University psychology professor,
shows convenience and how America has become lazier as a country. Brownell
explains that when pumping gas you can “punch in the Fritos, the Twinkie, and
the Coke, and somebody brings in to your car” (Murray). This decline in
physical activities and the increase in high calorie food are helping to create
an obese America. Our food choices as a country are ones that are unhealthy,
while continually understanding that we should choose better.
One of the
easiest settings to see the choices people make about food is in a food court.
Lets take the food court in Park Meadows for instance. In Park Meadows, there
are many fast food chains like Panda Express, Taco Bell, Sbarro, Chick-fil-a,
and Dairy Queen. Being located so conveniently in the middle of a shopping
mall, it can provide any shopper with any choice of fast food that they could
want. The style in the food court is to order what you would like, then wait
for it to be prepared and handed to you. It is similar to a cafeteria line,
where you get your food on paper plates and then find a table. While part of
the process requires some physical exertion, the theme of an unhealthy diet
continues to remain the same in this sub-setting of society. Almost every item
on these menus has at least one healthy choice in it, but the majority of food
on people’s plates is the same greasy, high calorie food that can be served
anywhere else. Even when we face the choice of having healthy food, we are more
prone to select the unhealthy item because we know it from the bombardment of
TV ads that we see every time we turn on a TV.
If an
American was told to name one thing that would be the food of American’s they
would come up with an interesting list of things like apple pie, hamburgers,
hot dogs, and maybe even macaroni and cheese. Almost all of the symbolic food
items of American culture can be summed up into heavily processed, high calorie
food. For many American’s, it is the item that strikes the fondest of memories
in each persons heart. Geoff Nicholson in his article “Eating White” talks
about eating a “cheese sandwich” that consists of “white Cheshire cheese on white
bread” with a “glass of cold milk” (Nicholson 21). This meal is something that
invokes a memory of Nicholson’s mother and her need for white in every meal she
ate. The sensation that Nicholson has is similar to the American people and
their memories of hamburgers, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese. This fondness
is one of the strongest reasons as to why Americans continue with their high
fat diets. An example of contradictory views can be found in children and how
they do not want to eat their vegetables, yet they want to grow up to be
strong. The yearning for health is powerful, but American culture shows that we
are more likely to stick with our high sugar, memory related foods then the
broccoli on the plate.
In a
culture full of double standards for both children and adults, America
continues to want health without any of the work. This sounds like a bleak
picture, but we cannot count out America just yet. In the past few years, there
has been a rise of organic food on the market and the call for humanely treated
animals to become part of the market. The need for bigger portions has gone
down and one of the biggest things is that the “super-size” at McDonalds has
been taken off of the menu. We may still be a society of double standards and
of higher expectations then possible, but when we want, we can be prompted into
action. We can, as a people, continue to ask about our food and not use anymore
of the pink slime that the fast food companies continue to feed us because it
is cheap. A healthier America is still in sight if we continue to stay active,
get healthy, and make the right choices with our food.
Works Cited
"F as in Fat: How
Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011." Trust for America's Health.
July 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.healthyamericans.org/report/88/>.
Murray, Bridget.
"Fast-Food Culture Serves Up Super-Size Americans." American
Psychological Association (APA). Dec. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/fastfood.aspx>.
Nicholson, Geoff. “Eating
White.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 10.1 (2010): 21-23. Print
Sunday, April 22, 2012
What it means to "eat on the edge"
In Horwitz’s
article, she talks about the idea of “eating on the edge” and how society has
transformed into a society that is always on the go and moving. Horwitz talks
about in her article, a student that is eating a sandwich in one of his lectures.
This action made him think about this transformation in society from a culture
where we value sitting around the table, to a culture where we prefer our meals
on the go. Originally, in our culture, we valued sitting together at a table,
which can be seen in Horwitz’s article about how the astronaut tables were
designed so that all of the crew can sit together at one table (Horwitz 44). The tables were made to be a "three-sided table" so that there would be no sense of dominance at the table (Horwitz 44). Of course, our
culture has changed because in the astronaut example, some of them asked for
meals in their own quarters. Horwitz explains that "the only feature the astronauts rejected, over time, was the face-to-face dining" (Horwitz 44). This shows that there is that new idea of "eating on the edge" which does not appreciate the family values as much. The American culture is very much a culture where
we prefer things to be on the go and by ourselves.
I know that
in my family we definitely have some of the cultural “eating on the edge” that
Horwitz talks about, but I would also say that we have kept our meals to
sitting around the table. In my family, food is one of the most important
things we make and prepare. Each and every meal we make is usually prepared by
us at home. The process takes a long time to make, and when we are done making
it, we have two options in front of us, eat at the table, or sit in front of
the TV. I would say we usually split the difference between the two. When one
of our favorite shows is on, we usually sit in front of the TV and eat. When
nothing good is on, we will eat around the table and talk about our day and how
we are. This whole idea of “eating on the edge” is true, from what I can tell,
but I like to think that my family has not completely formed to that cultural
identity.
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