Final Post

I think the most interesting things I have learned in this class is the research of Michael Pollan. He seems to have planted his seed in every aspect of food production, sustainability, and food values. He mentions all the keys to eating to be as healthy physically and mentally throughout one's lifetime while preserving the earth for the future as well. This matters because everybody needs to eat and everybody deserves to fuel a healthy lifestyle. I plan to use his research and advice in the future for the way I eat throughout my lifetime.

EE2 Draft

Conor Hoolihan

WRIT 1133

Professor Leake

Extended Essay 2: An Eater’s Manifesto

When I think about food values, it is tough to think of a sole value that I pride myself on. However, after reading Michael Pollan’s Unhappy Meals, one point he makes really stuck with me. He states, “don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t consider to be food” (Unhappy Meals). This really made me separate from the biases I have formed in my nineteen years in this world because my grandparents, and great-grandparents, paved the way for my food values today. Living in northern Minnesota, as my grandparents do, presents an array of challenges not typically experienced by most and that is a survival element. That is why one of my biggest food values is where my food comes from. Living in a place where it is a necessity to hunt, fish, gather your food allows an interesting contrast between how getting food really should be, and how we can get food in our society. With a few large corporations running the majority of the food industry in America, it is easy for everyone (including consumers) to get caught up in the capitalistic market strategies and the inevitable unethical decisions that come along with this game. People are losing sight of just how much work should be put into raising a cow, hunting a deer, catching fish for dinner, or harvesting berries to survive. My food values are, naturally, influenced by these two large sources as a result of growing up in both of these conditions. People need to pay more attention and have more appreciation for the food they eat; otherwise the affects will become an unstoppable epidemic.

In order to get some incite on the way of living in which I grew up, it is helpful to see other extremes that people must take in order to live a satisfactory life in regards to their diet. Things like vegetarianism, allergies, and other special dining requests are becoming more and more prevalent and available on restaurant menus. According to an article from Take Part, the number of vegetarians has grown from 1% of the US population to a little over 5% today. On top of that, Diets have grown to accommodate the unsustainable production of food and compensate for the resulting medical problems. Reports from the Center for Disease Control, obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the past thirty years.  On top of that, allergies to peanuts, gluten, dairy, and other good allergies that were unheard of 30 years ago are now being accommodated by restaurants and seem to be a major growing concern for our society. It seems overwhelmingly clear to me that these problems can be contributed to one’s diet and overall food intake, however, some may attribute it to how we strive for perfect hygiene but this is linked to how we prepare food as a result of how often and what we eat during the day. An article from MSN found that the rise of food allergens can be attributed to how we as a society “fix” ourselves with makeup, medicine, etc that our body doesn’t know what is a natural process anymore. They say, "Then you throw in a food that your body doesn't recognize, and the body confuses it with other environmental toxins and reacts to it as an invader" (MSN). Diets have grown to accommodate the unsustainable production of food and compensate for the resulting medical problems, and this is a major part in why where your food comes from can provide answers to many unanswered patterns in our society related to food such as rising obesity and diabetes rates, rising food allergies, and even financial costs as a result of production health standards and regulations as well as increased medical attention to those who have allergies and issues with being over-weight.

With all these statistics in mind, it is easy to get bored and just give up on how we get our food because it seems out of our control. This is untrue. All my life I have had access to fresh deer, birds, fish, garden produce, and fresh berries. I’m not saying that you have to live like a person that has never seen a city, however, the evidence that having a sustainable way to get your food and knowing where it comes from can offer many health benefits. Think about it: if you were able to not rely on anybody else for food, would you be able to survive? This is a real question that needs to be addressed because it is basic human nature. I understand that food production and distributing has been available for a long time now, but it is the principle of how these things get to us that has been lost as generations move forward. Taking food for granted could be a downfall because we have to eat a couple times daily to be satisfied and live the productive and successful lives we most people strive for daily. If you don’t pay attention to where any of the things you eat come from, it makes you extremely vulnerable to the health affects that I talked about in the last paragraph. People chose to not eat meat because they don’t agree with how animals have been treated or how they get processed in large production plants. I would agree with that 100%, but the fact is people have hunting and eating animals for the entirety of existence because they have killed the animal itself and understand the effort it takes to do so. Not to say that some vegetarians haven’t done this, but the increase in the amount of vegetarians over the past 30 years makes it hard to believe everyone has a justified reason other than that is just how they chose to live, which is perfectly justified in itself. On top of this, it makes us appreciate where our food comes from therefore resulting in a decrease of unnecessary snacking, which gives way to lower obesity rates. Having had the opportunity to hunt and fish and gather food for my family during my life has given me an amazing perspective on where the food that we eat comes from.

(Unsustainable food production paragraph)

(Financial problems as a result paragraph)

I understand that the majority of people can’t make arrangements to go out and kill and elk to eat. It is also unreasonable to have people plant their own gardens and collect food from it to live off of. What is reasonable is utilizing the resources you have around to gain perspective on where the food that you eat comes from. For example, I live in northern Minnesota where it is reasonable to collect all of the necessary components to live by simply getting them from the land. However, if you live in downtown New York, it will be very hard to find a place to gather your own food, let alone dealing with the authorities for shooting a shotgun at a bird in Central Park. It is, however, reasonable to incorporate a lifestyle that accommodates similar perspective from someone who lives in the boonies. This can be done by eating less and paying more (Pollan). This is a guideline from Michael Pollan who suggests that if you choose to live a life where it is difficult to find fresh, healthy, and sustainable food, that doesn’t give you an excuse to eat McDonalds everyday. By allotting the money you spend on food, you can adjust that to buying fresher and organic food from a Whole Foods store in lower quantities. This offers the sacrifice similar to hunting your own food because you have to work for it, therefore gaining an appreciation of where your food comes from.

After living in a place where it is easy to eat food that comes naturally from the land you live by, it is interesting to see how different it is to eat Sodexo food everyday in a college setting. I notice that it is more difficult to stay full, harder to be satisfied with what you eat, and more frustrating because I know my body is not running as well as it could be with fresh food. This has been another turning point for me in regards to the appreciation I have for where my food comes from at home. The amount of satisfaction and success associated with getting your own food is second to none.

With the rise in food allergies, unsustainable food production, rising obesity and diabetes rates, among others, it is hard to say that the way we eat now is sustainable. Whether the way we eat or how we appreciate our food is linked to these problems or not (which the evidence strongly suggests), it is reasonable to say that it is not helping solve the problems at all because of how often we eat and first-hand experiences of the benefits of eating in a way that allows for appreciation. That is why I value where my food comes from.

Unsteady Diets

Michael Pollan proposes the question, "What would happen, for example, if we were to start thinking about food as less of a thing and more of a relationship?" paralleling his article "Unhappy Meals" with that of Dupuis' "History of Food Advice," we see a common theme in the evolution of what we have eaten. This quote addresses the idea that we can change our minds so quickly about what we eat; there is no relationship with the food we eat because we view it as a scientific study. These articles present society with the idea that what we eat is strongly influenced by what scientists and health speculators claim to be healthy. 

Not only does this cause drastic changes in people's diets, but it also makes it hard for people to get in a consistent eating routine which would be the best for their health. Pollan states that, "a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat" and I agree because most of the food we eat goes under a certain degree of analysis from the FDA or a scientist testing it for disease and this means its not a good raw piece of food which is what is best for everyone.

The idea that we don't acknowledge just exactly how we are influenced by what we eat is ridiculous. It was so evident to me after reading these articles that most people do change their diets if new reports come out regarding a vitamin we "need" to have in our diets. It is hard on your body to change diets that abruptly and often. This means that we need to change the way we perceive food speculation and make an effort to eat more consistent foods such as fruits and vegetables because we know they are good for us. Steady, consistent, and sustainable diets is the key to being healthily because it will provide the right nutrients and no one will say that it is bad to be eating fruits and vegetables (at least the ones where you know where it was produced.)

In Class: how do you decide what to eat

I usually base my decision on what to eat by how I am feeling at the time with a sense of always trying to eat as healthy as possible. I like to know where the food comes from, however, this is tough in today's world. Being in college makes  choosing what to eat very difficult because we are limited in what we can choose to eat as a result of only being able to eat Sodexo. My values of trying to be healthy and sustainable inform most of my eating habits. This is a result of my long-term goals of being healthy so I can live a long and functional life.

Emotional Eating

Many people have heard of, or contributed to, emotional eating. This is the idea that consumers like to indulge or restrict their eating patterns based on how they are feeling. It is reasonable to conclude that consistent meals at the same time of day is one of the best ways to sustain optimum health, therefore, emotional eating is unhealthy based on the fact that your varying emotions trigger what you want. Like I said, we all have sat down with a bag of chips and watched a great movie to cope with an unenjoyable feeling, and maybe that time when it was a good idea to have ice cream for breakfast on your birthday. Emotions play a large part in what we choose to eat and, in turn, our health.

Emotional eating can serve different people different results depending on the situation. According to a study from the Journal of Consumer Research in Chicago, there is a huge correlation between temporal focus and the specific emotions associated with them. To simplify, events that are past, present, and future oriented carry different emotions with them and therefore imply different ways of emotional eating. If a woman is reminded of how well she did on the exam, she may be more inclined to eat unhealthy snacks out of joy for the past. This is drastically different than if the woman gets an interview for her dream job; she may want to eat healthier food because the excitement emotion she is feeling implies good for the future, which may induce healthy eating, patterns. The study done be this journal aims to prove that "future temporal focus appraisals associated with specific positive emotions decrease unhealthy food consumption" (JCR). To reiterate this claim, their studies show that when a person is excited about the future, they are more inclined to eat healthier as opposed to feeling happy and content with a previous image of happiness. Self-control is the key to winning this emotional battle. Once you know that certain emotions make you eat unhealthy food, you can adjust this feeling to accommodate a more healthy food choice. This comes from the way we perceive situations and how we disperse our emotions. Think about it: most adults, at least the ones I know, fall into the cliche of the “morning routine” where everything is the same everyday. This stems from a maturity gained from self-control. Not to say that all routines are good, however, it is a way of getting to a state of self-control over the emotions of the day.

When I think of this idea of emotional eating in regards to this study, I immediately think of how much our memories are associated with food. My sister is a nutritionist and she has always talked about how much we alter our diets based on the way we feel. It is always entertaining to see her eating patterns sway with her emotions; she always knows when she is doing it and generally stops when I call her out on it. With the rising health concerns in America such as obesity and diabetes, she is concerned with our swayed diets and she aims for a more holistic approach to eating healthy. This ties into the idea of emotional eating because you have control over what made you happy in the past and what will make you happy in the future. She says that the only way to completely have control over a healthy, consistent diet is to have control over your emotions and self-control, which is difficult to do.

Emotional eating is inevitable. I am not trying to tell you to live the perfect life with zero trace of disappointment, anger, or frustration; however, gaining control over how situations influence your emotions is a great step in having a more healthy consumption of food.

References:

http://0-www.jstor.org.bianca.penlib.du.edu/stable/10.1086/659873

SE5 Sources

http://0-www.jstor.org.bianca.penlib.du.edu/stable/10.1086/659873

This is a study on how emotional eating relates to happiness or depression to a degree. It talks about how men and women use comfort food differently as well as the implications associated with these decisions.

Food Pattern Observations

When people have consistency in their meal times, it usually means they have a healthier diet. I think this is a result of how your metabolism works. If their it is inconsistency in meal times, it can result in being hungrier than you usually are at that time which results in eating more than you should.

Meal List

Wednesday-

2pm: half a plate of salad, grilled ham and cheese panini, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of water

7pm: chicken burrito with a salad and chips with a glass of water

11pm: granola bar

Thursday-

9am: peanut butter belgian waffle with water

4pm: burger with a salad and a cookie with water

Friday-

11am: omelet with water

4pm: jimmy johns sandwich

11pm: two granola bars

SE4

Lately, I have found myself to be very busy, which has made for a disruption in my eating schedule. As a result, granola bars and Gatorade have become a common theme in my life. These items do provide some good nutritional value as a last resort, but I have been thinking: how different are these items from a typical meal when you dissect the foundation of the product? People want to be healthy and it is exceedingly apparent by how food is marketed, yet America is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world. These facts didn't line up to me. How can Gatorade and soda be made up of almost the same ingredients as a burger or salad from a fast-food restaurant? The answer lies in the production of corn.

Corn is the largest crop grown in America by far. According to a Wells Fargo market update, national corn yield has doubled since the 1960s. Aside from the recent push for corn-based ethanol production, most of the corn produced goes to animal feed. That means that most of the meat in which we eat is composed of corn. Unfortunately, corn is nearly 85 percent simple carbohydrate and the rest is sodium. That means that corn is not a sufficient source for nutritional value. Not only do we feed this to the animals in which we eat, we consume this product everyday in almost everything we eat. Almost 50 percent of our daily calories are from corn. Wells Fargo also states that beef, dairy, pork, and chicken consumption have increased over the past ten years. This coupled with steady increases of national cash corn prices means that corn production will likely remain a large portion of our diets.

As corn production rises, we as consumers must be responsible. A quote from Michael Pollan sums up this argument: "If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is 'corn'." Overproduction sooner or later leads to overconsumption, because we’re good at figuring out how to turn surpluses into inexpensive, portable new products. Our cheap, value-added, portable corn commodity is corn sweetener, specifically high-fructose corn syrup. But we also dispose of overproduction in corn-fed beef, pork, and chicken. And now we're even teaching salmon to eat corn, because there's so much of it to get rid of. High-fructose corn syrup is what I inevitably found as the ingredient in my Gatorade. It is interesting to me that the production of one product can drive the force behind so many staples of American diet. 

It is not our fault that corn is such a large part of our lives. It makes sense that we use corn in everything because it can be produced very inexpensively, and we can break it down into simple sugars to incorporate into almost everything. As I mentioned earlier, American marketing can be partially to blame for this. Taking the idea of a surplus in corn production, we can see why companies simply target more super-sized options for soda and burgers. They are still gaining profit from the cheap corn and consumers feel treated because they can get more for a lower price.

Researching these facts on corn production has made me realize just how much of our diets are corn-based. From Gatorade to macaroni and cheese, corn plays a major role in how we get our calories. It is amazing that these kinds of foods came from corn. I can't think of anything like this ever happening in history. Corn production accounts for two New York states worth of acreage, and that is just in the United States. I don't think that these findings will have any affect on my relationship with corn because, as a college student, you are limited in the variety of food you can find as a result of the financial aspect and limitations from Sodexo. As much as I would love to lower my consumption of corn-based foods, it is not an option at this point. I still like the idea of using corn how it is today, however, I think there are better options. It makes sense to use it because it is so cheap and available in the United States. The only concern linked to the use of corn is the rising obesity rates in America as well as the lack of nutritional value in corn. Added useless calories to American diet is hardly what we need to see when we are trying to lower obesity rates and become healthier as a society. Gatorade will still be apart of my diet but less high fructose corn syrup is better for society.


"Corn Market Update." Wells Fargo. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. <https://www.wellsfargo.com/downloads/pdf/com/industry/Corn_Industry.pdf>.


Pollan, Michael. "We Are What We Eat - Michael Pollan | Center for Ecoliteracy."Education for Sustainable Living | Center for Ecoliteracy. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/we-are-what-we-eat>

Capitalistic Food Production

From the tomato capital of the world, to an assembly line production of giant chickens and to a reevaluation of how we view animals, I have a new view of the acknowledging where food comes from. In "Fowl Trouble" by Christopher Cook, he discusses the production of chicken through the eyes of the employees in a way that makes the process almost seen like a car production assembly. The positions in place for producing these chicken is almost horrifying. Wouldn't the biggest chicken possible be ideal? One would think this is true, however, with genetically engineered chicken today, they are so much bigger than they would normally be. This makes the idea of eating chicken, which is an exceedingly common practice for most, seem very unnatural for something that is a living animal. This brings up another point: animal cruelty. In Michael Pollen's article, "An Animal's Place," he discusses animal ethics and how we treat them as a whole, especially in food production. This is an interesting contrast with the idea of genetically engineering a 3.5 pound  chicken. Not only is this unnatural and cruel, but it is also unhealthy for society. The workers in the chicken plant suffer from diseases and long term physical health troubles such as carpal tunnel. Eating meat is almost a responsibility in Pollen's eyes and we as a society aren't respecting the process of eating meat and we are going to suffer the inevitable results soon if we don't improve our production to be more sustainable and healthy in the long run. This offers another interesting contrast to Tomatoland by Barry Eastbrook. He talks about the tomato production in the tomato capital of the world in Peru. The workers on this farm are treat poorly as a result of the the added chemicals to the tomatoes. These workers also have long term health affects from working here. The added chemicals are developing a super tomato, however, the tomatoes today have 14 times more sodium than they did in the 1960s. The health affects suffered from commercial food production are jeopardizing the health of the workers and society who eat the tomatos.

The common theme in all three of these articles is that food production today is not sustainable to the well-being of society as a result of the added chemicals to food and the way the workers are treated as a result. The contrast between all of these articles provides a very interesting link to three very large problems in which we as a society are going to have to adapt to in order to survive the capitalistic approach to food production of today.