You Are What You Eat

Its true, you are what you eat. When you eat fatty foods, your body can not process them fast enough and they stay in your body, producing fat. Not only are there long term consequences of eating fatty foods (weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, etc.) but there are also many short term consequences too. Stomachaches, headaches, feeling drowsy (and lazy), greasy skin (or happens to be the case with me after eating greasy food), and I'm sure you can think of many others. I don't however agree with the poem Hunting Season. I do not believe that the food we consume, be it meat, produce, dairy or grains inhabit our bodies. This is silly. However I do agree with the poets point, that after a while what you consume will come back to get you physically, if its not weight gain, it could be diseases. Take for example liver disease due to alcoholism, or diabetes and heart disease because of fast food. Even though I believe in this I still find it hard to keep in mind when dining. My diet is not the best, I drink more diet pepsi then water (or so it seems), and eat food that is of convenience or nutritional value. I think it would be easy to blame that on my parents or for being raised in America, but in the end I have to take responsibility for my own actions when it comes to eating.

Somer, Elizabeth. Food & Mood: the Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best. (New York: Henry Holt, 1999.)

Corn at the Cellular Level? Gross.

Although I have heard the expression "you are what you eat" many times, I have never heard it explained in the way it was in this blog assignment. I would not like to think of myself as spiritually and psychologically hosting all of the animals I have eaten throughout my life. I would imagine it would get pretty cramped later in life! Although I realize that we obtain nutrients from the food we consume, I guess I never realized the extent that this food is absorbed into our bodies. Considering that I don't like corn, I think it's pretty gross that you can see corn at the cellular level in our bodies. At the same time, it's quite a lot of effort to monitor everything I consume, and frankly, I don't feel like it most of the time. The one kind of food that I do monitor my consumption of is fast food. For the past few years, I have grown more and more disgusted about fast food. Although I will occasionally eat out, there are a few places I simply cannot stomach. The main place is McDonald's. Although I'm sure the food tastes just fine, I can't get over the stereotype of eating at McDonald's. The way Americans overindulge is unsightly, and I can't stand to be associated with it, even if it's only in my own head.

Food aside, I don't like to poison my body to an extreme degree. I'm pretty addicted to caffeine, but I try to keep it under control. I wouldn't consider taking steroids, and I prefer not to get vaccines for things like the flu because I think it keeps your immune system healthy.

The Western Read for this year is a great book dealing with the issues of food.

Pollan, Michael. Omnivore's Dilemma. London: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.

I Am What I Eat

Though I try to balance my diet and consume a wide variety of food, my attitude generally aligns with the idea of eating for taste and for ease. And as a college student (okay, there is another one), I find myself often pressed for time and money, which leads to quick eating and less than healthy food. And I do believe I inherit some of the negative effects of the food. But I have a good metabolism and I'm probably young enough that I'm not experiencing some of the worse traits I would if I were older. Regardless, I am what I eat, and I accept that.

But I also eat for taste, which means almost nothing. Plenty of good tasting food isn't all that healthy, but there are some that are. Though when we are talking about taste, who cares about health? Maybe it's just me, but if I'm putting it in my body, it might as well taste good, no matter the health aspects. I've got one life, I want to experience as much food as possible.

True, there is other things that can be put into the body, and I am a fan of beer, which I treat similarly. There is good beer and bad beer, expensive and cheap. I consume it responsibly, so there aren't really any negative effects, at least in any long term sense. So the food I eat is much the same, and I don't consume one thing more than the other, so I'll be just fine. I am what I eat, and that is fine with me.

Mudry, Jessica. Measured Meals: Nutrition in America. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2009. Print.

I Wish That I Knew What I Know Now

You are what you eat may be cliche, but that doesn't mean it is not true. People who have poor diets tend to have more health problems than people who keep careful stock of what goes into their bodies. My mom has always tried to eat healthy and tried to pass this trait along to her children, unfortunately in some ways it backfired. When my brother and I were young we would put our allowance together and get as much candy as $10 could buy, poor it into a bag and eat until we were sick...awwww the good old days! When we did this Saturday morning ritual we would keep it secret from my mother who would have had a heart attack if she saw what we were putting into our bodies. The only time we could openly consume sugar was at birthday parties and believe me we took full advantage! My mother would warn of the importance of balancing sugar with protein especially for me because I suffer from low blood sugar and crash pretty hard when I don't eat responsibly. But when your 10 it's hard to care about such things with cake and punch and cookies in such abundance for such a fleeting amount of time. My mothers words of wisdom were understood at the time as well as through my teens into my early twenties, yet I still find it challenging to apply the knowledge she has passed on to my everyday life. I am naturally thin and find eating healthy appealing, yet only possible in small doses: an organic salad here, snacks of carrots and protein bars there. More often than not I am eating fast food, or at a restaurant and must say it is hard to think about nutritional factors when selecting from a variety of tasty entrees saturated in fat, oil and of course my favorite, sugar. Now that my naturally slim figure has begun to show the impact of eating poorly for 25 years, I've tried to reign in my poor eating habits and opt for less fat and sugar for more protein and vitamins. It is very difficult to go out of my way to eat healthier when there is a plethora of bad foods that are easily accessible. I often think I will eat healthy later, I have the will power and will chose to exercise it when need be. Well the need is here, my blood sugar is very low and I am borderline diabetic, maintaining a healthy weight and blood sugar level are imperative to staying healthy....yet I still find myself in the drive through at Starbucks on my way to Western. Making small changes when you're young is easier than making drastic changes when you have a history of bad eating habits to break. Don't tell her I said this but I should have listened to my mother. Forming good eating habits when you're young beats breaking bad ones when you're older. We are what we consume and sooner or later our bodies will remind us that we are not indestructable, that we are not immune to heart disease and cholestorol problems. If we treat our bodies right, we will reap the benefits of a longer, healthier and happier life.

A book that gives some insight into the importance of nutrition follows:

Wildman, Robert E. C., Advanced human nutrition
Boca Raton : CRC Press, c2000.

Kill Your Food...Or Not

(So I was out of town this weekend and lost my assignment sheet. That doesn't really excuse the lateness of this post, but I might as well contribute as best I can. So here it is, for your reading pleasure.)

The idea of hunting has never been one that appealed to me. It's not so much a moral stance, it's just not having a desire to kill anything. Everything has been available in my local grocery store (or national chain) so I don't really need to. But I can appreciate the hunters who do so for food, to claim the animal and use it for a number of purposes such as food or clothing or anything else they can do to waste as little of the animal as possible. That is understandable, if you want to grow your own vegetables or hunt your own food, who am I to stop you? As long as you stay within the confines of the law, you should be able to do as you please.

Where hunting does get iffy for me is in the sport of it. To essentially waste an animal, killing it solely for sport, seems unnecessary. Meat, and the animals we get it from, should be respected enough not to be wasted for fun. And this is coming from someone who understands that some do find real pleasure and fun from hunting. I've never done it, nor do I interact with those who do very often, but I do know people enjoy all sorts of things that I don't do, so I can deal with it. But there is so much you can do with a hunted animal, which includes putting it to good use.

Outside of that, I do find something appealing in harvesting food for oneself. There is a pride in doing so, in making a way for yourself, by yourself. Growing your own food seems like an interesting lifestyle, even when it includes raising animals to butcher and eat. The food chain, with us at the top, allows us to consume animals and plants, so why not do so? Of course, I side with those who would not want to be cruel to animals, but treat them with enough respect. The same goes for raising them, because they are beings that feel... I will only eat them because, like them, we are designed to eat certain things. I'm not one to question that, in fact, I embrace some of human's base animal instincts.

Harnack, Andrew. Animal Rights: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Print.

Ogden, Samuel. How to Grow Food for Your Family. New York, NY: A.S. Barnes, 1942. Print.

To Hunt or Not to Hunt

Growing up I had a strong sense of right and wrong with respect to animals: anything that hurt them was wrong. Even when I would watch movies as a child I remember my mother trying to comfort me as I sobbed after a horse was killed in a western shoot out. Silly as that may be I still have a fondness for animals that might make you think I would be against eating them, but this is not the case. I was raised eating chicken and beef and when I was about ten and discovered that “beef” came from cows it saddened me, but didn’t stop me from begging my mom to take me to McDonald’s.

My mom raised me in a poor area in Los Angeles County yet always managed to keep us out of apartment living. We always had a house and always had pets, so when she announced she wanted to start a dairy farm I was all for it!! I didn’t realize how much effort it took to actually care for animals other than cats and dogs. Dairy goats have to be milked twice a day (at least) even if you have no need for all the milk, if you don’t milk them they will stop producing it. As you may remember I was opposed to goat milk from the start, and you can imagine my shock when my mother had one of the older goats butchered for meat!! It was hard to know that our oldest goat Aphrodite was in separate packages marked ground meat in the freezer but when my mom actually made spaghetti with her I couldn’t handle it. She begged me to try it, and after fighting to no avail I did. I was not impressed. I could tell it was different, but not in the same disgusted way I could tell with the goat milk. It was different, but not gross. I never ate goat again, mostly because I’ve considered them pets and it is hard to think of them otherwise.

Harvesting your own food is good for not only the environment but also for your own health in knowing the diet and the treatment of the plant or animal you are going to consume. It is definitely advantageous to have a stronger connection with your food; it makes you waste less because it is more meaningful. It is an investment of time, money, sweat and sometimes even blood, so the final product on your dinner plate has more meaning then shelling out twenty bucks for a prepackaged piece of meat that is so far removed from the animal it was originally, without a label it would be unrecognizable.

We like to think that we are more civilized than we were 200, 100, even 50 years ago. But a lot of the problems we have with overconsumption and unfair distribution of food and wealth come from not having direct contact with the food and the environment that make our lives worth living. It is not only moral to hunt for food, if it were the rule instead of the exception to the rule we wouldn’t have many of the problems we face today. Granted I would have a hard time with it at first, but like anything that was meaningful, with hard work and determination the benefits would far outweigh the costs.

I think there are valid arguments on both sides so I’m recommending two books with opposing viewpoints…..

Swan, A. James. In Defense of Hunting. HarperSanFransisco, 1995. P

Bronner, J. Simon. Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights Controversies. U Press of Kentucky, 2008. P

If You Can Stomach It...

For those who can stomach it, I think hunting your own food is a great idea. I think hunting for food increases awareness on a whole score of issues that many people today aren't able to deal with (myself included). Not only are you positive where your food came from, but you're also conscious of how much pain the animal experienced, how healthy it looked, etc. One aspect I really like of hunting one's own meat is that you can control how much of the animal is wasted. I think people who make the effort to use every part of the animal are quite admiral; they're ensuring that the life of the animal didn't go to waste.

In our modern culture, we are so far removed from the source of our food it's pretty unbelievable. The more our food technology advances, the more detached we become from our food. I know I certainly value my detachment from the animal that I'm consuming, but at the same time, I'm probably causing the poor creature much more pain and strife by purchasing its meat from a grocery store than from killing it myself. I am especially aware of my detachment from food because a few years ago, my guilt about eating animals consumed me and I became a vegetarian. I gave it up after a year and a half (and, ironically, enjoy meat more now that I ever did before), but I am also aware of the fact that I avoid at all costs knowing the source of my protein. If I had to look into the eyes of the creature I wished to consume, I would never be able to eat its flesh. I think it is noble of those who can; they are living in a much more natural realm than those of us who are squeamish about killing animals. People who hunt for their own food are reaching out to the fundamental circle of life that so many of us have lost.

I thought the article about Escoffier's Guide Culinaire was quite interesting. I think it's cool that the author has a network of people that hunt their own food and trade it amongst one another. Although it was kind of disgusting to read about how some of the food is made, I think it was an enriching experience nonetheless. I think hunting for one's own food is perfectly justifiable, certainly more so than purchasing a package of meat in a grocery store. I think the only humans who are truly justified in consuming meat in the first place are those who hunt their own food, after all, they are the only ones who can deal with the moral consequences of the act. The rest of us (once again, myself included) just sit back and let others do the dirty work for us. If everyone hunted their own food, we would certainly be a lot healthier, and we would senselessly murder so many less animals than we do now.

Jackson, Alison. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1997. Print.

Rubin, Lawrence. Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture. Jefferson: McFarland, 2008. Print.