Sunday, June 10, 2007

“Food in our culture is one aspect of a larger nightmare.”

I agree with the quote, “Food in our culture is one aspect of a larger nightmare.” In American culture, food is like a natural thing to everyone, because everybody can find food within 1 mile in American cities. But does that mean everybody is fulfilled by what they have now? No, not at all, we just want to get more and more food, and more and more things to fulfill our desire.

The food that we have now is all about quantity, but nothing about quality. Everybody in United States wants to get as much money as they want. So they try to make as many products as possible with cheapest cost. So they are using machines instead of human for doing all work, using fuel oil instead of food for providing energy. More and more products are produced, at the same rate, the quality of the products are decreasing.

The way that American eats is making themselves hate food. Nobody gets a quality time period for his or her meal in the cities. They just grab their food from the fast food restaurant and eat that within 30 minutes. They do not care about how it taste, because they just put the food into their mouth while reading the newspaper or watching the TV. They just pay no attention to what they are eating.

In addition, food equals to waste in American. Everybody thinks that it is OK to waste food, because there is too much food that we do not even care about the left over. 5 to 15 minutes to restaurant or supermarket. There is no way to be hungry in U.S. It is hard to look at a bunch of food while we are thinking about the hungry people in the other side of the planet. As we throw the food into garbage can, someone may die by hunger.

In conclusion, food is not only a bad thing in our culture, but also it is making us feel bad about what we did to our planet and ourselves. While we are eating, we should think more about the background of the food and the people who die without food.

Future Food

What is food? Food has different meaning to everybody in different time period, but food is something that we need, no matter who we are. Without food we can’t even be alive.

In the past, people didn’t need to work for money, the only thing they did was to hunt food for themselves or their families. They cannot store food, so they need to find food and try to get enough food everyday. Getting enough food for survive is the only desire they had at that time. They did not even choose what to eat, but they just want to get what can be eaten. Their foods are fruits and meat of some wild animal. In the beginning, they did not even know how to cook. They just ate the raw food. After many years, they started to cook the raw food.

Now, it is a different story. We already have enough food for everyone in this planet, but not everybody getting enough food for surviving. Someone may get more food than enough and they just waste, someone may just get nothing to eat.
Even though most of the people have enough food for surviving, nobody really cares about the food so much since nobody really knows what they are eating. The only food that we are eating now is just fuel oil.

We do not need to hunt food by ourselves, it is much more inconvenience to get food from the restaurants or supermarket. When we buy the food that we think of, we may just get something that we never think about. Beef, oranges, and rice are the things that we can get from the supermarket.

How do they grow up? Where are they come from? These seem like two simple questions, but the answers are totally different from what we expect. The cows have as much food as they want, but their food is not grass, but corns. That’s not what a cow should eat. And their living condition is so poor that they only get a little room for moving. We just want to grow more food for others, but what we did is making the nature change. Everything is change to be unnatural. We only care about the quantity, but not about the quality. The food came from miles and miles far away. So we used transportations to transport the food that we want. By doing these, we need fuel oil to feed our machines whether growing or transporting the food. So we are actually eating the fuel oil.

At the same time, we never really take time to taste the food that we eat everyday. We just eat that in 10 to 20 minutes for fulfilling the needs of our stomach. So it is like putting the oil into a machine so that it will get the energy to function.

After we understand what food we are eating, we can easily think of the food that we eat in the future. It will be like some medicine that we took today. It is small. it only takes 1 or 2 seconds to finish. And it will be containing all the energy that we need for one day or even one week, and all the nutrition that we need. It sounds like impossible, but we also never think of the food that we have now in the old time.
Even though people may know that is not really “food”, but they may just think that is what they want and what they need. Then we might be just like the cows that I describe above.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

How Calories Work

Basically, calorie is using as the unit of energy and heat. Even though we see that a lot but we do not really care about that so much and use it so much.
In this article, the author is trying to show more facts about calorie, and how calorie really directly relates with our daily lives. One of the interesting thing that the author mention about is Fat, which is really important to our health. We need a certain percentage of fat in everyday so that our body can function properly. It is a very important fact for each of us, who believe that fat is the worst thing for our health. It a great article to read, I learn a lot from it.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Industrial Food

Everything is being industrial by human being now, especially, food. Industrial food is like what we can get from the supermarket in front of our houses or apartments. In order to get deeper understanding of industrial food, it can be broken down into two words, “industry” and “food.” Industry is all about production, it’s a “formal” and “fast” way to producing the supplies. Food is what every single living organism needs for surviving. So the combination of both words is to use a “formal” way to produce food. Industrial food means using the least amount of energy and costing the least amount of money to produce the largest amount of food. Should industrial food be the best for every single of us? No, it is just better for some of us to get as much food as we want. But the way that we get the food is not really good for both of us and our world.
Most of the industrial foods are processing and producing by machines and a few farmers or workers. The reason that we use machines instead of human being is because machines can work longer time than human being, faster than human being, and cheaper than human being. But the most important reason of why we need industrial food is there are too many of us, who need more and more food. In the old time, one farmer might feed about 10 people, but now, one farmer can produce the food for 149 people. If we say the speed of the farmer producing food in the old time is like a turtle walking, then now it is like a rabbit running. Is it really the rabbit can run faster than turtle? Not really, we all know that the turtle won at the end of the story.
On one hand, it is great to find a better way for production, and it will be more efficient. On the other hand, producing food is not only about the quantity, but the quality is also an important factor, too. The way that we produce food is being updated or invented everyday by the scientist. They do help increasing the quantity of food production, but not the quality of the food. They do that is not because they want to produce food for the need of people, it is because they want to make more money by doing less work and cost less money.
Today, we’ve already gotten enough food for every single of us. It is not like everyone gets food (a piece of bread), it is like everyone can be fed fully. But why are there still many people are hungry until they die? Can you imagine how much food we throw into the garbage bin everyday? In the cafeteria of the School of the Future, there are 4 to 5 garbage bin are half full everyday. The garbage in the bin is not the plate, but food. Why should we produce more food for being waste? Is that really good to have industrial food?
Nobody really cares about how the food is produced, because we do not know where the foods come from, the only thing that we know is we can buy whatever food we want in a store ten minute away from our houses. One will not care about one’s glasses when one wears them, until one can’t see when one loses one’s glasses. We have had enough food, but we abuse them. If we do not live in America, then we may start to think how food important to us.
Moreover, the quality of industrial food is never being considered when producing. As scientists are thinking how to produce food faster, the quality is being less and less important to the industrial food production. The scientists are always trying to find out a way faster to produce food, but not produce better food.
In the industrial farmer, the animals (chicken, pigs, cows) are treated immorally. From the date that they were born to the date that they were killed, the only two things they did are eating and sleeping. In other words, they just need to grow as fast as they could and to get as fat as they could. Unlike their ancestors, they never get room to move or to exercise, but they can get food as much as they want and whenever they want. Their ancestors had their freedom of life. They would not be kept into one room for their whole life. Even though they might not get enough food, they had longer life than the animals now. At least they will not be killed when they are strong.
But the animals now are different, their purpose of their lives are produce food for human being. They are redesigned to be grow faster and faster by human being. They become unnatural, they become something that they shouldn’t be. They become one of products of this industrial world. They no longer are animal, but one of food products. Sometimes, the scientist may use some chemical that bad for both the animals and the human being to increase the speed of the animals grown. After they reach a certain size or period, they will be killed. Their lives are just one tenth as long as their ancestor. They become meaningless in this world. It is like using the air to fill the room. They are not treated as a living organism, and the products made of them are bad quality. Then what is the real purpose for producing all these industrial food?
The industrial food can be a good idea to produce food faster and better quality, but it is misunderstanding to be used. It is a bad idea to use a wrong way to produce some bad food for us. Nobody will get the benefit for doing that, except the producer.
The way that we treat the animals is the same way in which we treat human being. The purpose of reproduction and growth of the animals is to make food for human being. The purpose of reproduction and growth of human being is to work for other. We try to get the most benefit from the animals at the same time we try to get the most benefit from the other people. The animals are the main material of the industrial food production. We are the energy of the industrial world. If the lives of the animals are meaningless for industrial food production, then our lives are meaningless for the industrial world.
That means our lives are just for working. It is useless to study in the school and to think about our future. It is because the only thing that we do after we graduate from college is just the same as the animals. Nobody wants to have the same life as a cow or a pig. We got to think about what the purpose for doing everything that we are doing now. We are not a part of the industrial world, but we are controlling it. We are not work anybody, but ourselves. So the cows, the chicken, and the pigs are not designed living for human being.
If we do not accept industrial food as what we do now, then we will not be the servants of the industrial work, and the animals will not be suffer by being industrial food. There should a better way for benefiting both human being and the animals, but industrial food is not the one.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Joking in Wendy's

I went to Wendy's with James, we tried to make fun of Wendy's food. we asked for something that they do not have. The cashier just wanted us to go. We just held the line for about 2 minutes. Then we just went out together.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Vegan Diet

What’s Good For People To Eat?

Vegan diet is the way for helping balance ecosystem and makes our body system healthier. There are many reasons to be a vegan, but these are the three of the most important reasons, human health, less cost of eating vegetable than eating the other food products, and animal rights. Vegan diet is not a good way to eat, but also it is the right way to eat, because veganism helps us to have healthy bodies, affordable foods, and sustainable world.

First of all, vegan diet is one of the best diets for human health. Our bodies need, proteins, fibers, water, and many different kinds of vitamin, to function. By only eating vegetables, our bodies will get all of them without eating the other foods. At the same time, the other food products can not provide the same nutrition to our bodies. In fact, eating meat, dairy, and egg products will cause us sick, lethargic and fat. In the long term, it can cause heart disease, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, and an array of other problems; as a result, it may cause the death to us.

“Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of the world’s foremost epidemiological scientists and director of what The New York Times called ‘the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.’ Dr. Campbell’s studies have shown that, as he puts it, ‘the vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.’”

It means we could prevented many diseases by just adopting a plant-based diet, in other word, being a vegan will have less chance getting the diseases.
Heart disease is the biggest killer in North America, but everybody can prevent it. The doctor found that we can prevent heart disease by lowering the patients’ cholesterol levels.

“Enter Dr. Dean Ornish, who has since proven that 100 percent of heart attacks from clogged arteries—and again, this is by far the developed world’s biggest killer—that 100 percent are preventable. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has replicated Dr. Ornish’s findings, taking patients who were suffering from clogged arteries and making them ‘heart attack proof’ (to quote Dr. Esselstyn in the August 1999 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology) by getting their cholesterol levels down below 150.”

In fact, the average cholesterol level of meat-eater is 210, which causes heart diseases easily. And the average cholesterol level of the vegetarian is 161. At the same time, the average cholesterol level of vegan is only 133. It proves that a vegan have less chance to get heart diseases than others.

Moreover, Vegan also has less chance to get cancer. Perhaps, there are many other factors will cause cancer, but diet is one of the most important factors.

“There is complete scientific unanimity: As much cancer is caused by diet as is caused by smoking, which is a lot! And it is also completely clear how we can prevent cancer.…According to Dr. William Castelli, chair of the Nutrition Department at Harvard Medical School and the researcher who has directed the longest-running clinical trial in history, ‘A low-fat, plant-based diet would … lower the cancer rate 60 percent.’”

In other words, diet is directly affects the health of our body, and being a vegan will be much healthier than other people who has different diet.

Second, it is accessible to be a vegan. Being a vegan is convenience to have food, because many vegetables can be grown in the city or somewhere around the city, like suburban. They are not necessary to be grown in some far countries. It means we could get vegetable everywhere, even we can plant them in our front yard or back yard. We can get vegetable easily in the supermarket, in the fairs, in the market, or at our back yard. At the same time, meats and other animal products are not necessary can be gotten as easy as vegetables. Most of the animals or meats are from the other states, even from the other country. We got to transport them to our city, then our house.

At this point, the other reason for being a vegan is coming up – less cost of eating vegetables than eating the other food products. We got to pay more than we have for the foods beside vegetables. First of all, we got to pay the cost of shipping since they are not local foods. And this amount of money could be the most expansive part of the total price of the food. It is like we are buying something that is uneatable when we are buying something to eat. It is just waste the energy and our money since oil is one of the most important energy resources in our country.

For vegan diet, vegetables can be grown in local, which will cost less for transports. Usually, vegetables are cheaper than meats. In addition, vegetables can be kept fresh easily, but meats can’t.

The final reason for being a vegan is ethical to the animals. The definition of animal is a living organism that is distinguished from plants by independent movement and responsive sense organs. By the understanding of the definition of the animal, we human being are animal, too. Why should we kill the animals, which have the same characteristics, the same movement, and the feeling as us?

“Dr. Andrew Linzey, who argues that animals were designed with certain needs, desires, species-specific behaviors and inclinations, and so forth and that animals have the capacity for pain and suffering, just as human beings. From Dr. Linzey’s perspective, denying animals the things they were designed to do and inflicting pain on them for reasons of convenience are categorically unethical. Linzey argues that causing pain to an animal is the moral equivalent of causing pain to a human being.”

As what Dr. Andrew Linzey said, we human beings have nothing different from an animal. So we are just living with the animals in the same planet. We are not the master of the world, we can’t just do whatever we want, and we got to care about the other creature as us. If we are not the one, who can design the death the other animals, instead, we are the animals, then what we will wish, to die, or to live.

One of the major arguments for not adopting vegan diet is vegan diet can not provide all the nutrition that we need. It is not right at all. In fact, vegetable has all nutrition that we need for our daily life, and they provide much healthier body for us, too.

Vegan diet is not only the better way to eat, but also it is the right way to eat. It is for our health, the animals, and the economy. To be a vegan, we can have a longer life, better life, and a healthier life. Why should not we do that?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Supermarket

I think what to eat is depend on what body needs. I think everything has its own benefit to our body in different way. Maybe there are something are called unhealthy food, but may be it can be cooked in different way to make it healthier. For example, rice can be unhealthy food, too, when ones can not absorb the sugar within it. As I went to the supermarket, I started to think more about the food economically and nutritionally.


Economically:
Is it good to use metal or plastic to make containers for soda?
What can some other materials are made for packing the foods?
Where are the foods from?
Will they be better (fresher) from local?
Which one cost more money, shipping or the food itself?
What makes the competitions of the food companies?
Are the foods in the supermarkets cleaner than the markets?


Nutritionally:
How to reduce the calorie in the food?
Is the lower calorie food, the better for us?
What other things can replace the nutrition of the fruits?
Will the people care about the food’s nutrition?
What makes people think about the nutrition?