The Effects Of Food And Related Processed Materials

My current view on food is that it creates a sense of comfort and fulfillment, yet this was not always the case. During my teenage years I struggled with an ongoing eating disorder. During that time I viewed food as a threat, or an enemy. As part of my recovery process, I was given a task to make friends with food. I first approached this task with a closed mind, finding a wrong with every meal I ate. My view changed completely when my friends took me out to a vegan diner for a burger and sweet potato fries meal.

This gap has lead people to become “passive consumers” that are ignorant towards the origin of their food, how it is produced, and their role in the modern food industry. Berry argues that the pleasure of eating cannot be known without understanding that eating is involved in the agricultural process. He urges people to look into where and how their food is produced and under what conditions. He asserts that food is now a product of industry meaning the food industry no longer cares about the quality of food and how healthy it is, but how much can be produced at a small price. Berry then gives seven suggestions that can help people eat responsibly and understand the pleasures of eating. By being active in our world and in how we eat, people can eat with the fullest pleasure by being connected with the world around them and eating with understanding and gratitude

There are many things wrong with our food system but one of the principal problems is us and our decisions. Wendell Berry who is a farmer and environmental activist wrote in the article The Pleasures of Eating about his theory of eating responsibly which included his opinion on food and the influence others have on what type of food we consume. In his article he addresses the problem with the industries’ influence on the quality of what we eat and the role the consumer has in this process. He states that we cannot be free if our decisions are influenced by others and all we do is agree to what they tell us we should.

People’s ability to assess certain courses of action brings about two distinct paths: it either hinders the person’s ability to gauge their surroundings or it enables them to see and act based on a completely new perspective. It is our seemingly competent nature, as generalists, that has led to the rise of the phenomenon known as the “national eating disorder.” Skewing food culture and trend patterns, we have come to trust in our natural aptitude for survival as a way to pave our way through sustaining nourishment while coming into terms with the opportunity costs that accompany all of our decisions. There is something about food that grabs people; it is the individual tastes and textures, the unique stories of each and every ingredient that is used to make food, and the smell of spices that brings familiarity that

Michael Pollan in his book titled ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ takes a critical look at the food culture in the Unites States. According to him, the question that seems to bother most Americans is simply ‘What should we have for dinner today?’ To Pollan, Americans face this dilemma because they do not have a proper tradition surrounding food. ‘The lack of a steadying culture of food leaves us especially vulnerable to the blandishments of the food scientist and the marketer for whom the omnivore’s dilemma is not so much a dilemma as an opportunity; (Pollan). He cites the example of the Atkins diet and how an entire nation changed its eating habits almost overnight. A nation that had deep rooted food culture values would

The food we eat and how it impacts our day is a substantial part of being a human being. Food is very effective in a vast majority of ways and can impact a person variously in negative and positive ways. The food we eat is definitely linked to the healthiness and lifestyle that we acquire. In “Escape from the Western Diet”, by Michael Pollan and “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating” by Mary Maxfield, to the very interesting point of views are sought out, and I am firmly behind one of them. One author believes that the food we eat is an extreme determining factor in how our lives are lived, and the other believes the food we consume has no actual impact on the well being of human lives.

Lately I have been reading a very inspiring book by Michael Pollan called, In Defense of Food. This book goes into great detail of how food changed over the years and how the impact of the industrialization of our food has poisoned our way of eating. Pollan mentions that the food our ancestors ate back in the days were all real food and now the vast majority of them are all refined, processed, or canned. As he goes into the history of food and the important people who discovered such principles and concepts of nutrition, he goes in depth to explain that the majority of the food we eat today, should not be eaten at all.

In the essay, “The Pleasures of Eating”, Wendell Berry, a lifelong farmer and an expert on food production, claims that eating is an agricultural act. According to Berry, consumers have become passive and don’t really know what they’re putting into their bodies. All they know is that they’ve been persuaded to want it. The extent of their knowledge is that plants and animals are raised on farms. They don’t know where the farms are, what type of farms they are, or what knowledge of skills are involved in farming. He supports this claim by first bringing to light the ignorance of the passive consumer and how they as passive consumers have become victims of the food industry. Then, he discusses how one must willingly escape this by reclaiming responsibility

Maria’s family-related experiences learned during her childhood contributed to a distorted cognition of eating. Maria’s family food-related experiences are associated with her mother’s restriction of eating as a way of punishment. Use of food as a punishment increases the intake of food when the children have access to it. As consequence of this type of punishment Maria learned maladaptive attitudes and behaviors such as eating secretly and keeping food in hidden places in order to manage her hunger. Researches propose that food restrictions increase desire and intake of the food. At the same time the individual will show difficulties to self-regulate the food

I have recently been taking a course in college called Nutrition 251, and it focuses on the principles of nutrition. In this class, I had to read a book from Michael Pollan called In the Defense of Food. As I read, I could not help but remember all the things I have eaten. Pollan explains how food changed over the years in the US and goes into great detail in how the industrialization of our food has impacted our ways of eating, poisoning us with refined and processed foods. Reading Pollan’s work made me realize that the food we eat is not actually food. Back then, food was grown and not scientifically engineered to provide humans with the nutrition we need. This book and course gave me a lot of reasons why we, as a family, should be more

Since the beginning of time, food has been a staple in every living, breathing creature’s life. Food is a necessity and is direct fuel for the body, for nourishment. The type of diet a person consumes is crucial in determining overall health and even longevity. We are often told that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, we must eat a balanced diet, which consists of eating a proportionate amount of a variety of foods. For many people, it becomes difficult to consume all of these right foods on a daily basis. A busy lifestyle often hinders a person from getting this healthy, balanced diet. In many situations, unhealthy food options are just way more convenient. As a college student, I have to fight the urge to ritualistically eat Chick-Fil-A

American poet and Civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said “Eating is so intimate. It 's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you 're inviting a person into your life.” Throughout the history of humans, food has been a constant in cultures, traditions and everyday life. People have evolutionized to crave food because it gives us the nutrients and minerals that are needed for survival. Interestingly, as things like transportation, shelter, warmth, health and ideology have changed over long periods of time to become more efficient, food has remained close to the same. The food that is given to humans today from the time they are a small child is quite similar to the food eaten hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Food has become such a large part of the human culture that it has not advanced to the degree that other things such as the human home has changed in order to become economical. In the article “The End of Food” by Lizzie Widdicombe, Widdicombe discusses the story of Rob Rhinehart who embellishes the idea of changing food to become more useful and efficient to humans. While working long hart hours, Rhinehart creates Soylent, which is a mixture made up the necessary nutrients and minerals for survival, in order to reduce the amount of time and money he spends on eating everyday. In other words, unlike Maya Angelou, Rhinehart does not view eating as intimate or sensual. He views eating as an inconvenience that

“Like industrial sex, industrial eating has become a degraded, poor, and paltry thing.” (Berry 2). Were just being used for what other people want, which in the food industry were only cared for when we take our money from our pocket. “Let its satisfaction be minimal, perfunctory, and fast.” (Berry 2).

Food, has a specific meaning to all of us; for some it is a form of nourishment, for others it is a cultural act,

The health and economic impact of food spoilage to both consumers and producers are enormous, it has a detrimental effect on the consumer's health and negatively impacts the bottom line of the producers. In the past monitoring of food quality are done using a sensor which observes changes in temperature, releases of gases which are not effective and every year million health cases result from food spoilage. This paper introduces an intelligent monitoring system that uses NFC based sensor that has the capability to detect release gases from spoiled food through the change in PH. This system uses a PH sensor and Near Field Communication (NFC) device which is a subset of RFID.