Research assignment

Does the fast, efficient way of preparing food now adays depreciate its importance to us?

Food Journal

4/28/09-
Dinner: TLT from/at Curly's. Consisted of tofu bacon, lettuce, pico de gallo, and mustard all on whole grain bread. I ate it in about 20 minutes and read inbetween halves. Before I ate I was feeling somewhat hungry, but not hungry enough to order an entree. I remember being low in spirits. While I ate I remember feeling happier now that I had this delightful sandwich to sooth my jangled nerves. This, of course, makes sense: food does after all contain vitamins and nutrients that helps to regulate our bodily functions.
I actually made the food myself. All the ingredients were perfectly visible and there was no calorie information on any of the ingredients. I just used common sense and my taste buds to mix health with satisfaction. I wasn't affected at all by this, if anything, it made me feel less encumbered worry. So often do we eat stuff just because it is low in calories. Its important to be knowledgable about what you eat lest you fall prey to those deceptive nutrition facts.

Dinner-Sleep: If I remember correctly I think I had a banana or two when I got home and then snacked on a massive bag of raisins that I bought at a health food store near Curly's. I try and make it a priority to eat a healthy, well balanced diet. I was doing work/on facebook so I was somewhat distracted and not really paying any attention to what I was eating. Before I knew it over half the bag was gone and I still wanted more raisins. I was pretty much just shoveling raisins into my mouth without knowing it and I don't recall any sensation that they would have normally initiated had I not been wrecking my brain with EMI waves. I don't worry about fruit calories nor should anyone else.

4/29/09-
Breakfast: I ate 2 Smart Dogs with Salsa for breakfast. They kind of tasted like rubber, but I stomached them anyway because I was hungry. Even when I was done with them I still felt dissatisfied, almost robbed of my breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day. I ate them in about one minute. None of the ingredients were visible; from what I remember it was just some processed soy mush shaped like a hot dog. It had a nice big nutrition facts sticker plastered right on the back and while it wasn't high in calories I still felt a little more calculative by having it there so I tore it off.

Breakfast-Lunch: I think I had some more of the raisins from that same health food store. I did, however, eat them with more thought this time; I stuck them between my cheek and gum and popped one out every so often and put it between my teeth where I chewed it piece by piece.

Lunch: I went over to Curly's again and ate the same thing the same way. Then I snacked on a few more raisins the same way I had previously.

Dinner: My family went out to an Indian restaurant less than a block away from our house. I ate Shag Panir with Indian rice sprinkled on top; its a spinach dish cooked with cheese. I ate it pretty slowly and enjoyed every second of it. It certainly lifted my mood a bit. The ingredients were all visible and there was no calorie information included. This, I think, helped me to enjoy the dish more which would make sense; if you have to worry about how it will affect you you lose sight of the experience of eating.

Eating in the USA: Outlook on food: family, america, and the bourjuazi

So I'll start with my own family's outlook and treatment of food. Our attitude towards food can best be described as unappreciative; having owned restaurants for the past 17 years my entire family has grown incredibly comfortable as far as eating goes. We can eat whenever and however much we want. My brother and I were raised on mexican food from my fathers old restaurant, Burritoville. It was pretty much a fast food mexican place without all the frozen shit, but the title certainly suited it. My family would sometimes order copious amounts of food twice every day for free. We actually lived upstairs from one of our stores for about 7 years and for the majority of our time spent there we had free food.

Each day we would call down to order up and each time some mexican guy making minimum wage would run our food up.I remember guzzling down burrito after burrito with a quesadilla chaser washed down with a nice tall plastic bottle full of horchata, a mexican rice drink. Yup things sure were...fat. Even now after 2 years without processed sugar, pizza, or (for the most part) meat, I still have the same eating habits only now with fruits and health food.

Since my brother and I began eating mostly vegan my parents have had to change up their shoping list quite a bit. The only remaining junk foods left are oreos and chips, that my brother only eats because he has deprived himself of all animal products. Most of our dinners consist of large vegetable plates with minor seasoning and the occasional tofu or meat as a small side dish. Once we've all piled our plates high with assorted veggies my family all crowds around a flashing screen while I sit in the other room and try to read/ zone out. While we aren't your average McDonalds eatin' American family we have certainly gotten the mindless act of shoveling food into our unappreciative gullets down.

I'm not too optimistic about the American way of food either. The way I see i, most of this country is just one big highway leading onto several massive strip malls and drive through fast food places with occasional detours to New York and San Fransisco. I have family in these wastelands; my aunt in LA is morbidly obese and whenever we go out she tries to get my brother and I to "put some meat on our bones" by going to KFC. UGH! My family in New Hampshire is no better; their idea of a balanced dinner is mashed potatoes and gravy, meatloaf, and a small side salad. Now when I say meatloaf I would like to place extra emphasis on the LOAF part; my grandmother raised 6 children, most of whom were overweight and every night, as they squeezed themselves into their seats lined up around their tiny, intimate kitchen table, she fed them precisely this. The meatloaf that my grandmother cooks could feed a small commune in Africa. Don't even get me started on those mashed potatoes...

My extended family is what I would define as being the the average American piggy. But it is certainly understandable; my grandparents are, after all, products of the same generation of idealistic and delusional individuals that attempted to live the sedate, pastel colored life of white suburbia.

The predominant US way of eating now is pretty gross. We are one of the few places that still consider Micky D's a fun filled, family restaurant. With our great abundance of food has also come a severe lack of appreciation for it.
One interesting thing that Andy brought up in class today was that America is one of the only countries that has food fights. How many movies have we all seen that have some crazy all out food war packed with kids. Here in America kids throw their food at each others faces when they so please while in Africa children with bloated stomachs can go for months without eating a single nutritious meal. Sounds pretty fucked up to me.

Every where we look we see food; on tv, driving our kids to school, at work, online... Its insane. Like so many other potentially beautiful things in our culture, we have been desensitized to food. We eat out of necessity, just to satisfy our being. In movies heartbroken women cry while stuffing their faces with Ben & Jerry's. Whole families crowd around flashing tvs while stuffing their faces with (mostly) unhealthy food. The point being that we eat for comfort or to fulfill some sort of oral fixation and in doing this we lose the joy of eating, the taste of the food as it hits our taste buds.

We are also one of the only countries that has nutrition facts on everything. We are calorie counters, weight watchers, diet deviants so fixated on our shape that we lose sight of the beauty of eating.

See, I usually agree 100% percent with anyone who says anything about how the American way of life is indulgent, unsustainable, and generally crappy, but having had positive experiences with the health care system I feel somewhat disinclined to criticize it. I personally believe that general medical care cannot work very well in our culture/system simply because we are over indulgent and self centered. We do almost everything in excess especially unhealthy things, and we can't cover everybody when every Dick, Tom, and Laurie (Yes I included a woman in that phrase) is trying to beat the next girl/guy. Only a system that fosters an appreciation for the collective well being can work as such. We have some social medical care now, but hardly enough to cover each sick person. Anyway, here is my family's experience with the health care system in America:

My mother was generally positive about the health care system, at least in our experience with it. She said her her experience was mixed; she had had both expensive and affordable health coverage, but either way it was good. My whole family is covered by HMOs. My parents are covered by Oxford health care provided by my mothers job. They pay monthly. My brother and I are covered by Blue Cross, Blue Shield which is an HMO of NYC. We only pay $15 per person each month, a surprisingly low amount. My mother claimed that we have never really spent much time in the emergency room, in fact the most extreme surgery we ever had was a double hernia removal when I was only 3 years old. We've gone to the doctor for the occasional checkup or minor ailment, and each time we only waited for a fairly short time. Something my mother also emphasized was that hospitals prioritize treatment for children over that for adults. So, yes, they did have to wait a while, but the treatment was always good regardless of the cost or time spent waiting.
We have also been quite fortunate in that we have never dealt with any massive medical bills or denial of treatment. We have, as I stated before, always had great health coverage. We did, however, have a close friend with cancer that was refused treatment because; a.)he could not afford it, and b.) he had never had any health insurance in the past. He was also one of the laziest, most indulgent and self centered people my family has ever met, so in a way it makes sense; he really didn't earn his keep.
When I asked my mother weather or not she had wonderful experiences with doctors she replied "yes." In fact our very first pediatrician was both a wonderful human being and a terrific doctor. His name was Dr. Heiss and I remember going there every so often for a checkup or a cold and he was always so sweet to us, making jokes and playing with us while simultaneously providing us with some of the best medical care. He even gave us lolipops at the end of each visit. Even the receptionists were kind and accomodating. And the cost was never an issue; it was fairly casual actually; they would allow us to delay payments and get back to them when we could. We stayed there for about 10 years.
Our current general practitioner shares similar qualities.
I would have to disagree with the idea that doctors are generally unpleasant, money-grubbing, pricks, if anything they are just tiny cogs in the wheel allowing it to continue spinning. They are merely products of a fucked up system. My grandmother had a doctor that, even after retiring, cared for her and her entire family for free until about a week before his death.
Having had such positive experiences with the health care system and doctors in general I feel unable to complain about how much it has helped me. Even now I visit some form of doctor each week to satisfy my hypochondria and I would not willingly give up my ability to do so. Yet, I still full heartedly agree with Michael Moore; any system that denies people health coverage to those with more severe illnesses and rewards their workers for doing so simply because it saves them money, is truly evil. It practically defeats the point of health coverage.
In the end, I can only say that while it works for me now I still feel that it could be even better, for me and the rest of the country. After all, what works for the individual may not work for the rest of the population. Working solely for oneself divides the people because it creates power imbalances. In systems that do have general health care people are willing to help one another and go into it/are raised ready to pay for universal solidarity in medicine and/or all other aspects of a society. The idea that general health care is sluggish and weak is a product of pointless American anti-socialism and is disproven by the flourishing health systems in foreign countries.

Refrigerator Assignment

The Contents of my Fridge:
Carrot Juice, (organic) fat free milk, soy dream, salad, chicken breast, pea soup, beer, worcester sauce, four containers of salsa, (trader joe's) hot sauce and dijon mustard, chocolate syrup, teriyaki sauce, grapefruit juice, organic eggs, strawberries, tortillas, hummus, assorted soups, white wine, earth balance butter substitute, assorted veggies, apples, oranges, ketchup, an entire fridge wall of condiments, boca burgers, starbuck's coffee grounds, potato pancakes, organic mixed grain bread.

Half of my fridge is consistently stocked with fresh fruits and veggies. About one fourth is filled with condiments, some still there even after years and years of being left unused; why we do this, because they help to remind us of the past. The remaining fourth of my fridge is usually filled with meat, food from curly's or other such edibles.

When most of us think about the American way of eating McDonald's and fast food are the first things that come to mind. While this may be the way the majority of Americans eat it is most certainly not the only way. As far as I can tell, there are four different types of eaters; There are those who overeat and willingly shove anything backed with nutrition facts into their mouths (some of them don't even need nutrition facts). Right now America is the fattest country on the planet so I think it would be safe to assume that over-eaters are plentiful here. There are those who eat properly and attempt to maintain a healthy diet with little to no man-made edibles included. They control their portions as opposed to the American way of eating which is pretty much stuff your face until you can stuff no longer. There are those with eating disorders (ie: Anorexia, Bulemia, etc); every culture that has experienced something resembling an industrial revolution has them. They have manipulated their diet to fit their incredibly small pant size. There are revolutionary eaters; people who try to make a statement with how they eat. And of course, there are people with food allergies, but, as it is not their decision to eat that way, it doesn't speak for their outlook which is key in the American way of eating.

Most of the food in my fridge is organic.

I guess one could say that we have the fridge of an upper/middle class, white, American family. I wouldn't call my family health conscious; both my mother and father are overweight, and my little brother recently went from 200 lbs to 130 in matter of 8 months by becoming a vegan. My diet consists mostly of fruits and vegetables with large amounts of soy courtesy of my father who owns a vegan/vegetarian restaurant. Most people would call my brother and I healthy. I, however, would beg to differ.

Being vegan isn't as healthy as your typical American would think; all vitamins and nutrients found in meat and animal products are perfectly substitutable via vitamin but in my experience with them, they seldom take them unless a large problem arises. Having been, a vegan I know of the many problems that come with this extreme diet. I experienced fatigue, weakness, and exhaustion and my brother is currently anemic. Before he became vegan he was a die hard carnivore and could barely eat a meal without it containing some sort of meat. In hopes of satisfying his carnivorous bloodlust he eats soy meat, an adequate substitution. But because soy is an iron absorption inhibitor he has fallen prey to his diet.





Thats all for now folks...

Family Health Experiences

To start, I feel that the last question was skewed and seems unfairly biased even though I agree with the direction in which it is leading.

See, I usually agree 100% percent with anyone who says anything about American way of life is indulgent, unsustainable, and generally crappy, but having had positive experiences with the health care system I feel somewhat disinclined to criticize it. I personally believe that general medical care cannot work very well in our culture/system simply because we are over indulgent and self centered. We do almost everything in excess especially unhealthy things, and we can't cover everybody when every Dick, Tom, and Laurie (Yes I included a woman in that phrase) is trying to beat the next girl/guy. Anyway, here is my family's experience with the health care system in America:

My mother was generally positive about the health care system, at least in our experience with it. She said her her experience was mixed; she had had both expensive and affordable health coverage, but either way it was good. My whole family is covered by HMOs. My parents are covered by Oxford health care provided by my mothers job. They pay monthly. My brother and I are covered by Blue Cross, Blue Shield which is an HMO of NYC. We only pay $15 per person each month, a surprisingly low amount. My mother claimed that we have never really spent much time in the emergency room, in fact the most extreme surgery we ever had was a double hernia removal when I was only 3 years old. We've gone to the doctor for the occasional checkup or minor ailment, and each time we only waited for a fairly short time. Something my mother also emphasized was that hospitals prioritize treatment for children over that for adults. So, yes, they did have to wait a while, but the treatment was always good regardless of the cost or time spent waiting.
We have also been quite fortunate in that we have never dealt with any massive medical bills or denial of treatment. We have, as I stated before, always had great health coverage. We did, however, have a close friend with cancer that was refused treatment because; a.)he could not afford it, and b.) he had never had any health insurance in the past. He was also one of the laziest, most indulgent and self centered people my family has ever met, so in a way it makes sense; he really didn't earn his keep.
When I asked my mother weather or not she had wonderful experiences with doctors she replied "yes." In fact our very first pediatrician was both a wonderful human being and a terrific doctor. His name was Dr. Heiss and I remember going there every so often for a checkup or a cold and he was always so sweet to us, making jokes and playing with us while simultaneously providing us with some of the best medical care. He even gave us lolipops at the end of each visit. Even the receptionists were kind and accomodating. And the cost was never an issue; it was fairly casual actually; they would allow us to delay payments and get back to them when we could. We stayed there for about 10 years.
Our current general practitioner shares similar qualities.
I would have to disagree with the idea that doctors are generally unpleasant, money-grubbing, pricks, if anything they are just tiny cogs in the wheel allowing it to continue spinning. They are merely products of a fucked up system. My grandmother had a doctor that, even after retiring, cared for her and her entire family for free until about a week before his death.
Having had such positive experiences with the health care system and doctors in general I feel unable to complain about its many benefits. Even now I visit some form of doctor each week to satisfy my hypochondria and I would not willingly give up my ability to do so. Yet, I still full heartedly agree with Michael Moore; any system that denies people health coverage to those with more severe illnesses and rewards their workers for doing so simply because it saves them money, is truly evil. It practically defeats the point of health coverage.
In the end, I can only say that while it works for me now I still feel that it could be even better, for me and the rest of the country. The idea that general health care is sluggish and weak is a product of pointless American anti-socialism and is disproven by they flourishing health systems in foreign countries.

If our economy does become socialist (which I doubt) will we all become "faceless and identical creatures, lacking in creativity and individuality? Is it correct to assume that creativity cannot be fostered in a socialist system?