Monday, May 11, 2009

The Omnivore's Dilemma

According Micheal Pollan (to what I think he is trying to say) his argument is that our past knowledge about eating and how to eat has been replaced with confusion and anxiety on what to eat. Most Americans today rely on these experts of foods such as diet books, commercials, magazines, etc. to tell us what we can or cannot eat to make your eating habits healthy. I think that this argument is definitely very true for many Americans today. Today people have some weird fad on food, eating healthy, eating certain ways to look like what the media says your suppose to look like. Many people listen to these "experts" and following the experts plans not knowing that some probably are not good for us or do not even work at all. For most people, these "experts" can completely change our daily eating habits and what can be found in our kitchens or change what we shove in our mouths. Although it makes me wonder why we trust these experts when they, to us, are basically are strangers and most of us have probably never met these experts. Ironically though what these experts say to eat or not to eat people will most likely definitely follow whether it is because they want to loose weight or eat "healthy". It makes me wonder if some new famous food expert were to magically pop up on the media sooner or later and says "its healthy to not eat any foods at all and just go anorexic", will people be that blind as to listen? Ever though there are many of those who follow these food experts as if a religion there are those who do not and indulge in foods that are probably worse to eat such as McDonalds, Burgerking, Junk food, etc. And although they do not follow any experts that may probably be wrong it does not make them any better with their foods habits.

For me, as much as I wish I could say I have never followed these experts advice on eating I must admit that I definitely have. In the past I have struggled with my weight and the first thing I obviously do is ask the experts on how to loose some weight. And back then I weighed around 148 pounds and following many advice, looking on many magazines, being very unhealthy I became 126 pounds rapidly. Right now though I tend to eat what ever I want besides from the fact that I started to be vegetarian about two years ago. I became vegetarian not because of dietary reasons but because I am against eating innocent animals being killed without being able to defend themselves ( i guess that is an easy way to put it). Being vegetarian was through my own will and not from any "expert". Now I weight 133 pounds and I do not feel embarrassed about my weight because I feel that I am easting fairy healthy. The way I get my eating habit advice from is from my father. To me my father always seemed like he knew what he was doing but when thinking about it my father probably got his easting and diet ways from what we are calling "experts. And even though you do not read diet books or magazines and listen to people on television there are still people that you ask for advice on how to eat healthy. This for example is like your parents or friends. And who do these close family and friends get their food advice from? Most likely some sort of dietary expert. Or if they were to ask their friends and family at some point all the knowledge is directed back to one sources which is most likely what we know as these "experts".

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Fruits, Grains, and Vegetables

List of Vegetables that eaten on a typical week:
-Lettuce
-Carrot
-Potato
-Onions
-Garlic
-Corn
-String Bean
-Artichoke
List of Fruit:
-Mango
-Banana
-Apple
-Pineapples
Beans/Grains:
-Black Beans
-Lime Beans
-Rice
-Soy Beans

Food is a hard subject for me because eat probably up to two meals a day which is really unhealthy. Its ironic because just yesterday my father asked me if I wanted to go grocery shopping and I said no. When my brother use to live with my father and I we use to go grocery shopping a lot, i guess its because my brother was kind of in charge of the food. My brother has always eat nothing but meat and I never eat meat so the house would usually be filled with fresh meat and junk food a and no vegetables. I think maybe I just got use to not having much foods that I can eat in the house. Now that my brother is gone my kitchen is filled with less meat, actually no meat at all. When I do go to the grocery store on the same block from my house known as "Gristides" it makes me realize how many people are too lazy to shop at places that may be cheaper such as Key Foods or places uptown by 116 street since I live on 95 street. My boyfriends family drives to a totally different borough with their van where they stash a bunch of food to bring home, although its far its worth it as the food they get is more fresh as well as cheaper. This made me think that there are a lot of people in America that are just really lazy, they just give into the expensive groceries store a block from their house rather then walking a couple more blocks to somewhere cheaper. Once I went to the super marker for some drinks and as I was on line a couple was buying groceries and foods as there total cost came up to 130 dollars as they responded in shock to the cost....."really?". The boy on the registered told them that if he was them he would shop up on 116th where you can get a a stack of coke cans for 5 dollars rather then 10 dollars which the couple was paying for.
Also when I shop the the super marker I realize how much frozen food products there are and then actual fresh foods like fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh vegetables. There are mostly frozen t.v. dinners, frozen vegetables, etc. This reminded me of when I watched the food channel the other day about big food corporations and what kinds of foods they freeze and that can be made in a few minutes by popping it into the microwave. I was really surprised on how much different types of food they freeze pack: mac and cheese, lasagna, clam chowder, and a lot more. The thing is people buy this stuff too because if they weren't these big food corporations would be out of business and wouldn't exist at all. It just shows that a lot of Americans at most times are really lazy to cook foods. I heard that its a lot healthier to have home cooked meals then fast foods, frozen foods, etc. but Americans are always in a rush or always too lazy that they take the easier route of popping stuff into the microwave to cook. Although this may not always be because of laziness but can be because of how a person's was raised to eat.

In class we discussed about how peoples eating habits can be a result of how they were raised to eat as a child. A parent that gives there child junk food and snacks for breakfast may cause that child to eat junk food for breakfast forever as that is their trained eating pattern. For me, I never really eat breakfast in the morning as a child. My parents did provide me sometimes with the daily meals of breakfast, lunch, snack( or when I grew up in Hong Kong, "dim sum" which is like tea time), and dinner but as my family split apart as I grew up they never really kept track of what was healthy for me and more about if I was eating in general. I think in result it caused me today as a teenager to not have a healthy eating pattern. I always usually skip breakfast, I have a small lunch, and small dinner. Sometimes I would even go days on just small bowls of foods such as pretzels, peas, lime beans, etc. Although I do like to cook but I find that sometimes when Im hungry and I feel like cooking a meal, after I have finished cooking the meal I am not hungry anymore. As if just cooking the meal either satisfied me or got me sick of the food since it took me forever to cook.

Here are some things I like to make either for myself or other :)
-coconut rice
-salmon artichoke dip recipe
-Breaded artichoke
-Mapo Tofu
-Fried Rice
-Fish balls (not what it sounds. Its packed up fish made into balls)
-Garlic Shrimp
-Shrimp Red Curry
-Banana Smoothies
-Different types of pasta
-Banana Pancakes
And a lot more but the list goes on and I don't want to write all of them. :)

May Day

Until May 1, 2009 I have to say that I have never heard or known of this Holiday known as May Day. I think I have heard it pop up in the past once or twice but I have never really looked into it until it was mentioned in history class. When I asked people, such as classmates and such, none of them really know what May Day really represents. Many people said that May Day was to celebrate the first day of May which is a really stupid answer because wouldn't we be celebrating the first day of every month? Apparently it is a day where people are suppose to celebrate the social and economic achievements of those of working class.

Its weird because this holiday is suppose to be the date where people are suppose to help people work towards getting better working conditions. Many people around the world probably besides from the United States are supposedly on May 1st march through the streets with their fellow union worker. Its ironic though because there is so many people in the United States in the working class, its weird how the people of United States celebrate very common holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc. all days which people exploit their money for presents, food, etc. and the only day where people come together and celebrate the working class people don't seem to even know this day exists.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Food Journal

Ma Po Tofu (Chinese Tofu Dish, its usually made with ground beef but didn't eat it with beef)- Eaten yesterday evening for dinner. Extremely satisfying since I only eat one other thing that day during lunch. It was very delicious and had not eaten Ma Po Tofu since I was young. I cooked it myself, it was a pain to cook but eat it fast. It was very hot, eaten with spoon. Eaten in my dad's room while doing math homework which was surprisingly easy so I was in a pretty satisfied and good mood but the environment was that it was very hot but I had a fan which helped a little.



Doughnut- Eaten this morning around 10:00am. Eat with right hand, no utensils. Given to me by Paul (guy in our class), I don't usually eat breakfast so it satisfied me pretty good. Eat it in the science class room, many other people were eating the doughnuts he gave everyone while Mr. Avigan makes a fail attempt to get authority and tell people to stop eating.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich- Eaten while walking down stairs to math class to work on exhibitions. Eaten with right hand, it was sort of sticky. It was too much peanut butter and jelly for my taste and was sort of too sweet but was quite hungry so eat it anyways. Drank a whole bottle of 16oz. water to get full (I always drink a lot).


3 Strips of Twisler
s - Eaten during "Making Your Own Choice group" with a couple of students that I am pretty comfortable with. Eaten in Andy Snyder's room. Pealed off plastic, eaten with mainly right hand. The environment was pretty uncomfortable consider I sat in that same room for about 2 and a half hours. The feelings when I eat this was amused since I was joking around with the others while I was eating.

Four bites of gold fish crackers - Also eaten during "Making Your Own Choice group for after school. I had a few bites but my feelings for it were pretty bland and I ended up not really wanting it and put it in my bag. Eaten by holding the bag with my left hand and gold fish crackers in my right. I eat most of this food during the class is because it is free.


Small bottle of apple Juice
- Drank this during the same class. Very much enjoyed this apple juice because I was really thirsty and I really like apple juice. Drank with my right hand.

Slice of extremely thin pizza (cheese was mozzarella) - Eaten around 8:30pm. Got home late so I was pretty hungry and the slice of pizza was really satisfying. Eaten with 4 cups of water because I can never eat anything without drinking A LOT. Eaten with my boyfriend, no toppings or pepperoni or anything like that because we both don't eat meat. Eaten in my dads room since my dad is gone on a business trip. Eaten while watching "ghost hunters". I eat it pretty quick because I was really hungry, eaten while sitting on the bed next to my boyfriend.

Cup of green tea- Was extremely satisfying and felt relaxing to drink. It was very warm and satisfying. Drank through a coffee mug while watching t.v. and checking email. I drank this very slowly because it was hot.

-Between the green tea and going to bed I had around 3 cups of water.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

"Foodways"

Through my life I have been assimilated many times when dealing with the way I eat or my food ways. This may have something to do with the different family changes in my life dealing with divorce, moving, family members moving out, etc. So mainly for me the way my family works has a significant part of the way I eat. When my family was still together my family was very big on eating traditional chinese dinners with occasions of eating different foods and going out to eat and having "dim sums" which are chinese equivalent to tea time which was extremely big with my whole chinese family including grandparents, aunts and uncles. Real chinese food that I use to eat in Hong Kong was extremely different then the fake chinese food here in America. In Hong Kong there is no such thing as chicken and broccoli or sesame chicken and most of the foods are more freshly made. When I moved to New York when I was ten years old my eating habits changed completely. I no longer eat dinners or any meals at the dining table, there were no more dim sums and my family was pretty separated most of the time. This was the time I was living with my father for the first time and my father mostly eat out, I eat in front of the television, and my brother eat his meals while hiding in his room playing warcrafts (which i must state I hate warcrafts and anyone who plays that mine sucking game is a looser). I started to indulge on a lot of things because when I moved to America it was my first time eating certain things like McDonalds. There was always a good amount of food in my old apartment that I lived in when I first moved to America. I think this really relates to the mainstream corporate food ways since most Americans eat in front of the television and I never really heard of any other families eating together at a table unless it was when they went out to a restaurant. My present eating habits are pretty much the same but a little different. I do not actually eat full healthy meals that a human is suppose to eat, breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Sometimes i eat up to one to two meals a day, this may be because of the fact that I am usually really busy. For example in the morning when I wake up I always try to get ready and rush to school and not be late making no time to eat breakfast. I think this is true for many other Americans as America or New York is a rushing city where everyone is always in a rush. There are many time that there are foods that I am not able to finish and although at times I wrap them up to save in the fridge they end up either staying in the fridge to rot forever or end up being thrown away, I think this definitely show the typical mainstream food ways since most Americans waste hundreds of dollars worth of food a year. American has become a country that cares so much on making money off of anything that people make money off of something people need on a daily bases to survive, food. Since food is processed so much in America and all the different types of foods that people do not really see it as something with a lot of value like gold or luxury items and tend to waste it a lot not thinking of the many people in other countries or the many who are in poverty who can't get the basic foods they need.

At the restaurant that my boyfriend works at, me, my boyfriend and some other friends eating. The restaurant is Italian or supposedly Italian and a little fancy. I stuffed my face that day since food was free. We get free food since my boyfriend works there on weekends.


This was taken in Hong Kong of Summer '08. Me and my friend from Hong Kong met up and eat dinner together. This dish is the real Chinese version of what you can find in Americanized Chinese restaurants as "Pan Friend Noodles". This day we only eat this dish for dinner, which we shared. I do not eat and stuff my face as much when I am in Hong Kong then when I am here in America.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Food Question Assignment


One question that I had on my mind was: How much food that is harvest gets wasted by an average American household?
America apparently is known to be the "throw-away society" where many Americans waste a large amount of food that is thrown away and never consumed. According to a study by the University of Arizona shows that 40 to 50 percent of all foods that are harvest and never actually consumed/ eaten and end up being thrown away and wasted.

How much can America or an Average American can save on the wasted foods they do no eat?

To an average household of four people the percent of food wasted is 14 percent and the money they are wasting away can add up to $590 per year just from meat, vegetables, fruits, and grain products. And as nationwide household foods can add up to 43 billion dollars which can be a major economic situation.

Source: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6445

Whats in my fridge...

In my fridge contains:
-Frozen Peas
-Frozen Ego Waffles
-A Blue Ice Packer Thing
-Butter
-Pasta Sauce
-Two Potatoes
-Month old almost empty orange juice carton
-Two apples
-One fairly old orange
-Icing
-Milk
-Craft Cheese
-Almost empty Perrier bottle
-And a crap load of different sauces such as Caesar dressing, soya saucse, Italian dressing, ketchup etc. that has probably never really been used.

In my fridge it may be noticed that it does not contain a very large content of fresh foods and mostly frozen foods. I think compared to many other middle class families or households with two people would probably on average have a lot more food in their fridge compared to my fridge. I do not think this has anything to do with the fact that I am vegetarian although my friends seem to think so. Personally I think the lack of fresh foods such as fresh vegetable or even drinks or fruits and other common fridge items is mainly due to either 1) me and my father are too lazy to go shopping 2) I don't eat very much and somtimes only eat 1 meal a day with some small snacks throughout the day and 3) my dad doesn't spend much time at home so the majority of his meals are eating outside in resturaunts or wherever he eats at. I think by looking at the content in my fridge, if anyone else has the same amount of food as I do, shows that maybe americans tend to have a lot of frozen foods that can be kept in the fridge for a long amount of time such as frozen waffles, frozen vegtables, t.v. Dinners, frozen everything! I think this is because of the laziness of americans to actually cook a whole meal from scratch. Everyone does it the easy was of popping things into the microwave. One two three and ready to eat. I personally do not know many people who actually cook meals from scratch besides from my boyfriend's mother who is spanish. I think it is a tradition and common for her to cook her daily rice and beans, fish, and chicken compared to my daily life to frozen peas. She does not work and spends most of her time at home, but not everyone is lucky like my boyfriend to have a mother who loves to cook huge amount of meals for the family. Another thing that my fridge may say amount how people buy food in America may be the fact that people tend to buy foods that they may sometimes leave in the fridge till they grow mold and eventually needs to be thrown away. In America, people who are at least living over the poverty line probably most of the time buy foods that they don't actually really end up eating and if they do cook it most people tend to waste food and even over flow there plate and not put the amount they can actually consume which results in perfectly good wasted food. Although my fridge may not contain a lot of foods it still can show how people deal with their food on a daily bases.

This is a picture of my fridge. I eat the frozen peas so you even though its on the list it is not in this picture. This picture when i saw it made me laugh because it somewhat embarrassing on how empty my fridge is. And I also put a picture up of whats in my cabinet so that I can show that even if my fridge is completely empty my cabinet is somewhat full and that there is a a few things I would eat that is in the cabinet.