Unit 1: Nutrition
Reflective Assessment
After eight weeks of field trips, reading the omnivore’s dilemma, doing my iron chef lab and everything else we’ve done this year, I’m walking away with one major key idea, food matters. Food is something that all living things depend on to stay alive and it is important that I choose food that will benefit me and my body so that I can stay healthy, eating better food will not only benefit me but also the environment and animals around me, and eating better food will improve my abilities in daily activities by providing more energy.
There is some extremely unhealthy food out there in the world and especially in America, there is too much of it. Food producers get lazy and stubborn with their money so they buy artificial sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup, which is derived from corn, can be found in many foods that Americans eat daily and it destroys the body. A big example of what high fructose corn syrup does can be seen with soda. If I were to drink soda every day and not brush my teeth, my teeth would begin to look like this:
(Iron Chef lab in Science section)
Based on my iron chef lab, I have observed the effects of what high fructose corn syrup and sugar can do to teeth, I can only imagine what it’ll do to the inside of my body. As for the teeth that were inside beverages without high fructose corn syrup,
(Iron Chef lab in science section)
they have minimal plaque and a little staining but that’s because I am not brushing the teeth. By eating healthier food, I can avoid damage to my body easily, especially because I will be avoiding the unnecessarily large proportions that are given to me if I choose the processed foods. “They would supersize their sodas. Since a soft drink’s main raw material -corn sweetener- was now so cheap, why not get people to pay just a few more pennies more for a substantially bigger bottle? Drop the price per ounce, but sell a lot more ounces.” (Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 105). Many processed foods, especially those with high fructose corn syrup, contain more than I need in a day which can lead to me eating an excessive amount of sugary foods.
Food impacts the world around me, if I make the choice to buy a cheap meat then I would most likely be supporting a company that mistreats their animals. “Ah, but what about the “free-range” lifestyle promised on the label? True there’s a little door in the shed leading out to a narrow grassy yard. But the free-range story seems a bit of a stretch when you discover that the door remains firmly shut until the birds are at least five or six weeks old - for fear they’ll catch something outside - and the chickens are slaughtered only two weeks later” (Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 140). Many animals grow up trapped in a shed without able to go outside, force feed corn and then slaughtered in a malicious way.By making local and organic choices in foods like the ones below,
(Both taken at a local farmer's market in Santa Rosa)
I can get delicious local food that tastes better from animals that lived a happy life and got to be happy. This will not only make me feel happy but also keep my body happy.
By eating food that is fresh local, organic and unprocessed, I will be able to accomplish more and feel better in life than someone who eats Mcdonald's everyday. “The yolks were a gorgeous carroty shade of orange and they did seem to possess an unusual integrity; separating them from the whites was a cinch” (Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 265). Eating food that is better and unprocessed can give me more nutrients and energy. Due to it being processed, the nutrients are stripped which will then cause the food to have absolutely no nutritional value.
(Taken at local farmers market in Santa Rosa)
By eating more nutritious, fresh and local food my body will function at a more improved level than that of someone who eats processed foods everyday.
In conclusion, food is a very important factor in the world. Food can either make me sick or keep me healthy, it can affect the life of other animals and our environment, it can also affect me in my daily activities. Food matters. I could eat McDonald’s all day and live a short painful life with being sick and struggling to get out of bed or I could eat local, fresh food that will give me energy to live my life and keep me happy.
