My New Favorite Meal

Many religions and people, for several different reasons, take up fasting. It is the way a person restricts their diet as a sacrifice or meditation. I recently went through one and I was able to experience a very intriguing aftermath. I had eaten only bread and water for two days and felt incredibly refreshed! I had about 6 slices of bread and drank 3-4 bottles of water a day and felt fine and rarely felt any pangs of hunger (surprisingly). The sole purpose of food was for survival. Yet, once the fast had ended and I had my first bite of an oatmeal cookie that also had chocolate chip pieces in it, I immediately wanted another one and also felt the pangs of hunger hit me continuously through out the day.

A few of my classmates have mentioned to me how they are always hungry at school. I'm not too clear why, but the fact that I felt the urge to eat more and more after taking my first bite of this Chips Ahoy cookie that had more than 10 ingredients in its label, led me to acknowledge the importance of understanding what hunger truly means. The fasting was a psychological experiment. The less choices I had, the less I ate. Food no longer was exciting or a source of entertainment; it was solely for energy and survival. Yet, once there were more choices, more tastes, more flavors, and ingredients, hunger become more than a necessity. It became an addiction to the stimulation from the food.

Wendell Berry stated, "...eating is an agricultural act.", a cycle of energy, and source of life. The transformation of humanity from members of this cycle into its dictating consumer shifts the purpose of food. People in developed communities such as ours, eat for fun. Our bodies have somehow adapted to all the different choices we have and now survives and dependence on the variety of flavors, textures and servings we experience per day.

Have you tried to fast before? It's a pretty interesting experiment :)

Do you appreciate all the choices you have, or would you rather have it plain and simple and why?

Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment

My BAD Eating Habits..

So here I am expanding my knowledge on the food I eat day in and day out. I've read articles on pesticides, on animal cruelty, on chemicals that cause diseases; all these facts that come with the food we eat and yet I most likely will look past all the faulty reasons to eat healthier and continue my bad eating habits. I sat down on the computer for hours at a time researching all kinds of information that I figured would make me have a better out look on the food I eat, and to be honest I do want to take part in how my food is made, but I still struggle to turn down In n Out, or refusing to eat my microwave burritos my grandpas buys me. The thing is I love food, like everyone else. Fast food industries know exactly what do to make us yearn for the food they provide, they have scientist to make our food just as addicting as crack, but still knowing this doesn't stop me or a lot of people from eating it. My bad habits...

From Which Angle?

When I say angle I don’t mean what angle from the triangle, I mean we aren’t in math so if you thought this ummm yeah ill remind you again we’re in ERW guys.  When I say from which angle I mean, from where do we start writing our research paper? How do we start?  Do we tell a story regarding our topic or do we address the problem right off the bat.  The other day when we did a quick right and were asked to start talking about our topic, preferably our first paragraph, right away my table started asking the inevitable question, “How do we start a research paper?”  Unable to think of a quick response I just shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.  So now I was stuck.  I didn’t know how I was going to start off that’s acceptable.  I began writing that day however.  I started with a story and was about to follow up with the details and the dilemma, that is before the bell rang.  But that’s how I somewhat always start my papers.  I love telling stories that later connect with my topic, but I’ve been told at times it’s unnecessary and honestly I feel like this time it’s one of them.  So if you guys are feeling this way too, high five!!!!  You aren’t alone.  What we need to do is just ask our teachers, family members, and friends for some advice.  But the ultimate thing to do is of course DRAFTS DRAFTS DRAFTS!

           

The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Food Companies

Yeah, that's right.

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Reality Blows

In America's modern, fast, and greedy lifestyle, it is almost unrealistic to believe that we can get rid of fast food or even make it completely healthy. This is very unfortunate in my opinion; however, this is the truth. Fast food has become a staple in American families because it is price efficient and convenient. For some families, this is the best way they can afford to feed their families. It would be very easy for fast food companies to change their produce and ingredients to more healthy organic items, but it is not at all cost efficient. They'd have to spend more money on their resources which means higher prices for their products and maybe even laying off employees. Why would a company want to lose out on millions of dollars to look out for the health of their consumers? Even though more information is being provided to consumers of the unhealthy ingredients many are not changing their habits. If consumers are already aware of what they are purchasing and still purchase it, then why change? All in all, no matter how much we pressure this industry to change they will not be able to change and continue to meet the needs of their consumers. Whats your take on this? Do you believe there is a cost efficient solution? Or, do you agree that "there's no going back"?

Pesticides: Harmful or Naw

Okay so I now that I have a topic and it is set in stone, I did my fair share of research for the bibliography and wow. I always knew that our foods were processed and had a lot of crazy chemicals and other things added that I can't even pronounce but what I found was actually kind of scary. To start off, pesticides, yes pesticides, can lead to various types of cancers and doubles the risks of ADHD in children! Do you guys know how much we are exposed to pesticides? Not only in our foods but in other things like water, the air we breathe, all throughout our environments and communities. Heck, it's on our pets! Although, the percentage of foods with pesticides is generally low compared to other countries, it's still a problem that is in my opinion, very underrated. Even though the U.S. places limitations on the amount and use of the pesticides in our foods, there are still some that break the law and have more in them than they should. And get this, only one third of pesticides used are actually detected by the U.S. I guess no one is really 100% on what anyone is eating now a days. My advise to everyone is to practice digestion awareness. I really mean it even if I end up eating some Hot Cheetos later. Beware.