What are we really eating?

What are we really eating? These past few day I have been really thinking of what is going into my body. Everytime I want to eat something, say a hamburger, I'll start thinking how the cow was treated or even how the tomatoes were grown. Now like most people, I think this as I'm eating the hamburger. We have all these thoughts but we never do anything about it. I read an article called What are we really eating by Brenda Cobb and it really made me think about my food. If you really think about it, many hands touch your food before you do. From the Processing plant to the grocery store to the checkout clerk and not to mention the people in between that. Brenda Cobb talks about not only the chemicals and other things put in our food but the energy that's in our food. She explains that if you buy cookies and the guy that packaged them hated his job, then you are now eating that negative energy. Cobb also talked about the chemicals in our food. Chemical fertilizers have greatly impacted our greens. Making fruits like oranges bigger and bigger. But how much chemicals do we actually put in our body? Like Cobb said might as well drink it. What happened to eating raw food? You don't really see kids carrying bags of cucumbers or celary or broccoli. Instead they replace it with bags of hot (delicious) Cheetos. Let's not even mention what schools are serving. Like most kids my age, I waste a lot of money on food. But not the healthy kind. But what I've noticed is that everytime I eat fast food, I get really sleepy and just want to lay down at home and watch tv. Whereas when I eat fruits and drink water, I am wide awake and not to mention with a lot of energy. But now that I've read Cobbs article, even fruit is contaminated with harmful chemicals. Unless it's completely organic. But others think that even organic food isn't good for us or the environment. Like  Norman Borlaug, he thinks "the idea that organic farming is better for the environment is “ridiculous” because organic farming produces lower yields and therefore requires more land under cultivation to produce the same amount of food". As I keep reading and learning more of what I consume, I notice that each question I have just leads to another question. Like how the animals we eat are treated to the energy in our food to chemicals in our food to organic food actually hurting our environment is just a big and confusing mess. I have yet to take responsibility of what I consume and do something good for my health.  

Do GMOs cause Health Problems?

When thinking about processed food now, after watching the Food Inc. movie, makes me really want to know what's going into my body. It's so crazy to think that that's what our world has come to, making our food quantity over quality, if that makes any sense. We want to make food of larger quantity and not care to check what or how it's being made. The fact that I have become so careless to look at the ingredients and check what's being put into my body. Now I question everything I eat, Is this actually good for me? How will eating this affect my body in the near future? Also, watching the Ted Talks video, to see how they're growing the vegetables with GMOs. In an article I read called 7 Ways GMOs Affect Your Health by Alana Marie Burke explains all the harmful ways that GMOs can affect humans. Eggs, Milk, Soy, Wheat, Fish, Shellfish, Peanuts, and Tree Nuts are the most common allergens that GM foods intersect and can cause food allergies. Also, GM crops can be toxic to the kidney and liver. The GMOs might have caused a raise in gluten sensitivity. Can GMOs cause cancer or birth defects in children? Thats the question I think that most of us don't think about. I think if people were to ask themselves that question there would be a panic because those are serious affects to our bodies. http://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/622630 

I think we all need to really be concerned on how this will affect each and every one of us in 20-30 years from now. 

Organic Foods: Worth Making the Switch or nah?

We can all say that organic foods are more nutritious than conventional foods, right? According to Earth Island Journal, scientific studies show that your average processed fruit does not hold more nutritional value than one that was fresh from the farm. So what of it is a driving factor for people to make the switch? Conventional foods are raised in "farms" that treat their crop with pesticides and other chemicals whereas all-natural foods are not. Pesticides contain "chemicals that can lead to birth defects, endocrine disruption, and neurological and respiratory problems." However, it is reported that chemically-grown have pesticide levels within safe boundaries. If you were to compare the prices of organic foods and processed ones, you would find that the organic foods are generally more expensive. This factor would prevent more people from making the decision to buy the farm-fresh food. Since the government subsidizes big food producing companies, their products are cheaper in the markets. Basically when you buy organic food, you are paying to lower the risks of potential health problems. So why are people making the switch from conventional foods to organic foods? The time and money it takes to obtain an organic food product does not seem to outweigh the benefits. It could be that eating them would make people feel good about their health.

Fighting the Big Dog

I never thought I'd look at chicken the way I do now. I'm not mad at the bird, or even the meat packing industries. I'm a little more disappointed in myself and the fact that  I turned a blind eye to where my food comes from. I know I'm pretty misinformed about it since no food corporation will openly explain how they get the chicken to your dinner plate, so I can't be completely disappointed in myself, but it's definitely changed my perspective on several things concerning this. I'm now paranoid about every food that I eat. I can't eat without wondering where this animal once was or what types of GMOs were added to it. Now, al these things are very traumatizing, but what I fear the most is big name corporations. We can read and discuss every article and "TED talk" video that concerns this topic, but, realistically, what can we do to change things? These big corporations have millions of dollars in their pockets and they could sue the heck out of a little guy like me just for questioning their methods. We (the little guy) have to come up with something to drive the big dog (meat packing corporations) insane. Any ideas?

How animals are mistreated in company farms

After watching the movie Food Inc i looked up some articles to explain how companies treat their animals. The article that caught my eye was Factory Farming: Misery for Animals on the Peta Website. The Peta website says that most of the factory farms now a days have their chicken cooped in a dark shed with wires cages and metal crates. These can easily make the animal feel tortured and unsafe. It is important for animals to feel the fresh air. The big corporations want to sell their animals at a low price so they have low quality farms that don't care for their animals. They have them in small beds and very uncomfortable. They also have antibiotics injected into them bodies to make them grow faster. These things really affect the way animals think and a feel, is it really worthy to torture animals to satisfy our stomachs. They has  to be a safer and more careful way to eat these animals. I am not saying that we should all become vegans. I am just implying that we should look out for more organic stuff because they are really treat the animals the way they need to be treated. 

It's Lunch Time, It's Lawmaking Time

Lunch is probably many students favorite time of day at school. It's fun to relax with friends, take a break, and eat some good food. As most of you know, however, the food offered at  our school's cafeteria is less than appealing. It's not fresh, healthy, tasty, or even cooked at all, just reheated from deep freezers. For students who have to eat lunch in the cafeteria, their options are dismal, and too often, kids skip out on school lunches and buy a bag of hot Cheetos instead.

While reading through different articles, I found one entitled "How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground" by Nicholas Confessore. It talked about the problem of school lunches that we see at our own school. Confessore described how political legislation designed to better school lunches has failed or simply been ignored by schools. School lunch ladies struggled to meet calorie limits and nutritional guidelines set by the government. Even when schools were successful in meeting the standard,  students wouldn't eat the lunches made, instead throwing away the fruit or veggies. I've seen this problem at our own school, and I'm sure you guys have noticed this as well. On top of kids not getting healthy, fresh food, kids also began wasting more food and going hungry. 

With the amount of control our government has over what we eat, it's sickening to think that they use their control over school lunches so badly. Attempts have definitely been made to improve lunches, but they have just been unsuccessful. Examples of legislation talked about in the article include Michelle Obama's healthy lifestyle campaign and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which sought to establish stricter nutrional guidelines on school lunches. Both were part of the Obama administration's attempt to wage a war against obesity. These political attempts to improve students health really are just drops in a bucket. We have so far to go. In Condessore's words, it will be a constant "battle" to make school lunches better, and it is a battle we all must wage. The food industry and Congress are too buddy-buddy right now to result in big changes; however, if we as concerned, informed, soon-to-be voting citizens seek to make a difference, we can hope for more smiles and more full stomachs for kids all across America. 

What do you guys think? How can we make school lunches better? 

It’s quite shocking how our food is produced. You would think that companies that handle our food would have the decency of giving the human population something that healthy not something that just edible. Most American would wander what’s the different well, something that healthy is something won’t give you a heart attack or give you an upset stomach. Something healthy like fruits and vegetables, things that would give you vitamins and other things your body really needs. Edible food is something you just simply eat and it doesn’t really help your body, it doesn’t even satisfy your hunger unless you eat a bunch of it.  And because you have to eat so much, obesity and diabetes rates have spiked to an unbelievable rate. Even our government has to step in and start telling people “hey how about eating an apple or something”. But that’s all they’ll do because government won’t interfere with how these companies produce our food because our all so trusting food companies have scary powerful lawyers and policies that protect them. Now why would a food company need lawyers and policies to protect them, well because what they do to our food would make you want to chase them out, for example in Food Inc., one female farmer decided to show us how they actually rise chicken, what ends up happening is the chicken aren’t even good for us to eat because the chicken is altered so much that it shouldn’t even be called a chicken it should be called something else. Things need to change, companies need to be stopped, government needs to up their standards on what should be called food because it absolutely disgusting what is passed off as food.