Monday- (after class)
Orange Juice-USA and Brazil
Pb and J Sandwich-
Peanut butter-Ohio
Jelly-Ohio
Bread-Connecticut
Fruity Pebbles-
Milk-Pennsylvania
Fruity Pebbles-Missouri
Kraft Cheddar Cheese-Illinois
Ritz Crackers-Illinois
Tuesday-
Yoplait Yogurt-Missouri
Crunchy Chicken Wrap from Unos- I don’t know
Pb and J Sandwich-
Peanut Butter-Ohio
Jelly-Ohio
Bread-Connecticut
Milk-
(What I have got to eat for dinner):
Baby carrots- Delaware
Turkey Sandwich-
Turkey-West Virginia
Bread-Connecticut
Cheddar Cheese-Illinois
Wednesday-( What I Will have for Breakfast):
Yoplait Yogurt-Missouri
Nature Valley Honey n’ Oats Granola Bar-South East Asia
After reading Pollan‘s article it made me really wonder why no one makes their food anymore. It is kind of scary to think that we really have no idea what ingredients we are eating and where they have been. If we cooked for ourselves then we would know. My list of food places wouldn’t be scattered across the globe. Cooking from scratch could be a very healthy way to eat. It also scares me that the ingredients of food in restaurants like Unos are almost impossible to find out. Although I am not able to cook due to lack of a kitchen, I’m not sure I would if I could. I can’t imagine cooking every meal for myself like people used to have to do. I wonder why this has happened. Food used to be a huge part of culture in Italy, Rome, China, and Mexico. Now we can go buy any type of food we want and be eating it within twenty minutes. Buying our food has become our culture. Is it because it is easy to make food in bulk? Are we just too busy to cook ourselves food three times a day? Have we let huge companies take over the food industry and our culture?
Reading this article was very interesting because it made me look at the obvious with a new angle. I didn’t even think about the idea that all these food channels and the restaurants and the fact that ingredients we put in our food have ingredients of their own really stole from our culture of cooking. I agree with the idea that the reason that buying food has become our culture as opposed to making it on our own is because in this day in age, we live in an era where multi tasking is so frequent in our lives and we almost have no downtime. Although food is a necessity, in this country, most of us are fortunate enough that we don’t ever think about food as a necessity. Therefore we don’t find it necessary to put in the time and effort to make it when we could just get it on our own from somewhere quicker. With all of the new preservative sand ingredients, food tastes just as good but a very little percent of the population realizes how unhealthy this is, leading to the obesity problem in our nation as well. Food companies convince you that they will do the tedious work of putting in time to make your food so that you can focus your energies on other things in a society where things are moving so rapidly.
ReplyDeleteMichael Pollan's article was extremely witty, interesting, and thought-provoking. The way he describes Julia Child's antics, and the way his mother would cook those homemade meals from scratch, forced me to reminisce about home and the food my own mom often makes from scratch. Although both my parents work about twelve hours a day (like most hard-working middle class folks), they are both cognizant of the importance of coming home and preparing a real meal. Attendance of a nightly family dinner is a cardinal rule in my home, and when I come to think of it, many of my defining life experiences centered around sharing a good meal with my family. For my family, dinner was a time to catch up, talk about what was going on in the world, and make plans about the things that we wanted to do as a family. Pollan comments on the fact that one of the most important factors contributing to our unhealthy diet is the fact that Americans are working, and working longer hours than ever. Take, for example, the average, middle class employee: his day begins at the crack of dawn; he prepares breakfast for his children and makes sure that he has someone to pick them up from baseball practice; he heads out of his home and into the hullabaloo of the morning commute; he arrives at his office, and puts in his time; he realizes his mortgage rate rose last month, so he decides to ask his boss for extra hours; he leaves the office at 7:30, just as the graveyard shift custodial staff clocks in. Do we expect this man to come home, churn butter, bake bread, and season a chicken? Of course not. For thirty dollars, he can stop at the local Chinese eatery and put dinner on the table for his family, while also affording him the luxury of time. Unfortunately, this is the case for many a American. As much as I admire the sanctity of starting from scratch, talking to members of one's family while waiting for the pig to roast, and revering the process of cooking in general, that old staple of American society is becoming just that: a thing of the past. It is shame that the economy is the way it is, that the times are as hard as they are, and that time is an uncommon luxury. Of course, a lack of time isn't the only reason why America's eating habits are the way they currently are. But I feel that people need to tend to more immediate, important concerns before that can take-up enjoyable causes such as cooking.
ReplyDeletePollan’s article both intrigued and scared me. He seemed to articulate the fears that seem to haunt the currently overweight America; food is no longer cooked with our own hands, nor are the ingredients – more often than not – grown or produced locally. Although it makes sense in the American culture that food would eventually become part of the “faster is better” mentality and lifestyle, it seems as though this has happened and there is not a way out. Our dependency on grocery stores and mass produced food has been happening for years, yet the cycle feels irreversible. It is amazing, as Pollan said, how we even have television channels for food/cooking shows. Even this seems a bit ironic, though, since most of the time viewers will watch a show about cooking without ever getting off of their couches or attempting to create the dish themselves. I certainly fall guilty to this, and am 100% positive that unless I move onto a farm or build a small greenhouse in my backyard when I am older, I will always be dependent on buying my food from grocery stores. This is almost entirely because I, like so many other people, would choose convenience over quality if it means saving money and time.
ReplyDeleteIt is scary to think that we have no idea where our food comes from. I also agree that it would be safer if we cooked our food from scratch. That way we know exaclty what is in the food that we consume. But it all comes down to the almighty dollar in todays world. Also i agree that it is way more convienient to just purchase your food at a local grocery store or restaurant then growing and cooking it yourself. When reflecting on the things that ive eaten over the past two days, I couldnt find out where most of the items came from. Is that right? Why havnt I ever wondered about this before?
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting to read. I personally love watching the Food Network. I watch many of the shows mentioned in the article, yet I have never actually made a recipe that I saw on the Food Network. I never saw that as a problem before, but this article made me question exactly why I enjoy watching other people cook food that I am never going to eat. Our obsession with food shows is definitely bizarre. This article actually makes me want to go back to the days of Julia Child. Her show was so different from the cooking shows of today. People didn't watch her show to be entertained or relax; they watched it because they wanted to learn how to cook. I also thought it was really interesting when the article mentioned feminism. I always thought about cooking as anti-feminism. I never thought about how Julia Child encouraged women to cook because they loved it and not because they were expected to do it.
ReplyDeleteI watch a lot of food network... probably too much (Barefoot Contessa is kinda my girl). But after reading Michael Pollan's "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch," I feel the need to double take and think to myself, "I watch chefs cook for hours at kitchen stadium... but what do I actually take from it?" I also am an avid microwave oven user. When gaining the effort to wrap my Jimmy Dead Sausage Egg and Cheese sandwich in a napkin and crank the time up to 2:00, I feel like "cooking" has been accomplished. Boy was I wrong... and to go along with out other assignment in knowing where our food comes from, I cant say anything! Recently I've had Sun Chips, Mediterranean salad, apples, turkey burgers, pretzels, tuna salad, things like this and dont have a clue where they came from. Pollan is making me think twice about how I look at what I eat... It's truly concerning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elmono and Andrew as they wonder how they never saw any of this before. Quickly microwaving food never seemed so ridiculous and weird before. It did kind of feel like cooking. It scares me that I never have considered where my food was from before and how it got to my mouth. At the same time I don't see my eating habits changing until I have both more money to spend on groceries and a kitchen. After considering all of this I wish I could.
ReplyDeleteI, like Amanda, have also always enjoyed watching cooking shows with no intention of ever cooking the meals I watch be created. I think this is partly because it has become a competition in most shows, while there are still some shows that focus on sharing recipes. I think these shows have the same idea as Julia Child's show.
Food Log
ReplyDeleteMonday:
-Honey Bunches of Oats→St. Louis, Missouri
-Horizon Organic 2% Milk→Broomfield, Colorado
-Honest Ade Cranberry Lemonade→Bethesda, Maryland
-Orange Juice→Contains juice from USA & Brazil; distributed from Flemington, New Jersey
-Pita Chips→Randolph, Massachusetts
-Sabra Hummus→White Plains, New York
-Pizza Slice from Pesto → I don’t know
-Coke→I don’t know
Tuesday:
-Honey Bunches of Oats→St. Louis, Missouri
-Horizon Organic 2% Milk→Broomfield, Colorado
-Luna Bar→Emeryville, California
-Chicken Fajita→ I don’t know
-Chicken Salad→ I don’t know
-Sprite→ I don’t know
-Lipton tea→ Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
This article was quite interesting. I never really knew that humans had a desire to watch food shows on television. It was interesting to read that people are cooking less and less. I think fast food has become such a convenience that people see the direct benefits of it and not the consequences. Eating fast food saves time and in many cases money. Fast food has become so cheap that it is actually more expensive to buy all your ingredients for a meal from the supermarket. Also, fast food industries have revolutionized the way people eat. Fast food industries advertise food and make it seem very beneficial. People opt for this convenience and do not see the repercussions until after its too late. Fast food industries have made salt, sugar, and fat the main ingredients in all their food which leads to negative consequences on people's health. There is a direct correlation between fast food and the rise of diabetes. It is scary that we do not know what is in our food and how it is being processed. Everyone is guilty of falling into the the web of the fast food industry.
I love these kinds of articles on food politics. This makes me wonder with the general lack of home-cooking—is it any-wonder that America is one of the most obese countries on Earth? If you think about it, we are basically eating microwavable garbage. Also, if you think about it—what is the real cost of our food? Does that hamburger at McDonald’s actually cost 99 cents in terms of production cost, worker wages, environmental destruction?
ReplyDeleteLooking more at the community aspect of food, since the Dark Ages, people have gathered together to cook and eat. Thanksgiving, Christmas, weddings; they all have one thing in common, family dinner. Cooking has shaped human civilization and there are things about home cooked meals we miss when they’re gone. Food brings up deep emotional ties in every one of us. When I read the article, I started thinking about how much of our cultural identities are passed down by home cooked meals. When families get busier, we have the potential to lose our cultural identity.
I have been sick for the past three days and all I have eaten is Au Bon Pain and Whole Foods chicken noodle soup. As I was consuming the noodles and lumps of chicken, I never even thought about where my food was coming from, and to be quite honest, I don't really want to know. However, this being said I do think we need to have a certain level of knowledge about where our food is coming from. For example, this past summer my family went to Disney World on vacation. It was the first time I was going to Disney World as an "adult" where you people watch as a way to pass the time. I was amazed by the amount of obese people I saw. One day while there, I was on line with a friend who is a general surgeon. A older woman in front of us was buying her son two bags of Cheetos, a soft pretzel and a large fountain soda, at 10 o'clock at night. The mother was at least 300 hundred pounds, while the son was about 8 and pushing close to 100 pounds. My friend turned to me and said, 'No wonder heart disease is on the rise." I think the article makes a valid point about Americans not knowing where their food comes from, and in most cases we should know. However, when I am sick I really could care less where my chicken soup is coming from, as long as it makes me feel better.
ReplyDeleteWhat everyone says about eating being a part of the family unit is really interesting. I agree and I think that we are slowly starting to loose this. Most families I know have a family dinner a few times a week together. When my Dad was growing up it was every day of the week. Eventually I feel like we will even loose the few nights a week we have. It's articles like this which really get people to think about these problems. Do you think it is too late or can we fix these problems before they gets too bad? What could we do to inform more people of these problems?
ReplyDeleteI understand the frustrations Pollan has with America's food culture, but frankly I thought it was a little dramatic. Yes, there is a problem with obesity in our country, and that might have a correlation with the industrialization of food production and hence, the lack of home cooking, but I don't necessarily think that we can criticize families who are seeking to streamline their eating habits. I didn't really like his commentary on women and their movement outside the household. He makes the point that women without jobs, as well as those who are employed, as also participating in retrograde cooking habits. I think that our society very easily undervalues the duties of "stay at home moms" and other women who do not hold an official job. Being a mother or caretaker or whatever other non official job titles might exist can definitely be rigorous work. Some of my friends' mothers were the hardest working people I know, and they did not have a nine to five. I think that in today's society, women participate in a lot more outside the home than they did in say, the 1950's. People, not just women, are expected to care for the household and contribute to their community or philanthropy. So, I think it is perfectly fine that people are spending less time in the kitchen. I, personally, love to cook, as I have prepared my own meals since the age of seven. This was because being the stubborn girl I am, I always wanted to eat something different from the rest of the family. But just because I love to cook, it doesn't mean that every other person in America has to be equally as passionate. Everyone has their thing-- some families are avid athletes, travelers, artists, etc. While I think that having the knowledge of how food works and how to prepare it at an elementary level is really helpful, not everyone has to be a Julia Child.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, using the lenses provided by Corrigan, I found the part of the article about the outtakes quite interesting. Older educational tv shows displayed all of cooking-- mess, mistakes, the whole enchilada. Tv today is so fast-paced that and perfect. Pollan mentions the Julia Child pancake debacle, and mentions how "Martha Stewart would sooner commit seppuku than let such an outtake ever see the light of day." This grand exaggeration not only brings to light the bias in food tv, but in all media.
Food Journal
ReplyDeleteMonday:
Nature Valley Bar- Minneapolis, MN
Sushi From Bamboo- Not Sure
Honest Tea- Bethesda, MD
Cheeseburger from Whole Foods- Not Sure
Dirty Potato Chips- Gramercy, LA
Vitamin Water- White Stone, NY
Tuesday:
Nutragrain Bar- Battle Creek, MI
Coffee from Dunkin Donuts- Not Sure
Salad From J. Street- Not Sure
Vitamin Water- White Stone, NY
Wrap from Roti- Not Sure
Dr. Pepper- Plano, TX
Stacy's Pita Chips- Randolph, MA
I enjoyed the article, and can definitely admit that I have spent many hours with my eyes glued to the television watching food-based networking, my personal favorite being the Travel Channel’s Man V. Food. As the article mentioned, the main basis of these shows is to promote the restaurant where these dishes can be found, instead of better showing the viewer how to make the plates themselves. Additionally, I recognized that, in my journal, the majority of the foods that I was unaware of their origins where served to me by prepared food providers. Although I am sure that if inquired, I may have been able to receive a definitive answer as to where the food is originally from, companies should be more readily available for consumers. Admittedly, I eat too many processed and pre-packaged foods; however, I appreciate the fact that products must provide where their products are from, and the same FDA regulations should be placed on packaging on these foods.
I love the food channel so I really enjoyed this article. However, when reading this article I thought about why I watch the food channel. When I watch the food channel I watch it to look at the different types of foods, not to try and cook what they are cooking. I don’t really think that its possible to learn how to cook just by watching someone add all these ingredients together. You can watch a cooking show with a professional cook, and you do everything that they do, your food is still not going to end up tasting the same. I just think that by watching shows like the shows on the food channel, it gives you the idea that cooking these meals is easy and something you can do. It gives you the confidence to try cooking things you would never normally try and cook because it looks so easy to you. It also gives the idea that what you are eating is healthy because you see exactly everything that is going into what you are cooking. Also cooking these meals you see on these shows, and seeing what foods you put into your meals, makes you think about how there is so much that goes into the food you eat that you never even realize.
ReplyDeleteFood politics fascinate me because we all learn so much about the origins of our food, but few people seem to care. I know that I've seen supersize me countless time, with friends, on my own, and in school. I'll sit there mesmerized, grossed out by the ingredients that go into fast food and prepared food in general. But despite the numerous times I've been disgusted by the movie, I'll still enjoy my big mac and fries. Why is that? Even though I asked the people at pita pit where my food was from, and they said they didn't know, I still consumed my dinner. For some reason, no matter what I learn about my food, I don't really change my eating habits. This is probably because I grew up in a society where it was easier for my mom to give me a TV dinner after work. Pollan mentions that the shows on TV right now are more about where you can get prepared foods in large quantities instead of making foods with natural ingredients in the comfort of your own home. I'm not sure exactly what can be done to change the way we eat and the way we see our food, but I know that more people need to take a stance and start caring and speaking up if we have any hope of altering the media and the way we view food.
ReplyDeleteFood Log
ReplyDeletePasta: I don’t know
Honey Nut Cheerios: General Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Hot Chocolate: ConAgra Foods, Omaha, Nebraska
Peanut Butter: Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas
Wheat Bread: H&S Bakery, Baltimore, Maryland
Banana: Peru
Goldfish: Pepperidge Farm, Norwalk, Connecticut
Pretzels: Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas
Clif Bar: Clif Bar & Company, Emeryville, California
Sandwich: I don’t know
I have grown up in a family of food eccentrics. Both of my parents work (or worked) in the food industry and as a result, I have been privileged to learn about nutrition from their perspectives. Although my grandmother hated cooking, my mom grew to find it a hobby and soon enough a career. The article reminded me a lot of my family due to the fact that my parents almost never watch The Food Network. The fact that they are so overexposed to food leads them away from watching shows involving any kind of food or cooking. It is in this point that I bring up the argument that shows about cooking have veered away from cooks and instead aim towards a food-loving audience. The difference here is that people would previously watch these shows in order to learn more about what they can do when they cook and now they are episodes in which people watch others do what they can do. It really is too bad to see the passion for cooking fade as television networks alter their audiences for a better profit. Throughout history, joining for a well-cooked meal has been essential to building relationships and coming together for a greater good. Similar to what Aparna said earlier, it’s not just the depreciation of food, it’s the culture and personal value that is lost when the art of cooking is set on the back burner.
My parents have always been advocates of eating at home. I've actually been lucky enough to experience two different type of home cooking. My dad, being Japanese, cooks a lot of Japanese food that he grew up eating, while my mom, who is Jewish, cooks some Jewish recipes that have been passed down. Reading Pollan's article reinforced the importance of not only the act of cooking at home, but the interactions that I remember simply from being around my family more.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting point I took from the article was the part in which Julia Child says you simply need "the courage of your convictions" to flip anything being cooked. Although it seems funny at first, this "courage" that she refers to is similar to faith in religion. In order to reach her full potential as a cook she had to maintain a level of trust in her skills. Thus, this is a parallel to how individuals trust their God and have faith that this will bring happiness, success, etc. I do not think it's too late to shift society back to a time in which cooking was important. However, I think it takes the effort by all of us to just ask what cooking means to us in terms of culture, human interaction, and health.
Food log:
ReplyDeleteMonday --
barilla penne pasta
j stree salad - not sure
tollhouse cookie (2, PA
goldfish
Tuesday
J street salad - not sure
marshmellow poptart
carvins hamburger and fries - not sure
banana
strawberry
I really enjoyed reading this article and found it very interesting. Julie and Julia is one of my alltime favorite movies and it introduced me to Julia Child and her recipes. My family is Persian so therefore my mom tends to make Persian food a majority of the time. A normal Persian meal take about 1 hour to 4 hours to make. There was never a meal that my mom made that took less time than that. Everything was done from scratch and it was always a well cooked meal. My mother loves to cook and I mean really cook like Julia Child. Nowadays people would rather watch cooking shows than actually take time to cook and home cooked meal. Now people can order in Chinese or go to chickfila and get an eight count meal instaed of standing in the kitchen for hours and making an meal that you can be proud of making from scratch. The art of cooking has faded becuase of the change in culure.
-Neeki Ahmadi
I found Pollan's "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch" to be really interesting. I never really thought to step back and think about how strange it is that we watch television shows about preparing these great dishes, but then we stop by the nearest fast food place or go to the microwave for our next meal. There has clearly been a huge shift in our priorities regarding food over the years. Now it doesn’t really matter where your food came from or how many fillers and chemicals are in it as long as it can be prepared quickly for out fast-paced lives.
ReplyDeleteMonday-
ReplyDeleteQuaker oats: Chicago
Eggs: Georgia
Chicken Salad: JStreet.. I don’t know
Pizza: I don’t know
Water: Colorado
Tuesday-
Bagel: Pennsylvania
Cliff Bar: California
Egg Sandwich: Carvings I don’t know
Veggie Burger: Carvings
Fries: Carvings
In the Pollan article, I can relate, I love watching those top chef shows and I have noticed that everyone tends to think they can cook, (Like everyone says they can drive well.) Because food is the bases of our life, I think we tend to take it for granted and eat whatever we feel like. Because we don’t see immediate results, we as humans tend to ignore the consequences of such actions.
Bittman raises awareness to the current food industry and how we have transitioned from whole, local foods to produced and transported food. He notes how convenience became more important than the quality of food. It really freaked me out at he discussed the meat industry and how cows have been injected with all sorts of steroids and unnatural fuel. This makes me want to be a locavore. He mentions that we have to start acting in order to establish global health.
My Food Diary: UW 20- Science and Religion
ReplyDeleteMonday October 3
• Odwalla Mango Tango Fruit Smoothie- Half Moon Bay, California
• Cliff Bar- Emeryville, California
• Strawberries- Watsonville, California
• Whole Foods Prepared Pasta- Austin, TX
Tuesday, October 4
• Cereal from whole foods- Minneapolis, MN
• Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee
• Peanut butter and graham crackers- Austin, TX
• Salad bar from J Street –
Wednesday, October 5
• Apple- Gardners,PA
I really enjoyed the article that went along with this assignment. I agree with a lot of the points that were brought up and I never thought about the correlation between obesity and the accessibility of food. Toward the end of the article I really enjoyed the challenge to only eat what you have cooked from scratch. Additionally, it’s interesting to view the Food Network from this new perspective. I am a huge fan of Chopped and several other shows mentioned and I never thought about how much time I actually spend watching others cook for my own entertainment. These shows have yet to make a better cook but if anything exactly as the critic suggests, have made me a better eater.