My Last Post... Ever

The most interesting and useful things that I have learned about food during this course is the health side of breakfast and the overall process of making the food. Looking at breakfast, I have been told my whole life that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but I never really knew why. After doing research, I found out that there is numerous health benefits like less weight gain and even a longer life and even as a way to provide the fuel that your brain needs to run every day. As far as to how food is made, what really took me by surprise is how in only the last few decades we started making the food the way we do. Which is unhealthy, processes, and made very fast and efficiently. This all matters because it has opened my eyes as to what I should be eating and what is only advertised as healthy but really isn't. This knowledge is something that I will always be able to use. What I might do to build upon this in the future is to now look at what I should be eating regularly to stay healthy. I know what foods are unhealthy but it would be nice to know what foods to eat to keep a well-balanced diet.

EE2: Draft

Bill Schaff

Professor Leake

Writ 1133

May 21, 2013

Eaters Manifesto

            I love food and when I think of food values that I have, there is only one that comes to mind: breakfast. Other than actually eating, breakfast is the only real food value that I have. Growing up, my parents emphasized the importance of breakfast. Saying that, and I quote my father, “Everything that you can do in your day is a result of eating breakfast.” Whether he was right or wrong does not matter because eating breakfast was engrained into me, it is the one thing I do with food on a regular basis.

            Food values are a funny thing though, while yes they are your own, they are really your parent’s. Think about it, what your parents instilled onto you as a child, for the most part, is what you put the most value on. This is especially true for me. Growing up, my family was extremely traditional in how we ate. We would sit down and breakfast and dinner together, no one could eat until the hostess lifted her fork, you could not eat with your mouth open, and you had to cut your food with the knife in your right hand and then also eat the food eat with the fork in your right hand. These are values that my family places very high, especially when we are with our grand parents. One of the main values that was instilled on me is the benefits associated with eating breakfast, specifically the fact that eating a complete and full breakfast would give me “More strength and endurance to engage in physical activity” (Zelman). Playing three sports my whole life, lacrosse, tennis and skiing, I really did need the energy to last all day. There was rarely a day where I would not play at least two sports and not to mention staying awake through seven straight hours of riveting school classes. Without eating breakfast everyday, I believed as a kid that I would not have the energy to last all day with all of the activities that I had to do.

Getting the energy I needed to last an entire day was not solely due to eating breakfast but specifically eating a healthy breakfast. This was another value that my parents have engraved into me. They always emphasized that eating a breakfast is important but eating a well-balanced breakfast is the most important. My parents are not the only ones who think this way either. Katherine Zeratsky who is certified in dietetics by the state of Minnesota, the American Dietetic Association, and has been working for the Mayo Clinic since 1999 notes, “When you eat a healthy breakfast, you tend to eat a healthier overall diet, one that is more nutritious and lower in fat. When you skip breakfast, you're more likely to skip fruits and vegetables the rest of the day, too.” Just starting my day out right with a proper breakfast sets me up for the entire day to eat healthy. Throughout all of high school and middle school, my parents would go out of their way to make sure that I had a proper breakfast most mornings. They would make me a verity of fruits, scrambled eggs, French toast, or if I was running late they would make a breakfast sandwich which was a golden-brown toasted bagel on top and bottom with a fresh egg fried, extra thick-crispy bacon and a slice of American cheese. What I would give to have that every morning again.

Now that I am living on my own I have strayed away from this value that I have but I still know the importance of eating a regular-balanced breakfast. Even now in college I notice the effects of not eating breakfast. I currently have an 8am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, not thrilled about it, and regularly I find myself skipping breakfast on these days. With out my parents making sure that I have eaten something before I leave the house, I tend to not eat breakfast on these days because waking up that early is no easy task. What I have found is that not only do I struggle staying awake when I do not eat breakfast but I even struggle paying attention. In an article done by NPR, they found, “Evidence suggests that eating breakfast really does help kids learn. After fasting all night, a developing body (and brain) needs a fresh supply of glucose — or blood sugar. That's the brain's basic fuel.” By not eating breakfast I am setting myself up for failure. I am not providing myself with the resources that I need to succeed in school. If my brain does not have “brain fuel” than how am I supposed to learn anything from what is being taught.

In finding out that eating breakfast gives me “brain fuel” so that I can learn at my highest potential, I wanted to find an easy item to eat for breakfast. Something that is not day-old pizza, as tasty and efficient as it is, I cannot imagine that eating day-old pizza is really going to prepare me for the day. Because I do not give myself much time in the morning to eat I wanted to find a healthy option that would give me a sufficient-quick breakfast. Sacramento State University published an article for their student and all students of healthy ways to “Start Your Engine Right” (Health). They give a few tips of what to eat:

“Super fast grab-n-go breakfast ideas:

• Small whole-wheat bagel with light cream cheese and banana

• Whole grain toaster waffle with peanut butter and all fruit jam

• Meal replacement bar and fruit

• Hard-boiled egg (boil the night before), whole grain toast and grapes

• String cheese, apple and low fat granola bar”

With these tips I can fulfill all of the values that I place on breakfast. Even though I might find myself not eating breakfast as often because I have very little time in the morning, I still know and want to practice eating breakfast because of all the positive benefits that come from it.

            For me, the highest value that I put on eating breakfast is the health benefits that will come from it. Looking into the health side of breakfast, one thing that took me by surprise is cereal. I eat cereal on a regular basis, it has become a staple of my diet and one that I thought was not all that healthy. But according to the New York Daily News online it is quite the contrary, “Kids who ate more cereal got more vitamin D, B-3, B-12, riboflavin, calcium, iron, zinc and potassium in their diets than kids who ate less cereal or none at all.” Eating a bowl of cereal can provide us with nutrients that we. This article goes on to say that kids who ate cereal on a regular basis were more likely to loose weight and after freshman year that is needed. There is no disputing the overwhelming amount of research and data on how a well-balanced breakfast will help you with you day and your life. A 16-year study from Harvard shows that “of nearly 30,000 subjects found that men who skip breakfast are 21% more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who eat breakfast daily”. A study from the Sussex Innovation Centre shows that “61% of test subjects showed improvements in English and mathematics tests after eating breakfast” According to a Georgia Centenarian Study, “The 21-year study of older Americans suggests that regularly eating breakfast may lead to a longer-than-average life span”

(mrbreakfast). If all it takes for me to have a longer, healthier, more engaged life is to eat breakfast once a day than I see no reason to skip breakfast. It is not a hard meal to eat, personally it’s my favorite, if we are gaining so much from it.

Eating breakfast is a food value that I place very high in my life but in recent years have strayed away from. With the whole excitement of living on my own and being in college there has been many other things on my mind instead of eating breakfast. This quarter specifically I have been trying to change that, to revert back to my old eating habits. I have especially noticed that when I eat a healthy breakfast before class, my next meal tends to be healthier as well. It may be a salad instead of pizza, or fruit instead of Captain Crunch Berries. This also has a huge effect on my productivity and energy throughout my day. I feel like I can get more done and have more of a motivation to do it. People say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but have you ever stopped to wonder why? You hear this phrase almost everyday but do you actually know what benefits eating breakfast will have for you?

Works Cited

Aubrey, Allison. National Public Radio. 4 Sept. 2006. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5738848>.

Health Center, Sacramento State. Sacramento State University. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.csus.edu/hlth/Health%20Ed/Why%20Eat%20Breakfast.pdf>.

Loiselle, Daniel. Daily News. 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/kids-eat-breakfast-cereal-bmi-study-article-1.1312860>.

Mr Breakfast. 2013. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.mrbreakfast.com/glossary_term.asp?glossaryID=152>.

Zelman, Kathleen M. WebMD. Aug. 2007. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/many-benefits-breakfast>.

Zeratsky, Katherine. Mayo Clinic. 23 July 2011. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN01119>.

P9: Why We Buy What We Buy

There are so many similar topics covered by both articles but I’m going to focus on the nutritious side of both. In both articles, there is a large emphasis on how people have always been looking for what is the healthiest diet a person can eat. In the 20th century this really became a big thing. Dupuis writes in his essay History of Food Advice, “By World War 1, nutrition professionals had become less interested in promoting the least expensive diet for workers and began to focus instead on the best diet for optimum public health and vitality.” And in Pollan’s essay Unhappy Meals he writes, “Where once the familiar names of recognizable comestibles — things like eggs or breakfast cereal or cookies — claimed pride of place on the brightly colored packages crowding the aisles, now new terms like “fiber” and “cholesterol” and “saturated fat” rose to large-type prominence.” Both of these essays are talking about how once we discovered what was really in foods, we started advertising the healthy and unhealthy ones strongly with things like “Low Saturated Fat” and “High in Vitamins”.

It was becoming more about what is actually in the foods that what the food is. My mother is a perfect example of this. She has been trying to eat healthy for the last couple of years and is always coming home with new foods from the grocery store. What they all have in common is that they are all high in proteins or nutrients or fibers or vitamins. It could be a granola bar one day or a cereal the next, she does not really care what the food is only that it has a lot of these ingredients that she wants. I can personally attest that she is not buying these foods for the tastes, I have tried most of them and almost all of the ones that I have tried have not been appetizing. This is something that we see more and more in our culture. If is has the ingredients that the people want then they don’t really care what they are buying, only that it has the ingredients that they want.

SE5

Bill Schaff

Professor Leake

Writ 1133

May 14, 2013

What our eating habits are really doing to us

            “A tango of dark and white chocolate on a brownie shortbread crust, strewn with truffled cream cheese and red-luscious ripe raspberries, disguised in a halo of white chocolate whipped cream, this devilish dessert will fulfill your darkest desires” (customcatering). In most families this is a typical way to top off a perfect meal. Whether your child is eating a chocolate raspberry bash or the extra cookie he or she sneaks when you are not looking; these eating habits will have more of an effect on your child’s life than you ever expected. “Longitudinally, childhood and adolescent eating habits have been found to be predictive of adult body mass index, risk of heart disease, and likelihood of developing diabetes” (Beaver). While yes the Poptart for breakfast might seem harmless to your child, you might want to think again about just what you are serving them.

            What you are feeding your child my not be as healthy to the companies might want you to believe they are. Think back to the last time that you have bought your child a soda. Was it regular? Diet? Caffeine Free? What you should really be asking is if any of those are actually healthy. We would like to believe that Caffeine Free is healthy but in reality it is not. These eating habits that you instill on your children when they are young are going to stick with them and shape their entire lives. In a study conducted by the “Health, Education, and Behavior” journal, they found that 42% of adolescent’s unhealthy eating habits are heritability or inherited by genes and the environment that they are raised in. Now do you really want you children suffer from unhealthy eating habits that you allowed them to have when all you had to do was feed them different foods? Starting these habits when they are young is a heck of a lot easier than having them change their eating habits when they are older. In this study, it was proven that almost 62% of females that ate in a healthy life style did so because of habits that they learned as a child.

            Knowing what to serve you children is half the battle in developing healthy food habits. With the creativeness of marketers it can make it difficult to know what is truly unhealthy. Generally, you do not want your children to eat these foods on a regular basis: soft drinks, sport drinks, breakfast bars, hot dogs, yogurt, processes cheese, ice cream, and even salad dressing. This list goes on and on for what not to eat on a regular basis. Instead try substituting them with some of these: 100% orange and grape fruit juice, water, apples, pineapple, melons, raisins, vegetables, carrots, or a tossed salad. It is not difficult to find these items because they are all sold ready to eat at the grocery store, just a couple isles down from the processed foods. Is it really worth starting your children on an unhealthy eating habit when you know that it will significantly effect their entire lives?

http://0-heb.sagepub.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/content/39/2/142.full.pdf+html

Article

This article I found is about what influences adolescent eating habits and what long term effects they can have.

http://0-heb.sagepub.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/content/39/2/142.full.pdf+html

Blog Observations

What I have noticed from looking at people eating schedule is that it seems like most people have a certain kind of food that they always fall back on. This food is something they eat once or twice a day but it differs for most people. Things such as yogurt, grilled chicken, or a salad. It is not a tendency in them eating the same foods everyday but rather they each person had a specific food that they would eat on a regular basis.

Eating Schedule

Thursday-
     7:30AM- A plate of scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, and a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal. I only made one trip up for food and was in the dining hall for about 10 minutes. Ate alone.

     2:30PM- A plate of nachos with a turkey, lettuce, tomato, and mayo sandwich. Was in the dining hall for about 20 minutes. Ate with 2 people.

     7:30PM- A chicken and cheese quesadilla, a salad with ranch and a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal. Was in the dining hall for about 15 minutes. Ate with 5 people.

Friday-
     12:30PM- Had a bagel with cream cheese and a piece of chicken with BBQ sauce. Was in the dining hall for about 20 minutes. Ate with 3 people.

     6:30PM- Had a slice of pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, and some fries. Went back up for more pasta. Was in the dining hall for about 15 minutes. Ate with 2 people.

     10:PM- Ordered Jimmy Johns number 11, scarfed that food down. Ate it in my room while other people were casually talking in the room.

Saturday-
     10:00AM- Had a plate of scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, and some bacon. Went back up for a for a bowl of Reeses Puffs cereal. Was in the dining hall for about 15 minutes. Ate with 2 people.

     2:00PM- Had a few granola bars.

     7:30PM- Had a chicken quesadilla with mashed potatoes and green beans. Went back up for more mashed potatoes. Was in the dining hall for about 20 minutes. Ate with 4 people.