So when looking at this new blog post and what I had to do, I became a little concerned. Having to prepare a meal for my self, and, or others, is a slightly daunting task to preform when you live in the dorms. Plus I had to think of a way to do so in about a day. What I did was give my brother a call and headed over to his place to get my chef on.
Me being as broke as I am did not really have a lot of extra money to spare, so my brother bought some steaks on his way home from work. Nothing really high end just your basic steak. It was not in any means a low-fat processed food.
I agree 100% with pollen that low-fat processed foods are not a healthy source of nutrition.
To some people this may sound like it is just a terrible idea, but it is not. Fat is good for you, in controlled amounts, there is a series of health benifits to having some fat in your diets: our brain is 70% fat, we need it to metabolism vitamins, and it can actually help us loose weight by helping us control are urges. If a person was to cut out most, or all fats from their diets they would suffer a series of unhealthy side effects. To name a few, hair loss, poor immune system, and they would loose a number of platelets(used for clotting). You can find the information at http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/nutritional/fats.php
Now back to how I prepared my dinner. I put olive oil on a frying pan and heated it up. I then threw on my steak added my spices and started to cook it, and you know what? When I took that first bite it tasted amazing, it was the best food I have eaten in a month. I have no shame in eating that steak fried in olive oil and covered in garlic salt, because I know that I still am a very healthy individual. Like I said earlier it is allright to eat food like that once in a wile. Just as long as it doesn't become an everyday thing.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Real Food Vs Fake Food
When I was a little kid my family and I use to have vegetable garden. It was a really neat experience to have. However, as time went on my brothers started to get older and head off to college. This meant that we had less time and people to manage the garden. We kept it going after the first two left, but by the time my third brother left the vegetable garden was no more. When I when I think back to it now I really miss it, for two reasons. One, it was something that my whole family got involved in. It was a great family bonding experience to be working out in the garden with my dad and brothers. The other reason is I really miss the fresh vegetables.
Just because the garden was no more did not mean are need to consume vegetables was. We started to get the majority of our vegetables via frozen in bags, or stored in cans. I greatly preferred the frozen vegetables to the canned, but I still preferred fresh vegetables frozen any time. Also just to clear this up, this did not mean we completely stopped eating fresh vegetables. We would still buy fresh produce from the store, and go to farmers market on the occasional weekend. I mean there is just something about eating fresh produce over processed that is better.
The frozen food and canned food just never tasted or felt(texture) right. The frozen food never fully realized the flavor that it was meant to have. The canned vegetables were soggy and all ways salty. So I thought if they don't taste or even fully seem like the original unprocessed food, are they as nutritious? So I looked up to see if they were and what I found really kind of shocked me.
I was excepting to find studies bashing frozen foods and saying how on nutritionally sound they were; however, that was not the case. What I did find was a study showing that only a minuscule amount of vitamin c was lost in the act of processing, other then that they maintained their nutritional value. You can find the study at the following link http://nutrican.fshn.uiuc.edu/findings.html
This how ever does not change my view on preferring fresh to frozen. I fully intend on having a garden of my own someday.
Just because the garden was no more did not mean are need to consume vegetables was. We started to get the majority of our vegetables via frozen in bags, or stored in cans. I greatly preferred the frozen vegetables to the canned, but I still preferred fresh vegetables frozen any time. Also just to clear this up, this did not mean we completely stopped eating fresh vegetables. We would still buy fresh produce from the store, and go to farmers market on the occasional weekend. I mean there is just something about eating fresh produce over processed that is better.
The frozen food and canned food just never tasted or felt(texture) right. The frozen food never fully realized the flavor that it was meant to have. The canned vegetables were soggy and all ways salty. So I thought if they don't taste or even fully seem like the original unprocessed food, are they as nutritious? So I looked up to see if they were and what I found really kind of shocked me.
I was excepting to find studies bashing frozen foods and saying how on nutritionally sound they were; however, that was not the case. What I did find was a study showing that only a minuscule amount of vitamin c was lost in the act of processing, other then that they maintained their nutritional value. You can find the study at the following link http://nutrican.fshn.uiuc.edu/findings.html
This how ever does not change my view on preferring fresh to frozen. I fully intend on having a garden of my own someday.
Friday, September 18, 2009
In Defense of Food- First Read
So I started reading a book called "In Defense of Food- An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan.
It is a rather interesting book that does a very good job at persuading you to view food as Michael Pollan would. Michael Pollan's main argument in the book thus far (pgs 1-40) is that food is disappearing. Not just any food, real food, this is not the stuff you see filling the shelves of your local wall-mart aisles. The other argument is that the food that replaced it is killing us slowly with all of its nutrition.
To start off the book Pollan voices his opinion on how food today can no longer be found in a super market. Replacing the food is nutrition and highly processed foods. These foods, according to Pollan, are not good for you. This does have truth to it there are many health affects to eating highly processed foods such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Also a seven year study done at the university of Hawaii on nearly 200,000 people, showed that people who ate mostly processed meats where 67 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.
I am upset with Pollan's veiw that farmers are putting all there time focusing on producing quick and cheap food. Having grown up working on seven different farms I will admit that they do in fact do that, but that is only because they have to. The amount of work that goes into farming is enormous, especially considering how much they get paid for it. The way Pollan makes it sound makes it seem like all farmers care about is money. I do not think that what Pollan said was very fair the farmers. They are only doing there job and trying to make a living.
It is a rather interesting book that does a very good job at persuading you to view food as Michael Pollan would. Michael Pollan's main argument in the book thus far (pgs 1-40) is that food is disappearing. Not just any food, real food, this is not the stuff you see filling the shelves of your local wall-mart aisles. The other argument is that the food that replaced it is killing us slowly with all of its nutrition.
To start off the book Pollan voices his opinion on how food today can no longer be found in a super market. Replacing the food is nutrition and highly processed foods. These foods, according to Pollan, are not good for you. This does have truth to it there are many health affects to eating highly processed foods such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Also a seven year study done at the university of Hawaii on nearly 200,000 people, showed that people who ate mostly processed meats where 67 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.
I am upset with Pollan's veiw that farmers are putting all there time focusing on producing quick and cheap food. Having grown up working on seven different farms I will admit that they do in fact do that, but that is only because they have to. The amount of work that goes into farming is enormous, especially considering how much they get paid for it. The way Pollan makes it sound makes it seem like all farmers care about is money. I do not think that what Pollan said was very fair the farmers. They are only doing there job and trying to make a living.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Digital Gems
In the modern world the internet is all. It can entertain you, educate you, sell you things, save you a trip to the bank, give you directions, and even replace your journal i.e. Blogging/what I am doing right now. So due to just how vast the internet is, and I am required to for my class, I went and found a few special digital gems.
First off, because this one is required, is my LSC100 class blog.
http://lsc100f09.blogspot.com/
Second is very interesting blog authored by a man called Harrison Krix. He is a 27 year old graphic designer that lives in Atlanta, and he makes props. I really can't describe it much more, you really just have to see it.
http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/
Finally is the reddit blog. For those of you who don't know what Reddit it is here is a quick summary. Reddit is a website that users can post links on, and depending on what other people think of it they can vote it up or down. If they vote it up it goes up and moves slowly towards the number one spot. Any ways this blog just highlights the best of the best from the website.
http://blog.reddit.com/
First off, because this one is required, is my LSC100 class blog.
http://lsc100f09.blogspot.com/
Second is very interesting blog authored by a man called Harrison Krix. He is a 27 year old graphic designer that lives in Atlanta, and he makes props. I really can't describe it much more, you really just have to see it.
http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/
Finally is the reddit blog. For those of you who don't know what Reddit it is here is a quick summary. Reddit is a website that users can post links on, and depending on what other people think of it they can vote it up or down. If they vote it up it goes up and moves slowly towards the number one spot. Any ways this blog just highlights the best of the best from the website.
http://blog.reddit.com/
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