Hw#7B

Chapter#6-Processed Food:Splitting The Kernel

Precis

We are humans eat a lot of corn directly and indirectly. I visited a mill in Iowa called a wet mill which is a huge system which breaks down the corn and breaks down the materials of it. Each part of the machine slowly breaks apat the corn into simple pieces. Cereal companies such as general mills are trying to create new inventions creating "fake food" called resistant starch.

Gems

A gem that i found was the picture on page 68 and 69 which shows what is made from corn. It breaks up what starches it is made from, the whole corn products,etc. I thought that was interesting because it shows that it does not only come from one product but from all these other things. Another thing was the how the dollar is broken up into who gets paid and where each of the money goes.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that the cereal companies creating the invention of resistant starch is kind of ridiculous and unfair to the buyers. Also how the farmers aren't getting paid enough getting more profit to other people other than the farmers making the corn.

Chapter#7-Fat Corn:Can You Eat More, Please? Part 2

Precis

It seems as the couple years that go by more and more food is being eaten. Many food companies have created a way for us consumers to buy more food than we need creating obesity and creating more problems for our health. Companies such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds create this thing to make food more supersized or bigger which makes the consumers less aware that they are eating less calories than buying two small meals.

Gems

On page 83, it said "One part of the government puts out food pyramids tellng you to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer sweets. Meanwhile another part of the government s making it cheaper for you to eat healthy, then it makes sure that the cheapest calories in the supermarket are the unhealthiest. Talk about mixed messages!" I thought that this was very true because the government wants us to be healthy but they are giving us all the wrong foods and making money off of us.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that its unfair we as the people do not have a say with our foods and how the government makes all this money off of us. Do they eat the same foods we eat? If so, where does it comes from? I found it weird but true how we spend money on the bigger meals instead of the many little ones because we think its more calories.

Chapter#8-The Ominvore's Dilemma:Is That Food?

Precis

We as humans to need to eat a variety of things unlike herbivores and carnivores but as humans we have made it harder with ourselves with our choices in food. Today we do not know what to eat because we do not what is in our foods which is an omnivore dilemma. We have two different taste preferences sweet and bitter. We do not eat our food in the proper way and we listen to what the media has to say about everything.

Gems

"Food companies make more money if they cn get us to change our eating habits and buy their processed foods. They spend billions to create constant stream of these new foods and then spend billions more to get us to buy them." I always wonder just why spend so much money to break us down as consumers. Killing each other each day. I liked how it said "looking at food that way robs us of one of life's greatest pleasures. We should not only enjoy and appreciate our food, we should enjoy making it and eating it in the company of others."

Thoughts/Questions

After reading i never really thought as food in a way like that like not just what we were eating but how we come about it. Reading about the French and how they ate they ate their food i thought was kind of a "wow" factor or even in other countries but the way we were brought and how we use things as Americans we don't think that far.

Chapter#9-My Fast-Food Meal:Fast Food

Precis

I decided to go to McDoanlds and see the facts behind fast food. While eating my food i found put there was so much corn in all three items that i ate especially my son's "chicken nuggets". Everything took less than 20 minutes:ordering the food, making the food, and eating the food. We don't pay attention where any of this is coming from especially McDonalds.

Gems

I like how it said "after a few bites you forget what you're eating. It's not exactly food, but a kind of food substitue. So you eat moree and eat more quickly, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied, exactly, but simply, regettably, full" i never really thought about it like that when i was reading it but when i think about it now that is how it actually happens.

Thoughts/Questions

Talking about all this fast food and McDonalds makes me not wanna eat any at all just for the simple fact that i don't know what i am eating and what the author said was true that he couldn't taste the burger but the pickles, kecthup, and mustard which i find kind of digusting. It kind of makes my stomach turn and make me think twice should i really eat this food?

Chapter#10-Big Organic:Once Upon A Time

Precis

Even though organic food is "organic" they are also industralized too. Organic food started out in the late 1960's and later became a very big deal. Organic food is not all what it seems, they is alot of processed things. Some organic food processing actually damages the working fields.

Gems

"But it turns out that plowing the land over and over damages the soil almost as much as chemical weed killers do. It kills off the nitrogen into the air. Because of this damage, industrial organic farmers have to add a lot of nitrogen fertilizer to their fields." I thought that was interesting because just cause it organic does not mean it cannot hurt the enivornment no matter what good or bad food is made something bad comes with it. Its kind of contradicting.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that this chapter was good. I feel like have learned more of not only where my food comes from but where people believe "organic" food comes from which comes off as the better healthier food but then again you do not how its made or processed.