P 9: Healthy diet

From Michael Pollan’s article which was named “unhappy meals”. I learned that American people’s eating habits is not regular and healthy enough nowadays. The contemporary food issues are affecting people’s daily life, especially people’s health. The author mentioned that America faced “the most basic questions about what to eat ever got so complicated reveals a great deal about the institutional imperatives of the food industry, nutritional” (2). Then the author mainly talked about the food problems about nutrition which has many unknown common senses we do not understand. Such as, the “French paradox” tell us “a population that eats all sorts of unhealthful is in many ways healthier than we Americans are” (4); not only the citizens but also the nutritionists have trouble discerning qualitative distinctions between foods; people do not realize the composition and the detriment about nutrients in food. Personally, I am interested in the topic which was “pay more, eat less”, I agree with the author who wants to tell us that “the quality may have a bearing on quantity” (16).

On the other hand, the “Angeles and Vegetables” which was written by Dupuis has the opposite point about the problems of people’s healthy diet. He strongly opposed the point, “as history has shown, unless we also want to return to our great-great grandmother’s enema bag, that may not be the best advice” (43) which was mentioned in Pollan’s article. So, Dupuis support to eat everything people want and people do not consider the health and nutrients of the food which means that he prefer to make our dietary choices to solve our personal and national problems rather than make political choices. Personally, I was surprised with Dupuis’s idea which was opposite with Pollan’s point. He used dauntless words and evidence to attack Pollan’s idea; it is so excited to read the evidence which mentioned that people can eat everything to satisfy our stomachs.

Works Cited

Michael Pollan."Unhappy Meals. " New York Times Magazine28 Jan. 2007:ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

Melanie Du Puis, E.. "Angels and Vegetables: A Brief History of Food Advice in America. " Gastronomica7.3 (2007): 34-44. Research Library, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

Eating fruit and vegetables

The fast food is popular all over the world, especially in the USA. When I was first came to America, the restaurants like McDonald, KFC, Danny’s, subway and burger king were developed mostly. Now, I am studying in America, I can also witness how people like the fast food not only in the restaurant but also in the dinning hall. However, the fast food is also bad for our bodies. So, we should eat some vegetables and fruit to keep eating balance every day.

The fruit and vegetable area occupy about 1/6 space in dinning hall; there are more than 20 kinds of them offered there. The reason why the fruit and vegetable area were treated so important is the scientist pointed out that fruit and vegetables can protect against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. As we all know, the fruit and vegetables have many colors, such as, blue/purple, green, white, yellow/orange, and red. A test about fruit and vegetables showed that the phytochemicals and antioxidants in fruit and vegetables are the main factors to protect themselves also give them their colors. Otherwise, “complete the color spectrum every day and not only will you transform your plate into “a box of crayolas” but also you will receive the perfect cocktail of phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and fibre.” (Jones)

What’s more, our body needs several kinds of trace element. Eating several kinds of fruit and vegetables is the most easier and comfortable way to get the supplement. The UK Food Standards Agency site (www.foodstandards.gov.uk) make a good spread of eating fruit and vegetables which highlights the importance of variety—that simply eating five times your usual daily portion of broccoli doesn't count. The frequently asked questions section encouragingly points out that eating healthily can be greatly easy because things like olives, fruit juice, fruit jelly, baked beans, and raisins all count towards the daily quota (although unfortunately potatoes don't). (Jones)

Moreover, I got the information which means that eating fruit and vegetables can regularly prevent smokers from developing the disease of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Southampton researchers made a survey about 150 elder with smoking history who had COPD; there are 116 people who has no COPD but have smoking history. And then the researchers compared the result in two groups with body mass index (BMI), Smokers who ate more than two kinds of fruits and vegetables a day were approximately ½ to develop the disease as the smokers who ate less (Anonymous).

Perhaps it is so difficult to encourage children to eat fruit and vegetables because they do not like the green and fibrous when they were young; it is like an instinct everyone have.  There is a survey in rural China which indicated that the risks of asthma and wheeze in relation to fresh vegetable. With all residents (n = 38109) in three townships in three cities, there are only 218 cases of doctor diagnosed asthma were in 16460 children aged ≤ 14 years (prevalence 1.32%) and 290 in those aged 15-84 years (1.34% prevalence). Overall, 31.5% (160/508) of those with asthma had a history of allergy (Chen, Ruoling, Zhi Hu, and Anthony Seaton). The result pointed that the risk of asthmatic symptoms develops with low fresh vegetable consumption in young Chinese people.

Personally, I prefer eating fruit and vegetables in the morning because it is good for my mental health about vitamins and it can also decrease the depression in the morning. Otherwise, I have some experience about eating fruit. Such as, if you get an astriction, you can eat a banana. If you have a sore throat, you can eat a pear, celery. If you get inflamed, you can eat balsam pear, watermelon or grape, and so on. So, keep eating fruit and vegetables, it is good for our health.

Work Cited

Jones, Giselle. "Eating Fruit and Vegetables." BMJ : British Medical Journal 326.7394 (2003): 888-. Print.

Chen, Ruoling, Zhi Hu, and Anthony Seaton. "Eating More Vegetables might Explain Reduced Asthma Symptoms." BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 328.7452 (2004): 1380-. Print.

Anonymous. "Eating Fruit and Vegetables can Protect Against COPD." Nursing Standard 17.1 (2002): 10. Print.

Thoughts on Eating Practices

Personally, I like eating spicy food no matter what I eat. there are more benefits, such as, it can defend the deficiency of vitamin B2, the vitamin E in soybean sprouts can protect the skin and blood capillary, it also can defend the hypertension. also, spicy is most tasty than any other  tastes.

What's more, I prefer eating with my friends than eating alone because it is a traditional and good way to make a communication with my friends to talk about not only study but also work experience.

Moreover, I prefer to eat wheaten food than others because it is more healthy than any others.

Two interesting posts

Ran's essay talked about eating disorder of local students and international students which indicated that each student has his own schedule about courses. Ran wants to change his situation to get his eating schedule nice.

Zechi's essay talked about skipping breakfast which is bad for our health, and I can realize the importance of the breakfast from the evidence he mentioned. And he wants to have breakfast as soon as possible to get a better health.

P 8 (group 3)

my group members talked about the healthy food about our daily diet.Such as, Joe focused on vitamin C in his favorite drink, Ying took care of the hot milk in the morning, Yupeng talked about that he eat depend on his schedule, and I eat fruit every morning. We all agree with that people should eat everything first or enjoy eating, then consider the healthy problems.

3 days food journal

11/5/2012 Friday

Breakfast 11:00 am --- rice porridge

Lunch 2:00 pm --- pizza (ingredients: flour, cheese, sausage, ketchup, green pepper), hamburger (ingredients: bread, meat pie, lettuce, tomato, cheese), french fries (ingredients: potato, salt), vegetables salad (ingredients: lettuce, celery, tomato, green pepper, broccoli, thousand island sauce), coke and ice cream.

Dinner 6:00 pm--- fried dumpling (ingredients: flour, meat, ginger, shallot), steamed buns (ingredients: flour, meat, oil, ginger), Sichuan noodles (ingredients: noodles, peanut, capsicol, minced meat), beef, kelp.

12/5/2012 Saturday

Lunch 1:00 pm --- apple, pancake (ingredients: egg, flour, strawberry and banana), Soda Water and cake.

Dinner 6:00 pm --- shredded potatoes, coilia ectenes, twice-cooked pork with chilli seasoning, rice and coke.

Night snack 11:30 pm --- chicken wings, pancake, steak, fried shrimp and lemon juice.

13/5/2012 Sunday

Lunch 12:00 pm --- cross bridge rice noodles (ingredients: rice noodle, bean sprout, rape, shrimp, fish ball and chicken)

Dinner 6:30 pm --- braised eggplant (ingredients: eggplant, meat, shallot), toothpick mutton, Maoxuewang (ingredients: duck blood, soybean sprouts, eel, ham, citron, agaric and lettuce.), sauteed cabbage with vinegar sauce (ingredients: cabbage, vinegar, meat), rice, coke.

Vietnamese Rice Paper

            Last weekend, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant with my friends, and we all like summer rolls there. It is made of a thin rice paper and the balanced ingredients, such as, meat, seafood, egg and vegetables. The owner of the restaurant told us that philosophical influences on Vietnamese summer roll which keeps Yin Yang balance. The principle of yin and yang implied that the summer roll is made in a special method which is good for the body.

            The healthy Vietnamese summer roll is packed with a thin rice paper which has a good elasticity and taste. At the beginning, I thought the material outside the ingredients was made by edible gums because the ingredients is packed with the very thin paper do not have any opportunities to go outside. The Vietnamese summer roll likes a whole, and also, the stuff in it is compact together. The reason why the summer roll can keep its appearance and does not change is the material outside is made of rice. The fat and fibre in the rice are the main ingredients for the stretch property. Otherwise, the rice paper is made by manual work in Vietnamese. People make the rice paper step by step, it is safe and healthy.

Following, the production of Vietnamese rice paper would be illustrated. Generally speaking, the edible rice paper is made by three basic ingredients: rice, water and salt. Most of the Vietnamese rice paper products are processed in factories. However, some rice paper products are still keeping the “hand-making” tradition. “She (a hand-making rice paper worker) had been practicing her craft for decades and sitting in the same position for hours, day in and day out hurt, she told me. Such level of culinary craftsmanship comes only from having done something tens of thousands of times.” (Viet World Kitchen). According to my research, hand-making rice papers are much more expensive than rice papers made in factories.

There are five steps to make a piece of hand-making rice paper. First of all, putting raw rice in a container with water and soaking rice for a while. Then, grinding soaked rice in a grinding machine until the mixture becomes rice slurry. Secondly, adding some old butter for a better and strong flavor and mix them. The third step is steaming rice batter into a beautiful semitransparent rice sheet. More importantly, this step is the key step of making rice paper. The thickness, color, elasticity and flavor would be strongly influenced by this step. Specifically, spreading the batter into a thin semitransparent sheet and stretch it a nice round rice sheet. When this step is finished, the rice sheet would be steamed for about half minute. The fourth step is removing the rice sheet and putting it on a cooling rack. Finally, dry the finished rice sheet under sunshine for a whole day (Viet World Kitchen).

Picking a good rice paper is a skillful thing. The one that has chewy texture and slight weight is the best one for making the summer roll or cook other dishes. Size, type, thinness and band are the main elements when people picking rice papers. 8.5 inches’ rice paper is the most suitable size for adding ingredients and rolling up ingredients. The one that is bigger than this size would be too fat to make a perfect shape’s summer roll. Secondly, Vietnamese rice paper could be divided in to 3 categories: all rice, tapioca and rice, as well as all tapioca. The main differences between the three types of rice paper are the thinness and rate of soft. The all rice one is much more thick and hard to become soft when soak it in water. On the contrary, all tapioca type is the thinnest one and it’s easy to be soft by little heat or less time soaking in water. The rice and tapioca one is someone between them. Each of them has their disadvantages and dis advantages in various cuisine makings. The third point is looking for some good brands of Vietnamese rice paper. The Red Rose Brand and Three Ladies Brand are relative good brands of rice paper products (Viet World Kitchen).

           Vietnamese rice paper should be stored in zipped plastic bags in order to avoid water vapor into the bag and make the rice papers humid and tasteless.

           Personally, the reason why I like the Vietnamese summer roll, especially the rice paper is that the main and unique wheaten food in my city is “Jianbing” which is very similar with rice paper. It is made of millet flour, and also, the tool to make “Jianbing” is the same to make rice paper. In my city, people usually put the delicious dishes on it and roll up the pancake to eat.

            About twenty years ago, there must be a set of tool to make “Jianbing” in each family because the main wheaten food can give people more energy than other wheaten food like steamed bun and rice. Nowadays, “Jianbing” still is people’s important wheaten food, but the new “Jianbing” which is made by machine cannot give people the nature feeling. It is taste not as good as it made by manual work. For me, I miss “Jianbing” which is made by my grandma very much because she keeps the tool for about forty years and she understands how to make “Jianbing” taste good and perfect. Otherwise, “Jianbing” as an important wheaten food in my city becomes a culture which stands for the sprite of “Yimeng” which symbolize Shandong province.

            The Vietnamese rice paper in Denver gives me the feeling about my grandma and my hometown. Also, I like it depends on the health and delicious.

Work Cited

Viet World Kitchen. " How Vietnamese Rice Paper is Made." Viet World Kitchen. 2009. Web. 11 May 2012.

Viet World Kitchen. " Vietnamese Rice Paper Buying Tips." Viet World Kitchen. 2009. Web. 11 May 2012.

P7

                                                       Response to the three articles

The article “Fowl Trouble” written by Christopher D. Cook was talking about the industry of chicken and its productions which was ruled by USDA to produce the larger type of chicken and its productions when the chicken was larger than before. And also, the workers in the American’s poultry plants were suffered the disease which was caused by the broiler chicken. Nowadays, depend on the demand of the chicken by people, the workers in the poultries should enhance the efficiency of processing chicken. Especially the worker who in charge of examining the carcasses, in order to finish the assignments fast, they did not care about the tools they used. So, they should fix the scissors and knives, “the workers often lacerate themselves or their neighbors when blades slip off the slimy carcasses.” (14). Therefore, the reason why people do not want to work in the poultry plants is the fact I mentioned above.

In Michael Pollan’s article, he mentioned Peter Singer’s article to correspond to the title“An Animal’s Place” which reflected that people need to respect the relationship with animals and people should eat animals to keep the ecological equilibrium. The author analyzed the circulate by using history about food to prove that “We'd probably eat less of it, too, but maybe when we did eat animals, we'd eat them with the consciousness, ceremony and respect they deserve.” (12)

The article “The introduction to Estabrook’s Tomatoland” talked about the tomatoes by different taste and the appearance in different places. The author did more researches to prove that the reason why tomatoes were not the same is the weather, altitude and soil can lead the tomatoes different. We should compare the appearance and taste about the tomatoes in different places in order to analyze its value and history.

The most interesting point is that we should respect the animals to keep the balance which can give us the benefits we do want.

P6

Eating disorder

“Our National Eating Disorder” written by Pollan pointed out three main problems with the American national eating habit nowadays which displayed the unusual prevalent about excessive apprehension. First, as the author mentioned in this article “this obsession has been recognized as a distinctly American phenomenon at least since the early decades of the 20th century.” (Pollan, 1) It is the main reason why the eating disorder has been occurred in America. Also, the Social Science Research can lead people to avoid one kind of food which will be bad for their health overnight. People just follow the trend about the scientific advice without consideration and analysis. What’s more, Americans are so careful to eat a piece of cheesecake or a chocolate cake because they can also worry about the health problems which can lead to fat disease. I can also find the problems with the food factories, they are expecting a new technology which “can readily re-engineer processed foods to be low-fat or low-carb or high in omega-3's” (Pollan, 3) because of the “eating disorder”. Moreover, as a country with a huge percentage of immigrant populations, America does not have his own food system for all the citizens. So there are always some problems with food system happens nowadays.

I can find that the French looks eating comfortable and disengaged from the article, they have their own eating scale, such as, every food can eat for fun if they enjoy them and they eat alone rarely. Personally, I am an eating freedom person, I also eat less my favorite food because I can always keep the feeling and enjoy it more (Pollan, 4).