You are what you eat...

I love the saying “you are what you eat” because if it is true than I am sugary and sweet. Ever since I was young I ate a lot of candy and sweet foods. To this day I probably eat more sugar than the average person. I’ve also always been pretty skinny; but this is not the same for the rest of my family. One of my family members has suffered from being obese most of my life and even had gastric bypass surgery. Although I’ve never had this issue, it was hard to watch someone I cared about struggle constantly with weight. To support them, I would often practice their diet when eating with them, this made me very aware of diet trends and the effects they had. It also made me feel self-conscience about my weight and fear becoming over weight. Although I have a great fear of it, my eating habits have not changed. As a nation it obesity is a problem we face; fast food places everywhere, children becoming more sedentary, and so many other reasons. What should be done about it? Who is responsible? It is important to look at these things both personally and as a community. I know they only way for me to combat becoming obese is to be aware; the same needs to be done as a nation. 


I am recommending an Opposing View Points book. It presents articles that show different aspects of the topic of obesity.


Obesity : Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print.

We are what we eat

Throughout my life, I have never been given much of an ethic about what foods I eat. I've just obtained what drips down through the socialization I've been taking part in throughout my life, which admittedly, isn't much.
I've never had the money to go out and eat socially, I've never been given meals that consist of more than the bare minimum amount of meats my mother can afford in any one given week. What I'm given is all I get and I've been okay with that.
The one thing I've been taught not to do is eat fast food regularly. My father, whom has always been at a distance from my upbringing, doesn't care one way or another - he just wants me to be fed somehow.
Mum has always told me that fast food isn't something I should be eating because its unhealthy, but aside from that, never gave much more reason to it.
As I've been in school, I've often heard people discuss animal cruelty, PETA, and other related matters. They make good paper topics.
Through my surfing of the internets, I've happened upon videos capturing the brutal killing of animals in various situations - raccoons for their fur, chickens for food in large bloody facilities on conveyor belts and hanging from hooks, and the mistreatment thereof in their dying moments.
These videos have usually been brought to my attention simply because someone wanted to shock everyone and cause a riot... or, as the terminology online goes, a "shitstorm."
Nevertheless, there is a message I have taken away from these videos. I've always had a negative attitude towards the rampant American consumerism. I feel that, the more we rely on mass produced products, the less creativity and variation in products we will experience in any given area. Of course, mass production has many benefits - availability being the most undeniable. But when a particular product comes into high demand, animal products specifically, what we see is a holocaust for the animals required to make such a product.
There is a cause and an effect in this situation. The demand being the cause, and lack of regard/respect and mass destruction of said animal being the result.
Because of this phenomenon, I have always seen *buying* something as *endorsing* all that occurs in the process of creating it. What we need to come to grips with is that *products* aren't created by a magical wizard living in big white building with garage doors on it.

=Getting More to the Point=
So how does this reflect the main topic of this blog post?

When we consume an animal or plant that we have paid for - we are supporting the way it was made. And in this way, we are solely responsible for it. We are the funding.
And much like how, in Gary Snyder's poem "Hunting Season," the deer become a conscious and living part of the person who killed it without the hunter knowing, whether we know or do *not* know... we commit the atrocities that are happening behind the scenes to put food in our hands.
What we need to do in order to avoid this is... well, first get a job that pays you enough money for you to afford all organic foods or the ability to raise your own foods. So, until I am out of college and a part of the working America, I'll have to live with the black blood on my hands.
Anyways, the point being that we need to make educated choices when we choose what we pay for... because you might be paying for a service that isn't what you expected it to be.

*end of official blog post*


Now we all know PETA wants the world to stop using animals for ANYTHING and they'll only be happy when the world stops eating chicken eggs, even if it means using misleading propaganda about egg yoke having a soul - but they have collected some rather shocking instances of really cruel things happening.
Now we can all reassure ourselves that most of the time when we buy "real fur" that this isn't happening behind the scenes. And that there aren't a bunch of sick people killing the chickens we eat by the World War II load every day... but the odds that something like *this* is happening behind the scenes is enough to scare me off.

And yes, this was a shocker vid posted on a website that I was browsing, probably for the sake of getting people worked up. Don't watch it unless you don't plan on sleeping tonight.
http://www.peta.org/feat/chinesefurfarms/index.asp


Singer, Peter, and Mason, Jim. The ethics of what we eat / Peter Singer and Jim Mason Text, Melbourne : 2007

You Are What You Consume

Lindsey Crawford

Library 201

26 April 2010

Blog 4

You Are What You Eat

When my siblings and I were kids, my dad would terrorize with the idiom, “You are what you eat.” He would tell us that when he was a kid, he lived on junk food, greasy, salty, fatty, junk food. And because of this he had terrible skin; he had acne. He hated having acne. So. When he turned 16 he went to a dermatologist and got a skin peel--yes, he had the top layer of his skin peeled off! Then, when my brother, sister and I were all on the verge of vomiting, he’d pipe up and say, “Now remember guys, you are what you eat!” That lesson stayed with me. Despite being a sugar addict--I love gummy bears--I have been good about avoiding fast food: I tend to equate it with acne and getting a skin peel--irrational, I know. Anyway, for most of my youth that cliche saying had negative connotations for me, causing me to not give it too much thought; however, later in life, I began to rethink it--I even wrote paper themed around it once, for this agricultural class called plants and society. The thought that I was entertaining was that now a days the old idiom, “You are what you eat,” doesn’t cut it, especially in America. Instead, it should be revised to, “You are what you consume” because let’s face it, we are consumers--and not just when it comes to food either.

The things we eat, the things we buy, the place we live, the jobs we work at, the majors and career paths we pursue, all these choices are interconnected, and they all say something about who we are. The things we consume define us, and food habits are one way of looking at the definition of who we are. For example, someone who eats all organic, also tends to fall into other categories: they work at a non-corporate job, enjoy exercise, practice yoga, likes to go hiking, likes to commune with the outdoors, doesn’t follow fashion trends, bikes, walks or takes public transport to work, reads the newspaper regularly, reads books, especially ones by new ages authors, is democratic, maybe even socialist, doesn’t spend much time watching TV, is community oriented, believes in affirmative action and the list could go on. On the flip side, someone who routinely eats fast food or makes junk food the staple of their diet can also fall into other categories: works at a fast paced, high stress corporate job--hence eating on the go all the time--, watches a lot of TV, doesn’t like to get outside a lot, is a sports fan, isn’t concerned with monoculture techniques, is more on the conservative side of the spectrum, is into mainstream media trends, likes to go out, isn’t community oriented and, I hate to say, probably is overweight or obese. Now of course there are exceptions to every rule and there are reasons behind every food choice or lifestyle choice. People who come from the last quartile in the socioeconomic ladder are going to have less education about nutrition and wellness and be set up on a more unhealthy track than someone at the top who has the time, leisure and education to devote to a more “natural” lifestyle. And are a host of other reasons for choices. I’d also like to say that choices like these are personal, and I don’t wish to make any normative judgements. All I want to point out is that we are what we consume. The image of ourselves is reflected in our food choices. So if you want to take a closer look at your life, eating habits is a good place to start.

To classify myself, I am a semi-organic, home food, eater. I try to eat organic as much as I can, but can only buy what I can afford. I avoid eating fast food. I don’t eat out much at all. I am not a vegetarian, but I only eat meat in one meal per day, usually it is bacon with breakfast--little quirk about me, my favorite breakfast is a BLT. I enjoy cooking and preparing meals for myself. I am not the best cook, so I have routine meals and stand-byes that I make over and over again. Like for breakfast, I have either a BLT, oatmeal with fruit, cheerio with fruit, corn beef hash (before ski days) or a fresh smoothie and rye toast. For lunch, I am a bean wrap girl; I roll up canned pinto beans, shredded cheddar cheese and Frank’s red hot sauce in a flour tortilla. I also like making tuna salad sandwiches for lunch. For dinner, I make veggie and tofu stir-frys, white lasagna, NY strip and baked potato, steamed veggies with brown rice and homemade cheese sauce or lemon pepper chicken is another favorite. So. What does that say about me? Yes, I am guilty of my own stereotype. I walk, bike or take the bus to get around. I love to ski, hike, climb, kayak and play outdoors. I am an avid reader. I don’t watch TV, but I appreciate film. I netflix instead of paying for cable. I don’t have a job yet; I’m in school, but I am currently pursing a double major in history and economics, with the hopes of becoming a journalist specializing in economic theory and economic thought. Yes, I do love economics. I am no socialist. I am a capitalist--with a heart. I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I consider myself to be a fiscal conservative / social democrat, and I vote for whoever, on either side, the best exemplifies my values. I am a product of my family and culture. I am lucky. Both my parents have advanced degrees. I grew up in an upper-middle class household in upstate NY. My mother is an organic freak. My dad likes to golf. I realize that they are the reason for my stereotypical behavior. I’d like to say it again, I am lucky. And I feel despair for all those who grew up without my advantages. I’d like to believe that I have a sense of entitlement, but I do :(. I hate that. I hate that deep down I am a yuppie, a patagucci wanna-be-hippie. But I am what I consume. I cannot escape that.

Wow, I think that was more than I wanted to share. So I’ll stop now.

Pollan, Michael, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. New York : Penguin Press, 2008

You Are What You Eat

While thinking about the phrase "you are what you eat" I recognize it in the way that I think most people in mainstream American culture do--health reflects diet. Diet influences both our physical and mental health. The foods that we take into our bodies can range from being very nutritious to being bad for us. If we maintain a healthy diet, we can benefit from good health, greater strength, and possibly a longer life whereas having an unhealthy diet can lead to poorer mental and physical health. Of course diet is only one aspect of our health and other things such as exercise and genetics play a role in our overall health.

While examining the "you are what you eat" phrase, I thought that it can take on many other meaning besides health reflecting diet, as suggested. One other way that I interpret the saying is cultural, you eat what you know and what is available. I believe that for the most part, people's diets consist of resources that are available to them, at least historically. Many islander and seafaring cultures probably have a lot of fish and seafood in their diets, whereas inland cultures probably hunted more often. based on what was available in the environment, cultures had to adapt to what they had and foods became embedded into the culture, even now after Westernization has occurred and many cultures have other food options available to them. besides culture, food is very telling of an individual. By looking in someone's kitchen you may be able to guess their ethnicity, religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, whether they are a college student, a vegetarian, a health freak, or a single parent of two.

Dolfsma, Wilfred. Consuming Symbolic Goods: Identity and Commitment, Values and Economics. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

I was raised to believe that food is something to be greatful for. I believe my teachings can relate to the cliche "You are what you eat" because food is related to every part of our way of life as native people. I was raised by my father, who is currently 77 years old. He was a fisherman his whole life ,as was my grandfather and his father.My husband, brother and brother-in-law's are all fisherman as well.At one time all Xwlemi (Lummi) men were fisherman.
Growing up I was fed salmon, clams, clam chowder or fritters,elk meat, crab, shrimp.These are the foods my father was raised on. My father has a smokehouse in the backyard to smoke fish for the Winter. The first catch of the season, that my husband, brothers and brother-in-laws get, all go to my father. This is how it is in all the families on my reservation. My Dad then smokes the fish and packages it the "modern way", which we were only able to talk him into about 10 years ago.
It is the same tradition with the first deer or elk caught of the season. A prayer is said for the spirit of the deer, A Hyshque for for all it will provide. Every part of the deer is used from the hide to the heart.The hide is dried and used as regalia.My father dries some of the meat and freezes the rest.
Now my Dad teaches my son and nephews how to do all these things so that the traditions can continue. This is the first season my son is able to pull canoe, he is being taught by his grandfather what kind of diet he must follow throughout the season. He must be pure mind, body and soul. Food has nutritional, spiritual and traditional values in my culture. As much as "You are what you eat" is a cliche, I believe our elders would even be able to relate it to our beliefs.
Being taught these beliefs my whole life it is expected of me and my husband to teach them to our children. Our children have grown up understanding the importance of the food we catch, hunt and eat. We now live in a much more modern world than my father or grandfather, however food will always be a rich tradition


"Lummi (Xwlemi)" Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
Wikimedia Foundation n.d. Web 29.Mar.2010

Blog 3

I have to say that there is a reason I like meat, because I personally don't kill it. Ever since I was a child I have been aware of where meat comes from and what it looked like before it hit the table. Over the years I have been known to refer to myself as a wishful vegetarian. I am not a fan of killing anything really but the taste of a good steak is too hard to pass up. And yes, I order mine rare -- also known as still bleeding. So as you can see I have fixed emotions regarding hunting. I love shooting and go with guy friends but don't think I could turn the gun on a living creature. I killed a pair of raccoons with my car years ago and had to pull over I was so upset.
For some the connection might be stronger. I could understand someone feel proud of the accomplishment -- shooting a moving target is. Hunting can be moral if: it is done humanely, with the intention of using the animal as much as possible, and done legally. There are reasons why the government regulates what can and cannot be hunted. I feel the same standards apply to fishing as well. I do not believe in killing more than is needed.
On page 11 of The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine, where the deer dies of natural causes and the family then makes it a meal. If I had a choice, this would be how the steak got on my plate each and every time.


1. Costa, Margaret, and Luis Verrissimo. The Club Of Angels. 1 ed. New York: New Directions, 2008. Print.
2. Hayes, Ruth. Gluttony. 1 ed. Seattle, WA: Random Motion, 1985. Print.

Blog 3

Lindsey Crawford

Library 201

19 April 2010

Blog Post 3

Last summer I worked as a part time volunteer for the Sierraville Organic Farm. Once a week, for a period of two months, I donated my time and labor and in return I got a basket filled with fresh organic produce from the Sierraville farm, along with fresh foods from other farms that participated in a weekly local farmers’ market. The Sierraville Farm specializes in greens, romaine, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, European mix lettuce and spinach. It also grows radishes and carrots. As a volunteer, my job was to harvest and package the produce. Because the farm is all organic, this labor is back breaking, with everything being done by hand and without the help of any herbicides or pesticides. Despite being tired and sore by the end of each day on the farm, this experience was rewarding, giving me a deeper connection to the food I eat and a respect for the agricultural process.

Obtaining food in the U.S is easy. If I am hungry, say for some lettuce, all I have to do is walk down to the co-op and buy a bag and then go home and eat it. However, before the days of supermarkets, drive-throughs and food processing plants, getting a salad was anything but simple. Working on the farm made this clear for me. I realized just how much I took for granted the convenience and availability of food. While I liked working on the farm, I would not want to devote my life to that kind of work day in and day out. It is so time consuming and physically exhausting. With that said, I definitely enjoyed the food I helped, grow, pick and bag myself. It made me feel accomplished.

I have never hunted; however, I think if I did I would feel the same way about the meat from hunting as I did about the produce from farming: connected. The meat that I eat now comes in a package. It doesn’t resemble the animal it came from at all. When I eat meat, I take for granted all the work that went it to getting it onto my table, along with the life that was sacrificed for my meal. I think if I had to hunt my own meat I would probably eat less of it because of a deeper respect for the animal and the work that went into preparing it. I also think it would be hard for me to kill animals on a regular basis because I love them; I have two cats.

Francis, Charles. Organic Farming: The Ecological System. Madison, WI : American Society of Agronomy : Crop Science Society of America : Soil Science Society of America, 2009.

Guthman, Julie. Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Blog #3 - I don't think so, Hunters.

There are a number of FANTASTIC reasons to harvest your own food, particularly if its green foods. You know. PLANT STUFF!!!
- You get to learn how to grow stuff!
- You can make sure that you aren't ingesting anything unnatural!
- You get to be self-reliant!
- Its probably less expensive in the long run!

Having had parents who like to grow their own foods in the past, I've tried home grown greens first hand and they are definitely better than any frozen foods you might buy in the grocery store. And you don't need to wash them off or anything! Right? Right. Well, you might want to do that just to be safe, but I didn't.
My father was known to grow tons of corn and tomatoes, and my mother loves to grow strawberries. This home grown produce has always been much more flavorful than that at the store, and that's all that honestly counts, right? Right - that thing.

Now, you're probably asking, "Greens? But what about meat and dairy products?" am I right?
Well, there is nothing but downside after downside to producing THOSE goods on your own.
- Animal shit.
- Buying animal food.
- Owning pasture land.
- Getting too attached.
- And let's not forget the animal sex farms we've all been hearing about.
Lets not even open that Pandora's box.

As I mentioned, spending so much time, money, and effort on an animal causes one to naturally become attached to it - as it is the product of your great work. Myself, I would feel pretty hesitant about essentially killing an animal, eating it, and promptly transforming it into shit through my bowels in a matter of hours after having spent MONTHS, maybe even YEARS, raising it.
With such an efficient mass animal genocide killing machine working behind the scenes to easily produce meat and dairy products for us in the grocery store at all times, that has spent decades building the harvest population of various animals for our consumption, why go to so much trouble to achieve the same thing at such a higher cost?

In response to The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine and The Urban Deerslayer... I think that the italicization and bold facing of the fonts on this site is completely dildos.

Okay, now that we’re typing this out in Word for the sake of not looking like a type-face illiterate, 12 year old, YouTube commenting juggalo…

In response to the aforementioned works, I think that both of them are ridiculous and unnecessary considering my previous comment about how harvesting your own live stalk or dairy products is obsolete.

The only reason to hunt, raise, or have sex with animals is for posterity, being an inexplicable and insatiable fetishist, or “quality time” with your family. Let us pray that no one has the audacity to mix any of those together.

[Of course, all of this is true assuming that you’re an urban dwelling middle to upper class American like everyone else in my Library research class.]

[Finding books to share]

Blog #3 - Self Harvested Meats? I don't think so, Tim.

There are a number of FANTASTIC reasons to harvest your own food, particularly if its green foods. You know. PLANT STUFF!!!
- You get to learn how to grow stuff!
- You can make sure that you aren't ingesting anything unnatural!
- You get to be self-reliant!
- Its probably less expensive in the long run!

Having had parents who like to grow their own foods in the past, I've tried home grown greens first hand and they are definitely better than any frozen foods you might buy in the grocery store. And you don't need to wash them off or anything! Right? Right. Well, you might want to do that just to be safe, but I didn't.
My father was known to grow tons of corn and tomatoes, and my mother loves to grow strawberries. This home grown produce has always been much more flavorful than that at the store, and that's all that honestly counts, right? Right. That thing.

Now, you're probably asking, "Greens? But what about meat and dairy products?" am I right?
Well, there is nothing but downside after downside to producing THOSE goods on your own.
- Animal shit.
- Buying animal food.
- Owning pasture land.
- Getting too attached.
- And let's not forget the animal sex farms we've all been hearing about.
Lets not even open that Pandora's box.

As I mentioned, spending so much time, money, and effort on an animal causes one to naturally become attached to it - as it is the product of your great work. Myself, I would feel pretty hesitant about essentially killing an animal, eating it, and promptly transforming it into shit through my bowels in a matter of hours after having spent MONTHS, maybe even YEARS, raising it.
With such an efficient mass animal genocide killing machine working behind the scenes to easily produce meat and dairy products for us in the grocery store at all times, that has spent decades building the harvest population of various animals for our consumption, why go to so much trouble to achieve the same thing at such a higher cost?

In response to The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine and The Urban Deerslayer... I think that the italicization and bold facing of these letters is complete dildos.

Promptly posting and editing.

Blog #2 - Cloven Hoofs?

As stated in my previous blog entry, I've had a pretty mundane experience throughout life in regards to the aspect of my... eating. You know, that whole thing.

As the theme with this entry is "NASTY FOODS YOU'VE EATEN" I would say that the weirdest thing I have ever had the pleasure of consuming would be squid meat.
Probably the most shocking thing about eating this food was the texture, by far. I was eating this just on a whim and wanting to try out something new at a Pow Wow festival celebrating native American culture of the northwest. So, naturally, they had many of the different delicacies that were involved in landlocked tribes *and* sea-going tribes.

Unfortunately, being 12, was told that I wasn't supposed to be in this particular building and was shooed out. So... the squid was the *only* thing I had the opportunity to try out. But it was certainly the most different food I've ever eaten and it wasn't bad at all.
Pretty much tasted however I thought squid would have tasted.

I often find myself at a lack of a good vocabulary for describing the aspects of food one would experience when eating. This is a problem. It should be resolved.

CULTURE DO'S AND DON'TS? We live in America. Truly the only edible taboo that seems to be prevalent here is the dog problem. Nobody eats dogs in America.
I've never eaten dog.

In response to the "Waiter, There's a Cloven Hoof on My Plate" article, what I felt the greatest connection to was the idea of eating a food that reminds you of home. An example used in the article was "Does haggis, the most revered dish of Scotland— a rank assemblage of sheep’s liver, lungs, and heart—make sense to anyone who doesn’t weep at the sound of a bagpipe?"

A food that has always reminded me of my father is a very typical meal, but all the same, one that I have only enjoyed with my old man. A big, juicy, expensive steak, mashed potatoes, ceasar salad, and corn on the cob with a glass of milk or water.
Surely, its a very common choice of foods here in America, but its the regular experience of having eaten it with only one person throughout my entire life that has made it a nostalgic food for me.

McClellan, Marisa. "A round-up of weird food news and stories." SlashFood. March 6th, 2008. Web. April 18th, 2008.

Harvesting Food

I definitely think that harvesting or hunting one’s own food creates a stronger connection to food compared to buying it from the grocery store. I liked the example that someone shared in class where they raised a turkey to make her daughter realize where the meat came from. The connect there was so strong that she thought her daughter would have been so overwhelmed because she bonded with the turkey. I definitely think that it is a good thing to have this connection. It helps us realize what exactly we are eating. Also, harvesting one’s own food can often be healthier than buying processed food from the grocery store.

As I mentioned in my first post, my diet mainly consists of processed food from the grocery store and eating out at restaurant chains. I am taking an environmental science class this quarter and a lot of focus is put on seafood and fishing. Even though we care for many species that are endangered we learned that bluefin tuna which is often used in making sushi is close to extinction. I don’t think that people take the issue of declining fish populations as seriously as other endangered species because we are so disconnected from the ocean and know so little about it. I like to eat fish but I can start making more educated decisions about what I eat. I also believe that it is justifiable to hunt animals because we have hunted throughout our evolutionary history and humans get a lot nutrients from meat. I think that it is important to preserve all species and have laws in place to avoid extinction and over hunting. Technological advances have allowed us to easily over hunt and now that we see the repercussions we have more knowledge to adjust how much we can afford to hunt in order to sustain animal populations. If hunters decide to hunt less is another question.

Rubin, Lawrence C. Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2008. Print.

Sasha Issenberg. The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy. New York: Gotham Books, 2007. Print.

You Eat What?

Lindsey Crawford

Library 201

Food Blog #2

12 March 2010

You Eat What?

Out of all my family members I am the picky eater, always have been. My mother and older brother, Justin, are by far the most food adventurous out of the brood. A few years ago, during a ski trip to Breckenridge, CO, Justin actually ordered and ate Rocky Mountain oysters at this neat Tex-Mex restaurant situated in the village at the base of Keystone. I could not even watch as he did it. He said they didn’t taste that bad, not great, but not bad. My mother, a special education teacher by day, moonlights as an exotic gourmet cook at night. She is forever buying funky cook books at garage sales and thrift stores and using our kitchen to try out the recipes she finds. That last time I was home, during winter break, she cooked, and tried to cajole me into eating, an Indian dish that smelled like a dirty gym locker and looked like vomit, along with an Estonian meal that she refused to tell me the contents of. “Just trust me, you’ll love it,” she said. I didn’t budge. My sister, more reserved than my mother and brother, is still more daring than I. Two years ago we spent Christmas in Montreal. In honor of our favorite holiday movie, A Christmas Story, we went to Chinatown and had dinner at a Sichuan joint, where we ordered duck. Just like in the movie, it came with the head attached. My sister, Emily, brave soul that she is, ate the neck. I nibbled on some of its breast meat, but that was as far as I went. I stuck to my tried and true favorite Chinese dish, beef and broccoli in brown sauce. My dad is like me, a real meat and potatoes kind of eater. However, unlike me, he loves seafood of all kind. Salmon, he tells me, is good for the skin. In sum, while my family is more likely than me to sample the exotic, some may even say gross, food dishes that Alan Richman ate while writing the article “Waiter, There’s a Cloven Hoof on My Plate,” I am capable of grossing my family ate with my own food preferences, bland as they are.

One of my favorite things to eat is sauerkraut, straight from the can. My family thinks this is disgusting. They will all eat sauerkraut cooked, on bratwurst, but none of them will eat it alone and uncooked. They claim it is because of the smell, which Emily and Justin like to say is like rotting garbage. I don’t think it is that bad. The smell, pungent and vinegary, is perfume to my nose. For years, they have not allowed me to eat it out of the can in front of them. One summer day, I can remember them kicking me out of the living room and onto the front porch after I plopped down with an open can of it and fork in hand. “Get out!” My brother yelled. “You are so nasty,” my sister said. “How can you eat it like that?” I shrugged, took a bite, and said, “it just tastes good. I don’t know why I like it so much. I just do. I think it is because I am more of a salty person than a sweet. I also love pickles.

Food preferences, as I said in a prior blog, are shaped by early experiences with food and culture. My dad is a meat and potatoes guy because he grew up in the 50s and 60s, in a family that was the epitome of traditional. That is why he is usually unwilling to take a walk on the food wild side. Meanwhile, my mother’s father, my grandfather, was a chef, and as such made all sorts of different dishes. She gets her love of cooking from him. My siblings and I have had the benefit of growing up with one reserved eater and one experimental one. We are a product of the food choices made at home. Still, our family alone is not the only thing responsible for our food likes and dislikes. Media culture also influences food preferences. My generation especially grew up being shaped and groomed by advertising. We were sold on what was good and what was not by TV commercials, billboards and corporate synergy. Burgers, fries, pasta, cookies, candy, all were all foods pushed on us heavily. Thus, we internalized these messages that the foods we were saturated by in the media, were the ones most accepted as normal, as American.

Food preferences, like nationality, are social constructs. I think animal organs are gross because, for the most part, my culture does. I like meat and potatoes and burgers and fries because my culture does. However, the longer I live in this world and the more I am exposed to, the more I realize the facade. I see that every culture has its own constructs too.

Achenbach, Joel. “Fun Facts about Gross Food.” The Washington Post. 27 March 2007. n. pag. Web. 12 April 2010.

You Ate What?

After reading the article “Waiter, There’s a Cloven Hoof on My Plate” I was reminded of some foods that I have tried that I wish I was reminded of. I have tried balut from the same friend that I mentioned in my last post. The taste itself actually did not taste much different from a typical hard-boiled egg. However, I am very picky when it comes to texture (most food that I do not like to eat is because of it’s texture) and I just felt like I was on fear factor or something when I was trying to eat that egg. It is definitely not soft, how I think that eggs should be. I definitely think that it is psychological because I would probably think nothing of it if I had not had previous experience with eggs. Since I have expectations of what an egg should taste like and that did not fit my expectations, I hard a difficult time eating it.

So I think that there are definitely foods like this that many, if not most Americans would not eat from other cultures vice versa. As mentioned in the video A World of Food last week, the girl from India mentioned that she thought it was disgusting to eat cows because they were sacred for religious reasons. Americans think that it is disgusting that some cultures eat dogs because we keep dogs as pets. Like I said, I think that it is all psychological, depending a lot on experiences in childhood. I always thought that if I had a child I would want to feed them a variety of foods early on so that they would not become picky eaters. I also would not want them to have too much candy or sugary foods because I think that adds to kids’ pickiness with food. I doubt that would happen though since they would get it from their friends.

As I have been saying, I think that it is very psychological. I took a psychology class on conditioning and we learned a little about food aversions. A food aversion is just when you have a bad experience with a food and to the point where you will likely not eat it again or become nauseous if you had to eat it again. Sometimes, it can also generalize to different foods. For example, if you get food poisoning from your favorite restaurant you might not be able to eat anything else from that restaurant or if it was a hamburger that you ate, you might not like hamburgers anymore. If anyone ever took intro psych, you probably learned about the Garcia food aversion studies where the rats developed a food aversion to sweet water after it was poisoned. This happened to me when I ate the grossest food I ever tried, chitlins. I was about 13 years old and I tried them at a friend’s family barbecue. I took one bite and I couldn’t even swallow them, I just spit them in a garbage can. Not only would I never eat them again, but because I associate vinegar with them since I tried them with it, I developed a food aversion to vinegar also. I don’t like to eat anything with vinegar, even food that I liked before that such as salt & vinegar potato chips.

I posted a link to the website for the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. There are some video clips from his past episodes eating some pretty weird foods.

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Travel Channel. Web. April 9, 2010. http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_Foods/ch.Video.index

Culture & Food

My tastes and preferences in food have definitely been shaped by my own family and culture as well as different cultural experiences. Both of my parents are Italian-American so I grew up eating many delicious Italian recipes. However, both of my parents are third generation so I think that a lot of the culture was lost and in turn there were a lot of standard American dishes served in addition to the traditional Italian ones.

As a child, standard American food was the norm for meals. For me, this includes recipes that would be typical throughout many parts of the country, fast-food, or restaurant chains located across the country. These foods were inexpensive and convenient although not the healthiest. Aside from some random occasions, the Italian dishes were reserved for holidays and special events. These feasts would usually be a mixture of Italian and American foods. For example, during Thanksgiving, manicotti would be next to the turkey and pumpkin pie would be served with gelato. As a child I just remember feeling like I was going to starve on these occasions because my family would be cooking all day long because most dishes were made from scratch. Afterwards, I would always be full because of the huge portions that were served.

Even though I loved a lot of the food my family made, there was some that I just could not bring myself to eat. This was more so because I was a picky eater when I was younger rather than not eating it because of cultural or religious reasons described in the video A World of Food, but rather just because I did not like the taste. At the same time, growing up in the Seattle/Tacoma area, I was exposed to a lot of different foods because of my friends as well as restaurants in the area. There are many Asian foods that I enjoy such as pho, dim sum, and sushi. I like to frequent the restaurants in the International District to satisfy my cravings for these foods. I have also tried various African foods through friends. I have had Ethiopian and Moroccan dishes. I thought that these dishes were good, but I definitely think that it is an acquired taste. Also, my best friend is Filipino so I have tried a lot of Filipino food that I really enjoy. During the A World of Food video, I thought that it was funny when one of the Filipino girls was talking about foods she eats that Americans would be disgusted by because she mentioned fish because they typically serve whole including with the fish heads. My friend’s parents tease me by asking “do you eat fish?” because they don’t think Americans would eat a fish with it’s head on. I think it is funny because I do not think that it is disgusting at all and I do not know of anyone that would be that picky. However, the lechon is a different story for me. It is the pig that is served whole. I am a visual eater so I already was not pleased by the way that it looked, but I tried it and I did not care for it either. I thought that the different categories of food eaters described at the beginning of the video was very interesting and I would agree with it. Personally, I think that I would be a level four. I eat meat but I would not eat certain cuts such as tripe and head cheese.

Overall, I am glad to have been able to experience a wide variety of foods just in the area that I grew up in. Hopefully I will travel more in the future to get the chance to try more great food the world has to offer. The first book recommendation sums up many diverse cuisines that have been brought to America by people of different cultures. The second exposes practices that fast food chains have been engaging in; similar to many other books and documentaries (Super Size Me; Food, Inc.) that have came out during the past decade. In my opinion, I think that many people have changed their food habit as a result of the light these sources shed on American fast food practices. At the same time because of food costs it is still difficult for many Americans to make healthier choices.

Denker, Joel. The World on a Plate : A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisines. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2003. Print.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Week 1 Blog

This week's blog post is describing my cultural background in relation to the wonderful world of foods. In this post I will explore where I live, what foods I am most familiar with, where I get them, their price range, and generally how healthy they are among possibly some other related information. If you have a weak stomach, then I would suggest to either turn back now or keep reading and suffer relatively inconsequential rather unnoticeable side effects including but not limited to:

-Spontaneous combustion
-SQUAIDS
and
-Micheal Phelps Syndrome

The video A World of Food presented little new concepts to me although they are concepts that I don't think many people consider.
What the movie really seemed to make the show all about was how different cultures are disgusted by the food practices of other cultures. This is illustrated by how the Hindu people consider cows to be sacred while most Westerners consider the dog to be sacred. Hindus are disgusted by the eating of cows by Westerners and Westerners are disgusted by the many various Asian ethnic groups that eat dogs.
Hindu people likely hold cows in high regard because of how hard cows and other similar animals such as bisen work very hard to support the people who raise them. They carry carts full of supplies, help to ready the earth for the planting of agriculture, and other useful stuff. They're cute, right?
Westerners hold the dog in high regard because they also help with many tasks as well as act as a companion to their owners. The most obvious example of a dog doing work for humans is the sheep dog who directs sheep whom have grown heavy coats of fur as a large group to wherever they are needed. When it comes time to sheer off their fur coats for the production of wool clothing, the dog will direct them to the herdsman who will be waiting. And, after this long days work, lets say this man and his dog retreat to their house where they share a state of relaxation together by the fireplace.
Both groups of people have a good reason to be attached to this particular creature and it is therefore quite understandable that they would be rather resentful of the other culture for eating this animal.

My story starts here - I have lived in America my entire life. I have lived in Washington my entire life. I have lived in the Seattle area my entire life. Seldom have I ever left. This is important because, having lived in these circumstances my entire life, there is a very short list of commonplace foods that I am familiar with eating. In order to deviate from this list of foods one needs to actually SEARCH for new foods via restaurants or, if you are comfortable attempting to cook [as so few Americans truly are], you may purchase a cook book for foreign recipes from around the world.
Having grown up in the United States, it naturally follows that the idea of eating a dog is horrifying.

Personally, I don't know how to cook. I can cook few things, but these few things certainly do not qualify me to make the statement "I know how to cook." That would lead one to assume I'm comfortable in doing so, which I certainly am not.

Growing up, I was familiar with poorly cooked meals consisting of either canned soups and vegetables with an occasional slab of overcooked meat and snacks of toast for dinner. Anyone who has lived in America and attended the public school system knows what sorts of foods I was accustomed with being provided by the school.
My single mother not having enough money to pack us a lunch of nutritious and delicious foods, I was definitely stuck with what the cafeteria had to offer.

So lets start that list, shall we?

-Pizza
-Cheezburgars
-French fries in all their various forms
-Common salads
-Fried Chickenz
-All manner of frozen vegetables
-Loafs of bread
-All variations of toast
-Standard sandwiches
-etc.

Being the frugal person I am, I do not seek to deviate from this list very often. I expect my meals to cost roughly $5 to $10. Any higher is a luxury someone attending college with no job can't quite afford.
I am still subject to the cafeterias located on campus, but does provide a sine variety of foods - even from different ethnic groups. Many different asian dishes are served in the Viking Union.
But for the most part, I haven't explored these various options.

If I were describe my diet simply, I would say that I "adhere to a typically American diet." Diet has a focus on greasy foods with a high carbohydrate count for energy, salad for the sake of easing my conscience in response to the prior, a bowl of fruits and a side of vegetables. Give or take whatever sounds good at the time which might be a slice of pie, bowl of pudding, or a chowder. Finished off by a tall glass of water.

This "American" style diet is often criticized for having such a high focus on the intake of carbohydrates with a degree of ignorance to the greasy or fatty substances that are absorbed as well.
The idea that this is a bad thing is a common misconception. The description of results from this diet is usually put as a "hardening of the arteries" because the greasy intake tends to line the insides of the circulatory system of the human body.
What science fails to realize is that this "hardening of the arteries" has a purpose: reinforcement.



[not finished]

Lindsey Crawford

Library 201

4 April 2010

Food and Culture

When I was little my mother told me scallops were little pieces of chicken without the skin. For years I believed her and ate them every time they were prepared for me, no complaints. Then, around age seven, my older brother told me the truth. One night before dinner he let it slip that “chicken bits,” or so I’d taken to calling them, were not chicken at all; that we were having scallops, a type of fish that came from the sea. That did it for me. Once I knew what they were and where they came from I refused to eat scallops. I rationalized this choice on moral grounds; that because I loved to swim I could not eat any creature whose favorite pastime was the same as mine. From that day on I stopped eating, not just scallops, but all kinds of seafood. In retrospect I realize that I was wrong. The decision to abstain from seafood had nothing to do with my affinity for all things aquatic. Like many Americans, my taste preferences were shaped by early experiences with food and my family. I developed a distaste for seafood because I was lied to about the contents of a favorite food dish by someone that I trusted.

In America there is a huge disconnect between food and its origin because much of it is highly processed and packaged. In consequence, it is hard for young kids to look at a hamburger or donut and easily discern where it came from. Parents also have a tendency to further this confusion. Faced with questions like what is a chicken nugget or what all those hard to pronounce ingredients on the back of a box of twinkies are, parents too often respond by giving oversimplified answers or telling downright lies. Chicken nuggets are breaded chicken breasts cut into smaller pieces. Those long complex words on twinkie packaging are the scientific names for common baking ingredients. These types of responses are anything but clarifying; they are harmful, contributing to poor lifelong eating habits.

As a whole, Americans are unhealthy eaters. According to the surgeon general, more than 60% of Americans are currently either overweight or obese. There are several factors contributing to this alarming statistic, such as genetics and lack of physical activity; however, like many experts, I believe that the obesity epidemic is primarily caused by cultural factors, by Americans relationship with food and eating. Other than lying to me about the ingredients in a few dishes, my parents did a good job of providing me with clear and factual knowledge about the food that we ate. I was fortunate to grow up in a household where proper nutrition was taught and the value of family mealtime was stressed. For many of my friends, this was not the case.

Americans are constantly on the go. We are time obsessed. This fact, coupled with the low cost of fast food and junk food, results in many Americans eating very unhealthy on a daily basis. For many of my friends, dinner came most frequently from a drive through or take out menu and was eaten in front of the TV.

Once eating habits are established there are very hard to unlearn. Trying to learn to like fish is an uphill battle. That is why it is crucial that good habits and a knowledge of nutrition are learned early on, during meal time. Americans need to change there cultural relationship with food. We need to value it differently. All foods are not equal. Portion size matters. Eating should not just be about satisfying hunger but about sharing time with the people that we love.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:

Penguin Group, 2006.

Scholosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Hougton Mifflin Company, 2002.

Food Culture

It seems that common themes came up in the video regarding food and culture. Many people in the video discussed: location, religion, family and social views that help them shape their food culture. Over the past few days I have been watching my eating habits and where my thoughts and feels towards food might have come from. Although I am extremely white, much of my family grew up in Guam or Hawaii; so our food habits tend to come from the Pacific Islands and that culture. For example, rice is extremely popular when my family cooks; we put everything over rice. One of my favorite things for breakfast is rice and soy sauce.

Growing up here in Bellingham also helped shape my ideas on food. With local markets and fresh food stands all over, I place high value on fresh fruits and veggies and I pride myself on knowing how to choose the best ones. In Italy, I was picking up groceries for dinner and went to pick my own basil but the grocer stepped in my path because he was supposed to choose one for me. Because everyone needs to eat, societies have come up with their own set of norms for food; just as they do with laws or terminology.

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