AWOF - Final Food Assignment

In the Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan says "Whatever native wisdom we once have possessed about eating has been replaced by confusion and anxiety. Somehow this most elemental of activities-figuring out what to eat-has come to require a remarkable amount of expert help." The main issue in America is that "we as a culture lack a stable food culture like the Italians or French, are obsessed with health, are confused and anxious about food, and therefore easily succumb to various expert-directed food fads." People are overly concerned about how to maintain a healthier lifestyle when in reality; people are abusing their bodies by eating unnecessary foods that may/can lead to an unfortunate death.

In reference to the movie ‘Supersize Me’—a documentary about the industrial fast food restaurant McDonalds, shares fact about how McDonalds could be a danger to your health if it is constantly being eaten. The man behind the documentary, Morgan Spurlock, emphasizes that McDonalds is in fact bad for ones health. He proves this common theory—made by other Americans as well—by setting himself to eat McDonalds every day, for one month to show the great effects McDonalds has on the human body. In the process of showing viewers the cons about industrial fast food restaurants, like McDonalds, Spurlock notices how McDonalds is now trying to make their menu a little more healthier by adding salads and meals that may help one’s diet, though, “at the same time, […] they also masterminded one of their fattest sandwiches to date: the McGriddle. A pancake-wrapped creation […] but can pack as much fat as a Big Mac, and have more sugar than a pack of McDonaldland cookies. In fact, their new premium ranch chicken salad with dressing delivers more calories than a Big Mac and 51 grams of fat, 79% of your daily fat intake. Over the course of my McDiet, I consumed 30 pounds of sugar from their food. That's a pound a day” (Morgan Spurlock – Supersize Me).

Morgan Spurlock also argues how companies like McDonalds will not change their way due to the fact that McDonalds is a growing company—“Their loyalty isn't to you, it's to the stockholders. The bottom line: They're a business, no matter what they say. And by selling you unhealthy food, they make millions. And no company wants to stop doing that. If this ever-growing paradigm is going to shift, it's up to you. But if you decide to keep living this way, go ahead. Over time, you may find yourself getting as sick as I did. And you may wind up [at a emergency room or cemetery]” (Morgan Spurlock – Supersize Me).

In relation to the idea of people being overly obsessed to maintain a healthier lifestyle, a lot of people do believe that the salads at McDonalds or Wendy’s perhaps, will not affect their diet, when little do they know that that meal is jammed-pack with same amount of calories as a regular cheeseburger and fries. Because of the misunderstanding of how effective fast food restaurants could affect ones health, it has been recent that almost every fast food joint has displayed a nutrition facts poster of how much carbs, calories, sodium, etc is contained in one meal. It is important for people to understand the negative effect fast food can have on a person’s body. Although it is important to enjoy eating food, it does not mean to enjoy eating fast food that has a serving size equivalent to three days worth of food.

The argument against McDonalds is relevant to ‘The Meatrix’—a short film that includes different facts about how animals are treated before they are packaged and sold to restaurants across the country. Similar to the movie ‘The Matrix’, ‘The Meatrix’ introduces a farm animal—a pig named Leo—who is informed by a team of animals led by a cow named Moofeus, tries to explain the reality of packaged foods and how the industry could careless how the animals are treated. “Everyday we get closer to an epidemic that must be stopped […] but it is not too late, there is a resistance” (The Meatrix). Moofeus insists that one can prevent industrial factories from killing animals—through abuse and drugs—by informing others about the how animals are treated through pictures, video, articles, documents and by logging on to this website: http://www.themeatrix.com/inside/ . Unfortunately, Americans are ignorant to understand the real issue animal cruelty within the food industry and how it affects the human body, physically, and how it can dramatically change ones lifestyle by slowly changing his/her eating habits to a more healthier-enjoyable way of eating food. A solution to preventing animal cruelty is to possibly become vegan—“a strict vegetarian who consumes no animal food or dairy products ; also : one who abstains from using animal products (as leather)” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vegan).
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Similar to ‘The Meatrix’, a video on www.ChooseVeg.com shows a video on how chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs are treated before being slaughtered in the slaughter houses. The video emphasizes how “Life on the farm isn't what it used to be. The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes portrayed in children's books have been replaced by windowless sheds, tiny crates, wire cages, and other confinement systems integral to what is now known as ‘factory farming’” (www.ChooseVeg.com). It is sad to see how animal abuse is used to tame the animals to become a necessity in society. The abuse of animals in slaughter houses and ‘farms’ relates back to the idea of humans maintaining a healthier lifestyle by explaining to many people who are on their diets that a possible-successful way live a healthy life is to become vegan, or at least vegetarian—to the extent where the person can understand where their food comes from and enjoy it without having to feel guilty of how it was made or how much calories/carbs/sodium/etc. is contained in the product/meal.