Category Archives: Food in the news

Is Chocolate A Superfood?

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In today’s society, there are many nutritional websites, magazines and television shows that focus on the power on superfoods. Labeled as a superfood by the media, dark chocolate supposedly can produce beneficial health effects such as lowering blood pressure and improving cardiovascular health. Websites, such as The. Dr Oz Show and Women’s Health Magazine, specify that the consumption of chocolate containing 70% or more cacao is great for the body because of the richness in flavonoids. However, I found a discrepancy in the daily serving that is being recommended. The Dr. Oz  Show recommends no more than one ounce of dark chocolate a day, while Women’s Health Magazine recommends no more than seven ounces of dark chocolate a day. There is no affirmative daily recommended serving, which can misinform various audiences. Based on my investigation, the media seems to be putting emphasis on the powers of dark chocolate without providing an accurate daily serving for consumers.

The Harvard Women’s Health Watch mentions that this could be a problem. Many people learn from the media that chocolate is great for a person’s heath but, the entire reports being made by scientists are not being stated. The cocoa ingredient found in chocolate can possibly improve a person’s heart health yet, this finding made by scientists does not encourage people to eat multiple chocolate bars in one sitting. Chocolate has been found to have many calories from milk, sugar and other ingredients that add to the fat content of the snack. Chocolate should not be eaten in mass quantities.

While investigating the truth behind chocolate and its health effects, I found an inconclusive answer. Many scientific studies show contradicting results, some report chocolate is beneficial to cardiovascular health and some studies report that chocolate makes no impact on an individual’s health. However, the media has been taking these findings from these clinical trails and creating biased news, which society absorbs and believes. The Dr. Oz Show and Women’s Health Magazine emphasize this idea.

Oxfam Hunger Banquet

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Last night, I joined my classmates by participating in the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. I had an idea of what it was since I had looked up information about it before the banquet, however I was interested to learn more about it. We were each given a card that gave us a backstory of who we were and informed us of our income level.  I had been given a backstory of someone who was considered to be low-income. The income level determined where we sat and what we ate for the night. Since I was considered to be low income, I was directed to sit on the floor instead of the chairs like those who pic
ked out a card in a medium or high income level. For dinner, my group had been given rice and beans to eat in a paper cup with a spoon, while the group who received the medium income had plain pasta, water, a bread roll, plates and silverware. The few people in the high income group had better silverware and glassware along with better nutritious meal options such as salads, bread rolls, and chicken.

IMG_8598During this banquet, I realized that there was no control over who received what card. It’s the same in real life. You can’t help what you are born into. Those in the lower class had no choice in anything due to circumstances out of their control. This banquet made me realize the amount of difficulty there is simply to acquire food and even then, sometimes it isn’t enough. It made me realize my comfort and the fact that I never had to deal with poverty. Not everyone has that comfort and it has made me appreciate this banquet by bringing to light an issue many of us don’t consider an issue, simply because we aren’t dealing with it ourselves.

Salt Intake in NYC

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The emblem that will soon become common on restaurant menus.

Starting today, New York City has a new rule regarding nutritional warnings in chain restaurants. The article viewed here explained that restaurants “will require a salt-shaker emblem on some sandwiches, salads and other menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams — about a teaspoon — of sodium.” Many people disagree, especially “salt producers and restaurateurs.” I personally find this to be a great idea. I used to consume excessive amounts of salt when I was younger and it was only after I was given the warning that I was going to have to deal with hypertension that I stopped completely and now only take a minimum amount of salt with most of my meals. This idea of an emblem being placed on menus is a great way to let me know what foods I should avoid. However, this rule doesn’t mean that it will be effective to everybody. Majority may choose to ignore the warning label and consume that meal. Regardless, I agree with the article when it states that people do need to be informed. As long as people understand that their intake of salt is excessive, it may lead them to be more cautious about their meal choices.

Manipulation of Our Youth

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I recently came across a New York Times article titled “More Research Suggests Fast-Food Advertising Works on Children” by Dell’Antonia. One of the points made in this article is that when children watch more television and see more fast-food commercials, they are more likely to ask their parents to visit these fast-food chains such as Burger King and McDonald’s. Also, what makes it even worse is that the parents give into their kids and bring them to these fast-food chains. In a study conducted from 2009-2010, researchers found out that 79 percent of child-directed fast-food commercials were broadcasted on television channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney (the intended audience of these channels are pre-school kids and pre-teens). Ninety-nine percent of those commercials were from Burger King and McDonald’s alone. From my own recollection of my childhood, I remember that on a commercial break, at least three fast-food ads were shown on each of these channels. In 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus began the voluntary Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). This initiative asked these fast-food restaurants to take a pledge to only advertise more healthy items to children and to not advertise to children under 6 years old. Sadly, only Burger King promised to not advertise to young kids. In another study, researchers discovered that many children did not remember any of the healthy foods shown in the commercials by these fast-food chains. Also, the researchers discovered that 81 percent of the 99 three to seven-year-olds in the study remembered French fries in a Burger King commercial even though apple slices were shown and French fries were not. As of 2013, Burger King has reduced its advertising to children by 50 percent. Children are easy to influence and it is not right that these fast-food chains are manipulating these weak cognitive minds just to make money. As a country, we should try to figure out a way to protect our youth. If we do not, they will continue to want fast-food more often and many years from now these children will be at a higher risk of obesity.

Here is a link to the entire article:http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/more-research-suggests-fast-food-advertising-works-on-children/

 

Genetically Modified Salmon

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This morning, I had woken up earlier than usual and turned on the television to watch one of those morning talk shows. The talk show I was viewing mentioned that the FDA had approved genetically modified salmon. I decided to look into it further and visited the FDA site online. It was stated that “FDA has approved a new animal drug application concerning AquAdvantage Salmon, a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon.” I also viewed an article in The New York Times to find out more information about it. The article can be viewed here. Andrew Pollack stated that “The officials said the fish would not have to be labeled as being genetically engineered, a policy consistent with its stance on foods made from genetically engineered crops.” Basically, this means that there would be no way of knowing whether you are buying salmon that has grown normally or salmon that has been modified to grow 2x as fast.

I disagree with this whole situation. In my opinion, fish and meat should not be modified. I feel that letting it grow on its own would be much healthier to consume rather than having it grow quicker by altering DNA. There isn’t a good enough excuse for altering DNA and I personally do not feel comfortable eating salmon that is altered in order for it to grow faster. However, a way to make this situation more efficient would be to label whether the item is considered to be a GMO or if it’s GMO-free. Some people could agree with me and choose not to eat genetically modified salmon. Why should I eat a certain food like salmon without knowing whether it was altered or not?

Dumpster Diving and Food Waste in Popular TV Shows

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Recently, we’ve been discussing food wasting and dumpster diving in class. During these discussions, I kept thinking about episodes that I have seen of some of my favorite shows that incorporate either food waste or dumpster diving. There are shows about these topics and documentaries about these very real problems, but I wanted to talk about these problems as seen in popular sitcoms that present the problem in a humorous way. Even though this issue isn’t a laughing matter, I think that it’s great to have television shows that people actually watch showing this very real problem.
In The Office, Steve Carrell plays an incredibly uneducated boss that lives in his own little world. In one episode he gets lost in Scranton, PA (even though that’s where he lives and works) and also doesn’t have any money or a cell phone on him. Starting to get hungry, Michael looks for a way to get food. He stops at a hot dog stand and asks the worker if he can have a hot dog even though he can’t pay. Michael tells the man he will leave his watch with him and will come back later to pay. The man says no and Michael says “what do you do with the hot dogs you don’t sell at the end of the day.” “Throw them out,” the man replies. To add humor to the situation Michael responds with “well then why don’t you throw one out into my mouth.” Of course the man does not go for this and turns Michael away leaving him hungry. Although this is a funny and fake situation, it calls our attention to the problem of food waste. This stand was throwing away perfectly good food at the end of the day instead of giving it to the poor and hungry. Although this a fake stand, I’m positive there are stands in the real world that do the very same thing.
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The next show is Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld (as Jerry), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as Elaine), Jason Alexander (as George) and Michael Richards (as Kramer). In one episode, Elaine gets the idea for a muffin shop that only sells the tops of muffins because the tops are the only parts that people really want to eat. Her idea is stolen and the muffin shop is opened and becomes a hit. After yelling at the man who stole her idea, he lets her become a partner in the business and she tells him he’s making the muffins wrong. He was just making the tops, but Elaine tells him he needs to make the whole muffin and cut the stumps off and throw them away. Kramer is asked to take the bags of perfectly good muffins stumps to a garbage dump. He unsuccessfully tries to throw the muffins stumps away at two different dumps. He gets turned away because what he was throwing away wasn’t garbage, but food. The muffin stumps end up with one of Jerry’s neighbors who eats them all. Again, in this fake situation we see food almost being wasted and thrown away. Of course the stumps do eventually get eaten, but not by someone in need. That food could make a difference if distributed to the right people.
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One short example of dumpster diving is in Parks and Recreation where Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) dumpster dives in order to avoid going back to his job in London. He hides in the dumpster and his wife April (played by Aubrey Plaza) finds him. After encouraging him to go back to work, Andy dumpster dives once more to find his wallet. He also finds noodles and goes to eat them, but April tells him not too. image4
The last example has to do more with dumpster diving then it does food waste, but shows the life of a freegan, a group of people we learned about in class. In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, two of the main characters, Charlie (played by Charlie Day) and Frank (played by Danny DeVito) embrace a life of dumpster diving. In fact they furnish their entire apartment using the dumpster. They find things they need and things they most certainly do not in the dumpster and view it all as treasure. Their apartment becomes insanely cluttered and disgusting and makes for a very funny situation. The episode shows that there are real people that do this and that valuable things can be found in a dumpster, but in this situation not everything you find is valuable. You know what they say, one man’s trash is another mans treasure. image2

Cheese Addiction

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As a child, I remember cheese being my favorite snack. I loved to have a cold string cheese while doing my homework and relaxing after a long day of school. Not only do I eat it as a snack, I sprinkle it on almost all my meals. Now, there seems to be an answer for my preference for cheese. The University of Michigan studied people’s preference for cheese and their findings can be found here.

The University of Michigan termed this addiction as “cheese crack.” The study examined why people have a greater preference to certain foods. Researchers questioned 500 students and found out the favorite food among these students using the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Pizza was the considered the most addictive food because, of the cheese melted on top. The reason behind this result is scientifically based.

The study identified certain foods are addictive due to the way they are created. Highly processed and fatty foods are associated with addictive eating behavior because, as humans, we have an instinct to crave high energy foods at keep us satiated for long periods of time. Cheese has an ingredient called casein, which can be found in all dairy products. This protein releases casomorphins during digestion, which stimulate the dopamine receptors in the brain. When the dopamine receptors are triggered, the addictive behavior to cheese is presented. This article helped explain my desire for cheese and why I put cheese as a topping on most of my foods.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

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One of the most interesting things I’ve seen lately was the documentary,  “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”. It is about the life and work of a sushi chef in Japan. Jiro Ono is the owner and head chef of Sukiyabashi Jiro, one of the highest rated restaurants in the world.

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Jiro Ono in front of his restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro.

The Michelin Guide awarded the restaurant 3 starts. What makes Jiro’s restaurant so unique is that it a very small place, but it sticks to the discipline that it needs to in order to provide the best product to their customers.The dedication to detail and to upholding their standards is inspirational. These sushi chefs spend years of their life and many early mornings working hard to please their teacher, Jiro. Before they create some of the best sushi in the world, they must learn from the man who does it best. The first few months of their apprenticeship is spent cleaning the kitchen and doing everything possible to stay in Jiro’s good graces.

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Daisuke Nakazawa

At four months, you may be allowed to handle fish, or take care of preparation in the kitchen. After about five years, the apprentice moves up to working behind the sushi bar, assisting the other chefs, assuming they have proven their ability. For Daisuke Nakazawa, this process seemed as if it was taking forever. He was set with the task of mastering the preparation of tamagoyaki or, “grilled egg” which is a type of Japanese omelette made by rolling several layers of cooked egg. Occasionally they include shrimp puree or grated yam. Nancy Leson of the The Seattle Times reports that, “under the stern eye of Jiro Ono: months of failure, 200 rejections and, finally, approval.”

Below is a small clip from the documentary that I couldn’t figure out how to embed on to this post.

Youtube:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFP5xD2l3ro

In the documentary we also see Jiro’s oldest son, Yoshikazu, travel to the fish market. This is a process that takes place every day in order to make sure that the ingredients are fresh. When watching this documentary you learn all about the Japanese fish market, as well as the way in which they find the best fish. As they go though the market, they talk to each of their vendors. These are individuals which Jiro has deemed masters in their field. The most impressive thing to me was that the process of buying tuna is set up as an auction. Although I couldn’t understand what they were saying some of the time, it was interesting to hear the men who were in charge call out numbers and write down names as if they were trying to auction off an antique lamp.With the best fish their vendors could find, Jiro makes the night’s menu based off of what was available that morning.

I recommend this documentary because it is interesting to see how one of the best restaurants operates. It is available on Netflix and the running time is 1hr 23min. Do you have what it takes to work for Jiro Ono? I sure don’t.

Shannon Bailey

LCHAD

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This week, I came across an article that talked about an issue I had never heard of which was LCHAD. LCHAD stands for “Long-chain 3-hydroxy acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase” which in simple terms refers to a rare metabolic disorder. There are numerous disorders that affect the way eat, but this disorder is extremely specific. Those who have this disorder have to eat every hour in order to stay healthy and it’s not as simple as grabbing a snack like many of us do when we feel ourselves getting lethargic and sluggish. According to the article, this genetic disorder means that the body of whoever has this disorder is unable to break down certain fatty acids into energy.” They must eat all the time, because of they don’t the article states that the body would start breaking down key muscles in its search for more and more energy. “If we had breakfast and skipped lunch [our body] would use up the energy from breakfast … [to] break down stored fats for energy,” Torti explained. “Owen’s body cannot do that. It breaks down his muscles and can cause problems with kidneys or liver or heart.”

Even after reading this article and looking into the disorder itself, I have a ton questions. What makes Owen’s body and others who have that disorder use up energy so fast? What happens to the fatty acids that cannot be broken down into energy? Is there a cure or anyway to outgrow this? Why is this starting from infancy and can it happen to an adolescent or adult? According to the National Institute of Health, 1 infant in every 62,000 births is born with LCHAD. LCHAD also affects the way food is eaten by toddlers. “From feeding Owen so frequently, he has a lot of oral aversion to eating,” Torti explained to ABC News. “Solid foods is so hard for him right now.”  Another question I had was how does weight play into this since those with this disorder eat extremely often.

I wanted to learn more about this disorder so I decided to look it up on the National Library of Medicine website. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much information about treatment on the site. Instead, the article goes on to say that Owen as well as others will lead fairly normal lives once they figure out their restrictions and limitations, which means that this is something many will deal with for the rest of their lives. The article can be viewed here along with the information from the National Library of Medicine.

YouTube: Funny and Harmful

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Whether or not you’re aware of it, there is a growing entertainment community that many kids and teenagers are influenced by, and that’s YouTube. YouTube isn’t just funny cat videos and videos of people falling anymore. There are real entertainers called “youtubers” that post videos and have strong fan bases. There are many types of youtubers: beauty gurus like Zoella, comedy vloggers like Danisnotonfire, sketch makers like Smosh, and gamers like Pewdiepie. No matter what category these entertainers fall into, they all participate in challenges. Although not always, these challenges often have to do with food. The cinnamon challenge, miracle berry challenge, tin can challenge, and chicken nugget challenge are all examples of how YouTube can influence viewers to do something harmful involving food.

glozellThe Cinnamon Challenge entails pouring cinnamon on a spoon and swallowing it. Seems simple right? Not quite. The cinnamon dries out your mouth making it incredibly difficult to swallow. Coughing, gagging, and vomiting can result. In worse cases the cinnamon is inhaled leading to throat irritation and breathing difficulties that could result in damage to the lung. Sure it’s funny to watch, especially GloZell doing it (pictured right), but kids and teenagers started doing it all because of YouTube. The American Poison Control has received over 100 calls because of this challenge.

 

Miracle Berry Challenge is a fairly new challenge to YouTube. This challenge is quiteberry interesting and it’s obvious why people want to try it. Eating this “miracle berry” can switch your taste buds so that things that you might normally find disgusting taste amazing and vice versa. Phil Lester and Tyler Oakley did just that and showed how strange the berry’s effects really are. We briefly discussed this fruit in a psychology class, but the reading from our textbook certainly makes me want to stay away from it. The author, Logue, says that miraculin, the substance that causes this taste changing effect, is something that she wants to stay away from because it could have heavy consequences. After further research on the berry it seems that the effects are unknown and that further scientific research has to be done.

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Joe Sugg (thatcherjoe) and Alfie Deyes (Pointlessblog)

The Tin Can Challenge is like a lottery, except you don’t win anything that great. The point is to buy a bunch of canned foods and take the labels off, so you don’t know what they are. Then put numbers on the bottoms of the cans and put the same numbers on pieces of paper. Put the papers into a bowl and whatever number you pick you have to eat the corresponding can. Some of these cans have delicious foods and others have extremely disgusting foods. It’s the luck of the draw. Many teenagers are doing this challenge with their friends. I’m not afraid to say that I was one of those teenagers. It is an extremely funny game, but I can attest that you will feel very sick after.

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Tyler Oakley attempting the Chicken Nugget Challenge

The Chicken Nugget Challenge is the worst of the challenges in my opinion. For this challenge you are to attempt to eat 50 chicken nuggets in 20 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. It doesn’t take a nutritionist to tell you that you shouldn’t eat 50 chicken nuggets in one sitting. My friends also attempted this challenge, but I fortunately sat out for this one. I did watch them do it, however. After discovering that this one challenge would make them consume 2,000-3,000 calories, depending on how many they finish and whether or not they use sauce, I was quite concerned. This means that they could eat more calories in one sitting than they are supposed to in a whole day! The fact that kids and teenagers are influenced to do this is extremely unhealthy!

Clearly we see a modern case of monkey see monkey do. We imitate the people we admire and in many kids and teenagers cases, these people are youtubers. I am a huge fan of some of the youtubers named above and think they are incredibly talented and entertaining. However, I would caution viewers to be aware of the harmful effects of these challenges.