HW 6 - Food Diary

This image above was the first meal that I had today.  It is a roll with butter, although it doesn't look like its that much it surprisingly has 250 calories!  For lunch today I had two slices of pizza which were 230 calories each so that comes out to 460 calories at lunch.  For dinner tonight I just had the best meal of my day which was a chicken and cheese burrito which comes out to 485 calories.  In total I had 1,195 calories which was actually below my calorie goal of 2,740.  When eating i really don't think about how many calories are in my food.  I really just eat to get full which I have said before.  But in this situation i guess that even though I wasn't having that many calories I was still feeling full which is good in some ways.  But now that i look at the amount of calories in these foods I think that I might be more carful and pay more attention to the foods that I eat.

The picture above is what I ate for lunch today, a turkey sandwich from subway.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the actual sandwich so I have to use this one.  Since we are supposed to focus on the experience we had while eating the food I did.  I have to say that when you really think about your food while eating it you notice a change in how it actually tastes and how you think its tasting.  While eating I noticed that the turkey tasted a lot more rubbery and fake then i remember.  But the cheese pretty much covered most of the sandwich so I forgot about that taste a few bites in.  In all I did not really enjoy thinking about my food while I was eating it, it just doesn't make the experience as good as I would like it to be.

Tonight for dinner I just ate bagel bites.  I am not really sure if its the healthiest thing in the world but it does taste good.  I do not really feel good about the food that I ate now that I think about it.  When I looked at all the calories and how it tasted it actually made me question if the foods I were eating were actually a good decision or not.  Who knows maybe I should think about changing my eating habits.

HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

The dominant discourses in america in my opinion are who is liked most by the people.  The junk food industry is highly liked by kids and a lot of adults.  In the new york times article "Told to eat its vegetables, america orders fries" by Kim Severson the article says, "The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans".  This is showing that the vegetable industry is working hard to compete with junk food by trying to become junk food.  That shows that junk food is a dominant discourse because if a company is trying to compete with another company by trying to be like it that shows that people like junk food better. 


The topics about food dominant discourses that I feel are most discussed are probably how and where the food is made.  On the news you always hear about different companies ways of processing their food and how they treat their workers.  Just recently mott's apple sauce workers went on a strike because they felt that they were being treated unfairly.  This just shows that even though mott's is a big company they still don't treat their workers fair and pay them fair because they want to stay at the top and try to spend the least amount of money possible and still make a good profit.  Wall mart workers also had a problem with unfair treatment, the website http://www.walmartspeakout.com/speak-out/main says, "I have worked for Wal-mart for almost 5 years now. I work at store 5260 and at one point in time I could say that with pride. The last couple years have been an increasing struggle just to survive with Wal-mart. Aside from getting paid table scraps, and ever rule change that comes every other week. I am at my wits end because of the abuses to myself and fellow employees".  This quote is showing again that to stay on top these companies are paying their workers less and less money then they deserve. 


I feel like in the past two quotes i have used the people writing about them do know what they are talking about.  I feel this because they found out about the quotes and they did all the research to find the person who said the quote.  I am not necessarily saying that they have the best views of the food situation in america but for what they were writing about i feel like they do have a pretty good understanding of that topic.  If they were to talk about another topic then that could be a different case because they might not understand the new topic as well as they did the old one.  I agree with the statement about wall mart workers being underpaid.  I feel like the least they could do is pay the people who keep their business running.  When you under pay workers it creates a huge problem which is not good for business.  If the workers are not happy with their pay they will sometimes strike against their company which slows down business and slows down profit for the company. 

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways

My father and I eat completely different foods since he is a vegetarian.  My father doesn't want any animal to have to die for him to eat.  I don't really think me and my father eat the same meal more then once or twice a month.  My approach to food is if its good i will eat it.  But his approach to food is if an animal had to die he wont eat it.  I do not think that my father influences me on what I eat since we don't eat the same foods.  I do see why my father is a vegetarian and i respect it but I don't want to be a vegetarian because it limits what you can and cant eat.  I would prefer to eat what i want and not have to second guess it.


My mother is way more of an influence on what i eat.  Ever since i was little she was the one making my meals so i kind of got taught what foods to like by her.  Me and my mom still don't eat the same exact foods but we do like some of the same foods.  My mom has always known that i am a picky eater so she usually knows what food to buy for me and how I like it.  When i am eating dinner i will sometimes take brakes while eating and my parents will always say keep eating, keep eating.  I think that they like to eat there food quick unlike me.  I like to eat my food at my own pace and not rush.  When i talked to my mother she said that her eating habits were similar to mine when she was a kid, she said she was a very picky eater like me.  Since she was a picky eater she said that her mother didn't really have an influence on her eating habits.


In the paragraph above I talk about eating my food at my own pace.  I think that this goes back to if food is sacred or not because for me if I eat it at my own pace it means that I want to saver it which in a way means food is sacred.  Because if you want to eat it slow and enjoy it then it obviously means that the food means something to you since you are treasuring the moments that you are eating the food.  But i also think that my parents believe food is sacred because even though they don't eat it as slow as I do, when i throw out food they always get angry.  If they get angry when i throw food out that is showing the food is a big deal and they don't want it to be wasted. 

The picture above is a picture of my refrigerator.  This shows the food ways of my family because if you can see there is all different types of food since we mainly eat different things.  The only thing that we all really eat is the same breakfast.  We have a lot of meals that can be made easy and quick which I like because although I do like to savor my food i do not like waiting for it to be prepared.  The only times I can wait to eat is if I know it is something that I really like being made.

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

When our class went to McDonald's and the farmers market I noticed a lot of similarities and differences.  For one at both McDonald's and the farmers market they both had signs that seemed like they were trying to persuade people into buying their product.  Although the signs said different things they both had the same objective which was to sell their food.  At McDonald's they used signs telling people to buy their new "Frape" which is a new coffee that they have.  At the farmers market their signs were saying that they're food was fresh and organic.  Both of the two places are completely different except for the fact that they want to sell their product.

Some reasons that fast food is so successful is that its cheap.  When we went in i noticed that their were families going in and I feel like the reason that they were in there was that the food was affordable and they didn't mind the taste of the food.  Another reason for the success of fast food is like I said in the paragraph above marketing.  They have marketing that appeals to both kids and adults and if the food tastes good that is all that matters to them.  A big part of their success is also that they have both breakfast and lunch so they have people coming in at all different hours to buy their food.

When we went to the farmers market I really noticed how different their way of advertising was from fast food.  They didn't use corny names like at McDonald's they really just told you straight up what it was you are buying.  Although I do visit fast food places more then I do the farmers market, I still wonder why if people know what their eating is so bad for them why do they continue to eat it?  The farmers market may not be growing their food without any other chemicals but it is still better for you then what is in fast food.  In a way what they are doing is false advertising because even thought their signs say grown fresh, when I asked one of the farmers who had one of those signs he told me his food was grown conventionally.  So in a way it really makes you wonder what food is good for you and what food is bad for you.

HW 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

My main priorities in food are making sure that the food fills me up so I wont be hungry later.  I don't want to eat a food and then 20 minutes later be hungry because it did not fill me up.  I think that these priorities are good because I don't think that anyone wants to eat a food and not get filled up by it.  But it is actually different sometimes you eat just to hold you over not to fill you up.  If you do that though in my opinion there isn't much of a point to eat to hold you over since I eat to get full.

My typical meal to me is chicken, rice and corn.  The reason that this fails to meet the desires of an ideal meal for me is that since I eat it so much I get tired of it and don't want to finish it.  Rather then when i have an ideal meal I want to eat it all since it is so special for me to have it.  Food is sacred in some ways because if you think of it in the way that you are lucky to have the food you eat then it is sacred.  If you think of it in the way that it is an everyday thing then it isn't.  Since I think of food as an everyday thing then it is not sacred for me since I expect to have it.

The aspect of food that is most interesting is probably picking out what food to eat.  It sounds like such an easy thing but when it comes down to it, its actually a hard thing.  When your at a restaurant and have all of these choices in front of you, you don't want just one thing you want all of them.  Even in a grocery store when you are picking out food there are so many different options but you cant choice them all.  It is just interesting for me to see how people pick and choose what they want to eat and how important a good choice of food is for them.  This relates back to if food is sacred or not because if you are really thinking about what you want to eat then that seems like food is sacred for you.