Prepare A Meal

The first chapter in In Defense of Food try’s to make consumers think about the food one chooses when they look to buy a meal. Does one make a point of buying low-fat, low-cholesterol or high fiber foods? If so, do you look at the ingredient list to see how this is achieved? Do you think it's better for you to eat these more "nutritious" foods than the original versions? If you do look at the ingredient list, do you avoid those with the huge ingredient list of substitutes and just go for the originals? These are just a few questions that make consumers think and realize that the meal one is making could be made healthier just by buying a few alternative products.

A meal that I have prepared for myself consists of a appetizer such as a ceaser salad, an entre of chicken breast, and a small desert of like jell-o. The stages of this process would consist of me first going to a grocery store, probably the Madison Market, which is very close to where I live. After going to the store I would find a head of lettuce, ceaser dressing, chicken, seasoning, jell-o mix, and probably some milk to drink also that would end of costing 25 dollars. After taking what I bought back to Witte I would cook in the basement in the kitchen and cook the meal. It would probably take me a while, considering making each part of the meal needs to be taken care of at different times. Each step made my experience more irritating, it took a few hours to buy the food, take it back, and cook it and by that time I did not really even care what I was eating as long as it was food.

I agree with Michael Pollan’s statement that the “damaging innovations” America has become an acquired custom to this country and believe that as long as a food is low fat it is healthy. Though I do agree with Pollan’s statement, it ultimately does not affect how much I eat. Because I am an athlete here and work out up to five hours a day, I am not watching my weight as much as other people and do not worry necessarily about the nutrition of the food I eat but rather the carbs and proteins to help me recover from a workout.

An article I found, http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/guest/article_50282fa5-2d5e-5373-99ec-e1b10aeabe10.html states that Pollan’s book is “simplistic and unscientific”. Pollan’s idea that everyone needs to eat healthier and be more conscious about food is true, but so is people exercising daily and making other lifestyle changes to be healthier.