In my day to day to life I don't think much about what goes into making my food. After reading Pandora's Lunchbox and watching documentaries like Food Inc. I've come to realize that what I am eating might not be all that it seems. There are tons of additives in the food I eat and some of them like azodicarbonamide are used for making rubber floor mats (Pandora's Lunchbox p. 103). After going through the process of making myself eat "foods that haven't been beaten to death" I understand the difference in eating more pure foods.
On the first day I ate as I normally would and felt satiated throughout the whole day. However with every meal and snack I had I would take a look at the ingredients and be shocked at how many types of sugars, added fats, and oils like (soybean oil) were added to everything I ate. It made me feel that I was eating really unhealthy even though most of what I was eating seemed pretty good in the small portions I was eating it in. I thought back to the scenes in Food Inc. where the family of four eats fast food because it is cheap but not really nutritious, I worried about how if what I was eating would do the same thing to me and I understood why so many people in this country have problems with their diets.
Day two was more of a challenge to try and decide what to eat, many of the things I normally eat had to be avoided but I managed to put together three full meals. These meals didn't fill me as much as a normal day for me but throughout the day I didn't worry about the hidden products in the food. Without the fear of hidden additives I felt better physically and didn't feel as sluggish later in the day. I'm not sure if this is actually from the food or more of a mental game. This reminded me of the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss in which he explains why we love to eat junk food because it is engineered to want to be eaten so even if we don't realize it we can eat a whole bag while not being hungry. This challenge really made think about what I'm putting into my body and to question if the "natural" foods I'm supposed to be eating are really so.
On the first day I ate as I normally would and felt satiated throughout the whole day. However with every meal and snack I had I would take a look at the ingredients and be shocked at how many types of sugars, added fats, and oils like (soybean oil) were added to everything I ate. It made me feel that I was eating really unhealthy even though most of what I was eating seemed pretty good in the small portions I was eating it in. I thought back to the scenes in Food Inc. where the family of four eats fast food because it is cheap but not really nutritious, I worried about how if what I was eating would do the same thing to me and I understood why so many people in this country have problems with their diets.
Day two was more of a challenge to try and decide what to eat, many of the things I normally eat had to be avoided but I managed to put together three full meals. These meals didn't fill me as much as a normal day for me but throughout the day I didn't worry about the hidden products in the food. Without the fear of hidden additives I felt better physically and didn't feel as sluggish later in the day. I'm not sure if this is actually from the food or more of a mental game. This reminded me of the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss in which he explains why we love to eat junk food because it is engineered to want to be eaten so even if we don't realize it we can eat a whole bag while not being hungry. This challenge really made think about what I'm putting into my body and to question if the "natural" foods I'm supposed to be eating are really so.
Monday 9/19
Normal Eating Day Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs Diced Potatoes Orange Juice Apple cinnamon oatmeal Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Pasta Garlic Bread sticks Water Dinner: Chicken Gyro Shrimp Salad w/ parmesan cheese Hummus w/ wheat pita bread Blue Powerade Late Night "Snack:" Pizza with bread sticks and ranch Cheese burger and fires (American cheese) Water |
Tuesday 9/20
Challenge Eating Day Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs Diced potatoes Carrots w/ hummus Water Lunch: Spring mix salad (no dressing) Organic trail mix Water Turkey Sandwich on wheat bread Dinner: Spring mix salad (no dressing) Hummus w/ wheat pita bread Pure Leaf tea |