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MODEL TEMPLATE (EDGY TITLE): You are what you eat and that is big bad news! By Erika Boas and Fiona Wilhelm, with Jeff Wilhelm 1. INTRODUCTION (ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS INTRODUCED) Ok, it’s pretty clear that we are a country with an eating disorder. Here’s the big questions behind this book: What is it we are putting into our bodies when we eat, and what is it doing to us? And further, what can we do about our diets to improve our health and that of our family and friends? (HEADLINES TO SHOW THE CURRENCY OF THE ISSUE) Read the news lately? OBESITY ON THE RISE! Why are Americans getting fatter, especially teenagers? DIABETES IS ON THE INCREASE! Why is Diabetes, and other food related illnesses, on the rise Especially for kids and for some minority groups like Hispanics? SCHOOL LUNCHES ARE BAD FOR KIDS! What are we eating in the cafeteria and why might this be bad news? AMERICA IS THE UNHEALTHIEST COUNTRY ON EARTH! What is it about our so-called “western diet” that makes us so unhealthy and sick? If we are what we eat, what are we? (INTRODUCE SUBQUESTIONS HERE) Why do we eat? How and what do we eat What is actually in our food anyway? What is new about our eating habits and why is this making us and the planet big and bad, mean and unhealthy? And why is that such big, bad news? What are our current food choices and will our thinking change after learning more about food? And what can we do about it anyway? 1 How can we become more informed food consumers? (OFFER SOME POSITIVES AND POSSIBLE ACTIONS – IDEA OF SOCIAL ACTION BOOKS IS TO SHOCK AND AWE, THEN PROVIDE POSITIVE AVENUES FOR ACTION – TO SOBER KIDS UP AND THEN HOPEFUL THEM UP) Read on to find out – there’s lots to learn, and be prepared to be grossed out! You’ll never think about that hamburger the same way again! (EDGY REMARK; THOUGHT PROVOCATION) By the way . . . Some critics say that if a foreign group actually forced our normal diet and processed food on us, that we would consider it an act of terrorism that endangered the future of America! 2. What do we eat? CALORIES: In 1961 Americans consumed an average of 2883 calories per person per day. By several estimates this is an increase of 30% to 3790 calories. (UN Food and agricultural Year book of 2004). The average daily energy intake in the literature averages between 3,600 and 3,800 Calories. The world average is 2,700 Calories per day. At the same time we are exercising less and using fewer calories! The average human being who exercises moderately needs only 2500 calories a day. And researchers widely agree that eating fewer, versus more, calories per day leads to a healthier and longer life. So, why are we eating so much? SUGAR: The average American is consuming about 20 teaspoons of sugar per day (USDA surveys), mostly in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) added to our sodas, cereal, snack foods and even things we think are healthy like Go-Gurts and fruit cocktails! Think about it, that’s 152 cups of sugar a year! The average American drinks well over a thousand sodas a year, adding up to 10 percent of total daily calories. Census data from 2004 revealed that Americans on average drank more 2 than 51 gallons of soft drinks per year – a 53 percent increase from 1980. Holy Sugar Buzz, Batman! Full of sugar, soda adds calories without making a person feel full! What if you just drank water? SALT: The average American consumes three times the recommended daily amount of sodium (salt) in a day (about a teaspoon.) Salt is regularly added to all processed foods as a taste enhancer. And salt has been linked to hypertension and high blood pressure and all kinds of other health problems. BUT IT’S NOT REALLY FOOD! THE MONSTER MASH OF PROCESSED FOODS: But here is the worst. Much, if not most, of what we eat is NOT real food, i.e. it is processed and created by the food industry out of various substances, some of them created largely out of chemicals in food laboratories. In fact, almost all of the taste of processed food comes from chemicals and additives like flavor enhancers. It’s not fully understood what all these chemicals are doing to us, but researchers agree that it can’t be good. Fast food accounts for 34% of the total food consumption for the average U.S. citizen (according to UN Year book for 2007). The average American eats two fast food meals a week with in 4 family meals being eaten in a fast food restaurant per week. Research suggests men eat more fast food than women, with an average 2.4 visits and women averaging 1.7 visits per week. Further, many of these meals are often eaten in the car or on the run rather than sitting down with family and dining on food and savoring the food we eat. WHAT HAPPENED TO REAL FOOD? We eat relatively few real fruits and vegetables that have proven health benefits and have sustained humankind since our beginning. And even these often come from poor soil or soil fertilized and treated with chemicals, transported in shipping containers and stored in warehouses (which lowers the nutritional value and relays the chemicals to our bodies). 3 Experts recommend 4 or 5 servings of vegetables and 4 or 5 servings of fruit a day. Yet the average American is stuck at about 3 vegetables--one of them white potatoes and a measly 1 2/3 fruits. Amazingly, on any given day, half of all Americans eat no fruit at all! SIDEBAR: Quality not quantity? (could be moved to other book) In studies by the Department of Agriculture, the nutritional value of vegetables has been shown to decline each year since the 1950s due to declining soil quality. Nutrient levels of Vitamin C, Riboflavin, iron and calcium have all declined. Michael Pollan in his book, In Defense of Food puts it simply, “you now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as one single 1940’s apple.” Why are the nutrient levels decreasing? As more and more crops have been bred for yield (quantity) and not nutritional quality, overall nutrient levels have steadily decreased. In order to mass produce high quantities of foods, plants are often grown with industrial chemicals. Industrial chemicals cause the plants to grow faster and there is less time for essential nutrients to accumulate in the soil. As these plants grow quicker they develop more shallow root systems and therefore do not retrieve as many soil minerals as deeper rooted organic plants. The faster growth period of these plants also do not allow for the decomposition of biological matter – a process of putting nutrient matter back in the soils. Plants also naturally produce phyto-chemicals as a natural defense mechanism from pests and diseases. These have healthy anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects for humans (this preserves our cells and helps them be repaired and healed). Plants sprayed with synthetic pesticides have been found to produce fewer phyto-chemicals as organic plants. Studies have shown that plants grown with industrial chemicals are nutritiously inferior to those grown organically (without the use of chemicals). Also, our farming practices, particularly the use of chemical fertilizers, is depleting the soil. The less rich the soil, the less nutritious the food grown there. OVERFED AND UNDERNOURISHED: Americans, eating what is known as the “western diet”, are actually getting more calories and less nourishment than ever before! We are eating more and 4 more with less nutritional value. Some researchers say we are in fact ‘fat and malnourished’ at the same time. Alarming Fact: Author Barbara Kingsolver in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, mentions that the current generation of American youth are predicted to be the country’s first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents! WHY? Because of our lifestyles and diets! So, do you want to know the secrets to living a healthier and potentially longer life? Then please read on. This book aims to get you thinking about food, your current food choices and start you thinking on ways that you can take social action to improve your own life, help your family, school and the planet. We encourage you to inform others about what you have learned. 3. THE FREAKY PHENOMENON OF FAST FOOD Why are we eating more? The United States has the highest obesity rates of any industrialised nation. There is one key factor to this – fast food! The more we eat food outside of the home, especially fast food, the more fat we are eating, the more calories we are also consuming and the less fiber we are including in our diet. (Fiber is essential to digestion and fighting cancer and other diseases). In America - portion sizes are bigger than other parts of the world and have steadily increased over the decades. Let’s compare some current portion sizes with decades past… Fast Food and Portion Sizes {Article in the National Geographic magazine (August 2004: Changing Portion Sizes– the graphic on page 59 or something similar would be great in the book! It would be great to have some images here to illustrate the point of how sizes have grown?) } Let’s start with one of America’s favorite on-the-go meals – the hamburger! In the 1950’s, a burger with french fries became America’s most popular meal. In 1954 a Burger King Burger 5 weighed in at 2.8oz and contained 202 calories. In 2004, the burger weighed 4.3oz and 310 calories. An average serving of McDonald’s French fries in 1955 – 2.4oz or 210 calories, in 2004 – 7oz or a whopping 610 calories! Now, a burger with fries would not be the complete meal without a soft drink right? In 1916 the average serving size of a bottle of coco cola was 6.5 fluid oz or 79 calories. In 2004, 16 fluid oz or 194 calories! Now you do the math, what is the percentage increase here? How many calories would this equal for one meal in the day? No wonder we are getting bigger! For those with a sweet tooth – let’s not forget about America’s favorite sweet treat – a chocolate bar. In 1900 the average serving of a Hershey’s chocolate bar was 2 oz or 297 calories. Now if you eat a 7oz or 195gm bar of Hershey’s chocolate in one sitting – think about adding a whole 1000 calories to your daily calorie total! THE STUPIDEST DIET EVER? THE STAGGERING STORY OF SUPER SIZE ME: Morgan Spurlock rose to fame as a filmmaker and television producer with his feature length documentary film ‘Super Size Me’. In this film Spurlock was the star, and he ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days straight! He determined that when ordering, if asked if he wanted to be supersized - he would always say yes. Spurlock wanted to find out what a fast food diet could do to your body. By the end of the 30 days Spurlock’s body fat, weight, and total cholesterol had all increased by alarming amounts. Of most concern was his liver enzyme count. The fat content of his liver increased by 2,000 percent! Doctors were concerned that he was headed to liver failure! He gained 25 pounds in the 30 days (He was superized!) and generally felt tired, depressed, unfocused, absent-minded, uninterested in his girlfriend, friends and normal pursuits, as well as unfit and generally unwell. No wonder! His family doctor exclaimed that ‘you are killing yourself!’ and urged him to quit the experiment after three weeks. It took him nearly a year of very dedicated exercise and dieting to recover his fitness and weight! Is a fast food fix worth it do you think? Check out the DVD – Super Size Me (2004). Check out more on the meat we eat later in the book! 6 Side Story: The McDonald’s Story Did you know that the drive thru actually began with the drive to? The invention of motorcars made it possible for more people to travel. As highways and interstates were built, we began to see convenient eateries and family restaurants being built alongside these roads. Those who were driving long distances would stop along the road and ‘drive to’ their food. Hence the drive thru became a popular and convenient way to eat a meal along the way. To attract the drivers, the eateries used big neon signs. The food restaurants soon changed the style of their architecture – so that the building itself became an advertisement. One famous restaurant (can you guess which one?) became known for their famous golden arches - a familiar symbol that we all recognize today. It has been found that this advertising causes us to stop and eat, even when we are not hungry! And the less money people have, the more they tend to eat fast food, even though eating at home would still be cheaper and much healthier. SIDEBAR: DRIVE AROUND; DON’T DRIVE THROUGH! One suggestion to rein in eating is to alter your route to school or to a friend’s house or even around school so that you don’t pass fast food places or vending machines that provide the suggestion that we should eat. Likewise, don’t have unhealthy snacks in your house, and don’t leave food on the countertop. For most of history mankind has struggled to find enough food, so many researchers think we are programmed to eat it whenever we see it, particularly if it is sweet! Sweet things have many calories, and human beings throughout history have typically been calorie deprived for much of the year. Interesting Facts! 7 The golden arches are now more commonly recognised around the world than the Christian Cross, George Washington, or the flag of America and any other country! Ronald McDonald, the McDonald’s mascot, is second to Santa Claus as the most recognised character by young children. Today, McDonalds is also the largest owner of retail property, spending more on advertising than any other company. Advertising is often pitched at younger children and every month 90% of children aged between 3-9 visit McDonalds. This raises some key questions, like how socially responsible is this kind of advertising and what impact is fast food having on young children as they are lured via toys, toys, toys! Is it OK to advertise fast food to children? Should Advertisers be allowed to lure children to eat fast food with toys? Is it right to build brand loyalty with children who are too young to think for themselves? What do you think? (Fast fact: McDonalds is one of the largest distributors of toys in the country!) Today, more and more McDonald’s franchises are spreading around the world as markets are freed allowing for foreign ownerships and exporting of foreign products to enter local markets. You will find a McDonalds on the island of Tahiti, even though Tahiti is miles away from any cattle ranches or potato fields. Only twenty plus years ago most German cities voted not to allow McDonalds to be built. Now there are over 1000 McDonald’s restaurants in Germany alone and some of them are in historic buildings and medieval city gates! 4. CULTURES OF FOOD Why do we eat in the way we do? Throughout history and even now in other cultures people eat in healthier and more appetizing and pleasurable ways. Eating according to the rules of traditional food cultures will make you healthier. Fast Fact: In many religious traditions, the body is considered the temple of the soul. Religions often have dietary rules or laws to promote good health. For example, the Jewish dietary law 8 against eating pork was to avoid lockjaw, a fatal disease caused by organisms in undercooked pig meat. Eating right has long been a part of being religious and faithful. In New Zealand, food scientist Glenda Allinson notes that in her country people typically eat only foods that are in season and that they cook from scratch, i.e. they typically do not use mixes. In fact in New Zealand, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZDSA) conduct regular stringent tests on the foods and each year survey the population to gauge an idea of changes in diet as well as nutrients levels in certain foods. In many cultures, the people do not eat any dairy. This is the case for many Asian countries where dairy products are not a part of their food culture and a relationship traditionally did not exist between dairy products and diet. Side Fact: Cow’s milk actually did not start out as a nutritious food source for humans. In fact it made them sick until humans spent enough time around cows and our ability to digest the milk and metabolise the lactose, sugar, from cows milk evolved. Lactase, the enzyme required to metabolize lactose come from a gene mutation in the evolutionary process due to man’s exposure to cows and cows’ milk. This gene used to switch off shortly after youngster wean off their mother’s milk. But with the mutation, access to milk – a nutritious food source, was a new evolutionary consequence. Interestingly, many Asian cultures, where milk is not a part of their evolutionary food culture are lactose intolerant as their Lactase enzyme switches off earlier in their lives (after weaning) much akin to Europeans historically. France: The French tend to eat fattier and richer foods than us, like cheeses and foie gras (goose livers). But they eat less of it and they eat more slowly, so they are thinner and healthier. Europeans and many Asians tend to belong to what are known as “Slow food cultures” and to eat in more traditional and local cuisines. Germany: Germans tend to eat together. It is still typical to have long lunch breaks where parents come home from work and kids from school to eat together. Their big meal is at noon when they still have half a day to use the energy. In the evening, the meal is small and usually 9 not cooked. In Germany and many other cultures, eating is a social time for sharing and visiting with family and friends. Americans spend less of their income than any other industrialised nation on food– about a tenth of our disposable income. In comparison, Europeans tend to spend up to 18-20% of their budget on food. Food critic Michael Pollan argues that Americans are cheapskates when it comes to food and that we could easily spend more on better quality food that would actually save us money in health care and other costs. Many people, even in America, have created their own cultures of food. Notable among these are different kinds of vegans and vegetarians, folks who eat no products that come from animals, and folks who do not eat meat. What can we do to eat more wisely, socially, and slowly? Why not plan at least two meals a week at home with family or friends, reduce or eliminate soft drinks from our diets, and reduce consumption of fast food. Why not pay more for higher quality food and eat less of it Purchase more organic produce and free range meats. Drink organic instead of regular milk. Reduce or eliminate in between meal snacks, exercise more by walking places and organize an exercise routine that involves social interaction with others. Side Bar – Interactivity – What the World Eats? http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html Visit the site of Time Magazine Website using the above link to find a Photographic Essay titled ‘What the World Eats’. Take a look at each image that depicts what a family eats in one week and the cost of food for the week for these families, what do you see, think and wonder when you see these images? To Editor/Alternatively: if able to obtain the rights to two of the images, would be fun to do a compare and contrast in the book, eg. Compare and contrast the diet of the western families, 10 with that of Middle Eastern, South American, Asian and African cultures. What similarities/ differences do you notice? These images were taken from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. (refer to appendices for a graphic organiser: See, think, wonder) (Full page story? - Provides a nice cultural contrast to the US): Living a longer life – A Japanese Story On average people from Japan live longer than the citizens from any other country! United Nations Data for 2007 reveals that Japanese women live to an average age of 86.1 years making this the highest average age for females in the world. On average the combined lifespan for men and women is 82.6 years. This is an average of 4.4 years longer than an average American (the United States listed as 38th IN the world). This may not seem like much, but in the scheme of a life time 4.4 years is well over 5% added to your life - years you might want to hold on to! What’s their secret? The Japanese have an extraordinarily low level of cholesterol in their blood. This is a fact which also explains the very low death-rate from heart disease. The Japanese diet includes foods with very low cholesterol content and is practically free from the saturated (“bad”) fats present in red meat, dairy produce and butter. These bad fats are an integral part of our western diet. Instead, the Japanese diet contains lots of seafood rich in polyunsaturated (“good”) fats and the seaweeds Kombu and Nori. These contain high amounts of iodine as well as minerals and micro-elements which are healthy for the human body. The Japanese diet is nutrient rich particularly when compared to ours. If you travel to Japan you will find the oldest people on Earth - The Okinawans! The people on the Japanese island of Okinawa live longer than any other people in the world, even longer than other Japanese. Researchers have been studying the Okinawans for decades 11 and have made some interesting findings about healthy aging, longevity and food. The Okinawans diet contains only 3% meat and a much higher percentage of fruits and vegetables than the Western diet. The Okinawans also are more physically active and eat fewer total calories. On Okinawa, the consumption of sugar and salt constitutes a quarter of the average amount consumed in the rest of Japan. At the same time, Okinawans consume 3 times more vegetables compared with other Japanese, and twice as much fish. Interesting Fact: The people of Okinawa practice a principle they call hara hachi bu: Eat until you are 80 percent full (Pollan, p. 185). What do you think this means? Could you do it? A Quick fact from Fast Food Nation A study of middle-aged men who migrated to the United States from Japan and switched to a western diet showed that they doubled their risk of heart disease and tripled their risk of stroke! (Would be cool to include some sort of table – List by the United Nations (average for the 2005-2010 period – Maybe just highlighting 10 countries or so? see below) Avg M F World average 67.2 65.0 69.5 1 Japan 82.6 79.0 86.1 2 Hong Kong SAR ( 82.2 79.4 85.1 3 Iceland 81.8 80.2 83.3 4 Switzerland 81.7 79.0 84.2 5 Australia 81.2 78.9 83.6 PRC) 12 6 Spain 80.9 77.7 84.2 7 Sweden 80.9 78.7 83.0 8 Israel 80.7 78.5 82.8 9 Macau SAR ( 80.7 78.5 82.8 10 France (metropolitan) 80.7 77.1 84.1 11 Canada 80.7 78.3 82.9 12 Italy (20% above world average) 80.5 77.5 83.5 13 New Zealand 80.2 78.2 82.2 14 Norway 80.2 77.8 82.5 15 Singapore 80.0 78.0 81.9 16 Austria 79.8 76.9 82.6 17 Netherlands 79.8 77.5 81.9 18 Martinique ( 79.5 76.5 82.3 19 Greece 79.5 77.1 81.9 20 Belgium 79.4 76.5 82.3 38 United States 78.2 75.6 80.8 188 Afghanistan 43.8 43.9 43.8 189 Zimbabwe 43.5 44.1 42.6 190 Angola 42.7 41.2 44.3 191 Lesotho 42.6 42.9 42.3 PRC) France) 13 192 Sierra Leone 42.6 41.0 44.1 193 Zambia 42.4 42.1 42.5 194 Mozambique 42.1 41.7 42.4 195 Swaziland (40% below world 39.6 39.8 39.4 average) 14 5. Why do we eat? The obvious answer is that we eat to live, to nourish our bodies. But why then do we eat in non-nourishing and unhealthy ways? We also eat to be social, to participate in and celebrate our culture, for spiritual reasons, to identify the kind of person we are or who we want to be, as well as the groups we belong to. Furthermore we eat in the ways that we grew up eating, or were taught to eat, often without thinking about it. Though historically people were taught to eat by their parents and the larger culture, today, we are often taught how and what to eat by advertisers who are obviously interested in making money for themselves and their stockholders, not on what is best for us. The Allure of advertising: We see it and we want it! Food products count for 26% of all advertisements on television– the majority are for fast food, sweets, and beverages. Advertising and emotional eating often go hand in hand. Advertisers often entice us to buy these foods using clever techniques and tactics. Techniques like catchy jingles, using celebrities to endorse products, brand power and familiar logos, making quality statements and clever sounding scientific claims and statements like impressive sounding mystery ingredients designed to improve your health and wellbeing. The advertisers weave their magic on us by using these tricks of the trade and we often get lured in from a young age! Then we develop unhealthy lifetime habits that we do not question. Fast Fact on Logos – (Note to editor - include some images of logos) Young children will often identify names that go with company logos before they can print their own names! How can this be? Are advertisers too influential? Advertising Investigation: What other techniques can you identify when watching visual or print advertisements about food? How are they manipulating (tricking) you to do what they want you to? 15 How can you make more conscious food choices and informed consumer decisions without being influenced by advertisements? Side Bar – Truth in advertising: Student Vitamin C Experiment Puts Ribena on Trial! Two New Zealand School girls became instant celebrities when a school experiment unearthed some false claims in product advertising. “Ready-to-drink Ribena” (a fruit drink) was labelled as having 7mg of Vitamin C per 100mls. The girls, after testing it, found that it had no Vitamin C content at all – oops! The company also admitted to misleading the public by saying that the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the amount of Vitamin C than in oranges. Now that’s four times as big of a bungle! GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturers of Ribena, were forced to make public apologies; pay a hefty fine and change their product labels after claims were proven false based on some classroom experiments. Now that’s some science experiment! Social Action Ideas: (EMBED SOCIAL ACTION IDEAS, WEBSITES, FURTHER READINGS THROUGHOUT) In health or science class, ask your teacher about researching the food quality of a chosen food, just like the girls did by looking at Vitamin C in Ribena. Can you uncover any exaggerated or misleading claims? By law, American restaurants must post nutritional information about their food in an accessible place. Next time you go to a restaurant ask to see it. In Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock found that the MacDonalds he visited often hid this information or did not provide it at all - in violation of the law. Eating and our Environment Are we doomed to become obese? It concerns many experts how our tastes and eating habits are being trained by advertising and what is most available in our neighbourhoods and schools. 16 Neighborhoods: We tend to eat the food that is most available. Research suggests that teens in lower-income families are exposed to more fast food, junk food and other toxic environmental influences. Low income minority neighborhoods are more likely to have fast food restaurants compared to high income, predominantly white, neighborhoods. Some minority groups see eating fast food as a sign of social status. Schools: The Institute of Medicine, a prestigious organization of research scientists was commissioned by Congress to make recommendations on school menus and youth nutrition. They recommended banning soft drinks and limiting school meals and snacks to fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and entrees with modest amounts of fat, salt and sweeteners. "Schools contribute to life-long dietary patterns and are uniquely positioned (along with parents) to model and reinforce healthful eating behaviors," the study panel concluded. Yet the GAO (Government Accountability Office) found that 99 percent of high schools and 83% of grade schools now have vending machines that sell junk food and soft drinks. In addition, many have added a la carte food lines to sell French fries, doughnuts and other fast food snacks! Let’s get this right? The only institution dedicated to educating us for our future health and happiness is promoting the big business of unhealthy food? What place does unhealthy food and limited choice have in a place supposedly devoted to learning how to be critical thinkers and democratic citizens? Why doesn’t the government, as proposed by Senator Tom Harkin, control the kinds of food sold in schools, and give states a fund to buy fresh fruits and vegetables? Instead, the government subsidizes the lowest quality beef and cheese to be sold to school kids! Congress is also responsible for farm bills -- legislation that Michael Pollan argues should be renamed the "food bill," since it influences the nation's eating habits so much. The farm bill would be the perfect vehicle to put nutritious food back in the schoolhouse and demonstrate that the grown-ups still care about the children. 17 And while the government ignores this problem, why don’t we start doing something about it? (Data from Minnesota Star-Tribune May 13, 2007) Other corporate influences in school: Many schools in the United States are sponsored by large corporations in return for having products sold at school. For example companies like Coke and Pepsi will provide scoreboards, messageboards and other items to school in exchange for free advertising, vending machines on school property, and an exclusive permit to sell their products at the school. How do you feel about this? Should schools be supporting business? Should businesses be able to influence students on school grounds? One superintendent we interviewed said that a soft-drink company paid his school $50,000 a year for selling soft drinks. He estimated that the company earned over $150,000 on top of that! He didn’t like dealing with soft drink companies but he said that school funding was getting so low that he had no choice. He used the money to buy books and even pay a teacher aide. So what is the real cause of the problem? (check against FAST FOOD NATION chapter) Structured Controversy/ Debating Idea/ SWOT analysis: What are the benefits of fast food advertising in schools versus the costs? (See Teachers Guide) (PROVIDE TEACHERS GUIDE IDEAS THROUGHOUT) Where do I stand? Should there be a total ban on fast food advertising targeting young children? How about a ban on advertising and on fast foods and soft drinks in schools? How can we change our environment to promote better health? Many schools are starting up breakfast clubs or have healthy eating days. You can further encourage your teachers to provide healthy food rewards and lobby your principals to get rid of 18 those pesky vending machines! How about starting a school garden or cooking classes where students learn to make their own healthy lunches? Where we can’t change our environment we can always make smarter food choices. Sounds fair right? When do we eat? Food is our fuel! The importance of breakfast What is the most important meal of the day? Breakfast! What is the one meal that most kids skip? Breakfast! Why is it so important? To get you going on your day; keep energy up, and to keep you from binging on unhealthy food when you feel hungry later in the day. Research shows that children who eat breakfast score better on tests, have fewer health issues and behave better in class. This adds fuel to the view that breakfast really is the most important meal in the day. What the educators and physicians say – Eating breakfast improves behavior, reduces tardiness and helps improve academic performance. Children can’t concentrate or perform well if they are hungry! IT’S A BONEBREAKER! Many kids eat sugary treats like Poptarts and even candy early in the day and drink sodas filled with caffeine like Mello Yello or Coke. The problem – some studies suggest teens get most of their calories from sugar instead of nutrients. And caffeine leaches potassium from our bones, making them brittle and more prone to break. This is especially a problem for young women of middle and high school age. Researchers argue that we should eat 6 small meals throughout the day of very healthy food. And no other snacking! If you do eat three meals, one must be breakfast and the biggest meal should be lunch – dinner should be a small meal. Why? Question: What do you do after dinner 19 to burn off the calories? Answer : Probably not too much! So the food is more likely to turn into fat. Eating in the morning, a bit before physical activity, and eating protein (like peanuts, which helps the body to recover from physical stress) immediately after exercise are the best times to eat. Food for thought? Some researchers argue that changes need to come from the person and not the environment. Which is more influential in how you live and the choices you make: what is environmentally available or your individual knowledge and willpower? Write down your thoughts and compare with a friend. (See Teachers Guide on think, pair, share) Social Action Ideas: What are your thoughts for encouraging others to make changes to the way they eat? What ideas do you have for changing eating environments at school, in the community and at home? What ideas to you have to encourage children and teenagers to eat breakfast? How can information about healthy eating best be shared with young people? Start up a project within your school to inform other students of healthier eating options. You might even create a proposal and present it to school administrators. Food log activity: Track what you eat, when you eat? For the period of a week have a go at keeping a food journal. Track what you eat each day, paying particular attention to the calorie consumption and how much nutrition is contained in these foods. Keep track of all your exercise too (Editor: is there an online program that could do this, count calories consumed and burned?) How do you fare? 20 Are you burning the same amount of calories that you consume? Are you consuming too much sugar, salt, fats? Are you getting enough fiber? What are some of the changes that you can make to this diet? Some Suggestions for improving your diet: Eat at home Pack a healthy lunch Decrease your serving sizes Go every other day without dessert, or even every other day without meat As food expert Michael Pollan says: Eat real food (not processed foods – he tells us not to eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize – this would include most candy, twinkies, etc.) – don’t eat too much – eat mostly vegetables and fruits. What do you think of these suggestions? What are some other suggestions that you can think of? More on why we eat We have already looked at how advertising can entice us into eating when we are not hungry and into making unhealthy food choices, but what are some other reasons behind why we choose to eat in the ways that we do? One of the biggest concerns in the western diet is the lack of regular meal times. We seem to always be drinking a soda or eating a snack. Some psychologists think we do this for comfort or to deal with stress. When we eat like this, we tend to also eat in isolation as the snack replaces a family or group meal. Eating becomes asocial and food becomes a quick fix for comfort. 21 Michael Pollan reminds us that ‘Eating is a way of life or a culture’. Are we losing our traditional food culture? Or worse still have we created a new culture centered on a whole bunch of bad habits? All of this over eating of poor foods is certainly causing a range of health concerns, not to mention shortening our lives! But what are these habits and how can we go about breaking them? Can we help ourselves? 6. Bad Habits and How to Break them Bad Habit: The Sugar Fix! Why aren’t we sweet enough? Why do we want sugar? A significant number of teenagers are drinking a large number (often 4-6) of soda drinks per day. With each can containing up to ten teaspoons of sugar – that is a lot of sweetness – 40-60 teaspoons of sugar in a day from the soda alone! The more sugar we consume, the more our body seems to crave. Once our bodies are used to high levels of sugar then when we go without we can suffer from the ‘sugar blues’. The History of Sweets: from the Caveman to You Human beings are historically used to being without sweetness, and our bodies adapted to going through caloric droughts. So we would gorge on sugar when it was available (when fruits were ripe or when the caveman found honey). This is why we can always seem to eat sweets and why we put dessert at the end of a meal – we can always fit it in! By nature and from birth we are predisposed towards sweet flavors as well. Historically, as hunter-gathers, our taste buds were highly important to our survival and operated as an important defence mechanism. Bitter tasting foods would signal danger in nature, that a food could be toxic or poisonous. Foods that were naturally sweet were likely to be good and safe. Coupled with our natural desire for sweets is the concern that our foods keep getting sweeter because we have to overcome our natural tendencies. Soda Companies Cash in on our Sweet Tooths 22 Soda companies cleverly cash in on this desire for us to consume sweet drinks and train our taste buds from an early age. For soft drink companies, soda equals ‘liquid Gold.’ You may be surprised to hear that sales from soda drinks bring in the highest profits at fast food chains. In fact, the actual cost of a soda, including the cup or can, rarely is over ten cents. Restaurants can make a 1000% or more profit on their sodas!!! Breaking the habit: Cut down on the soda intake and drink more milk and water – better for your skin, teeth and bones! Try carrying a water bottle with you. Research says that it takes about three weeks for a new action to become a habit – so stick with it and slowly cut down on the sugar intake! Make a plan, Stan, and make a new habit, Rabbit! Sports Drinks: Worse than Sodas! Sports drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade, supposedly designed to be consumed by athletes, typically contain as much as two-times the sugar (in the form of high fructose corn syrup) of sodas, and more sodium (salt). The implication is that “sports” drinks are healthy, but they are not. It’s a scam! Further, the majority of teens drinking sports drinks are not actually participating in sports! That’s way too much of a bad thing particularly for someone who is not expending energy through exercise! Excessive sodium intake by young people could fuel a surge in high blood pressure – which is a health concern that until recently was typically associated with older age groups. In fact, many health problems of the elderly are now becoming health problems for the young – because of our poor diets! We are making ourselves old before our time! Breaking the habit: Just say NO to sports drinks! Mix juice and water for a healthier way to quench thirst before or after exercise. Side bar - The many sides to Sugar! (IMAGE: I can see a cool graphic of a sugar cube wearing a disguise – glasses, hat etc!) Sugar comes in many different forms and disguises. Here are some to look out for: brown sugar, corn sweetener, dextrose, fructose, glucose, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, 23 raw sugar, sucrose, sugar and syrup, and the worst: high-fructose corn syrup aka HFCS. Look for it on food labels and when you see it: run! There are also many sugar substitutes on the market, such as Aspartame and Splenda, Nutrasweet and so forth (often used by diabetics). These are chemical sweeteners and there has been much debate over whether or not these artificial sweeteners can potentially cause us harm. Breaking the habit: If you are hooked on sweets, some forms of sugar are significantly better for you and can be used as substitutes for processed sugar, e.g. ‘cane sugar’ and ‘agave sweetener’. Cane sugar is natural unprocessed sugar. Agave sweetener comes from the Agave plant, a succulent plant chiefly grown in Mexico but also in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. What can you do? So use cane or agave, or eat fruit juice sweetened treats, or those sweetened by molasses or honey. Limit your intake, e.g., to one cookie after a meal. There are a growing number of products that are being marketed that contain agave, such as Wholemato – an organic and gluten free alternative to regular ketchup. Using agave instead of high fructose corn syrup means the product has a lower glycemic index – making it a healthier alternative not just for people with Diabetes but for all of us. You will learn more about the ingredients in foods as you continue reading this book! (QUOTE) Thoreau: If the good lord had wanted us to drink beer (or soda) he would have made the rivers run with it! Snacking: We seem to be eating all the time, always with a diet coke at our elbow or a snack pack of some kind. Breaking the habit: Limit snack times and limit snacks to fruits or veggies. Carry some carrots or an apple in your backpack for easy snacking. Make new habits for yourself. (SA Activities throughout, as appropriate) SOCIAL ACTION INTERACTIVITY: Compose A BROCHURE, PSA, poster, video ad or children’s book to inform and/or persuade a younger 24 student to eat more wisely. Mention ways that they can be assisted to break the bad habits! (see the Teacher’s Guide) 7. DIET AND DISEASE What is a poor diet doing to our bodies? The diseases in our society that affect us the most and that are the highest causes of death are related to the foods that we eat and our diets. Coronary heart disease is linked to the amount of bad fats and cholesterol in our diet, the lack of nutrients and the high caloric intake. Obesity is shaping up to be one of the greatest health challenges of the 21st century in Western countries. A growing number of teenagers are fighting severe obesity and seeking ways to lose weight that involves surgery (bariatric surgery of adolescents). Side bar: Bariatrics and Bariatric surgery. Bariatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention, and treatment of obesity. The term bariatrics was created around 1965 as a response to the growing rates of obesity. Term comes from the Greek root baro ("weight," as in barometer), suffix -iatr ("treatment," as in pediatrics), and suffix -ic ("pertaining to"). Bariatric surgery, is a form of weight loss surgery and refers to the various surgical procedures performed to treat obesity by modification of the gastrointestinal tract to reduce nutrient intake and/or absorption. There are a number of surgical options available today to treat obesity, each with their advantages and pitfalls. These include lab band surgery and gastric bypass surgery. Research some other surgical solutions to morbid obesity. What are some of the positive preventative measures before someone becomes morbidly obese. Obesity is just the tip of the ice berg. Our diet is also affecting: Our liver function 25 Our cardiovascular health (health of our heart and blood vessels)– clogging these up with cholesterol Our chances of getting diabetes - juvenile diabetes is on the rise (see the interview coming up) Our teeth – all of that sugar is rotting out teeth. Our chances of suffering from depression Our chances of suffering from hypertension, and a number of food-related cancers. Our diet, coupled with a lack of exercise, is making us just plain unhealthy! (Ed: Could have a picture of a human body here with all the places labelled that are affected) Diabetes is just one of the many health concerns that is on the increase in the United States. Childhood diabetes has increased ten fold since 1985 (cf. FLIP). (HAVE ONE OR TWO EXPERT INTERVIEWS PER BOOK) An Expert Speaks; An Interview with Dr. Beth Foster. Dr. Beth Foster is a medical doctor specializing in working with underinsured and at-risk populations. Q. As a doctor, what are your major concerns regarding teen health? That teen diets have become much less nutritious and the amount of teens’ physical activity has gone down – The result of this is poor health and increasing obesity. It’s a problem of too much Energy in vs. too little Energy out – (Ed. maybe use a diagram here of a spigot). So teens are getting fatter and less fit. I am concerned about all the junk foods kids are eating especially for breakfast, about the lack of guidance and understanding about how and why they choose certain foods. We have to educate kids who in turn need to educate their families. I have seen parents put soda in baby 26 bottles or drink soda for breakfast. People drink Big Gulps daily and wonder why their health is so poor. We are extremely ignorant about nutrition and we need to get educated! Q. How have diets changed? Over the last generation our foods have lost lots of micronutrients and taste from overprocessing. Since there is less taste in the food, processors add more salt and fat to make the food more tasty. And what is being added are sodium salts which lead to vascular and cardiac disease – when what we really need are potassium salts to nourish the body which you can only get in fresh foods. Eat real food! Basically, kids are not eating real food. The micronutrients the body needs are in whole grains and in fresh fruit and vegetables. Kids don’t have access to these and they don’t have the habit to eat them. Most Americans eat two servings a day of fresh fruit and vegetables – and we need eight. Just use your hand and count off how many servings you get through the day and make sure it is part of every meal. Up to 30% of kids may get no servings. The short and longterm effects are huge. For example, in athletics and academics, the more micronutrients you eat, the higher your performance will be. Bad food makes you dumb and it makes you less competitive. Q. Why is exercise so important? Let’s think of your cardiovascular system as a pump (the heart) and pipes (blood vessels). Exercise is what keeps the pump healthy and what cleans out the pipes. The Problem of Diabetes In my practice, I am seeing more and more kids getting adult diseases. Diabetes is the major one. Here’s the problem: as you eat and digest food, simple sugars go into the bloodstream but you need a key to get that energy into the cells. That key is insulin. Insulin is produced by your pancreas. Teens who are overweight have more doors than they have keys for and the pancreas can’t keep up with the insulin and you burn out your pancreas. This is typical of obese adults, 27 but now you see it in kids. In fact, this is called Type 2 Diabetes – aka Adult Onset Diabetes. But now it is becoming a teenage epidemic. The good news is that this disease can be put off by a nutritious diet and exercise. Many Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans are especially affected because of genetic predispositions so they have to especially careful. We have to care about diabetes because it rusts the pipes (arteries) that take blood to your cells, your brain, your kidneys, and so you get heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. This causes impotence and amputations in places like toes and feet. Diabetes causes blindness when not enough blood gets to the eyes. Cholesterol also clogs and rusts the pipes even more and makes the pump (heart) work harder causing even more problems. What repairs your pump and pipes and the cells of your body are the micronutrients in fresh food – antioxidants and enzymes are micronutrients that make energy and repair cells. Autopsies done on Vietnam war veterans who were 18 and 19 years old found that they already had heart disease and arteriosclerosis (plugged up arteries). It shocked the medical researchers how early in life these diseases affect us, even when you are in shape like a soldier is. It is clear you have to develop healthy habits at a young age. Q: So what can we do? We need to cook our own food versus eating fast food. We need to do cook at home, then pack leftovers for lunch. We need to eat raw foods. This is very important for proper growth and brain formation. Other Tips from Dr. Foster: For vegetables, steam them lightly or eat raw – Lots of nutrients are volatile and are lost through cooking with grease, high temperature, etc. Learn where to find fresh food in the store and at farmer’s markets. Buy fresh foods locally – they are fresher and taste better. 28 Take fast food and sodas out of school – replace them with healthy sandwiches and juices. Train your taste buds towards low fat, low salt and low sugar. If you just cut down on these for a few weeks you won’t crave them anymore. Make sure you get enough calcium: You build bone mass until you are 24, then you lose it for the rest of your life. So you have to have calcium throughout your life. Drink milk, green leafy vegetables (the darker the green, the more calcium), eat yogurt, If you don’t like milk, drink calcium fortified orange juice. For fast food snacks take yogurts, apples (these travel well), cheese, carrots. Eat half a banana in the morning. When you combine poor diet with a lack of exercise, you have a recipe – for DISASTER! Check CDC website: Obesity and what we can do. Are you constipated (unable to poop)? This is because your gut can’t get the fiber to push your poop through the poop chute! Dr. Foster recommends at least one healthy dump a day. If you don’t do this, you aren’t getting your fiber! What to do: Increase fiber – fiber is needed to prevent colon cancer, to be regular, and it draws cholesterol out of your bloodstream. To achieve this eat brown rice vs. white, brown bread vs. white, oatmeal and high fiber cereals vs. highly processed and sugary cereals. 29 Dr. Beth Foster on Stress and Junk Food Financial Stress from budget problems – for those who are struggling, fast foods are cheap and readily available. If you are working a bunch of jobs, it is fast and convenient – but fast food is a nutritional nightmare just at the time you need real nutrition. Psychological stress – for those suffering from stress in school, work, sports or relationships, they tend to look for calorie-rich foods, they skip real meals and constantly snack, and they tend to skip their exercise. But eating right and getting exercise during stressful times is especially important and can give people a sense of control and even calm. 8. Food Costs: The great misconception There have been suggestions that people resort to junk food because they think it is cheaper than fresh food. But experts including dietitians, fitness buffs and shopping gurus say good food is cheaper in terms of real costs and over the long run - people just need to think smarter about the way they shop and be prepared to spend more time in the kitchen. The key is to think of foods in terms of cost per pound. So, whilst fruit and vegetables cost between $2-5 per pound, chocolate bars and potato chips are between $15-20 per pound! Think of the nutritional value as well as the financial value. People are often fooled by ads for cheap pizzas and other takeaways but home-cooked food is cheaper. Eating good food means people will need to eat less. If you eat food with no nutritional value, your body sucks it all up and wants more straight away. Eating crummy food and eating out are always more costly – both in terms of your physical health as well as the health of your wallet! Side Bar –Whee Wii! Interactive Fitness! When you think about playing video games, you often think that sitting idle in front of a television screen for hours can only be detrimental to your health. But new interactive video games can actually have a positive influence on your health. As long as you keep moving, 30 moving, moving! Interactive video games, like “Dance Dance Revolution” and those available on the Nintendo Wii, aim to get your body moving and burn calories whilst you have fun. Other things you can do: walk or bike instead of driving. Research has found that people who walk or bike places instead of drive are among the healthiest people on the planet. Solutions… for beating obesity, malnutrition and disease Return to Traditional foods and diets…. One solution is to return to the dishes, diet and lifestyle of our ancestors. In the past, more time was spent on the gathering and preparing of food. More energy was spent on preparing the food and creating the actual meal. Buying in bulk and eating seasonally. Shopping in bulk and buying fruit and vegetables that are in season helps to reduce costs. Food clubs and co-ops are great places to buy in bulk. Eat Locally and Seasonally. Foods that are in season taste better and are more nutritious. Many areas have food clubs, co-ops, community supported agriculture, and community gardens that allow you to participate in growing food. Create eating rituals. Get a schedule and routine for eating with your family and at particular times and with particular healthy foods, e.g. always start dinner with a salad. The Problem of Processed Foods (just a bit more here?) Whenever food is processed by separating food and raw ingredients into parts, overcooking it, adding elements to it (check this), the nutritional value goes down. Most foods eaten by teenagers are processed foods Fast facts on processed foods The vast majority of annual corn consumption in the United States is via processed foods. If you eat processed food then your diet and your body is mostly corn! 31 Salt is listed on nutrition panels as sodium. Foods with less than 120mg per 100g are low in salt/sodium, while foods with more than 500mg are high in salt. Avoid salt. 45% of processed corn becomes sugar or high fructose corn sweeteners. This is the keystone ingredient in three-quarters of all processed foods – especially soft drinks! It is bad news: sugar without nutrition. For every calorie of food energy produced through processing, 10 calories of fossil fuel energy is used. This is obviously unsustainable. Questions to explore further: As consumers do we really know what happens to our food when it is processed? What are the ‘hidden’ ingredients that go into growing, processing and transporting our food? How do these ‘hidden ingredients’ have environmental, health or political impacts? Should there be tighter restrictions on the food industry? Check that label! Michael Pollan’s tips: Would your Great-Grand Mother recognise it? Author Michael Pollan says that you should: Avoid food with more than 5 ingredients on the list, Avoid ingredients you don’t recognize, Avoid ingredients that you can’t pronounce, Not eat any foods your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize and be able to make Avoid High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) at all costs! 32 Activity: What is it that I eat? Make a list of the number of ingredients in your favourite processed foods. How many ingredients do you not recognize? Can you not pronounce? Social Action Idea: Research the real story behind a processed food and expose that story to your classmates! Sidebar: The Slow Food Movement In the 1980’s in response to the growing amount of American Fast Food that was feared to be threatening Italy’s traditional food culture, a movement was founded around Slow Food. The main idea behind the slow food movement was to focus people’s attention to the appreciation of food, where it comes from in the relationship between food producers and consumers to ‘cultivate one’s taste’ to enjoy all that food has to offer. For more visit: www.slowfoodusa.org Fast Fact – corn Corn covers some 125, 000 square miles of the American Continent – twice the area of New York State. Large corn fields are visible from Outer space. A very gross and fat case study – The Burger and Hot Dog You may be shocked to hear a little of the history behind the hamburger. Did you know that the Hamburger was historically thought of as the ‘poor man’s food?’ This reputation changed later in the 20th century as the popularity of the burger grew, but what remains is that the hamburger is made from the cheapest cuts of meat and cheap does not always equal good, as you are about to find out! A hot dog is filled with ground up parts of the pig (or other animals like turkeys and chickens) that cannot be sold or eaten any other way. Use your imagination! Bullet points about burgers and hot dogs 33 INTERACTIVITY What’s in a label? Have you ever looked closely at a food label and actually thought about the ingredients and processes that went into making that food? How can you tell? What are the natural ingredients and what are the processed ingredients? The art and skill needed in reading a food label has made this a new literary genre to emerge after World War II. You don’t need a science degree; you just need to look more closely at those labels. It gets easier with practice. After all, don’t you think it is important to know what you are putting into your body? Now you would think that breakfast cereals and cereal bars should be a good source of fiber, low in unhealthy fats and not too high in salt or calories, but a closer look could get you thinking about what you might have for tomorrow’s breakfast! Understanding Nutrition Labels Nutrition panels can be confusing, but if you know how to read them, they’re a useful source of information. Serving Size Sugars Protein This section of the label tells you what Sugars are also listed under Protein is important for proper growth constitutes a serving of a product and Total Carbohydrate, and are and development because it supports your the number of servings contained found in many foods. Starchy body's cells and builds and repairs your within the package. The Serving Size is foods, such as pasta and muscles and other tissues. Common foods usually listed in easily understood potatoes, are rich in complex with good amounts of protein include measurements, such as cups, pieces, or carbohydrates and should be milk, eggs, meat, fish, poultry, cheese, packets, and is then followed by the eaten as a part of a healthy yogurt, nuts, and soybeans. metric amount, which is expressed in diet. grams. Simple sugars, found in most Since many foods that are high in protein are also high in fat and cholesterol, you 34 If you eat more, or less, than the sweets, such as candy and should choose lean cuts of meat and suggested serving size, you will need to cookies, should be eaten only lower-fat cheeses and yogurts whenever adjust all of the nutritional values listed in moderation, because they on the label to match the serving you add calories without adding consumed. other nutrients. possible. Complex carbs = good Simple sugars = bad! Sodium (salt) Include picture of a nutrition label here. Listed as sodium, salt is often used in packaged foods as a flavor enhancer, which means your salt intake can be high without you knowing it. Sodium can be found in small amounts in almost all foods, even drinking water. The highest concentrations of sodium Fats Broken Down Mono-unsaturated (healthier) Found in: Avocados, Olive oil, Almonds, Cashews, Peanuts, Macadamias Polyunsaturated (healthier) Found in: Fish, Margarine, Vegetable oil, Pine nuts, Walnuts, Brazil nuts Omega-3s (healthier) are found in processed meats such as bacon and ham, canned soups and Found in: Tuna, Salmon, Sardines, Other vegetables, and in many frozen foods. oily fish, Pecans, Walnuts, seeds Saturated (less healthy) Found in: Palm oil , Coconut milk, Coconut oil, Animal, products such as meats, poultry and dairy foods Transfats (unhealthy) Found In: Processed foods such as bought 35 pastries and cakes, many fast foods and takeaway meals Fiber Carbohydrates Kilojoules/Calories Wholegrains, fruit and vegetables Whole grains, such as These are listed under energy in the panel. provide your body with the fiber it oatmeal, whole wheat bread, needs, but it can sometimes be difficult and brown rice, are all good to make sure you’re eating enough. choices for carbohydrates Eating high-fiber foods can help. because they are high in To avoid overeating, try to get your calories from foods that satisfy your appetite. fiber, vitamins and minerals. Sugars also make up carbohydrates – see sugars. What about the list of ingredients? All food labels are required to list the product's ingredients in order by weight. The ingredient in the greatest amount is listed first. The ingredient in the least amount is listed last. So, to choose foods low in saturated fat or total fat, limit your use of products that list any fat or oil first - or that list many fat and oil ingredients. Activity: How does it measure up? Apply your knowledge - Now that you have looked closely at a label – have a go at making some comparisons between different food products. Which ones are actually better for you and how will you weigh this up? Try: Compare Cereal Boxes Compare Breakfast bars 36 Compare different types of crackers, biscuits and cookies. Side Bar - Fat or Fiction? They may have a bad reputation, but some fats are actually a nutrient your body needs to function properly– provided you choose the right ones. In fact, your brain cannot function without sheaths of fat. Instead of cutting all fat from your diet, make sure you eat less of the unhealthy fats and more of the healthier varieties. Unhealthy ‘trans fats’ are the ones to avoid but did you know that trans fats are not yet listed on most food labels? This makes them hard to avoid but here is the word up: you can often identify that they are in a food if it lists partially hydrogenated vegetable oil on the ingredients list. Learn the lingo and you’ll be fine! What are my current food choices? Will my thinking change after learning more about food? Let’s read on… EXTRAPOLATIONS: WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN . . . (THIS SHOULD BE A TEMPLATE FEATURE) ETHICAL TOOLS: Changing our thinking to change our behavior (THIS SHOULD BE A TEMPLATE FEATURE) A pig should be a pig: Kant’s Categorical Imperative Michael Pollan’s idea to let a pig be a pig is similar to philosopher Immanuel Kant’s notion of the “categorical imperative” – which could be translated as “the one absolute rule”. His rule was to treat everyone (and everything) as an end in themselves – as something valuable and important and worthy – instead of something that we can make use of. How far do we just make use of animals and plants and other resources instead of thinking about their welfare and future? The Glass Abattoir, or Find out the story and be able to live with it: Make it your business to find out the story behind the food you eat, how it was produced and transported. Michael 37 Pollan says that we all need to know the whole story of our food – e.g. how cows are born, raised, slaughtered, and packaged – and we ought to be able to say we are totally OK with that before we eat that item. He believes that we will change our food eating practices once we are aware of how animals suffer, or of the hidden practises of industrialized farming and processed foods. Transparency: A related idea is “transparency” which means that information is easy to get. For food this means that we know where our food came from, who produced it, the nutritional information about it, whether it is genetically modified, etc. Transparency means we have freedom of information and can make informed decisions about what we eat. Diversity brings vitality: In any social or biological system, diversity always brings vitality. An ethical tool is to always promote difference, multiple perspectives, and the widest variety of ideas or elements into anything we do, like our friendship groups and our diets. Light one candle. Some people think that they can do so little to help the earth that it is not worth doing. Wrong! The fact that you can only do so much makes it all the more important to actually do it. When you walk instead of drive, buy organic and local, and talk to your friends about your choices you are making a difference! If you light one candle and this lights another one and so on, you can eventually light and change the whole earth! You are the only person who can do your part, so you must be the one to do it! Eat more healthy foods Some internet sites promoting nutritional ideas and information about food: www.eatright.org www.eatwellguide.com www.eatwild.com www.fda.gov www.fitday.com 38 www.foodroutes.com www.healthytravelnetwork.corn www.informedeating.org www.nutrition.gov www.permaculture.com www.usda.gov How has my thinking changed? I used to think? Now I think? So you have read about some of the key issues surrounding our food, what’s in our food and what it is actually doing to us. I can imagine that you still have questions and want to learn more. But what are some of the things that you can start to do right now and how can you apply some of the ideas from this book? Walk to the Store Insist on better cafeteria food Get rid of those soda machines! Cut out or down on the fast food. Go for slow Food Cook at home, from scratch Commit to family meals Meal planning/create routines and a family culture of food Tell your friends Plan a social action project – there were introductory ideas contained in this book and make a difference! 39 What else would you put on the list? HOW HAS MY THINKING CHANGED? (TEMPLATE FORMAT FEATURE) Are there things you used to believe that you now believe more strongly? Are there ideas or habits or behaviors (your own or those of others) that you now question or might want to change? What further research or reading might you want to do? What social actions might you undertake? Who might you talk to about these issues and what to do about them? Glossary of Terms Create a glossary of terms used in the book. 40 Bibliography Books Kingsolver, B. (2007), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Harper Collins, New York. Pollan, M. (2007) The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Foods, Penguin, New York. Pollan, M. (2008), In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, The Penguin Press, New York. Rosen, J. & Rippe, D. (2006), The Flip: Turn Your World Around, Hampton Roads Publishing Company Inc, Charlottesville, Virginia. Schlosser, E. (2001), Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the all-American Meal, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Shapiro, M. (2007), Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont. Shiva, V. (2000), Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, South End Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Newspaper Articles Dininny, S. 2007, ‘Almost-organic fruit may fetch premium, Idaho Statesmen, 25 August. Freking, K. 2007, ‘Obesity rates climb across U.S’, Idaho Statesmen, 28 August. High Country News, Hannah Nordhaus, The Silence of the Bees. Retrieved September 10, 2007 at www.hcn.org/silence_of_the_bees/ Hogue, T. 2007, ‘Locavores restrict diet to local foods’, Idaho Statesmen, 24 November. Idaho Statesman, Cynthia Sewell, Collapse of honeybee colonies baffles biologists. Main 4. May 29, 2007 Kaleita, A. 2007, ‘Should consumers buy organic?’, Idaho Statesmen, 25 November. 41 Konz, A. 2008, ‘Kentucky among national leaders in providing meals, The Courier-Journal, 25 February. Lennihan, M. 2007, ‘Rising Food Prices: Higher grain and energy prices push up bills at supermarket checkouts, Idaho Statesmen, 9 October. Mellgren, D. 2008, ‘Norway opening ‘doomsday’ vault to protect seeds from disasters’, Idaho Statesmen, 26 February. Pritchard, J. 2007, ‘Is our food at risk from imports?’, Idaho Statesmen, 25 April. Rosenthal, E. 2008, ‘Illegal seafood is big business in Europe’, Idaho Statesmen, 15 January. Sachs, J. 2007, ‘Give Nature a Rest’, The Press, Christchurch, 30 March. Smith, D. 2007, ‘Death of a great ape’, The Press, Christchurch, 30 March. Stamford, B. 2007, ‘It may be a new diet, not medicine, that’s the cure’, Idaho Statesmen, 13 September. Magazine Articles Manning, R. (2004), ‘The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq’, Harper’s Magazine. Newman, K. (2004). ‘Why are we so fat?’, National Geographic, August. Ode Magazine, Sept 2007 – Sprout Magazine: Treasure Valley’s Sustainable Living Journal, Boise, Idaho Web sites www.eatlocalchallenge.com www.eatright.org www.eatwellguide.com www.eatwild.com 42 www.ediblecommunities.com www.farmtoschool.org www.fda.gov www.fitday.com www.foodroutes.com www.healthytravelnetwork.corn www.informedeating.org www.localharvest.com www.nutrition.gov www.permaculture.com www.sustainabletable.org www.usda.gov 43