Music used was Yuri!!! On Ice composed by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba.
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Upon walking into an average cafeteria at Michigan State University, you’ll find a multitude of different foods to choose from, ranging from juicy burgers to wood fired pizza to vegetarian chick’n. But, one choice that’s lacking is the option of healthy and nutritious meals. On a daily basis, cafeterias at MSU will have a salad bar, a few fruit options, and maybe a somewhat healthy prepared meal. The other healthy options are the typical fruit trio found throughout campus: apples, oranges, and bananas. MSU dining services should serve a larger variety and higher quality of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as give students better access to healthy food and nutrition facts in order to promote healthier diets.
Every morning for breakfast, I walk into the cafeteria and look to see if the fruit looks half way decent only to find the bananas are either completely bruised or totally green. Is it that surprising that only about 14% of college students meet the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables with the poor quality that’s served at dining halls? The average student doesn’t consume even a single serving of fruits or vegetables in a day. Why would they when the green vegetables are wilting and the fruits are unripe? To help bring better fruits and vegetables to cafeterias, quite a few institutions already have taken some initiatives. Quite a few universities have reduced the amount of processes snack food that they serve in cafeterias in order to better stock their salad bars with more fresh ingredients. Another way that fresh produce is being brought to dining halls is through partnerships with local farmers markets and farms. While MSU has taken a step in the right direction by getting some fruit and vegetables from the Student Organic Farm, they tend to only serve this produce at a few cafeterias: Brody, Snyder/Phillips, and Landon. That’s only 27% of dining halls found at MSU. Not only are the fruits and vegetables lacking, but so is the nutrition value of other food that’s being served in the dining halls. How easy would it be to make alterations in ingredients to increase the nutrition of the meals that are already being served? As an example, just about every cafeteria on MSU’s campus will serve some sort of pasta dish daily. An easy way to make this meal healthier would be to substitute the regular pasta for whole grain noodles or even noodles that are made from vegetables. When making the decision of what to eat, aren’t the nutritional facts of the food a determining factor for most people? A study conducted in 2012 found that 6 of 10 people consider the information on a food’s nutritional label when buying packaged foods and drinks. Another study showed that diners in restaurants that were shown the calorie counts on menus ended up consuming 14% fewer calories than those who weren’t given the information. If these trends are true for the average consumer, wouldn’t this also be true for college students? Institutions such as Cleveland State, Bowling Green, Kent State, and Ohio State have all made it easier for students to know the nutritional value and calorie counts of the foods they eat in campus dining halls. While MSU has nutritional facts online at msutrition.rhs.msu.edu, most universities find that students don’t tend to read them as often if they’re online, but rather if the information is displayed with the food as students are picking out what to eat. The adverse effects of poor nutrition includes stress, fatigue, decrease in the capacity to work, and could contribute to the risk of developing illnesses and other health problems. Given that the average student doesn’t meet the nutrition requirements, even to the point where meals are being skipped, the effects are surely making their rounds on the student body and possibly staff. The solution isn’t surprising; offer more nutritious foods on campus. In terms of nutritional food choices and quality, fresh produce, MSU is certainly lacking. However, there are basic and easy steps to work toward creating a food environment that’s beneficial to students, not only in the amount of options a cafeteria can serve, but also with nutritional and fresh foods. From the loud chatter of venders in farmers markets to the droning music played inside larger supermarkets, the settings between various places where we purchase food differs extremely. Yet, do these differences in environments actually influence what kinds of food are bought there? Only after exploring three distinctive atmospheres created just for the purpose of buying food can this question can be answered.
First, a look inside a large warehouse-shaped convenience store – specifically Meijer. Being born and raised in the town where Meijer was founded, my family has done pretty much all of their shopping there: food, clothes, electronics. You name it, we’ve bought it from Meijer at one point or another. From a social point of view, Meijer is somewhat lacking. Workers seem more invested in doing their jobs than striking up a conversation with customers. The most chatting you’ll do is with a cashier or, if you’re lucky, with a friend who happened to plan a shopping trip at the same time as you; though my mother never thought it was lucky when she ran into friends as she mainly ran to the store last minute with her hair a mess and dressed in a t-shirt with yoga pants. Supermarkets are generally open 24/7, allowing not only for convenience in the wide range of products they stock, but also in the time you can come in and shop. Prices tend to be on cheaper end of the spectrum as they buy in bulk, allowing people across various incomes access to the same products. The space was very open to make room for all the shopping carts and customers roaming the aisles, and products were always well organized with the price being right up front. Compared to Meijer, the small farmer’s market in Okemos was quaint and inviting. Everyone was bundled up in coats due to the chilly weather, and some venders were getting ready to stop selling at farmer’s markets for the season. While the stands were similar to something you’d find in Meijer, with products being stacked on one another and prices being front and center, there was always an area for the customer to walk in and talk one-on-one with the seller. The venders were extremely talkative, hoping you’ll purchase whatever they were selling. I felt like I was asking lots of questions, either because I was being polite by involving myself in the conversation or was just curious how different locally grown products were to the food I normally buy at supermarkets. Once a vender started talking to me, the harder I found it to have to walk away without buying anything from them. I ended up walking away from the Okemos farmer’s market with a lot more food than I had imagined I would buy. The prices were a bit more expensive than those found elsewhere, though I was assuming because they were grown and sold locally. The range of products were small, mostly keeping to pumpkins and apples along with a few merchants who were selling soaps and pastries. Finally, I visited a Whole Foods for the first time ever. Upon walking in, I immediately compared the store to a fancier, albeit smaller, Meijer. There were things I’ve never seen inside a typical food store, such as an ice cream parlor, a coffee shop, a bar, and even a buffet. Unmanned free sample tables were at every corner, and I found myself hitting some of them more than once. Customers were dressed as if they were going to a casual sit down restaurant, nice blouses and dress pants were especially popular. I even saw a woman with a burette strolling down an aisle. The workers were friendly, but I couldn’t see myself approaching them for information very often; they looked willing to help but also like they had other tasks that held their attention. The prices were a tad more expensive than Meijer, but also cheaper than some of the products I had purchased at the farmer’s market. I wasn’t sure why the prices were the way they were, unless being organic made them pricier. When looking at all three of these different archetypes together, what stuck out to me the most was the prices and how the social atmosphere affected my perspective of them. In the article “The Faces of Food Stamps,” people were using their limited amount of food stamps on products from farmer’s markets. I had gotten this mindset that farmer’s markets were being used to combat poverty and starvation, so the higher prices I found were surprising. Why not just shop at Meijer where the prices are lower and there’s a much larger variety of products to choose from, unless the locations of these supermarkets are that big of an inconvenience? Though I can’t deny how much I enjoyed the atmosphere at the farmer’s market. It felt like the normal task of buying food was turned into a social outing, not unlike how Gastropod’s “Outside the Box: The Story of Food Packaging” podcast detailed that going to the café and getting a soda was a social event to also mingle with friends, not to just get a drink. Chatting with the people who had grown and baked the products I was buying from them gave me a sense of community and helpfulness. I was almost completely turning a blind eye to the prices, while in Meijer and Whole Foods I’d search for whatever brand was on sale or had the lowest price. So, is your decision on what foods to buy really affected by where you’re buying them? I know I wasn’t expecting to walk away from the farmer’s market with banana bread and hummus, so I’d answer yes to the question. The atmosphere is worth a thousand words, and could potentially influence someone into buying different kinds of foods. The premise of the Podcast Explorer Project is exactly that – exploring podcasts. How do they draw the listeners in? What sort of audio tricks are being used? Who are the people that the podcasts are interviewing? Four different podcasts were pitted against these sorts of questions, while also being looked at for content. Gravy’s “What is White Trash Cooking?” was the first one that was picked, as the title was extremely eye catching. This podcast set the theme that would be looked for in the other podcasts, cultural sensitivity in food. Next came Sporkful’s “Other People’s Food Pt. 1: White Chef, Mexican Food,” picked mainly for fitting the theme, but also for being the first podcast in a series. Gastropod’s “The United States of Chinese Food” didn’t make the cut, it was paused about one fourth of the way in. It didn’t fit the theme, instead focusing on the history of Chinese immigrants coming to America, and the audio quality was a turn off. The final podcast, Eat Feed’s “American Food,” was finally stumbled upon and gave a much needed new perspective on the topic of cultural sensitivity.
“What is White Trash Cooking” by Gravy looked at a stereotypical “white trash” family and how they viewed the name they’d been given by society. Ashley Day, the mother of the household, explained that the family was fairly neutral on the topic; it didn’t hurt them in anyway, why would it bug them? They loved the odd concoctions of pies and casseroles that came from the kitchen. Ashley listed off some family recipes that had the finished product being eaten from the skillet or over the sink. She said that “redneck” meant that recipes had a weird combination of ingredients, and part of why people may view her as “white trash” is because one of her recipes includes a sleeve of RITS crackers as a form of measurement. This was just how she grew up cooking, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Apart from the content being interesting, the podcast was composed very well. The decision to include a lot of background information – where the family lived, how they were raised, what influenced their cooking – was a great addition to really give a sense of the lifestyle of this family before going in depth on the main topic of the podcast. Having a direct interview with Ashley Day also did a bit of the same thing, as her southern accent was extremely prominent and she spoke with a lot of slang. While giving about four full length recipes throughout the podcast helped to further define “white trash,” it felt a bit overdone and stopped the flow of information about the main topic at hand. Otherwise, the audio was clear and credits were given once the podcast completely ended. It felt very professional. “Other People’s Food Pt 1: White Chef, Mexican Food” by Sporkful talked about how assumptions about people can lead to assumptions about their food and how they eat, sort of like racial stereotypes revolving around food. The host of the podcast had interviewed a handful of viewers from different cultural background to speak about this subject. One talked about what it’s like to be African American with stereotypes of eating fried chicken and watermelon. Another spoke about being picked on as a kid for bringing Korean food to school that the other kids thought looked like worms. It brings to mind the question of “why do we think some food from other cultures is gross?” that’s asked in Rachel Herz’s That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion. The big lesson seemed to be making people aware of the sensitivity to other cultures, including what the boundaries are of using another culture’s food in different ways than originally intended. This podcast had a great overall composition, though some of the editing felt out of place. The names of all the people that were interviewed were listed out right at the beginning, leaving any curiosity as to who the people were out of mind. There were transitions between the topics and advertisements that were accompanied by music that would fade out when the discussion started up again. It was a very clean way to flow between sections of the podcast, and having no background music while people were talking made understanding them much easier. Something that didn’t work well was that some quotes from the interviews were used in the introduction and then were later played again while actually discussing the topic. It drew the listeners’ attention away from the discussion for a moment, letting some information slip through inattentive ears. One more thing that seemed unnecessary was a long advertisement right in the middle of the podcast. It stopped the flow of the discussion in its tracks and felt very out of place compared to everything else that was going on. Overall, the podcast seemed fairly professional but could use some work with timing. “American Food” by Eat Feed was a short thirteen minute podcast that asked the question of what is considered American food. Andy Smith was interviewed to talk about the complexity of defining American food. What Andy defined as American food was extremely broad, there were dishes ranging from just about every culture to simple staple US meals like hamburgers. He considered ethnic food that was brought over from different cultures and altered as “contributions” to American cuisine, and thus American food. Andy also mentioned that he considered a lot of modern American food comes from the continent’s original inhabitants, Native Americans. In regards to design choices, Eat Feed’s podcast seemed to lack some of the professionalism the other two had. While the one on one interview was fruitful for the discussion, Andy Smith sounded like he had called in on a cell phone; the audio seemed scratchy and unclear at times. The podcast’s short length also made the conversation seem a bit rushed. It would have been nice to hear more in depth about the American food considering the discussion was kept so broad. Maybe if Andy had traveled to the studio to record, the audio and length problems could have been completely erased. Also regarding audio, there wasn’t much noticeable music, if any at all besides the introduction. Music could have been used to transition between the different topics they were talking about to help keep a smooth flow. The three podcasts differ slightly in terms of what they’re focus of the discussion is, but all of them seemed to step their foot at least a little bit into cultural prejudice when it comes to food. “White Trash Cooking” focused more on how a typical southern white family views the prejudice of their culture from others. The family made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal and that they’re very proud of the way they cook their food. In “White Chef, Mexican Food,” the topic was more reared to people that are impacted negatively from their cultural stereotypes. The people who were interviewed told about how their lives have been changed due to prejudice, from being ridiculed over what they’re eating to not being able to eat certain foods in public. Cultural sensitivity was the big picture here, and knowing the boundaries about different cultures and how to not overstep it was important to those being interviewed. Finally, in “American Food,” rather than hearing from people who are affected by these cultural prejudices, the podcast mentioned that food brought from different cultures and changed should be looked upon in a positive light rather than being viewed as an insult to the original culture; these changes in foods are helping to bring about new cultures. In regards to the class as a whole, the topic of cultural sensitivity hasn’t been extremely prominent, but the discussions on immigrant workers seems to fit it in some way. In the 2010 documentary The Harvest / La Cosecha, the three immigrant children shown were all faced with prejudice, mostly about how they’d never finish high school or become anything more than a field worker. While this doesn’t have anything to do with food, it still illustrates the prejudices that people from other cultures have to deal with every day, including what they eat. Exploring what podcasts are like is also related to the class considering how much technology is used to display materials. Assignments and projects are all posted to the students’ individual blogs specifically for the class, and there is a great of web articles and media that’s used to start discussions. Technology is extremely prominent, so it would only make sense to also take a look at a relatively new form of media, the podcast. Hey, mom; this is the email for my ISS class that I texted you about earlier. Sorry for it being so long but I found a lot of information in the book (Pandora's Lunchbox by Melanie Warner) that I thought you might find fairly interesting since we're both suckers for seemingly odd facts. Though I’d say most of this email will be closer to pretty mind blowing “wow how come I haven’t known about this” sort of information instead, but I promise there’ll be at least one fun fact that you can weird people out with.
The book itself is about the author, Melanie, seeking answers from food companies about the food they produce. She often stores food for long periods of time in her office to see how it ages, though they often don't due to the preservatives and additives that the companies have thrown into them. Melanie travels all over to find the truth about their food products, including trying to get tours in factories and squeeze out information on iffy ingredients; pretty similar to Food Inc., if you ask me. The moral of the story is: there are tons of additives in almost every food you eat. However, if you don't want to eat these chemicals then you're going to have to avoid them yourself because the companies won't change anything because profit. I’m going to tell you what I thought to be the most shocking bit of information first because it’s honestly a bit worrying. According to the book, there are ingredients that companies put in their products “without so much as an email to the FDA” (106). What this means is that these food companies have decided to declare their own ingredients safe without testing their safety when consumed, and then they put them in food without telling the FDA about it. This is where the term “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS)” comes from; these ingredients that companies aren’t saying anything about are similar enough to the items on the GRAS list that they don’t need to be tested. Makes sense, right? All this because Congress decided that the FDA reviewing every ingredient would be too time consuming. How many people do you think have no idea this is going on behind the scenes of each of their meals? I’d figure probably a vast majority of the US population are unaware of this. Here’s another thing I bet you didn’t know that’s been sitting in the refrigerator every day without you noticing it. On every package of Kraft Singles that you buy, there is a little label on the bottom part of the package that reads “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product.” That label was changed from “cheese food” to “cheese product” in 2003 (45). Why? In the 1990s, Kraft decided to replace part of the cheese in their Kraft Singles with milk protein concentrate because it was inexpensive and it made the cheese last longer. Due to this added ingredient, the cheese became even more processed than it already was, and FDA pretty much told them that their product is no longer actual cheese and that it needed to be changed. Instead of going back to their old recipe, they changed from “food” to “product” on all their labels. Even fast food chains that used the Kraft Singles in burgers would have had to change their meal names to “Cheese-Product Burgers,” making them switch to a different cheese supplier real quick. But consumers didn’t really seem to notice the difference; companies were trying to get people hooked on foods that are “convenient and inexpensive” (Moss 18). How crazy is it that the cheese we eat is not actually considered food, but instead a product? Alright you’ve read quite a bit so here’s the fun fact I promised as a sort of break: sheep secrete a fatty grease on their wool that protects them from harsh weather. Australia sells the sheep wool, with the grease, to manufacturers predominantly located in China. This grease is then used in lots of products such as machine lubricants, lip gloss, moisturizer, sunscreen, oh and just about every drop of milk that American’s consume. Yup, sheep grease is an ingredient in milk, cereal, bread, margarine, and most other dairy products. Good stuff. I’ll make one last point before letting you go. When going to Meijer or Walmart and picking up a package of strawberries, would you imagine them needing flavoring to retain their taste? They look fresh, they are fruit after all. The answer is: yes, they need flavoring because they are indeed processed. Many processed food products require extra flavoring due to the rough processes that the foods go through. The author of the book describes it perfectly, “Mother Nature’s volatile and fragile flavors often don’t fare well during journeys through the assembly line” (172). Not only do natural ingredients needs to be flavored, but manmade additives such as artificial sweeteners and preservatives have a bitter taste that requires masking with artificial flavoring. That’s actually what artificial flavoring is, just covering up the unwanted flavor of some of the ingredients. We both knew that there was always some sort of artificial flavoring used in the groceries we buy at the store, but I think the idea of flavoring being used in fruits and vegetables is a bit more out there. Perhaps manufacturers need to have a more gentle process to preserve the natural flavors? Or is giving strawberries a little help in the flavor department all that bad? I’d like to think there could be a way to conserve the natural flavors but I doubt companies would spend the time and money to optimize it. That wraps it up for this project, I figure it’s probably drawing on at this point anyway. Let me know what you think, mom. I thought some of this stuff was pretty interesting and gave me a much better look at what we eat. Love you! On June 11th, 1997, Taylor Quillan was born in Greenville, Michigan. Her parents Tammy and Devin Quillan lived in said small town located about thirty minutes away from Grand Rapids. Her family gained another child about two years later, a boy named Kyle. The household is mainly of German and Irish descendent, and always had some relatives not too far away. While both parents were religious to some extent, they had raised their two kids with no preferred religion, but still celebrated traditional religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Both parents’ diets also consisted of consuming meat, carbs, and some vegetables sprinkled here and there.
In childhood, Devin and Tammy both worked full time jobs. They had preferred spending their free time playing with the kids, so using time away from work to cook was undesirable. Instead of home cooked meals every night, Taylor’s family ate boxed and microwavable dinners that were fast and easy to make. When grocery shopping, the frozen food aisle was where the most time was spent. Fresh meat from the produce section was rarely bought, instead opting for TV dinners. Boxed mac and cheese was the staple meal, as her family tended to have it at least twice a week. None of this was a problem for Taylor, as she was usually picky and could choose whatever frozen dinner trays she liked. Even after her parents divorced in 2004, this frozen trend remained constant. School lunches didn’t offer any more homemade and healthy meals than home did. Pizza, sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and burgers were pretty common; anything highly processed that could be easily obtained and cooked were the norm. Most schools she went to would offer an option that changed daily, and could’ve been just about anything. One day, the elementary school cafeteria served beef and bean burritos. All of Taylor’s friends were getting in the burrito line, telling tales of how delicious the burritos were. The burrito itself was just as her friends said, and she ate every bite. However, her stomach became upset within an hour, and she vomited in the classroom in front of her peers. Embarrassed and sick, she made a mental pact never to eat burritos again, and that’s true to this day; Taylor has never had another burrito since that experience in first grade. The only time Taylor and her family ever strayed from frozen food was when visiting Connie Warner, Tammy’s mom. Connie would go to the supermarket and buy fresh ingredients for her extravagant meals every time she was expecting guests. Steaks, steamed vegetables, and fish caught straight from the lake she lived on were frequent items. Connie was generally in charge of Thanksgiving where she would spend days preparing the turkey and vegetables for the meal. Most famously, she is known for her homemade pies. Just like in Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro where boxed cakes were second best to homemade, nothing could beat Connie’s pies. Just like to the women in the 1950s, baking was her equivalent to showing how much love she had for the people she was baking for, considering it took so much time and effort. Pies bought from the grocery store wouldn’t cut it, so eating pies was reserved only for when Connie had made one. Taylor would spend hours in the kitchen with her grandmother learning the secrets to these treats, usually creating her own blends of pie fillings; raspberry apple being the favorite to this day. Even though Taylor’s dad tended to be picky about what he ate, her mom was always open to trying new things. As Taylor grew up, her adventurous side did as well. Tammy would often try new things anywhere they went and would always offer the food to Taylor. A few years ago, Tammy had gotten into eating sushi every time they ate at a restaurant serving it. Upon first trying it, Taylor was more grossed out by the raw fish than anything else. She started with sushi that was cooked, including chicken, veggie, and shrimp rolls. After getting comfortable with those, she moved onto rolls with raw fish rolled up with cucumbers and cream cheese, where the fish taste wasn’t quite as pronounced. However, presently, her favorite food is salmon sashimi and sharing assorted sashimi plates with her mom is something she likes to do as often as possible, much to the dismay of her mother’s wallet. While generally eating what could be called the “typical” human diet of meat-eccentric plates with vegetables only ever being a side, Taylor never really experienced the vegetarian lifestyle. Even when watching the horrors behind the slaughterhouses in films such as Food Inc., she never permanently changed her diet away from consuming meat; though the amount of meat she consumes has been slowly decreasing over the years. Now, Taylor lives with a vegetarian roommate, Wanda. When going out to eat or ordering food, her vegetarian diet always needs to be taken into consideration. Taylor finds herself joining Wanda in the vegetarian line at the Shaw cafeteria more and more, as food without meat isn’t as bland as she had thought – the vegan chicken nuggets are a must have when they’re being served. Upon enrolling in ISS 310 for the honors credit, Taylor began looking at the food she was eating with a much more skeptical eye. Scanning nutrition labels for sugar content has been a daily part of deciding what foods and drinks to buy ever since watching Fed Up. Meat is now viewed as something not particularly necessary, and certainly unethical. However, while unable to stomach video clips of the horrors behind factory farming, Taylor hasn’t been deterred from consuming meat. All in all, a highly processed diet that’s high in sugar and carbs has been constant throughout Taylor’s life. Looking to the future, she hopes to eventually adapt a healthier diet. She’d like to move away from the processed, high sugar foods that she’s grown up with and instead dive more into fresh fruits and vegetables. |
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