MY JOURNEY

 The topic I have come up with for my essay did not come easy. I spent some time reading through my classmates blogs just to find inspiration. I was looking for a subject that was not only interesting but fun for me to write about. That's when it HIT ME! I'm funny and I love talking about myself...so it's a paper about ME. Now I know what you are thinking...I'm a pretty modest guy so it's going to be a short paper, I can assure you it will not be (haha).

My topic will be "My Journey through life with FOOD." I will take you on a riveting journey of my ups and downs, joy and struggles, love and hate for food. It will describe foods role in my life and specific events that I relate with certain types of food.
On a more serious note I am actually very excited for the project and am not actually that egotistical.

Food Inc.

Watching Food Inc. to me was very very interesting. It had the chance to see it while I was in my high school nutrition ed class but I didn't really think about the movie when I watched it back then. I am happy I had this second opportunity to let it sink in.
The part in the movie that stuck out to me was the chicken and the large corporation (Tyson) that owns a lot of it. They showed the amount of growth hormones that were given to the chickens. It was ASTOUNDING! I mean these chickens were HUGE! It was really hard to see the chickens barely be able to walk and never even see the light of day. They would have thousand upon thousands of chickens crammed in these housing units and they could barely move, partly because of being fat and partly because it was so crammed. 
This movie exploits the large corporations treatment of animals, farmer/ cattle raisers/ small business. It also exploits the ways that our meat is created and how truly disgusting some of it is. Overall Food Inc. gets the job done well, and sends the message loud and clear.

Nutrition and Corporations

While reading another 100 pages of Marion's Food Politics book, I kind of became appalled at what I read. There was a section about nutrition journals, and the sponsors of nutrition journals. As I read deeper into this it explained large corporations pull on nutrition journals. It turns out that the articles we read in these journals are being influenced big time by these large corporations because they sponsor these journals to be published.
 

            Keeping this in mind you probably realize the effect this has on the journal. It results in the journal making the product of whatever company may be sponsoring sound much better for you than it actually is. Some of the huge companies that where listed where Coca-cola, Kraft, Nestle, and more. This just goes to show how much of an influence money has on this world. Just like the influencing the government and USDA, these large food corporations even strongly influence nutrition journals, that many people believe are helping them while reading them.
             
             In these journals there will even be massive ads for the company. These ads target people of all ages from kids to adults. Because whats better than showing a huge COKE bottle when you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle?  This is just another testament to money being the most powerful thing in the world. What else could be just as equally powerful as money? you may ask. Well the answer is the people who have the money. 

Food Politics

Food politics was the book I chose to read in this class. I have never been a big reader so 100 pages was a true struggle for me. I admit I fell short of the mark but got a good insight to the book. The first almost 100 pages was in my eyes very slow. It discussed how truly enormous the food corporation is. It also discussed the relationship between the government and large food corporations, You think that the food corporations would play by the governments rules, but sadly it seems to be the opposite. A fact that astounded me was the sheer amount of food that these food corporations produce. In 2000 alone these corporations produced enough calories to feed every living person in the world twice around. I can see that I will really get into this book more once it gets through the details it needs for us to read on.

My Life with Food

Food has played a large role in my life. It is what I gather around, when I'm with people I love. Food has been with me on countless first dates, many trips to the movies with my family, and dinners with my family around the table. While growing up I loved and at times hated food, depending on whether my mom was trying a new recipe or not.
     My favorite meal is Chicago style deep dish pizza  and will always be my favorite. I found this love for this pizza when I was only 7 years old. My family and I were on vacation to Chicago and had walked for hours that day, my dad thinks taxis are a scam. One of the nights after walking for what felt like years, we stopped at Giordano's in downtown Chicago. My family and I had not eaten since 11:00 am central time which is 10:00 am back in Michigan and it was now 7:00 pm in Chicago. My brothers and I were starving and that's when it was served! The most glorious thing I had ever laid my eyes on, and that is when I fell in love with Chicago style pizza.
   Another way food has played a role in my life is later on in High school and early college. I was always the chunky one out of my brothers and learned to embrace that tole, and took that as a challenge to be the biggest eater out of us three. As you can probably assume my diet was nowhere near healthy and far from hitting all categories of the food pyramid. Once I hit a growth spurt in late high school I started to thin out and work out a lot. I would run or bike twice a day and life every other day. I got into doing triathlons and hated knowing I used to be chunky, this is when I made controlling what I ate basically an Idol. Food was no longer my companion and role in life it essentially became my enemy and I thought I was being healthy. I got so consumed by completely cutting sugar and sweets out of my life and eating what I needed to fuel my body that I stopped enjoying dinner with the family, I stopped visiting my Girlfriend at work, which was Plainwell Ice Cream (best ice cream out there), and became a health freak! It was not until my best friend called me out on it that I snapped out of that phase, which lasted about a year.
Now food and I are on good times and in a healthy relationship together. Our past was love/hate but we've moved on.