Exploring Your Refrigerator: The Truth Behind What You Eat

By Arielle Silvan                 

Exploring Your Refrigerator: The Truth Behind What You Eat

Have you ever wanted to know the secrets behind what you eat? Why those fries taste so good? How that burger was made? Or the secret ingredient behind what makes your snacks and drinks pink?  Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson teaches you everything you want and don’t want to know about fast food. This book teaches you about the social, historic, business, health and ethics behind your fast food meals. After reading this book I guarantee you won't look at fast food the same way.

The book was divided up into many different parts: the history and inventors of fast food, the employees jobs and safety, the health issues, the factories, the labs and more. At the end of the book there were resources and ways to take action. This book was educational and interesting. Chew On This dives right into the world of fast food and makes you question what you are eating. I learned a lot and couldn't put the book down! I was very surprised by the things I learned and found out. For example, did you know Americans now spend more money on fast food than movies, books, magazines, newspapers and recorded music combined! Or that some schools encourage the unhealthy eating of fast food. In fact, one out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand name fast food. I was somewhat disgusted, but then inspired to make a change after reading this book.

Chew On This was similar to another book I previously read, The Omnivores Dilemma. Both books were about the same thing: food science.  The Omnivores Dilemma was more about an individual person's story where it was all tied together, while in Chew On This each chapter was about something different. The message in Chew On This wasn't that all fast food is bad! The author isn't a vegetarian, the book mentions responsible fast food restaurants and no ideas were pushed on you. Although I think that the writer's message in Chew On This was to educate and inform, the writers did it in a very interesting and fun way!  

Links:

Let's Move (First Lady Michelle Obama's fight to set children on a path to a healthy future)

Finding Sustainable Food Near You

                                                          Cover of Book (Chew on This)

Factory Farming Described in Chew on This

The Omnivore's Dilemma: Understanding Where Our Food Comes From

Every time we go shopping in a supermarket do we actually know what we're buying? If we actually bothered to read all of the labels in our food what would we find? That was the question the Michael Pollan answered in The Omnivore's Dilemma. In this book the author, Michael, tracked, from start to finish, an industrial, industrial organic, local sustainable, and a hunter gatherer meal. One question that was brought up was… Even though we buy organic foods is it really all that better that non-organic? Well it turns out that industrial organic, the stuff in supermarkets, is just as harmful to the environment and "free range organic" chickens aren't so free range. This answer surprised me because I had always though organic was much better for us. What surprised me the most was hearing that most industrial organic “free range” chickens are kept inside with almost no room to move around. Although the can go outside, a luxury considering the treatment of industrial chickens, they aren’t allowed the choice of going outside until they are five weeks old and too scared of going outside by then. But luckily for humans industrial organic is not the only option. We can choose local sustainable farmers who view farming as a way to keep the Earth clean, don’t rely on chemicals and allow their animals to live their lives as they are supposed to in the wild. By choosing local sustainable we are supporting local food which equals less fossil fuels/travel time, less excessive plastic or packing of food, small businesses, a better quality of food, and a healthier treatment of animals. The complete opposite of this would be industrial meals like fast food and tv dinners. Industrial meals are harmful to the environment and the hormones that they pump into meat in order to produce more meat faster can have serious consequences. Unlike the local sustainable farmers, industrial foods tend to come out of factories and the conditions that animals live in are horrifying and disgusting. If you have ever wondered why some foods are much cheaper the others the answer lies with the industrial food chain. By forcing animals to eat cheap pasteurized corn and farming all year long huge companies can afford to sell food at a much lower price than a local farmer. The last type of meal is the hunter gatherer meal. Although this meal is completely unrealistic for the average family it gives us a view of how much our food system has changed. At first people had to work to get their food but now you can just go to any market and buy about anything. Before supermarkets and delis most people knew what was going into their food and most of the time were the ones producing it. This type of meal really reminds us how hard it really is to cultivate food and that it doesn’t just appear on shelves.

Local Farmers Market: http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket

What You Should Know But Don't Want To Know About Fast Food

  The fast food industry has grown tremendously and has become a "huge" part of our society. Literally fast food has made 2 out of every 3 Americans huge, fat and obese. We have developed our fast food chains from carhops to speedee self-service to drive thrus and on average, 25% of Americans eat fast food everyday. Now when I say fast food, you think Mickey Dee's, Burger King, Wendy's and maybe even KFC. You see Big Macs, Whoppers and Son of Baconators. You think of Happy Meals and BK Crowns. For some people, you may become nostalgic and you may think of the cheesy McDonaldland commercials back in 1976. Those are some of the positive thoughts that go through your mind when you hear the words fast food. You don't think of the chemical preservatives or the slaughterhouses or the calorie intake the food has. And all the things you don't pay attention to when you hear of fast food, are the things that are brought to light in the book Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. The book was written to connect the fast food industry to real life problems in society. It touches on topics from obesity to environmental protection to how fast food jobs can really mess up the lives of teenage employees. 

     The book discusses what really goes into the food you order at fast food restaurants. And you would be shocked by the bugs that are used to give the color to your strawberry milkshake. According to page 121, small female bugs, found and harvested in Peru, give your milkshake it's pink color. The bugs are called Dactylopius coccus costa and they feed on cactus pads. The" color from the cactus gathers in her body and her eggs". Then the bugs are "collected, dried and ground into a coloring additive". Just the idea of bugs in your milkshake's coloring can turn you off just as much as seeing an employee not wash his hands. It's unhealthy, unjustified and just plain disgusting. And believe it or not, that is only one of the numerous, disturbing yet informative pieces of the fast food feud discussed in Chew on This. 

   I absolutely recommend this book to others to read. I felt a strong connection to the book because of a TPR Presentation I gave in August. The presentation was about obesity and its correlation to poverty. I did research and discovered a lot of distasteful secrets about fast food and I changed my 
ways when it came to eating fast food. I stopped eating Chicken Mcnuggets at age six but after discovering how McDonald's makes it food and where the food comes from, I stopped eating at McDonald's completely. Now I eat at healthier choices like Chipotle and Subway. After doing my presentation and typing that ten page paper for it, I was more informed about the risks and health issues with fast food. This book was basically a recap and a discovery of new information for me. I think it is a great book for anyone who is interested in the topic of obesity or the fast food feud or for anyone who likes going back in time like I do (the book goes all the way back to 1885 where the first hamburger was made and it gives the dates of every fast food chain that opened and the founders). I rate this book 4 out of

5 stars for its humor, history and "true fizz" on the fast food industry. The book is a must read for people interested in nutrition, obesity, history, food or environmental protection. After you read Chew on This, you will be left with million of questions, thoughts and shocking realizations to chew on and hopefully swallow.

THE COVER OF THE BOOK

AN MIT STUDENT'S BREAKDOWN OF THE BOOK'S GIST

THE BASIC GIST OF THE BOOK