A Good Tasting Meal Leads to Unhealthy Habbits

One day I went to the store and decided I would make steak, mashed potatoes and corn. I bought three packaged steaks, a bag of potatoes and a bag of frozen corn. Once I bought it I went home and began to prepare my meal. I went home, got a big pot and filled it with water and put it on the stove to heat. While I waited for the water to boil I began to peel about ten potatoes. Once I peeled them I washed them, cute them up and pout them in the boiling water to cook for about forty minutes. About twenty minutes later I began to warm up the grill. So I took the steaks and put season salt and pepper on them. Once the grill was warm I cleaned it and put the steaks on trying to make sure I did not burn them. While watching the steaks I began to finish the mashed potatoes. I took the pot and strainer and strained the water out of the potatoes. Once I did that I put the potatoes back in the pot and bean to mash the,. Once I felt they were soft enough I added milk, salt, pepper, and a quarter stick of butter. I mixed them together, put the lid on and took the corn from the package and put it in a bowl. Once it was in the bowl I put it in the microwave and cooked it for about four minutes. While the corn was cooking I went and got the steaks off the grill, medium-well, just the way I like it. I put the steaks on the counter and got the corn our, added salt, pepper, butter and stirred it up. On the nights I cook my brother cleans so there was no clean up for me. Each step required work but not too much exertion since corn was pre-made.

Pollan quotes what Levenstien believes about food. He basically says that eating foods just because we think they taste good does not necessarily mean they are what is best for us and we as a society tend to eat what tastes good rather than what is best for us. We are constantly promoting foods that are unhealthy for us, McDonalds, and we are also trying to promote foods that are healthy for us but with one difference, we are trying to promote that they are healthy and taste good. People seem to not want to eat food unless it tastes food so there is a constant battle to try and find food that tastes good and is good for you. Even the Health Forum Exhibition tries to say that healthy eating can taste good too, seeming to show that people will be more accepting to eating healthy food if it tastes better. I think I have to agree, I did not eat my meal necessarily because it was good for you but more because I love the way steak and mashed potatoes taste. I guess I was trying to find something healthy by eating corn but adding butter to it probably did not make it very healthy. So it seems that I am a follower of what Levenstien believed, that we eat for taste instead of health.

More Non Processed Foods then, More Processed Foods Now

Processed foods are more convenient and common then we would like to believe. It is not just the days we give in to our desires and head to McDonalds to get that Big Mac or when we feel like sitting down and having a pre-made dinner that you just throw in the microwave. Believe it or not we eat processed foods even in our more traditional meals. Anything that comes from a can, is frozen or packaged is a processed food. So even having a home cooked meal can be full of processed foods, especially if your meat was packaged from the store. Processed foods are a part of our everyday lives whether we realize it or not.

The last time I had a hamburger it was from McDonalds, now while it may have tasted amazing it was not necessarily the best burger for me. I began to remember the last time I had a really great burger. It was about five years ago and my father had our cow sent to the butcher and we got back all the meat. There was plenty of steak and hamburger to go around. Since it was butchered we had to make the hamburger patties ourselves. The meat, once GRILLED, tasted delicious and to top it off even the bread was homemade. When I compared the homemade hamburger, from five years ago, to the one from McDonalds, there was no comparison. The meat was tender, smelled fresh, and tasted better. The reason for this is because when you ho to McDonalds they just take a frozen, processed, hamburger patty and throw it in the fryer for a few minutes, adding to the unhealthiness of the product. Once I realized this I began to question why I switched from the unprocessed hamburger to the processed product and the only reasons I could come up with is that is less time consuming and more convenient to my schedule. I do not always have the time to go home and round out a hamburger and cook it. Most of the time I only have minutes to get a meal and eat it. So I believe for me it was more a switch of convenience then dislike. The following website shows some processed foods can provide just as many nutrients as unprocessed foods http://www.afic.org/Myths%20&%20Facts%20about%20Processed%20Foods.htm

Comparing the two foods to one another has made me realize how much better non processed food tastes and is for you. Unfortunately it is not as easy for me to just switch back to the non processed foods so I will be sticking with the processed foods for now. I am hoping that when my schedule is less hectic and I have more time to take to make a meal that I can go back to having home cooked meals that are unprocessed or have less processed foods in them.