Ethical Essay Two -- What is Food?

Katie Meyers

Ethical Issues Essay – What is Food?

Ever since life began, the concept of food has existed as well. Over time, different human cultures began to develop cuisines, or a particular style of cooking particular foods. Before trains, planes, automobiles, ships, and caravans, these cuisines were based on the edible products nearest to and easiest to obtain by the inhabitants of an area. Usually, these products provided a sufficient, healthy diet and a bit of enjoyment from satisfying the human appetite. Today, humans still enjoy the cuisine they live by. However, as we can now get foods from the other side of the globe rather easily, the regional diet has become obsolete, especially in the United States of America. As a result, problems in the human population have grown, due to the fact that it is now only too easy to overeat, especially in one of the richest countries in the world, the United States of America. However, there are still other countries in these modern times that keep a healthy population, especially compared to us Americans. What is the difference, how did we become this way, and is there any way to change it?

The difference is that America has left all shreds of historical cuisine behind. In fact, the majority of food an average American consumes often comes from either another hemisphere or is highly processed. As long as our bodies can adapt to foreign foods (from different world regions, I mean) and we can maintain a healthy Americanized cuisine with them, we should be able to maintain as healthy a population as any other average world country. However, since America is such a rich country, it is very easy for us to haphazardly mix together different foods imported from different places (e.g. sugar, high fat foods in abundance) according to our taste buds’ whims. This can result in poorer diets and therefore poorer health. However, foreign food is by no means the main culprit, or a culprit at all, of the American health crisis. Beginning in the 20^th century, more and more food has been scientifically synthesized. Evidenced by margarine’s long-term effects (heart disease and heart attacks), the first step into test tube food was by no means a success. However, as America has grown richer and more modern, small farming businesses have been greatly overshadowed by large corporations. Unlike small-town local farmers, these corporations are not interested in quality, but in quantity, how cheaply and quickly they can produce food, and how many pennies they can squeeze out of the average American Joe. So, what resulted? Unnatural hormone treatments and pesticides to make plants and animals grow faster (these hormones and pesticides could very well be a big cause of health problems), cheap, artificial, packaged foods of low nutritional quality (think margarine, trans fats, and really long words), and addicting substances like MSG (monosodium glutamate – a really long phrase for a food product, eh?) and caffeine added to ensure the customer will return for more. As a result of such an American “cuisine”, the American population’s health has slowly plummeted. Because of this, nutritionists were invented and brought into the spotlight to tell us what was wrong with our diet and how to fix it. Unfortunately, they looked at specific nutrients and test tube patterns rather than the overall effect of a cuisine or even one food, and came up with directions to take a bunch of different supplements and cut out foods simply for one nutrient they did or did not have. Moreover, the more American cuisine worsened, the more demanding society became as to what look is acceptable (usually very twiggy [for women] or abnormally muscular [for men]). This whole mess of things has resulted in an overweight country that feels terrible about itself, making America a prime target for easy solutions and fad diets. Unfortunately, the only reason this has happened particularly to the United States of America is because of our wealth and power. So, what can we do to change our dietary fate?

Mind you, I do not think there is any one right answer to this question. However, I will attempt to impart my hopefully relatively sound-minded opinion. I think that as a result of the American generations raised on fake, unhealthy foods and being force-fed radical, unhappy diets in an attempt to buffer the damage, the popular mindset is, “Healthy food tastes bad”. Unfortunately, those large corporations have our addicted taste buds in the palm of their hands. However, I think that if simple but forgotten food facts were taught in nutrition classes, then such classes should be required in school. What are just a few of these forgotten food facts? First of all, not a single natural food is “good” or “bad”. Each food is unique, and provides our bodies with a much-needed variety of nutrients and our mouths with many (possibly yummy) tastes. Since we are omnivores, this is natural. Therefore, people should eat a variety of foods. Secondly, people should be taught how to either get out of life’s fast lane and eat real, unpackaged, made-from-scratch food, or at the very least be taught to discern how to best eat when on the run. Ideally, making food (no, warming up a TV dinner doesn’t count) and then transporting it with you while on the run is a good idea. However, for those times you are not able to, people (especially children, from elementary through college, who eat at school cafeterias every day) should be told how to best eat out (e.g. quick food places that carry foods not made with trans fats, and which items on the menu are made with less refined sugar and fake fats. In other words, which items are made of natural food.). Also, as I am a college student who will soon be living on a university campus, I advocate the spread of such programs as “Farm to School” (http://www.farmtoschool.org), which will provide busy students like me (who have only fifteen minutes to eat, at times) easy access to healthy, real food products in a student union or cafeteria. Also, I think that “nutritionism” should be debunked, in the sense that people should not be tied down to taking certain supplements or vitamins unless absolutely necessary to their health, and that packaged foods with health claims are usually not trustworthy or worth eating. Lastly, people should be aware of the harm the large corporations have done to our society through eating, and then go support the local farmers who grow food for quality and will sell you a quality food product, since (unlike the large corporations) your opinion as a customer matters to them. With these, among many other tactics, I think the input of nutritional and food knowledge should be vital to the scholarly curriculum in our country. As a result, maybe, little by little, change by change, we can turn this country’s health around.

I could end this essay right here. However, I would like to focus briefly on obesity, as it is often criticized to be a large (ha ha, sorry) problem in the United States of America. Most regular-weighted people think that obesity is preventable, and those that become obese will be at greater risk for many diseases and other physical problems. I agree that these statements are true. However, I think that the population should dig deeper into this issue. Rather than focusing on all the negative issues caused by obesity, I would like to look at what causes obesity in the first place. This is a hard subject to research, as it is so extensive. However, I would like to at least focus on the basics. The simple fact of the matter is that obese people eat too much for their metabolism to handle. However, is it really that simple? The public should remember this, a saying so easily forgotten: not all metabolisms are created equal. As this is the case, what causes these slower metabolisms that are revealed more than ever now in the modern America? It could be a myriad of things. For example, there is a syndrome in women called polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Since this messes over a woman’s ovaries and, particularly, her hormones, is it any surprise that it has been shown that women with PCOS tend to be insulin resistant (remember that insulin is a hormone)? However, the trick with PCOS is that it does not reveal itself in the patient until her menses cycle begins. For instance, there have been several accounts of young girls who are skinny, almost underweight, until their menses begins. Within one year after her first cycle, a PCOS girl can gain up to 30 pounds, despite the fact that her diet remains the same. This must be difficult to adjust to, as the patient is undoubtedly used to eating one way, and then suddenly has to battle the bulge beginning between the ages of 10 and 16. Moreover, once “PCOS fat” is gained, it is very hard to lose. For example, some PCOS women become very obese and decide to get bariatric surgery. While many people get this surgery and lose a great deal of weight, PCOS women can still be considered obese (but quite a bit smaller than they were before the surgery), even after following the doctor’s orders, jot and tittle, for over two years after the surgery. This syndrome, PCOS, is just one of many examples of underlying circumstances that can aggravate and promote the obesity condition so encouraged by today’s food companies. Moreover, PCOS is on the rise in the United States. Might this mean there is a connection between trans fats and other unhealthy foods that change hormones and PCOS? Since the cause of PCOS is not yet known, I cannot answer such a question. However, it is something to consider.

The point of this past paragraph was to, yet again, encourage nutritional knowledge, as well as knowledge of the physical problems America’s food companies have aggravated in their population, in people’s minds, particularly from a younger age. To summarize my solution to the American food crisis, I think the best place to start is with changing common knowledge about food and what has happened to us as a population because of poor nutrition. People should once again embrace the truth that food should be enjoyable to eat, not taste “icky” or result in a guilt trip. Perhaps one day, the United States of America can get back to a true cuisine – a cultural, healthy, and enjoyable way of eating.