Today, the media seems so eager to throw at us the next shocking threat to consumers –
the deodorant that is causing cancer, the food that is, in fact, terrible for your bone health, or the
ingredient in this brand of cereal that will surely lead to heart problems. Everyone seems to have
an opinion, and the search for the truth seems never-ending. For some people, these latest
dangers and discoveries are nearly irrelevant, either because they are unimportant to the person
or they don’t apply. There is, however, one perpetual need that applies to all of us: the human
need for food. Though some will say we should be thankful for food no matter its quality, there
are plenty of skeptics who reject the assurances that our food is
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(Hoernlein, Carol.)
In addition to the fact that MSG is contained in so many of the commercial foods we
consume, manufacturers are finding ways to keep us from knowing it. In an effort to mask the
inclusion of MSG or ingredients that lead to the production of it during processing, food
companies are referring to MSG as “textured soy protein concentrate, carrageenan, maltodextrin,
disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, [and] modified cornstarch” (Goldschmidt, Vivian). This
is yet more evidence that food manufacturers and the FDA seem to have something to hide.
Though the FDA regards the consumption of MSG as “generally recognized as safe” (“Questions
and Answers…”), there are growing evidence and study results to suggest otherwise.
To conclude, many of the ingredients and additives discussed in this paper are
In the United States today, a large part of the average person’s life is food. Each individual consumes nearly one ton of food each year, but never knows what they are truly putting into their body. Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, was one of the earliest works that provided people an insight to the production of their food. The novel was originally written to show the mistreatment of the workers, typically immigrants, but instead resulted in the passing of the Pure Food Act of 1906. The movie, Food Inc. provides today’s people the same insight that The Jungle gave the people in 1906.
In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.
He goes on to insist that the medical community just like the food industry also make money off of theories. New theories mean new drugs, treatments, procedures, and let’s be real here the medical industry does not make money off of healthy people it makes money off of sick people. When using this argument Pollan (2008) refers to Walter Willett who said, “You would not expect such a medical community to be sensitive to the cultural or ecological dimensions of the food problem-and it isn’t. We’ll know this has changed when doctors kick the fast-food franchises out of the hospitals.” (pg. 142) Denis Burkitt presents and answer to the question of what to do to stop the western diet.
“Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat”, is a famous quote by the well known philosopher Socrates, who believed this is the perspective we should take when we are eating food. Unfortunately, the times have changed and so has the way we eat. We no longer have to go hunting for our food, or grow crops to receive all of our fruits and vegetables. Because we have become a society that has grown into the new world of technology, there would be no need to rely on ourselves for what we need-- we can simply gather our resources from other people. In the book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, written by Michael Pollan, takes us on a journey full of concerns of the “Food Industrial Complex”.
The entire book focuses on the fact that we, as individuals, need to be more informed on the process of producing our food as well as the actual ingredients in our food. Not everyone is going to change but approaching this one person at a time can change the world.
Relevance between Food and Humans with Rhetorical Analysis In the modern industrial society, being aware of what the food we eat come from is an essential step of preventing the “national eating disorder”. In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he identifies the humans as omnivores who eat almost everything, which has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream unhealthiness, gradually causing the severe eating disorder consequences among people. Pollan offers his opinion that throughout the process of the natural history of foods, deciding “what should we have for dinner” can stir the anxiety for people based on considering foods’ quality, taste, price, nutrition, and so on.
In America, there are many things that are kept in the dark, which sometimes doesn’t come to the light, unless it is exposed. Michael Pollan and Jim Hightower both expose the truths that aren’t always too apparent in the eye of the beholder, which in this case, is Americans. They both unveil lies and tell truths, which in the end, is more than beneficial to the American society. In a letter to the future President of the United States, Michael Pollan acknowledges the troublesome in food in our society.
The Food Inc is a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner. Robert has had a huge impact on American consumers and has helped many food products and industries. Food Inc sheds light on the food industry and throughout the movie it shows the movie aims to educate its audience about the truth of their food and to convert the misinformed people to inspire a change against the food industry practices. The Food Industry has been feeding us for generations, and we have the right to know what they’re doing to give us an advantage and a disadvantage. One of the advantages is that the volume of food is increasing which can lower the price dramatically.
The director’s assertion, in the film, is also that food companies are in control of what goes in our food and how is it produced. The documentary investigates
Seifert calls upon individuals to seek and inquire about the food they consume. Seifert hadn’t simply “Googled” information offered on the internet and leave it at that, he took steps to seek answers to the question no one want to acknowledge. His journey is one students taking argumentation or critical thinking courses can take important lessons in patience, persistence and perseverance from. If students do not make efforts to be informed about the world they live in, they relinquish their rights as consumers to the major companies that are powerful adversaries, even at the state and federal
With that being said, most restaurants and grocery stores are declining industrialized foods, giving the name, “food-like substances.” Freedman feels that it is not a realistic way to stop this obesity epidemic by trying to persuade people into completely changing their habits of eating. Instead, Freedman believes that incorporating better ingredients in processed foods will
In the world, there are one billion people undernourished and one and a half billion more people overweight. In this day and age, where food has become a means of profit rather than a means of keeping people thriving and healthy, Raj Patel took it upon himself to explore why our world has become the home of these two opposite extremes: the stuffed and the starved. He does so by travelling the world and investigating the mess that was created by the big men (corporate food companies) when they took power away from the little men (farmers and farm workers) in order to provide for everyone else (the consumers) as conveniently and profitably as possible. In his book Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Patel reveals his findings and tries to reach out to people not just as readers, but also as consumers, in hopes of regaining control over the one thing that has brought us all down: the world food system.
he movie titled “The Pursuit of Happyness”, there was a problematic family living in San Francisco in 1981. The main character, Chris Gardner worked as a salesman invested his entire life savings in portable bone density scanner to support his family including his wife Linda and a five years old son Christopher. However, Chris’ business was not doing well and his wife was forced to work. Day after day, Linda was suffering and she always quarrelled with Chris and blamed him for didn’t play the role as a responsible father and a good husband. Luckily, this was not the end for Chris.
Throughout the documentary, Spurlock provides a plethora of evidence to defend and prove his point. However, Spurlock’s main argument is to bring awareness to the food that people consume, not just fast food but all
Many people wonder this thought: Why is it important to be thankful? But most people can never come up with an answer. This is thought about a lot every year around this time of year because Thanksgiving, the holiday of being thankful, is approaching. As decorations and feasts arise, so does that one common Thanksgiving question: Why is it important to be thankful? It is important to be thankful because of many things.