National Cranberry Cooperative Essay Example for Free

National Cranberry Cooperative Essay According to the data provided, there is 50 % of incoming berries which were wet harvested. In the absolute terms, this amounts to 750 bbls/h. The three drying machines can only handle 600 bbls/h altogether, meaning that 150 bbls of berries have to be stored in the bins each hour while waiting for the drying process. The second bottleneck is â€Å"located† at the separators. The three separating lines have the capacity to separate 1200 bbls/h, while there are 1350 bbls/h ready to be separated. Therefore, 150 bbls of dry berries have to be stores each hour. At the end of the day (7 PM) there are 2400 bbls wet berries waiting for drying and separating, while also 2400 bbls of dry berries still have to go through the separation process. Drying process of 2400 bbls of wet harvested berries takes 4 additional hours and is finished at 11 PM. Simultaneously the separation is in process (for the dry harvested berries). After the last 600 bbls of wet harvested berries are dried it takes additional half an hour to separate them for quality measures. Separation process is finished at 11. 30 PM. 4. When would the last truck unload and how long would it have waited? Due to the fact that the capacity of the bins is large enough for both, dry (4000 bbls) and wet (1200 bbls only wet + 2000 bbls wet dry) harvested berries to be stored before entering the production process, there is no waiting needed for the truck drivers. All the trucks are able to unload by 7PM. 5. Changes in order to improve performance (estimate the costs and benefits) Based on our analysis we propose three possible solutions that would resolve a problem of company’s bottlenecks.

Nursing Practices of Alternative Medicine

Nursing Practices of Alternative Medicine Mental Health: Integrative Care Lauren Lane Katie Palmer Integrative care encompasses the nursing practices of alternative medicine. This includes acupuncture, aromatherapy, guided imagery, and many more types of therapies. These therapies are usually centered on the individual patient, and holistically address their variety of needs, including physical, mental, and spiritual foci (Halter, 2014, p 637). We will address nonconventional treatments and explore the different approaches, safety, and nursing care associated with integrative care practices. It is only recently that the United State’s western views of medicine have expanded to include complementary medicine. Western medicine is based on a more scientific approach with highly controlled experiments and research. Complementary medicine comes from mostly non-western sources and is based on nature and its interplay with energy (Halter, 2014, p 638). There was two billion dollars awarded to complementary research in 2011 and the studies results showed that we could neither prove nor disprove complementary medicines worth as a healing tool. There are many who do believe that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) helps them. According to halter, 38% of adults and 12% of children use some type of CAM therapy (Halter, 2014, p 639). It is more widely used among women and mostly used for musculoskeletal problems. We have yet to discover the full effects and responses to CAM, which is still a complicated and controversial matter for the healthcare field. Some of the reasons patients are so attracted to CAM is that it allows them to take action in their own care. CAM also has lower risks than many therapeutic approaches and drug regimens. It is less expensive and provides an alternative to conventional medicine when they are out of options or may have previously had negative experiences with western medicine. As nurses, we can be informed about CAM and help consumers to make smart decisions to complement or give alternatives to routine therapeutic approaches. Our biggest concerns are safety. CAM is still unregulated and not guaranteed to work. Many consumers believe what they read on the Internet even though it may not be accurate information. Just because a supplement is natural or organic doesn’t mean that it is harmless. These natural supplements need to assessed and monitored just like a medication. We also face patients that put off treatment and self treat with alternative therapies that may or may not help their conditions, especially in cases of mental health issues (Halter, 2014, p 640). As costs rise for conventional medicine in the United States, more and more consumers are moving toward alternative therapies. Only some of the alternative therapies are covered by insurance, and this is going to depend on what type of insurance the patient has, or if they have insurance at all. There is a large claim that CAM’s proposed effects are only due to the placebo effect (Halter, 2014, p 640). This is when a type of therapy works for an individual to some degree when the therapy is actually nothing; a placebo. Many believe this is due to the optimism and positive approach to CAM that can often occur. The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes integrative care in the profession of holistic nursing. This is an approach that involves the person as a whole, and their biocultural influences. It allows the nurse to view the patient as more than a sum of their parts and all the dimensions that can affect that individuals well being (Halter, 2014, p 642). Nutrition is a very big part of a person’s well being, and has been widely researched. Many people with illnesses can benefit from diet and nutrition changes; research shows that a diabetic patient benefits from a diabetic diet and lower glycemic index foods. Alternative therapies involving nutrition take this same approach to aid in treatment for a variety of disorders. For example, many people believe gluten free diets help children diagnosed with autism, but there has been no concrete evidence to support that claim. There are a lot of diet therapies associated with depression and other psychiatric disorders. Vitamins, supplements, and herbs are some examples of potential alternative therapies one might chose. Many of these can interact with medications and should be initially assessed in every patient. The patient may not recognize that they need to tell the healthcare provider or nurse that they are taking these alternative supplements and need to be asked specifically. There are many common types of integrative therapy that are common to society today. Herbal therapy includes the uses of herbs like St. Johns wort, which is used for pain and mood stabilization. Ginkgo biloba is another common herb that is used for memory. Many of these have side effects and interactions just like any other medication and should be treated as such. Meditation is a mind and body therapy that involves focusing and deep breathing, which is used to help calm the person. Acupuncture uses needles at pressure points to relieve pain and many other disorders (Halter, 2014, p 644). Aromatherapy is a popular therapy using essential oils on the skin or with a diffuser to target senses that results in a variety of effects such as calming, sleep, energizing and so on. Energy therapies such a Reiki are an expanding alternative therapy that nurses can take classes in. This requires energy manipulation and therapeutic touch as a means to heal and bring wellness to a person depending on their chief complaints. There are many different patients that can benefit from these therapies. Dominantly, psychiatric patients seem to use alternative therapies more than those of any other disorder or illness (Halter, 2014, p 644-645). Depression and anxiety are the main focus. When caring for these patients we would want to make sure we assess the patient for use of alternative therapies, this includes supplements, herbs, and other preferred methods of therapy. This may include doing a cultural assessment of our patient, who may prefer or already be performing alternative therapies based on their beliefs of medicine and health. Diagnosis for this patient might consist of cultural implications like the balance and harmony of nature with the body. In planning and implementing our patient’s care we will want to be sensitive to their preferences of therapy and their cultural values. This could entail a patient with different religious values, like a Jehovah witness who does not accept blood products. When western interventions are not accepted due to religious values, alternative therapies could ne used when planning their care. Alternative therapy may also not be the only therapy being implemented. It can complement medication regimens or other types of western-based therapies, such as the patient undergoing cancer treatment and also taking part in meditation and yoga. Nurses need to assess patients for interactions and different side effects when a patient is using integrative therapies. Not only do nurses need to assess the medication effects but they also need to evaluate for patient outcomes. Is the alternative therapy helping the patient? How does the patient perceive the therapy? Is this therapy safe? These are important aspects to think about when undergoing the nursing process with alternative therapy practices. Overall, alternative therapies are becoming more widely popular due to rising costs and limits of western medicine. Alternative therapy has become a common aspect of the nursing assessment and may coincide with cultural or religious views. Psychiatric patients tend to most use alternative therapies and should be considered along with their care (Halter, 2014, p 647). By being aware, informed, and knowledgeable of integrative care nurses can best serve patients holistically and maximize their safety and wellness. References Halter, M. J. (2014) Varcarolis, Foundations of psychiatric mental health nursing: A clinical approach, 7th ed. St. Louis: Saunders Elsevier.

The Value Of Marriage English Literature Essay

The Value Of Marriage English Literature Essay Marriage has undergone a gradual transition from a custom to a legal state since 1800s. In 1800s, women were completely subordinated to their husbands. Their gender role was limited in their house, and they had to satisfy husbands needs. Their days were very tiring. Their life was very rough; they basically had no rights at this time in history. Jane Austen was a good novelist in that era. Austen lived in a time when marriage was the only way out for some women, or they would be forced to become a governess and lose their independence. Jane Austen was a major English novelist, whose brilliantly witty, elegantly structured satirical fiction marks the transition in English literature from 18th century neo-classicism to 20th century romanticism. Her novels, which were like complains about womens right, changed the idea and value of marriage forever. In 18th century, the value of marriage was limited to husband desires. Women were the property of men, and marriage was their only way of h aving a recognized position in society, but now, value of marriage is commitment between marriage partners in equal condition, and we have to protect it. In 1800s, women did not have independent life and Jane Austen revealed the bad condition of women and changed the vision of society. During this time in history, married women could not own property in their own right, and were, indeed, themselves the property of their husbands. Many of the womens job included raising children, prepare food, make clothing, and take care of things around the house. Their main duty was to satisfy their husbands needs. At that time, Jane Austen was one of the most famous authors who reflected the horrible condition of womens marriage in her novels. As Hannah Eberle mentioned in her article How Jane Austen Uses Marriage to Get What She Wants that Austen voices her concerns about 18th century gender roles throughout her novels (Eberle) Her novels center on the lives of young women in middle class Regency England. She looked at womens life, and revealed the slavery life of women in her novels. For example, when Barbara W. Swords confirms in her article Wom ans Place in Jane Austens England that In Jane Austens novels, as well, we may find that marriage is the only real choice to insure a womans place, her happiness, and her successful future,(W. Sword) it becomes clear that Jane Austen saw womens slavery life, and understood the hopes and fears of women who had to rely on marriage and family connections to provide them with a home and means to live. Moreover, Jane Austen was particularly interested in the changing attitudes towards marriage among these young people. As a result, she created different characters and different kind of romances and marriages in her novels to introduce the real value of marriage to young people; Austens model of marriage was reflected in her stories and characters; as Barbara W. Swords confirms that The happy marriages with which Jane Austens novels conclude correspond, indeed, to these new models of proper marriage: Catherine and Henry; Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Elinor and Edward; Elizabeth and Darcy ; Fanny and Edmund; Emma and Mr. Knightley; and Anne and Captain Wentworth. In each marriage, love, esteem, compatibility and mutuality, capability and respect and equality are essentials to be discovered during courtship and strengthened throughout life. (W. Sword) In my opinion, the literature and novels of Jane Austen built a foundation from which modern text and modern value of marriage were made. People studied Austens novels, and became familiar with the new values of a successful marriage. This is a very important event because at that time the value of marriage was only mens desire, but Austens novels changed the situation and became the main foundation of a transition toward a better life in 21th century. Now that were in 21th century, the gender role of women and the value of marriage have been changed. Married women can own property in their own right, and are not themselves the property of their husbands. Women may have independent life, and they have the right to choose their own husband. They have equal rights with men. Moreover, they are not limited in their house works and taking care of children at home. They can work outside of the house, and marriage in not their only way of having a recognized position in society any more. As a result, the value of marriage has been changed. If we look at Ted Olsons interview with CNN reporter, we may understand how much the value of marriage has been changed since 18th century, and what the value of marriage means in The United States of America. Ted Olson, Who is the former US solicitor general, confirms that Marriage is a conservative value. Equality is a conservative valueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.equality and independenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and peopl e that love one another that wish to form a stable bon a part of our economy, part of our community. That should be a conservative value. (Olson) As a result, equality and independence are two key factors of the value of marriage today. Women and men have equal rights. There is no obligation and stress at all, and husband and wife have kind relationship. Along with this new idea, there is one more issue. If we take a closer look at the value of marriage today, we may find that because of bad economy, the value of marriage has been changed by financial problems and economy has had profound impact on the value of marriage. As, Frey Bruno S. explains in his book Happinessa revolution in economics that In marriage, people engage in a long-term relationship with a strong commitment to a mutually rewarding exchange. The spouse expects some benefits from the partners expressed love, gratitude and recognition, as well as from security and material rewards. This is summarized in the protecti on perspective of marriage.(Bruno S. 1) In other word, along with equality and independence, the value of marriage is affected by financial and economic success in our life. Good job and good financial situation are essentials of a good marriage. In 21th century, equality, independence and financial success are three major elements which define the value of marriage. After this long effort, we have to protect our achievements. There is a dangerous concept called Arranged marriage which may destroys all our efforts today. Arranged marriages are marriages in which family members take a significant role in bringing a couple together. Relatives, particularly parents, often take the initiative to find, evaluate, and approve potential spouses for their children. In some cases, the couple may marry while still relative strangers under the expectation that they will develop a loving relationship over time. These marriages are in contrast to so-called love marriages, in which a couple is drawn together by mutual attraction and makes the decision to marry on their own. While often associated with cultures in the Middle East, Africa, and India, these arrangements are not unknown in Western countries, particularly among immigrant populations. I studied and found out that religious and cultural believes are two major reasons for an Arranged marriage For examp le, if we take a look at Jocelyn Voos article Arranged marriage gets high-tech twist, he confirms that When it was time for Sabiha Ansari to get married, her parents flew her to India. She met her husband-to-be for less than 20 minutes, with family, then was asked whether she liked him. (Voo) There are many countries like India that do not believe in modern value of marriage accepted in democratic countries, and an Arranged marriage, which is a traditional believe, is more important for them than modern value of marriage. In this report, Sabiha Ansaris father and mother ignored their daughters opinion and followed their own tradition. As we can see that Saviha explains that was really hard for her, and she kind of wanted to have some time alone with him to talk to him, or even on the phone. There is an important point. India is not the only country which does not believe in modern value of marriage. There are many more painful events happened in Islamic countries which ignores the v alue of marriage because of religion believe. For example, Samuel Burke explains in his article 11-year-old Girl Married to 40-year-old Man. that Before their wedding ceremony begins in rural Afghanistan, a 40-year-old man sits to be photographed with his 11-year-old bride. The girl tells the photographer that she is sad to be engaged because she had hoped to become a teacher.(Burke) forcing a 11 years old girls to marry with a 40 years old man when she wanted to become a teacher, is a very painful condition. I was born in Iran, which is an Islamic country, and I can feel her pain because the age of girls marriage in Iran was nigh years old. Jane Austen helped us to understand the womens condition in 18th century, but Arranged marriage is another form of womens slavery which is against the modern value of marriage at all. We have to be careful not to allow these counties and traditions to pain teenage girls to marry with old people and destroy the real value of marriage which has be en made after a long effort. In conclusion, in 18th century, the value of marriage was limited to husband desires. Women were as the property of men, they did not have any right to complain. Marriage was their only way of having a recognized position in society, the man was absolute power, but Jane Austen reflected that womens bad situation in her novels, and changed the rules. After that, people started to study Austens novels, and the value of marriage was changed. Today, men and women have equal rights, and the value of marriage is based on equality and independence of men and women, and we have to protect this achievement from those countries which does not believe in these concepts. In my opinion the value of marriage is commitment between marriage partners in equal condition, and the equal commitment is the only way which will protect our families in future life. .

The 1960’s - Rooster Essay -- Drama

The 1960’s - Rooster In expressive arts we are studying the theme of the 60’s. In our lesson we watched a dance called â€Å"Rooster†. Rooster was created for the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve and first performed on October 10 1991 at the Grand Theatre de Geneve, Switzerland. It was first performed by Rambert Dance Company on 8 December 1994 at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. Christopher Bruce (the choreographer), wished to celebrate the music and to use the qualities of the song to reflect the "sexual war" between women and men that he felt was revalent during his teenage years. He compared the image of a strutting cockerel with its fine feathers and the men dressed up to go out. Rooster is a creation of the 1960’s by using music, dance, gesture and costume to create the feeling of a Saturday night out. My first impression of the dance was very strange, as it opened with a man moving across the stage in a very strange way. A style of walk that the man did was a move where he slid his feet along the floor and jutted his head forward. This move reminded me of a bird, and was actually named the â€Å"rooster strut†. There are about 10 people in this dance, but there are 2 main dances throughout. I believe it shows what a normal night out in the 60’s was like. The costumes are very significant to the dance. The women wear a mini skirts, this relates to the 60’s because this was very fashionable at this time. It is a combination of black and red. This contra...

What is Art? Essay -- Essays Papers Definition Arts Artistic

What is Art? What a question! This very same topic has been on the minds of many great people for many years. Just what exactly is art? Art is a form of expression. It is beautiful, ugly, tasteful, distasteful, impressionistic, realistic...you get the point. Art is everywhere. It lives in the soul, mind, and even the heart. Art is an outlet for people to express themselves. Art is a way for the human mind to express itself. Even a loud, outgoing person has feelings that they do not feel comfortable sharing with people. These expressions often come out through their art. What is classified as art? Besides the obvious?paintings, drawings, architecture, etc?Art can be dancing, singing, acting, etc. It can be pretty much anything that expresses an idea. Even something as common as speech is art. Everyone speaks with a different voice, and each voice is a piece of art. Art surrounds us. It is encountered so often that often we don?t realize art when we see it. All too often we ignore art. We overlook the ideas and thoughts behind it. Anyone can look at a painting and say ?Wow! That?s beautiful!? How many of us can actually stop and say ?Wow! Now I understand!? Art is around to teach us. We can learn so much about ourselves and the world around us. Many times we create art without a conscious reason. We believe that we are just making a pretty picture. Usually we are expressing a subconscious idea. If take the time to actually analyze and criti...

Maslows Theory

Maslow’s Motivational Theory By Tammy McNiel Everest University Abstract In this paper I will describe how to solve problems within a company using Maslow’s theory. I will also describe in this paper how using Maslow’s theory differs from Herzberg’s and McGregor’s theory. ? How would you solve this problem using Maslow’s motivational theory? I would solve this problem using Maslow’s motivational theory by implementing team work so that the workers feel they are part of a team and not by their selves.I would do this by planning team events. I would put the workers in teams and maybe does some competition work so they have goals to reach and then award prizes. I would also plan company picnics and outings so everybody can get acquainted and feel like it is more of a team and family oriented work environment. Instead of just one person, the manager making all the decisions, I would ask the employees their input on how they might think thi ngs could be better and improve their work place.I think this would make them feel like they are part of the company instead of just a place where they had to be to get paid but a place they like to be and enjoy, and I think this would improve their work at the company. I think with the employees getting to know each other by doing team activities and company oriented picnics for the employees and their families and making them feel like they belong will improve the workforce at their company. How would that differ from using Herzberg’s and McGregor’s theory?I think this would differ from Herzberg’s and McGregor’s theory because to me their theories seem to be about the manager making all the decisions and not giving the employees any input in on anything to do with the company. It is all one controlled environment and it is done by the higher up, meaning the managers. I think with Maslow’s theory the employees have more of a say so and feel like t hey are part of the company and in return the work output will be a lot better. References Understanding Business Tenth Addition Nickels, McHugh and McHugh

What Was the American Diet Like 50 Years Ago

at was the I. What was the American diet like 50 years ago? a) Over the past 50 years, American diets have changed from leisurely family meals that were usually prepared at home using natural ingredients to today’s prepackaged, processed and convenience foods that are often eaten on the run with little thought towards nutrition or content. b) American diets have evolved in the last 50 years from natural ingredients to processed, high fat ingredients and will continue in the future to include convenience foods but with a greater emphasis on healthier choices. ) This wasn’t always the case. â€Å"Fifty years ago, people sitting down to a meal were simply looking for something hot, filling and, in most cases, inexpensive† (Heymsfield 142). c) Throughout the century, Americans experimented with various diets. d) In the 1950s, Adele Davis published a cookbook exploring a healthy approach to food. e) In the 1960s, there was a movement to use unprocessed food, natural i ngredients and macrobiotic cooking (Klem 439). f) The notion of a balanced diet was still quite abstract. ii) People weren’t as well informed about nutrition as they are today. ) While nutritional research was revealing new information about everyday foods, the American household underwent an important structural shift (Klem 438). h) In the 1940s and 1950s women began to enter the workplace in large numbers, it was then that the country became caught up in an explosion of convenience items. iii) Time for food preparation became more limited, and the industry responded with a wide variety of pre-packaged foods. iv) Products like Bisquick, Spam, instant oatmeal, canned tomato sauce and pre-sliced American cheese began to appear (Klem 438). ) By the 1950s, the refrigerator had replaced the old-fashioned icebox and the cold cellar as a place to store food. v) Refrigeration, because it allowed food to last longer, made the American kitchen a convenient place to maintain readily av ailable food stocks (Heymsfield 144). vi) This also allowed for pre-prepared foods such as TV dinners, which became very popular. j) Swanson’s was one of the first TV dinners, which came out during this time. k) Frozen dinners and fast food chains arose and became a growing trend. vii) Meals became quick and simple. viii) People started eating things for taste and popularity, not for ealth reasons. l) In the 1960s and 1970s, when nutritional research really began to gain the nation's attention, food manufacturers started to offer options that were both quick and health- conscious. ix) Instant orange juice and vitamin-fortified cereals appeared (Klem 440). m) Cereals came out to make people eat more grains, but over the years, large companies have decided that to make their cereal sell, they have to make it taste better. x) They added things like sugar, candy pieces, chocolate flavors, and numerous other things which are high in calories and high in fat in order to make their product taste better. i) This has made the idea of something healthy turn in to something less healthy over the years. n) The movement toward convenience finally caught up with movement toward healthy eating. o) This represents a drastic change from the 1950s, when people ate far more of their meals at home, with their families, and at a leisurely pace. p) â€Å"A hundred years ago there was no such thing as a snack food—nothing you could pop open and overeat,† says Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook and many others, and a consultant to Harvard Dining Services. ii) â€Å"There were stew pots. Things took a long time to cook, and a meal was the result of someone’s labor. † q) The 1950s were also an era in which the kitchen—not the television room—was the heart of the home. r) In 1941, the federal government established the first Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), and the concept of basic food groups was introduced. xiii) This period was also the â€Å"golden age for food chemicals† with hundreds of additives and preservatives brought to market for the first time. ) Convenience was most important, and by the 1950s, a large variety of convenience foods made meal preparation easier than ever before. t) Advancements in technology also led to faster meal preparation. u) During the late 50s and 1960s, American’s attitudes towards nutrition changed as scientific research and other factors combined to heighten awareness. v) In 1959 came the discovery that eating polyunsaturated fats might lower serum cholesterol. xiv) This was followed in 1961 by further evidence linking cholesterol with arteriosclerosis. ) By 1962, nearly 25% of American families said they had made dietary changes that included less cholesterol. x) That same year, Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, provided fodder for the debate concerning the possibility of synthetic chemicals reaching humans through the food chain. xv) There was controversy about food chemicals in general, and the modern consumer movement was launched in 1965 following publication of Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe At Any Speed. y) 50 years ago women still managed to burn up many more calories than their counterparts today. vi) Research suggests the housework and general exercise that stay-at-home housewives did in 1953 were more successful at shedding the pounds. z) The mothers and grandmothers of today's generation burnt well in excess of 1,000 calories a day through their domesticated lifestyle, according to the study by the woman's magazine Prima. xvii) But females today get through only 556, even though seven in ten think they are healthier than the post-war generation. {) Modern women also consume a lot more calories, 2,178 a day now as opposed to 1,818 then. viii) This could be down to eating more junk food, the study suggested, as women in 1953 were more likely to cook meals from scratch with a mixture of ingredients. |) Not everything in ‘the old days' appears to have been healthier, according to Prima, which compared the lifestyles of women in 1953 and those of today. xix) They would often eat twice as many eggs and used almost twice as much cooking fat and oil as women today. xx) They also ate more sugar and less chicken. }) Most meals were served with vegetables, although it was more likely to be swede, turnips and sprouts rather than the aubergines, mange- tout or rocket favored today. ) Appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers have also played their part in reducing the amount of calories burned, the research showed. xxi) Women in 1953 would spend three hours a day doing the housework, an hour walking to and from the shops in the town center, an hour on the shopping itself and another hour making dinner. ) Many had lunch to prepare, too, as many husbands came home to eat in the middle of the day. ) More calories would have been burned, of course, walking the children to and from school, since the family car was still a rarity. Today, women drive, rather than walk, have freezers, which mean fewer shopping trips, and use supermarkets, which provide everything under one roof. xxii) It is all a far cry from 50 years ago when they would have to traipse between the butcher's, to the baker's, the greengrocer's and other specialist stores. ) Women 50 years ago didn't, however, have the benefit of 45 minutes on the treadmill or an evening class in Pilates. xxiii) In 1953, their idea of relaxation was listening to Housewives' Choice while they washed up the breakfast things or Mrs.Dale's Diary when they stopped to enjoy tea and a biscuit for elevenses. ) The children needed playing with, too, as few families had a TV set to keep them quiet. xxiv) Evening entertainment involved listening to the radio again, curling up with a book or playing board games. xxv) And in a less disposable age there was always plenty of darning and mending to do by the fire. ) Prima edi tor Maire Fahey said the magazine decided to study the contrasting lifestyles following an earlier survey, which revealed how today's women were neglecting their health. xvi) ‘It is telling that modern technology has made us two-thirds less active than we were. It goes to show the importance of exercise in the battle to maintain a healthy balance. ‘ ) Exercise and diet are not the only things to radically change over the last half-century. xxvii) Fitness and nutrition in the United States have changed tremendously in the past five decades. ) Cutting calories and exercise was the most popular method of weight loss 50 years ago. xxviii) Some fad diets such as the Mayo Clinic diet–created in the 1930's–were existent, but not the most common option in weight loss.II. Where do most of our foods come from other than America? a) Here in the US, we have several key issues. b) Specifically, every year we produce less and less of the food that our ever-growing popula tion needs. c) There’s one word that sums up nearly everything we need to know about the food industry in the United States: conglomeration. d) According to the USDA, only about 1/3 of our fruit and nuts and 1/8 of our vegetables are imported. i) About two-thirds of those imports occur during the months of December to April, showing a strong seasonal component to it. ) Mexico is far and away our biggest supplier of fruits and vegetables, taking the top spot in both categories by about a 2-to-1 margin over 2nd place. f) Canada takes 2nd place in vegetables with China a distant third. (Note that these are in dollar figures, not volume, but the relationships should hold when converted. ) g) In the fruit category, most of it comes from Central and South America, with only China (4th) to break up the Top 6 of Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Ecuador. ) The US actually does produce most of its own red meat. i) As of 2008, only about 10% of our red meat was imported, predom inantly from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. j) Fish and shellfish are our major protein imports, with nearly 80% of those being imported. k) Most of that comes from China, Canada, and Thailand. l) There is one bright spot here: most of the food Americans consume is still produced here. i. Currently, between 10 and 15 percent of all food consumed by U. S. households is imported. m) According to the U. S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed domestically come from outside the United States. n) On the other hand, we are seeing a marked increase in imports over time. o) According to USDA data, from 1999 to 2010, there was a 43. 25% increase in import volume (111% increase on a dollar basis). ii. Population growth is a partial contributor, but in that same time period, the US population only increased about 10%. p) The top three countries that we import from are Canada, Mexico, and China. iii.We are actu ally Mexico’s largest trading partners, buying 77% of their exports. q) From 1995 to 2006, imports from China grew five-fold: r) According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the United States imported $4. 1 billion worth of seafood and agricultural products from China in 2006. iv. In 1995, it was $800 million. v. From 2006 to 2008, it went up another 25%. s) In 2008, Chinese imports reached $5. 2 billion, making China the third-largest source of U. S. food imports. About 41 percent of this import value was from fish and seafood, most of it farm-raised.Juices and pickled, dried, and canned vegetables, and fruit accounted for the other 25 percent. vi. According to the USDA, about 60 percent of all American apple juice, 50 percent of garlic, 10 percent of shrimp and 2 percent of catfish are imported from China. III. How has the typical American diet changed our health and affected rates of disease in this country? a) The sedentary 20th-century lifestyle and work habits brou ght its own unpleasant consequences, which were overeating and excess weight. a) The number of overweight Americans increased from 1970 to 1990 (Klem 440). ) By the 1990s, Americans had become more conscious of their diets, eating more poultry, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer eggs and less beef. ii) They also began appreciating fresh ingredients. c) As Americans became more concerned about their diets, they also became more ecologically conscious. iii) Some Americans turned to vegan or vegetarian diets, or only started eating organic foods, which are foods grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. d) At the end of the 20th century, American eating habits and food production were increasingly taking place outside the home. v) Many people relied on restaurants and on new types of fully prepared meals to help busy families in which both adults worked full-time. e) Another sign of the public’s changing food habits was the microwave oven, probably the most widely used new kitchen appliance, since it can quickly reheat or cook food and leftovers. v) Since Americans are generally cooking less of their own food, they are more aware than at any time since the early 20th century of the quality and health standards applied to food (Heymsfield 147). ) Two-thirds of American adults are overweight, and half of these are obese. (Overweight means having a body mass index, or BMI, of 25 or greater, obese, 30 or greater: to calculate BMI, a widely used measure, take the square of your height in inches and then divide your weight, in pounds, by that number; then multiply the result by 703. g) Even adults in the upper end of the â€Å"normal† range, who have BMIs of 22 to 24, would generally live longer if they lost some fat; add in these people and it appears that â€Å"up to 80 percent of American adults should weigh less than they do,† says Walter C.Willett, M. D. , D. P. H. ’80, Stare professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the School of Public Health. h) The epidemic of obesity is a vast and growing public health problem. i) He notes that three aspects of weight—BMI, waist size, and weight gained after one’s early twenties—are linked to chances of having or dying from heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and several types of cancer, plus suffering from arthritis, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring. i) â€Å"Weight is much more important than serum cholesterol,† Willett asserts; as a cause of premature, preventable deaths, he adds, excess weight and obesity rank a very close second to smoking, partly because there are twice as many fat people as smokers. vii) In fact, since smokers tend to be leaner, the decrease in smoking prevalence has actually swelled the ranks of the fat. j) The obesity epidemic arrived with astonishing speed. k) In 1980, 46 percent of U. S. adults were overweight; by 2000, the figure was 64. 5 percent: n early a 1 percent annual increases in the ranks of the fat. iii) At this rate, by 2040, 100 percent of American adults will be overweight and â€Å"it may happen more quickly,† says John Foreyt of Baylor College of Medicine, who spoke at a conference organized by Gifford’s Oldways group in 2003. l) Foreyt noted that, 20 years ago, he rarely saw 300-pound patients; now they are common. m) Childhood obesity, also once rare, has mushroomed: 15 percent of children between ages six and 19 are now overweight, and even 10 percent of those between two and five. ix) â€Å"This may be the first generation of children who will die before their parents,† Foreyt says. ) Today, Americans eat 200 calories more food energy per day than they did 10 years ago; that alone would add 20 pounds annually to one’s bulk. o) A recent paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition argued that the poor tend toward greater obesity because eating energy-dense, highly palatable, r efined foods is cheaper per calorie consumed than buying fish and fresh fruits and vegetables. x) One explanation for our slide into overconsumption is that â€Å"the character of modern Americans is somehow inherently weak and we are incapable of discipline,† says Ludwig. i) â€Å"The food industry would love to explain obesity as a problem of personal responsibility, since it takes the onus off them for marketing fast food, soft drinks, and other high-calorie, low-quality products. † p) Never in human experience has food been available in the staggering profusion seen in North America today. xii) We are awash in edibles shipped in from around the planet; seasonality has largely disappeared. q) Food obtrudes itself constantly, seductively, into our lives—on sidewalks, in airplanes, at gas stations and movie theaters. iii) â€Å"Caloric intake is directly related to gross national product per capita,† says Moore professor of biological anthropology Richar d Wrangham. xiv) â€Å"It’s very difficult to resist the temptation to take in more calories if they are available. r) People keep regarding it as an American problem, but it’s a global problem as countries get richer. † s) Still, the lavish banquet’s first seating is right here in the United States of America. t) â€Å"The French explanation for why Americans are so big is simple,† said Jody Adams, chef/partner of Rialto, a restaurant in Harvard Square, speaking at the Oldways conference. v) â€Å"We eat lots of sugar, and we eat between meals. u) Indeed, the national response to our glut of comestibles is apparently to eat only one meal a day—all day long. xvi) We eat everywhere and at all times: at work, at play, and in transit. v) But the most powerful technology driving the obesity epidemic is television. xvii) â€Å"The best single behavioral predictor of obesity in children and adults is the amount of television viewing,† says the School of Public Health’s Gortmaker. w) â€Å"The relationship is nearly as strong as what you see between smoking and lung cancer. viii) Everybody thinks it’s because TV watching is sedentary, you’re just sitting there for hours—but that’s only about one-third of the effect. xix) Our guesstimate is that two-thirds is the effect of advertising in changing what you eat. † x) Furthermore, in some future year when the Internet merges with broadband cable TV, advertisers will be able to target their messages far more precisely. â€Å"It won’t be just to kids,† Gortmaker says. â€Å"It’ll be to your kid. † y) Since the Industrial Revolution, and particularly in the last half-century, technology has enabled us to conduct an increasingly immobile daily life. ) Even a century later, before the invention of the automobile, many farmed or at least used their bodies vigorously every day. xx) â€Å"At higher levels of a ctivity, people seem to balance their caloric intake and expenditure extremely well,† he says. xxi) â€Å"If our grandparents were farmers, they were moving all day long—not jogging for an hour, but staying active eight to 12 hours a day. {) The way we do our work has changed, and so has the way we spend our leisure time,† he continues. xxii) â€Å"The average number of television hours watched per week is close to a full-time job! ) People used to go for walks and visit their neighbors. Much of that is gone as well. † xxiii) Not only do many adults spend their work lives in front of computer screens, but also the design of public spaces outside their offices eliminates physical activity. xxiv) In skyscrapers, it’s often hard to find the stairs; electronic sensors in public restrooms are eliminating even the most minimal actions of flushing toilets or turning faucets on and off. }) Furthermore, modern children â€Å"don’t have to forage or w alk long distances,† says Lieberman. xv) â€Å"Kids today sit in front of a TV or computer. xxvi) They ride to school on a school bus. xxvii) We even have them rolling their school backpacks on wheels because we are afraid of them overloading their backbones. † ~) In sum, we no longer live like hunter-gatherers, but we still have hunter-gatherer genes. xxviii) Humans evolved in a state of ceaseless physical activity; they ate seasonally, since there was no other choice; and frequently there was nothing to eat at all. ) To get through hard winters and famines, the human body evolved a brilliant mechanism of storing energy in fat cells. The problem, for most of humanity’s time on Earth, has been a scarcity of calories, not a surfeit. ) Our fat-storage mechanism worked beautifully until 50 to 100 years ago. xxix) But since then, â€Å"The speed of environmental change has far surpassed our ability to adapt,† says Dun Gifford of Oldways. xxx) Our bodies were not designed to handle so much caloric input and so little energy outflow. ) Different scholars and popular writers have argued that human beings have â€Å"evolved† to be carnivores, herbivores, frugivores, or omnivores, but anthropologist Richard Wrangham says we are â€Å"cookivores,† grinning at the neologism. xxi) â€Å"We evolved to eat cooked foods,† he declares. â€Å"Raw food eating is never practiced systematically anywhere in the world. † ) Cooking might be considered the first food-processing technology, and like its successors, it has had profound effects on the human body, as in the growth of bones. ) Various signals influence human growth; some come from genes, and others come from the environment, particularly for the musculo-skeletal system, whose job is engaging with the environment. xxxii) Less chewing of cooked food, for example, has altered the anatomy of our skulls, jaws, faces, and teeth. xxiii) â€Å"Chewing is a major activity th at involves muscular forces,† says skeletal biologist Daniel Lieberman. â€Å"It has incredible effects on how the skull grows. † xxxiv) Chewing can transform anatomy rather quickly; in one study, in which Lieberman fed pigs a diet of softened food, in a matter of months their skulls developed shorter and narrower dimensions and their snouts developed thinner bones than those of pigs eating a hard-food diet. ) The same thing happens with human beings. xxxv) â€Å"Since the beginning of the fossil record, humans have become much more gracile,† Lieberman says. xxvi) â€Å"Our bones have become thinner, our faces smaller, and our teeth smaller—especially permanent teeth—although we have the same number of teeth. ) More recently, with the Industrial Revolution, people have become more sedentary; they interact with their environment in a less forceful way. xxxvii) We load our bones less and the bones become thinner. Osteoporosis is a disease of industri alism. † ) In today’s world, where we not only cook but eat a great deal of processed food that has been ground up before it reaches our mouths, we don’t generate as much force when chewing.In fact, for millennia human food has been growing less tough, fibrous, and hard. ) â€Å"The size of the human face has gotten about 12 percent smaller since the Paleolithic,† Lieberman says, â€Å"particularly around the oral cavity, due to the effects of mechanical loading on the size of the face. Fourteen thousand years ago, a much larger proportion of the face was between the bottom of the jaw and the nostrils. † xxxviii) The size of teeth has not decreased as fast (genetic factors control more of their variation); hence, modern teeth are actually too big for our mouths—wisdom teeth become impacted and require extraction. The health hazards of sedentary life seem like an adult problem, but actually, the skeletal system is most responsive to loading wh en it is immature. xxxix) There is only one window for accumulating bone mass—during the first two decades of life. xl) â€Å"Peak bone mass occurs at the end of adolescence,† Lieberman explains, â€Å"and we lose bone steadily thereafter. Kids who are active grow more robust bones. ) If you’re sedentary as a juvenile, you don’t grow as much bone mass—so as you get older and lose bone mass, you drop below the threshold for osteoporosis. ) Furthermore, females get osteoporosis more readily than men because they start with less adult bone mass; as life spans lengthen, says research fellow in cell biology Jennifer Sacheck, of Harvard Medical School, older men will also begin showing symptoms of osteoporosis. ) Weight-bearing exercise only slows the rate of bone loss for adults; pre-adolescent bone growth is far more important to long-term skeletal strength. Hence, the sedentary lifestyles of today’s youngsters—and the cutbacks on school physical-education programs—may be sowing the seeds of widespread skeletal breakdown as their cohort matures. The dramatic upsurge in consumption of carbonated soft drinks, paired with the simultaneous decline in milk drinking, may also weaken future bones. xli) Both milk (lactose) and soda (sucrose, fructose) are sweet, but soda is sweeter, and today’s consumers are hooked on sugar. xlii) â€Å"We probably evolved our sense of sweetness to detect subtle amounts of carbohydrates in foods, because they provide energy,† says Walter Willett. ) â€Å"But now the expectations of sweetness have been ratcheted up. xliii) A product is not deemed attractive if it is not as sweet as its competitor. ) Sugars added to foods made up 11 percent of the calories in American diets in the late 1970s; today they are 16 percent. With agriculture, human health declined, says Lieberman, partly because farming is such hard work, and partly because it allows higher population densiti es, in which infection spreads more easily. ) â€Å"There was more disease, a decrease in body size, higher mortality rates among juveniles, and more stress lines in bones and teeth,† Lieberman says. ) Cultivating grain also allowed farmers to space their children more closely. liv) Hunter-gatherers have long intervals between births, because they do not wean children until age four or five, when teeth are ready to chew hard foods. (â€Å"You can’t feed babies beef jerky,† jokes Lieberman. ) xlv) Farmers, however, can make gruel—a high-calorie mush of roots or grains like millet, taro, or oats that doesn’t require chewing—and wean children much sooner. ) Grains, the source of products such as bread, baked goods, and corn syrup, did not become plentiful in the human diet until the establishment of agriculture. xlvi) So grain farming allowed bigger families and has changed the human situation in endless ways. But while people have eaten grains for a hundred centuries, until the last half-century, most grains consumed were not heavily processed. † ) In the last 50 years, the extent of processing has increased so much that prepared breakfast cereals—even without added sugar—act exactly like sugar itself,† says pediatrics specialist David Ludwig. ) In 1981, David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto, led a team that tested various foods to determine which were best for diabetics. xlvii) They developed a â€Å"glycemic index† that ranked foods from 0 to 100, depending on how rapidly the body turned them into glucose. This work overturned some established bromides, such as the distinction between â€Å"simple† and â€Å"complex† carbohydrates: a baked russet potato, for example, traditionally defined as a complex carbohydrate, has a glycemic rating of 85 (ffl12; studies vary) whereas a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola appears on some glycemic indices at 63. xlv iii) Eating high-glycemic foods dumps large amounts of glucose suddenly into the bloodstream, triggering the pancreas to secrete insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter the body’s cells for metabolism or storage. lix) The pancreas over-responds to the spike in glucose—a more rapid rise than a hunter-gatherer’s bloodstream was likely to encounter—and secretes lots of insulin. ) But while high-glycemic foods raise blood sugar quickly, â€Å"they also leave the gastrointestinal tract quickly,† Ludwig explains. â€Å"The plug gets pulled. l) † With so much insulin circulating, blood sugar plummets. This triggers a second wave of hormones, including stress hormones like epinephrine. li) â€Å"The body puts on the emergency brakes,† says Ludwig. lii) â€Å"It releases any stored fuels—the liver starts releasing glucose. iii) This raises blood sugar back into the normal range, but at a cost to the body. † ) One cost, documented by studies at the School of Public Health, is that going through this kind of physiologic stress three to five times per day doubles the risk of heart attacks. ) Another cost is excess hunger. ) The precipitous drop in blood sugar triggers primal mechanisms in the brain: â€Å"The brain thinks the body is starving,† Ludwig explains. liv) â€Å"It doesn’t care about the 30 pounds of fat socked away, so it sends you to the refrigerator to get a quick fix, like a can of soda. ) Glycemic spikes may underlie Ludwig and Gortmaker’s finding, published in the Lancet two years ago, that each additional daily serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage multiplies the risk of obesity by 1. 6. ) Some argue that people compensate for such sugary intake by eating less later on, to balance it out, but Ludwig asserts, â€Å"We don’t compensate well when calories come in liquid form. lv) The meal has to go through your gut, where the brain gets satiety signals that slow you down. On the other hand, you could drink a 64-ounce soft drink before you knew what hit you. ) Since humans can take in large amounts of food in a short time, â€Å"we are adapted to receiving much higher glycemic loads than other primates,† says Richard Wrangham, speculating that nonhuman primates may be poor models for research on human diabetes because they have a different insulin system. lvi) The only component of the hunter-gatherer diet likely to cause extreme insulin spikes is honey, which Wrangham feels â€Å"is likely to have been very important, at least seasonally, for our ancestors. What is certain is that hunter-gatherers never experienced anything like the routine daily glucose-insulin cycles that characterize a modern diet loaded with refined sugars and starches. lvii) Constantly buffeted by these insulin surges, over time the body’s cells develop insulin resistance, a decreased response to insulin’s signal to take in glucose. lviii) W hen the cells slam their doors shut, high levels of glucose keep circulating in the bloodstream, prompting the pancreas to secrete even more insulin. This syndrome can turn into an endocrine disorder called hyperinsulinemia that sets the stage for Type II, or adult-onset, diabetes, which has become epidemic in recent years. ) Ironically, U. S. government agencies’ attempts to deal with obesity during the last three decades—encouraging people to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, for example—actually may have exacerbated the problem. ) Take the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid, first promulgated in 1992. ix) The pyramid’s diagram of dietary recommendations is a familiar sight on cereal boxes—hardly a coincidence, since the guidelines suggest six to 11 servings daily from the â€Å"bread, cereal, rice, and pasta† group. ) The USDA recommends eating more of these starches than any other category of food. lx) Unfort unately, such starches are nearly all high-glycemic carbohydrates, which drive obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and Type II diabetes. ) â€Å"At best, the USDA pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic—what to eat,† writes Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. â€Å"At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths. ) â€Å"Clearly, some food industries have for many years successfully influenced the government in ways that keep the prices of certain foods artificially low. lxi) David Ludwig questions farm subsidies of â€Å"billions to the lowest-quality foods†Ã¢â‚¬â€for example, grains like corn (â€Å"for corn sweeteners and animal feed to make Big Macs†) and wheat (â€Å"refined carbohydrates. â€Å") ) Meanwhile, the government does not subsidize far healthier items like fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts. xii) â€Å"It’s a perverse situation,† he says. â€Å"The foods that are the worst for us have an artificially low price, and the best foods cost more. lxiii) This is worse than a free market: we are creating a mirror-world here. † ) Governmental policies like cutting school budgets by dropping physical education programs may also prove to be a false economy. ) â€Å"There’s fast food sold in school cafeterias, soft drinks and candies in school vending machines, and advertising in classrooms on Channel One. ) Meanwhile there are cutbacks in physical education, as if it were a luxury.What was once daily and mandatory is now infrequent and optional. † ) Consider the flap that arose after the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report in 2003 recommending guidelines for eating to improve world nutrition and prevent chronic diseases. lxiv) Instead of applauding the report, the DHHS issued a 28-page, line-by-line critique and tried to ge t WHO to quash it. lxv) WHO recommended that people limit their intake of added sugars to no more than 10 percent of alories eaten, a guideline poorly received by the Sugar Association, a trade group that has threatened to pressure Congress to challenge the United States’ $406 million contribution to WHO. ) By the last decade of the 20th Century, Americans had become much more adventuresome eaters. lxvi) Variety of choice is nearly unbelievable. lxvii) Ethnic cuisine, once shunned, enjoys increasing popularity and the new foods introduced via that route add greatly to the variety of food choices. ) The trend toward eating out of the home continues to grow; in 1998, 47% of the food dollar was spent away from home. xviii) However, the concern for nutrition was higher than ever and that fact probably contributed to keeping some meals at home. ) Today’s families seem busier than ever. lxix) Rushing between work and school often leaves parents scrambling for time to prepare nutritious, good-tasting meals for their children. ) In fact, 44 percent of U. S. weekday meals are prepared in 30 minutes or less. ) As the quality of our diets has deteriorated over the last 50 years, certain diseases have become rampant. â€Å"Directly related to food, you hear a lot of talk about obesity-related problems in terms of diabetes, coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, and those happen in both men and women,† lxx) â€Å"Those are the general categories of ailments; there are also many specific diet-related disorders. † ) A majority of individuals are making less healthy food choices for better time management. ) Whether for good or bad, changes in diet and fitness have morphed the way people live. ) In the 1960s, it was still common to plant a garden or a fruit tree for food. xxi) Nowadays, this is not the case; in fact it is less common to grow a garden in the U. S than it was 50 years ago. ) Even quick, pop in the microwave or oven meals ha ve become more popular, despite the fact that the invention of the TV dinner occurred in 1944. lxxii) Between working and conflicting schedules, there are not as many home-cooked, healthy meals on the plates of children today. ) Obesity has reached epidemic proportions. lxxiii) In 2007 and 2008, 34 percent of Americans were obese and another 34 percent were overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. xxiv) In 1960 and 1962, only about 14 percent of Americans were obese and 31. 5 percent were overweight. lxxv) Since 1976, the number of obese children from ages 2 to 5 has nearly doubled. ) In 2011, people are looking for weight loss at a quick pace with diet pills, diet shakes, surgery and different diets such as the cabbage soup diet. lxxvi) There are more fad diets and methods of weight loss than ever before. IV. Are food allergies on the rise? If so, why? a) The number of kids with food allergies went up 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ) About 3 million children younger than 18 had a food or digestive allergy in 2007, the CDC said. c) A recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that visits to the emergency room at Children's Hospital Boston for allergic reactions more than doubled from 2001 to 2006. i) Although this is just one hospital, the findings reflect a rise in food allergies seen in national reports, said Dr. Susan Rudders, lead author and pediatric allergist-immunologist in Providence, Rhode Island. d) One theory is that the Western diet has made people more susceptible to developing allergies and other illnesses. i) The children in the African village live in a community that produces its own food. iii) The study authors say this is closer to how humans ate 10,000 years ago. iv) Their diet is mostly vegetarian. e) By contrast, the local diet of European children contains more sugar, animal fat and calorie-dense foods. v) The study authors posit that these factors result in less biodiversity in the organisms found inside the gut of European children. f) The decrease in richness of gut bacteria in Westerners may have something to do with the rise in allergies in industrialized countries, said Dr.Paolo Lionetti of the department of pediatrics at Meyer Children Hospital at the University of Florence. vi) Sanitation measures and vaccines in the West may have controlled infectious disease, but they decreased exposure to a variety of bacteria may have opened the door to these other ailments. g) Another theory is that children need to get exposed to common allergens, such as nuts and shellfish, from a much earlier age, to avoid developing allergies. vii) Some doctors have been recommending waiting until 2 or 3, but Ferdman at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is a proponent of giving kids nuts very early. iii) This could occur through breastfeeding or an unintended exposure to highly processed foods in the Western diet that may contain hidden sources of the allergens. h) Cooking practices can also affect the development of food allergies. ix) For example, roasting a peanut enhances its allergenic potential compared to other forms of preparing peanut. x) Peanut allergy is more common in the U. S. where peanuts are roasted, as compared to China where peanuts are boiled. V. Is the fast food industry hurting our waistlines and our health? How? ) American emphasis on convenience and rapid consumption is best represented in fast foods such as hamburgers, French fries, and soft drinks, which almost all Americans have eaten. b) By the 1960s and 1970s fast foods became one of America's strongest exports as franchises for McDonalds and Burger Kings spread through the world (Klem 443). c) The effect of fast food chains was infectious; they had become accepted in American society. d) Traditional meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace gave way to quick lunches and dinners eaten on the run as ot her countries mimicked American cultural patterns. ) In some ways, American food developments are contradictory. f) Americans are more aware of food quality, yet are still eating unhealthy foods due to their increasing dependence on convenience, and are also regularly eating fast foods (Heymsfield 148). i) â€Å"It’s hard for people to give up traditions,† states nutrition expert, Kathy Johnson. g) Spurlock’s total immersion in fast food was a one-subject research study, and his body’s response a warning about the way we eat now. h) â€Å"Super Size Me† could be a credo for the United States, where people, like their automobiles, have become gargantuan. i) â€Å"SUVs, big homes, penis enlargement, breast enlargement, bulking up with steroids—it’s a context of everything getting bigger,† says K. Dun Gifford ’60, LL. B. ’66, president of the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust, a nonprofit organization specializ ing in food, diet, and nutrition education. i) Steven Gortmaker, professor of society, human development, and health at the School of Public Health, observes that the convenience-food culture is so ubiquitous that even conscientious parents have trouble steering their children away from junk food. ii) â€Å"You let your kids go on a ‘play date,’† says the father of two, â€Å"and they come home and say, ‘We went to Burger King for lunch. ’† j) He notes that on any given day, 30 percent of American children aged four to 19 eat fast food, and older and wealthier ones eat even more. k) Overall, 7 percent of the U. S. population visits McDonald’s each day, and 20 to 25 percent eat in some kind of fast-food restaurant. v) But taking the family to McDonald’s for, say, Chicken McNuggets, French fries, and a sugar-sweetened beverage—a meal loaded with calories, salt, trans fats (the most unhealthy, artery-clogging fats of all, typ ified in â€Å"partially hydrogenated† oils), fried foods, starch, and sugar—makes Gortmaker shake his head. â€Å"I can’t imagine a worse meal for kids,† he says. â€Å"They call this a ‘Happy Meal’? † l) Humans can eat convenient, refined, highly processed food with great speed, enabling them to consume an astonishing caloric load—literally thousands of calories—in minutes. ) Gortmaker, Ludwig, and colleagues did research comparing caloric intake on days when children ate in a fast-food restaurant to days when they did not; they soaked up 126 calories more on fast-food days, which could translate into a weight gain of 13 pounds per year on fast food alone. m) Pumping up portion size makes good business sense, because the cost of ingredients like sugar and water for a carbonated soda is trivial, and customers perceive the larger amount as delivering greater value. vi) â€Å"When you have calories that are incredibly che ap, in a culture where ‘bigger is better,’ that’s a dangerous combination,† says Walter Willett. ) Furthermore, â€Å"Portion sizes have increased dramatically since the 1950s,† says Beatrice Lorge Rogers ’68, professor of economics and food policy at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. vii) For proof, consider a 1950s advertising jingle: â€Å"Pepsi-Cola hits the spot/12 full ounces, that’s a lot. † Well, it’s not a lot any more. o) For decades, 12 ounces (itself a move up from earlier 6. 5- and 10-ounce bottles) was the standard serving size for soft drinks. viii) But since the 1970s, soft drink bottles have grown to 20 and 24 ounces; today, even one-liter (33. 8 ounce) bottles are marketed as â€Å"single servings. ix) It doesn’t stop there. The 7-11 convenience store chain offers a Double Gulp cup filled with 64 ounces of ice and soda: a half-gallon â€Å"serving. † Surely, the 128-ounce Gallon Guzzle is on the horizon. p) Soft drinks are becoming America’s favorite breakfast beverage, and specialty sandwiches and burritos for breakfast are fast-growing items, part of the trend toward eating out for all meals. q) The restaurant industry—which employs 12 million workers (second only to government) and has projected sales of $440. 1 billion this year, according to its national association—ranks among the nation’s largest businesses. ) Today, Americans spend 49 cents of every food dollar on food eaten outside the home, where, according to Rogers, they consume 30 percent of their calories. x) That includes take-out food (which some parts of the restaurant industry now style as â€Å"home meal replacement†). s) â€Å"In some ways, you can see obesity as the tip of the iceberg, sitting on top of huge societal issues,† says Willett. xi) â€Å"There are enormous pressures on homes with both the husband and wi fe in the work force. t) One reason things need to be fast is that Mom is not at home preparing meals and waiting for the kids to come home from school any more. ii) She is out there in the office all day, commuting home, and maybe working extra hours at night. xiii) This means heating something in the microwave or hitting the drive-through at McDonald’s. u) There really is a time issue—people do have less time. v) Technology may have entrenched that passivity, while making food preparation easier and faster. w) Three Harvard economists, professors of economics Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, and graduate student Jesse Shapiro, argued in a recent paper that improved technology has cut the time needed to prepare food, allowing us to eat more conveniently. iv) For example, in 1978, they note, only 8 percent of homes had microwave ovens, but 83 percent do today. Food that once took hours to prepare is now â€Å"nuked† in minutes. x) Technology can also change what we eat. xv) Potatoes used to be baked, boiled, or mashed; the labor involved in peeling, cutting, and cooking French fries meant that few home cooks served them, the economists point out. xvi) But now factories prepare potatoes for frying and ship them to fast-food outlets or freeze them for microwave cooking at home. ) Americans ate 30 percent more potatoes between 1977 and 1995, most of that increase coming in the form of French fries and potato chips. z) In general, technology has enabled the food industry to do more of the work of preparing and cooking what we eat, increasing the proportion of processed victuals in the nation’s diet. xvii) Frequently, processing also folds in more ingredients; russet potatoes, for example, contain no added salt or oil, though most potato chips do. {) Within our laissez-faire system of food supply, the food vendors’ actions aren’t illegal, or even inherently immoral. viii) â€Å"The food industry’s major objective is to get us to intake more food,† says Gortmaker. xix) â€Å"And the TV industry’s objective is to get us to watch more television, to be sedentary. |) Advertising is the action that keeps them both successful. xx) So you’ve got two huge industries being successful at what they are supposed to do: creating more intake and less activity. xxi) And since larger people require more food energy just to sustain themselves, the food industry is growing a larger market for itself. † }) That industry spends billions of dollars on research, says Willett. xii) â€Å"They have carefully researched the exact levels of sweetness and saltiness that will make every food as attractive as possible,† he explains. xxiii) â€Å"Each company is putting out its bait, trying to make it more attractive than its competitors. ~) Food industry science is getting better, more refined, and more powerful as we go along. xxiv) They do good science—they don’t throw th eir money down the drain. ) What we spend on nutrition education is only in the tens of millions of dollars annually. xxv) There’s a huge imbalance, and it tips more and more in favor of the food industry every year. Food executives like to say, ‘Just educate the consumer—when they create the demand for healthier food, we’ll supply it! ’ xxvi) That’s a bit disingenuous when you consider that they are already spending billions to ‘educate’ consumers. † ) The food industry itself has begun to make certain investments in the direction of healthier eating. xxvii) â€Å"In the future, I see a convergence between food and health,† says Goldberg. xxviii) â€Å"The food industry has been warned of the backlash that could hit them, like it did tobacco. ) He suggests that the food industry will become more responsive to consumers’ health concerns regarding issues like bioengineered ingredients in foodstuffs. ) People â€Å"want a diversity of sources for their food, and traceability of sources,† he says. ) â€Å"The bar code will become a vehicle not just for pricing, but for describing and listing ingredients. † ) Even fast-food chains are changing; in the past year, they reported a 16 percent growth in servings of main-dish salads. ) Willet sees no reason why healthy eating should not be as delicious and attractive as junk food, and the franchisers may be headed that way as well. xix) McDonald’s is currently testing an adult meal that includes a pedometer and â€Å"Step With It† booklet along with any entree salad. In its kids’ meals, Wendy’s is trying out fruit cups with melon slices instead of French fries. xxx) Yogurt manufacturer Stonyfield Farm has launched a chain of healthful fast-food restaurants called O’Naturals. ) Doritos themselves are getting healthier. xxxi) Fitness expert Kenneth Cooper, M. P. H. ’62, founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, has been working with PepsiCo’s CEO, Steven S. Reinemund, to develop new products and modify existing items in a healthier direction. The company’s Frito-Lay unit last year eliminated trans fats from its salty offerings. xxxii) Frito-Lay introduced organic, healthier versions of Doritos and Cheetos under the Natural sub-brand. † xxxiii) As a result, 55 million pounds of trans fats will be removed from the American diet over the next 12 months,† Cooper says. ) PepsiCo is in 150 countries, and many of their healthier products will soon be promoted throughout the world. ) Physical fitness is good business for the individual and for the corporation. † ) PepsiCo sells plenty of food and beverages from vending machines, many of them in schools. xxiv) â€Å"You don’t resolve the obesity problem in children by taking the vending machines out of schools,† Cooper declares. â€Å"Kids will still get what they want. xxxv) Put better products in the machines and get physical education back in the schools. † ) Accordingly, PepsiCo is stocking some school machines with fruit juices from its Tropicana and Dole brands, Gatorade, and Aquafina bottled water; others offer Frito-Lay products that meet Cooper’s â€Å"Class I† standard: no trans fats and restricted amounts of calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. Fast food has become a staple for many individuals. xxxvi) Though fast food was developed in the 1930s, it has peaked in popularity during the past two decades. ) According to CBS HealthWatch, at least a quarter of all Americans eat at McDonald's once per day. 1) How have your own dietary practices changed over the years? 2) How have your dietary practices changed since taking a course in nutrition?