Blog Post 1
October 28, 2009 by cauyeung
Ever since I was young, beef was my favorite meat and has always been a major part of my diet. My dad would by a couple pounds of steak every time we go to Pathmark. Before attending this course, I had a very bad habit of going to fast food restaurants. During the beginning of my senior year of high school, I would go to McDonalds every Saturday after my SAT tutoring class. Up until we watched King Corn, I didn’t know there were such things as corn-fed beef and grass-fed beef. I thought all beef came from field roaming cows. Every October around Columbus Day, my family and my uncles family would drive to upstate New York and go apple picking. On our way there, we passed by a lot of farms that contains a large field with happy, healthy, free-roaming cows. That gave me the idea that all cows were raised like this. Ever since I learned about corn-fed beef and how most of the meat we eat consists of fats, I lost my desire in eating a lot beef and I also stopped eating at fast food restaurants. I find it disgusting how they trap the cows in a tight area to prevent them from moving around and how they feed them a solid corn diet.
After watching the movie, reading the articles and listening to the discussions, I started watching what I eat. I started consuming less and less junk food such as soda because of the high fructose corn syrup. Instead of bringing a bottle of soda or juice to school everyday I started bringing a bottle of water. I also talked with my parents about shopping at kosher stores more often. However, there are no kosher stores in my neighborhood. The closest store we know of is in a Jewish neighborhood near where my uncle lives. Because of this course, I am becoming more aware of the food world. It changed my view on lots of foods like junk foods and meats. It led me to start making healthier choices when it comes to food.
Being from Middle Eastern decent, food has always been a major part of my culture and daily life. Prior to this class, my only major concern about the food that I was eating was whether the meat I was eating was halal. According to Islamic law, halal meat is meat that has been killed in a certain matter similar to that of kosher meat. After reading the essay “Kosher Wars” I realized that certain Jewish practices are very similar to that of Islamic practices. For example, Muslims are also very cautious about the animals they eat. As Muslims, we are also forbidden from eating certain animals in particular pigs. The pig is considered as simply unhealthy as well as a filthy animal to eat considering a pig will eat anything and is surrounded by an unclean environment. However, similar to Jewish practices animals have to be treated with respect and not abused. When the animal is killed, certain phrases are said which essentially “blesses” the meat and makes it suitable to eat. Living in a non-Islamic country, it has always been difficult to find places which serve/offer halal meat. After reading the essay, I realize that it’s not only difficult for Muslims to find halal meat, but it’s difficult for Jews to find kosher meat as well. It’s somewhat reassuring to know that as Muslims we aren’t the only ones who struggle to practice our beliefs.
During the past two months, I’ve become much more conscientious of the type of food I eat. I’ve realized that a lot of the foods we eat have high amounts of corn syrup, much more than we would ever really imagine. After watching King Corn I’ve realized that nearly all the food we consume in America has traces of corn syrup as an ingredient. These excessive levels of corn syrup have been causing major health concerns, in particular diabetes. Having a strong family history of diabetes, this issue hits close to home knowing how much of an impact living diabetes effects one’s everyday lifestyle. Even though its not necessarily cheaper, I believe that it’s necessary for everyone’s general welfare to start eating healthier foods rather than continuing to eat processed foods.