EE2 Final Version

Extend Essay 2

Linxiao Fu

WRIT-1133

Instructor: Eric Leake

5/28/2013

Seafood Manifesto

“What does seafood exactly mean to me?” I have been asking myself this question throughout this quarter. When I was thinking about food, seafood always sprang into my mind immediately. As a traditional person, though I would like to try different food cuisine with diverse culture backgrounds, I still believe that seafood is always my favorite food ingredient, and of course my first food choice. Further, I choose seafood not only because I am a traditional person, but also attributable to the nutritional factor and my profound emotions toward my hometown. As everyone knows, seafood contains a large amount of valuable nutrients that highly benefit people’s health, such as omega-3fatty acids, different trace elements and vitamins. And as a hometown food, it also plays a vital role in my entire life because it has accompanied me for such a long period since I can remember. Therefore, I believe that I have to write a seafood manifesto to discuss how seafood do a fantastic job to protect people from diseases, as well as deeply express my feelings about seafood by representing my own experiences and the culture related to seafood in my hometown.

To begin with, Seafood plays a crucial role in human being’s healthy diet as it provides people a considerable amount of different nutrients that their bodies need every day. I can easily perceive the benefits of seafood form my personal experiences without reading any scientists’ researches because seafood directly helped me went through an extremely hard time successfully in my childhood. I was a hospital regular when I was in primary school. My mother took me to see the doctors several times every year, for I often had fevers caused by seasonal influenza in spring time because of the special weather in south east of China. I can still remember the tough time that I spent in the hospital accompanied by antibiotic and other different drugs in March and April. My mother became upset during that period because my situation did not become better after we went to several hospitals including some best ones in Shanghai. Fortunately, as I said in my first short essay, I became addicted to eating seafood at that time because I was fascinated by my grandfather’s fantastic adventures in the sea. Several years later, my situation became much better than before without any help of drugs. I did not know the reason why seafood could help me out of trouble, but from then on, I automatically relied more on seafood in my diets.

 As Toula Perrea reveals in his essay “Decomposing the (seafood versus meat) evening meal decision-making sequence,” that seafood products take a prominent position in the human diet due to their beneficial effect on chronic degenerative diseases (Perrea). Wounding why seafood can protect people from various diseases, I decided to search on the Internet, and found many researches telling about the benefits about seafood. Some health authorities and related organizations are very interested in persuading people to have seafood frequently. Referring to the book “What’s so healthy about seafood”, the Australian authority represents many evidences to demonstrate that seafood in recent years has extent its image as a cornerstone of a healthy diet, to more specialized roles in disease prevention, especially when heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity are taken into account. For instance, a famous coronary heart disease studies, conducted by Nordic scientists in 1970s, concluded that Eskimos had one-tenth to one-third the heart attach rate of Danes because those people often eat seafood. The seafood lead them have much lower blood cholesterol, triglyceride and ‘bad’ cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, LDL) levels, and higher ‘good’ cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, HDL) levels than others (Australia Government, 7). What’s more, in order to persuade Americans consume more seafood in their daily diets, in their article, “What Should We Eat? Evidence from Observational Studies,” Stephen M. Adams, and John B. Standridge state that seafood can directly results in the reduced rates of a multitude of different diseases in the United States of America, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes, which together account for 61% of all death in the US (Adams&Standridg, P747).

Furthermore, compared with other dietary sources, such as eggs, milk, beef, pork and chicken, seafood contains a higher quality protein and more comprehensive nutrients. As Judy Sheeshka and Elaine Murkin elaborate in their essay "Nutritional Aspects of Fish Compared with Other Protein Sources,"

Fish (both lean and fatty) is one of the few foods that contain n-3(omega-3) fatty acids, a class of fatty acids that are essential for the development of the nervous system and that may have other beneficial health effects. Calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin A, niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin D tend to be low in U.S. diets; fish supplies all of these vitamins and minerals, in addition to others. (Sheeshka& Murkin, p397). 

So as a protein source that has low saturates fat content and can contribute to calorie-controlled weight loss diet, seafood can be more helpful for people to get the necessary proteins as it replaces high-fat sources of protein.

However, opponents may argue that many main nutrients that we get form seafood are available through health care products now, and it is more convenient for people to take finish oil capsules every day than having seafood in their diets. With the fast paced development of technology and science, people can easily get rid of complicate food materials by simply taking various kinds of nutrients. However, I totally disagree with this idea. After taking this course, I realized that food not only represents a simple definition for people get to energy and nutrients, but also embodies more sophisticated contents about value, culture, and even people’s emotions. My home is seated at Shenjiamen Town, Zhoushan Archipelago, which is the fishing industry capital of China. And now Bergen Harbor in Norway and Callao Port in Peru, Shenjiamen port are named the three most popular fishing ports in the world (Zhoushan Government). Initially, my hometown was just a barren island; however, after several centuries struggling, our ancestors not only changed people’s living environments, but also developed a distinctive culture spirit here. Though the ocean leads people to recognize how tiny they are; however, this feel not brought people in my hometown depress, but stirred up their courage to conquer all the obstacles in front of us. The pioneering spirit of adventure is one of the most influential spirits, which encourages Zhou Shan people to fight with the endless ocean when they left home for fishing because in order to stay in the sea for months, fishermen have to go through sinister storms or even other worse situations successfully. These experiences foster people's spirit of adventure, and lead navigation to become a brave career. Fishermen all regard seafood as their lives, and ocean as their home. They can go wherever to catch fish. Fishermen in my hometown also pay attention to the spirit of solidarity. It is always full of risk for fishermen sailed into the sea, which contribute ancestors in this island to stick together, to closer cooperation to overcome the storm. Fishermen are proud of their adventures in the sea, just like my grandpa, who always told me different stories about his experiences. Although some situations were so dangerous that might take his life in the next second, he still felt excited about those experiences and said that he undoubtedly would choose to stay on the sea again, if he had a second choice to choose his career. I could see his smiles, when he recalled his friends and those adventures in his old ago.

Seafood does not simply mean food to me; it also acts a positive and bravery attitude toward life and the attitude have entirely blended into my blood. I do not think I can live happily without eating seafood. I always imaging the scenes that my pioneering ancestors first landed to a new region, and strived to survive and even adapt to the new environment by developing an approach of food productions. Such producing methods and the food value were inherited by their descendants, generation after generation, till now. Thus, food is not only something on which we lived, but also embodied a gem of wisdom from our predecessors. As Charles Patrick Fitzgerald illustrates in his essay, “Food in Chinese Culture,” salad and bread for several days will drive Chinese people crazy, only rice could make us in comfort, just because we Chinese people are grown in a different culture, which highly approve stir-fried vegetable and rice (Fitzgerald, P285). For me, a child who was born in the island, seafood plays a vital role during my daily life and serves as a linkage between me and my home. Now living in Denver, although seafood is not available as easy as in my hometown, I still try my best to find the place providing seafood cuisines to comfort my appetite and emotions. Even in a restaurant which does not serve seafood dishes, I always intended to choose food which is more similar with the food I usually get when in hometown. Food from my culture has already emerged with me as if we were one and could not be separated with each other.

All in all, seafood is a crucial source contains a larger amount of nutrients to protect people from being attacked by some common diseases as it is valued as a source of omega-3 fatty acid, different kinds of vitamins and trace elements. Furthermore, acting as a symbol of my hometown, seafood also blends into my physical and mental life. As I have already written in the first short essay, seafood represents different meanings in different stages of my life. No matter in the childhood, teenager hood, or even now studying in the United States of America, I was always surrounded by seafood. Although, I have different standards to choose food; however, all of these standards, such as nutrition, tradition and emotions all point to one thing: seafood. So seafood epitomizes numerous values in my individual life, and these valuable meanings of seafood only belong to me. I am sure the food and all those kinds of feelings are deeply rooted in my heart, and will never change.

Works Cited

Adams, Stephen M., and John B. Standridge. "What should we Eat? Evidence from        Observational Studies." Southern medical journal 99.7 (2006): 744-8. Print.

Mozaffarian, Dariush, and Eric B. Rimm. "Fish Intake, Contaminants, and Human        Health: Evaluating the Risks and the Benefits." JAMA: The Journal of the     American        Medical Association, sec. 296: 1885. 2006. Print.

Sheeshka, Judy, and Elaine Murkin. "Nutritional Aspects of Fish Compared with        Other Protein Sources." Comments on Toxicology 8.4-6 (2002): 375-97. Print.

Toula Perrea, et al. "Decomposing the (Seafood Versus Meat) Evening Meal        Decision-Making Sequence." British Food Journal 114.11 (2012): 1533-57. Print. "What's so Healthy about Seafood?" FOOD AUSTRALIA 54.3 (2002): 85-. Print.

FitzGerald, C. P. Food in Chinese Culture. 51 Vol. Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia, 1978. Print.

Zhoushan Municipal People's Government Office. 2011. Web. May 30, 2013.

       <http://www.zhoushan.gov.cn/en/tourism/tourism.htm>

FInal Post

What are the most interesting or useful things you've learned about food and research writing in this course? Why does that matter? How might you build upon or employ that knowledge in the future?

The most interesting thing about food that I learned in this course is the value of food, and culture behind  food ingredient. And we connect food with our own experiences, so that we can understand food much better. As human beings, we have to get food every day. It is very important to discuss food in the recent society, and there are many topics that we can pick up. And we also do a lot of researches in this quarter than the last one. Many reading materials to help us know other's thoughts about food and value. I think this course help a lot in my reading and academic writing. 

EE2

Seafood Manifesto

“What does seafood exactly mean to me?” I have been asking myself this question throughout this quarter. I did not recognize the food value in my life, until I took this writing course. As I can remember, when I was thinking about what to write in my first essay, Seafood immediately sprang to mind. Actually, I am not really a big fan of different cuisine of food. As I said in my form blog, I am a traditional person. Although I would like to try different food cuisine with various culture background, I am still sure that seafood is always my favorite food intergradient in my life, and of course my first food choice. Frankly, I choose seafood not only because I am a traditional person, but also attributable to the nutritional factor and my profound emotion toward my hometown. Seafood contains a large amount of helpful nutrients that highly benefit people’s health, such as omega-3fatty acids, different trace elements and vitamins. As a hometown food, it also plays a crucial part in my entirely life, as it has been accompany with me since I can remember. So I think I have to write a seafood manifesto to discuss how seafood do a good job to protect people from diseases, as well as deeply express my feelings about seafood by representing my own experiences and the culture related to seafood in my hometown.

To begin with, seafood is an important part of human being’s healthy diet, as it provides us a large amount of different nutrients that our bodies need every day. As Toula Perrea reveals in his essay “Decomposing the (seafood versus meat) evening meal decision-making sequence,” it is recommended that fish and seafood products take a prominent position in the human diet due to their beneficial effect on chronic degenerative diseases (Perrea). Therefore, the health authority and some related organizations are really interested in persuading people to have seafood frequently. Referring to the Australia Government demonstrates in the book “What’s so healthy about seafood”, the authority represents many evidence to prove that seafood in recent years has extent its image as a cornerstone of a healthy diet, to more specialized roles in disease prevention, especially when heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity are taken into account. For instance, they reveals that some famous coronary heart disease studies conduct by Nordic scientists in 1970s concluded that Eskimos had one-tenth to one-third the heart attach rate of Danes, because those people often eat seafood, which lead them have much lower blood cholesterol, triglyceride and ‘bad’ cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, LDL) levels, and higher ‘good’ cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, HDL) levels, than others (Australia Government, 7). What’s more, to persuade Americans consume more seafood in their daily diets, in their article, “What Should We Eat? Evidence from Observational Studies” Stephen M. Adams, and John B. Standridge directly state the relationship between seafood and four usual diseases (heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes), which together account for 61% of all death in the US (Adams&Standridg, P747).

Concerning about my own experiences, the benefits of seafood are really obvious so that I can easily perceive form my personal life without reading any scientists’ researches, as it helped me went through an extremely hard time when I was a little kid. I was a hospital regular when I was in primary school. My mother took me to see the doctors several times every year, as I often had fevers caused by seasonal influenza, because of my poor constitution as well as the tough rainy day in spring in the southeast of China. I can still remember that in March and April every year, I always spent several days in the hospital accompanied by antibiotic and other different drugs. My mother became really upset during that period, and we went to several hospitals including some best ones in Shanghai without any help with my condition. Fortunately, I became addicted to seafood. I ate And after several year, I situation became much better. I did not know the specific reason why seafood could help me out of trouble, but from then then on, I automatically relied more on seafood in my diet. Furthermore, compared with other dietary sources, such as eggs, milk, beef, pork and chicken, seafood contains a higher quality protein and more comprehensive nutrients. As Judy Sheeshka and Elaine Murkin elaborate in their essay "Nutritional Aspects of Fish Compared with Other Protein Sources,"

Fish (both lean and fatty) is one of the few foods that contain n-3(omega-3) fatty acids, a class of fatty acids that are essential for the development of the nervous system and that may have other beneficial health effects. Calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin A, niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin D tend to be low in U.S. diets; fish supplies all of these vitamins and minerals, in addition to others (Sheeshka& Murkin, p397). 

So as a protein source that has low saturates fat content and can contribute usefully to calorie-controlled weight loss diet, Seafood can be more helpful for people to get the necessary proteins, particularly when it replaces high-fat sources of protein.

However, opponents may argue that many main nutrients that we get form seafood are all contained by the fish oil. So it is more convenient for us to intake the finish oil capsules every day instead of having seafood in our diet, as the fresh seafood is much more expensive than other common dietary sources. With the fast paced development of technology and science, people can easily get rid of having the complicate food materials by direct taking the nutrients. However, I totally disagree with this idea. After taking this course I realized that food is not only represents a simple definition for people get to energy and nutrients, but also embodies a more sophisticated content about value, culture, and even people’s emotion. After several decades struggling, by practicing the our ancestors’ fishing spirit, the further generations in this island not only changed people’s living environment through the seafood, but also develop a very distinctive culture spirit in my hometown. The oceans lead people to recognize how tiny they are; however, this feel not make people depress, but stir up their courage to conquer all the obstacles in front of us. The pioneering spirit of adventure is one of the most important spirits, which encourages Zhou Shan people to fight with the endless ocean when they left home for fishing. Staying on the sea for months, fishermen have to go through sinister storm or even other worse situations successfully. These experiences foster people's spirit of adventure, and lead navigation to become a brave career. Fishermen all regard seafood as their lives and sea as their home. They can go wherever to catch fish. Fishermen in my hometown also pay attention to the spirit of solidarity. It is always full of risk for fishermen sailed into the sea, which contribute our ancestors in this island to stick together, to closer cooperation to overcome the storm. Fishermen are proud of their adventures in the sea, just like my grandpa, who was always told me different stories about his experiences. Although some situations are so dangerous that took his life in the next second, he still felt excited about those experiences and said that he would definitely choose to stay on the sea and fishing if he had a second coice to choose his career. I could see his smiles, when he recalled his friends and those adventures in his old ago. He often told me that he would never left sea until he died but for the entirely family to take care. So fish and seafood doesn’t simply means food to me, they are also a attitude toward life, and it has entirely blended into my blood. I do not think I can live happily without eating seafood.

Food also presents a nationality or a culture. Dating back to thousands years ago, our pioneering ancestors first landed to a new and original region and strived to make themselves adapt to and survived in the new environment by developing an approach of food production, which was suitable to the local condition, and also feeding them well. Such way of food producing and the certain food produced thought the method were inherited by their descendants, generation after generation, till our time. Thus food is not only something on which we live, but also a gem of wisdom from our predecessor; and in turn, our teats, our bodies and our minds were also deeply embodied with our traditional food and its flavor. Used to stir-fried vegetable and rice, serving of Salad and bread for several days will drive a Chinese people crazy, only rice could make us in comfort. And for me, a child who was born in island, seafood plays an important role during my daily life and served as a linkage between me and home. In Denver, seafood is not available as easy as in my hometown, but I still try my best to find the place serving seafood to easy my appetite as well as my emotion. And even in a restaurant who does not serve seafood, I always intended to choose food which is more similar with the food I usually get when in hometown. Food from my culture has already emerged with me, as if we were one and could not be separated with each other.

All in all, seafood is not only an important source of a larger amount of nutrients, but also an excellent food integrant to protect people from being attacked by some common diseases. It is valued as a source of omega-3 fatty acid, different kinds of vitamins and trace elements. It also blends into my physical and mental life, as it is a symbol of my hometown. As I have already writes in the first short essay, seafood represents different meanings in different stages of my life. No matter in the childhood, teenager hood, or even now studying in the United States of America, I was always surrounded by seafood. In different of my life, I may different standards to choose food; however, all of these standards, such as nutrition, tradition and emotion all point to one thing: seafood. So seafood represents numerous values in my individual life, and these valuable meanings of seafood only belong to me. I am sure the food and all those kinds of feelings are deeply rooted in my heart, and will never change.

Works Cited

Adams, Stephen M., and John B. Standridge. "What should we Eat? Evidence from        Observational Studies." Southern medical journal 99.7 (2006): 744-8. Print.

Mozaffarian, Dariush, and Eric B. Rimm. "Fish Intake, Contaminants, and Human        Health: Evaluating the Risks and the Benefits." JAMA: The Journal of the     American        Medical Association, sec. 296: 1885. 2006. Print.

Sheeshka, Judy, and Elaine Murkin. "Nutritional Aspects of Fish Compared with        Other Protein Sources." Comments on Toxicology 8.4-6 (2002): 375-97. Print.

Toula Perrea, et al. "Decomposing the (Seafood Versus Meat) Evening Meal        Decision-Making Sequence." British Food Journal 114.11 (2012): 1533-57. Print. "What's so Healthy about Seafood?" FOOD AUSTRALIA 54.3 (2002): 85-. Print.

P9

P9: Read the essays by Pollan (“Unhappy Meals”) and Dupuis. Write a post in which you connect the essays to one another and to a contemporary food issue. In other words, read the essays alongside one another and use that reading to inform your commentary on an aspect of our food cultures.

In the article ”Unhappy meals,” and “History of food advice”, Pollan and Dupuis illustrated their opinions regarding to a prevailing argument regarding to “what should a health-conscious society eat”.

Pollan shows lots of examples of how nowadays people transferred from food-concentrated into nutrition-concentrated. Thanks to the development of our science, the nutrition a certain food contains can be easily accessed and people stared to base their food selection on nutrition rather than the food itself. But is nutrition-based food selection really a good way to solve today’s bad eating habit problems? Pollan holds the opposite opinions. People “takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle”, make the experts advice, hard to insist, thus we continue to eat badly. And the final solution Pollan suggested is to go back to the old days, like our ancestors, eats the “real” food which is free of any additives in it. And Du Puis tracking back to the history that how the “spirit of Gluttony” arose. Worker asked for more wages, more compensation because they want to more meat to achieve a feeling of satisfaction. The eating problem is more like to be linked with political decisions since the fatty is more likely a signal of poor rather than wealth due to the political decision of producing cheaper meat and corns, which make the low income class fatter.

The two essays claims from different perspective about the solution of nowadays eating paradox. It is true that nutritirism are playing a more and more serious role in our food selection. People want to be healthy and constrain the food (or the nutrition) they could intake on a daily base. But it is not the real attitude towards life. Eating is an inherited gift and we could not live without eating. Gluttony is not unusual to be seen in a young girl who insisted several days of strict diet. Only if we can combined the way of healthy eating into our lifestyle, making it part of our daily life, then we would eventually get the answer of “What to eat”, in a satisfied way.    

In class Post

How do you decide what to eat? What values you like to inform those choice? How and Why?


I am a pretty traditional people so I usually eat the food I have gotten used to. I prefer to eat delicious food with some different nutrients. From my perspective, the Chinese traditional cuisine concerned more about people's health. So I often drive to eat at Chinese restaurant with my friends. And it will take about 1 hour for us to have dinner.

SE5 Fast Food in College Students’ Lives

Fast Food in College Students’ Lives

      What do the college students usually eat in their lives? Deeply influenced by Food Inc, I am wondering the eating habits of American college students as well as the differences of eating habits between the sexes. As the National Restaurant Association reveals in the “Quick service restaurant trends”, back to the history, the frequency of fast food consumption has dramatically increased since the early 1970s, as with the rapid paced society development, people prefer to in the fast food restaurant in which food can be ordered, purchased, and received in less than 10 minutes. However, since obesity problem has became more and more important in our community recently, many healthy associations tanks actions such as conducting researches, producing propaganda, to inform people how junk food do harm to their health. Americans concern more about the healthy eating and nutrients. However, have recognized the negative impact of fast food, Americans still cannot live without eating it due to its cost, convenience, and taste. This essay explores the eating habits and healthy concerning among the college students to see their attitude towards the fast food.

      College students are more willing to go to fast food restaurant than other people in this community. Referring to the research by the National restaurant Association, Washington, DC in 2003, the average American ears out about 4 times weekly, frequently at fast-food restaurants; however, college students have been reported to eat meals at fast-food restaurant 6 to 8 times weekly, which indicates that the fast food has considerably contribute to the nutrient intakes of college students in the United States. The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey pointed out that 74% of college students did not eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables per day and 22% had eaten 3 or more high-fat foods daily. Both of these two studies indicate that college students have higher fast food consumptions than other groups of people. After healthy organizations successfully spreading the negative impact of fast food on people’s health, more college students realize that obesity is a big issue for their further development. Students generally impose restrictions on themselves to go to fast food restaurant to have dinners, and go to gym several times a week.

      Although college students reduce frequency to go to the fast food restaurant, they are reported often skip meals more frequently, especially breakfast. According to Driskell JA, Kim Y-N and Goebel KJ’s essay “Few differences found in the typical eating and physical activity habits of lower-level and upper- level university students,” 57% of the undergraduate students typically eating breakfast almost every day; however, now less college student are reported typically do that. College students often argue that they don’t have enough time to have breakfast, especially those who have sessions at 8:00am. An unscientific rest schedule is also a significant factor contributed to irregular eating habits among the current college student. For example, many students would not sleep until 1:00am. They often feel hungry around 11:30pm, although they have already had dinner. They would have no choice but order fast food, like Pizza, burger, as almost all that regular restaurants were closed at that time. Eating high calorie food at midnight and before bedtime definitely do harm to students’ heath, and it would also influence their sleep quality, which further have a negative impact on their study in the next day.

      In additions, in the study “Differences exist in the eating habits of university men and women at fast-food restaurants” Judy A. Driskell, Brian R. Meckna and Narissa E. Scales’s compared the college students’ eating habits with different sex. They pointed out that boys eat more fast food than woman, as they are concerned more about convenience, cost and menu choice. Limited time and enjoy the taste were the 2 main reasons subjects gave for choosing to eat fast food. However, girls declare that they concern more about eating with friends and families. Furthermore, female college students in the current study more often indicated that nutritional information influenced their food choices at fast-food restaurants than men, as female students pay more attention to the food label when they are consuming in the restaurant. Another instance is that a larger percentage of men ordered carbonated soda; however, women are inclined to diet carbonated soda.

   

Works Cited

Driskell, Judy A., Brian R. Meckna, and Narissa E. Scales. "Differences Exist in the Eating Habits of University Men and Women at Fast-Food Restaurants." Nutrition Research 26.10 (2006): 524-30. Print.

Driskell JA, Kim Y-N, Goebel KJ. Few differences found in the typical eating and physical activity habits of lower-level and upper- level university students. J Am Diet Assoc 2005.

National Restaurant Association. Quick service restaurant trends. Washington, DC7 National Restaurant Association; 2005. 

Recourse

The essay discuss the American eating habits in recent 30 years, also talk about some other things about the future development.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/05/us/study-finds-a-three-decade-gain-in-american-eating-habits-but-a-long-way-to-go.html

P8

Friday:

  Breakfast: Omelet egg, bacon and milk

  Lunch: sushi buffet, BBQ beef, garden salad and Coco

  Dinner: hawaii pizza, BBQ chicken wings 

Saturday:

  Breakfast: None

  Lunch: chicken caesar flatbread sandwich, iced cameral latte   

  Dinner: grill chicken, beef hamburg, french fries and iced tea with raspberry flavor   

Sunday:

  Breakfast: soy milk, fried egg

  Lunch: Jason's Thai:rice, Fried cabbage with potato, and fried egg with pork 

  Dinner: Vietnam pho, spring roll with shrimp inside 

Other: starbucks white chocolate mocha and double chocolate  Frappuccino 

SE4 History of Onion

The History of Onion

      Last weekend, I went to Jason’s Thai to have dinner with my friends. It was an excellent experience, as I offered myself an Stewed Chicken with Three Cups Sauce， and talked with the cooker in that restaurant about how to make the Chinese cuisine ourselves at home. Onion is one of most important ingredients on that dish, and additionally, it is also my favorite food ingredient, as onion is able to match with various ingredients to make dishes, tastes delicious and contains various nutrients. I was curious about onion since I was a little child, as I feel it is interesting that onions would make people cry when they are cutting onions. So I want to know more about onion after doing some reach about its history. After exploring the history of onion from different regions in the world, I found out that there are only vague records about onion in history, and due to the communities’ culture variety, onion acts as different characters in ancient people’s lives.

      Through the research, there is no conclusive opinion about the exact location and time of their birth, since there are few intact sources about the history of onion for scientists and historians to trace. As Shultz Susan demonstrates in his essay, “Onions. Journal of Agricultural & Food Information”, the fragmentary evidences discovered in different area worldwide contribute to the food historians and scientists’ conflicting opinions about the birth-land of onion. Some botanists and food historians believe onions originated in central Asia; however, others suggest that onions were first grown in Iran and West Pakistan. Since onions grew wild in various regions, they were probably consumed for thousands of years and planed by the different races’ ancestors contemporaneously all over the world. Most researchers agree the onion has been cultivated for 5000 years or more.

   Despite the reason that onions were historically large-scaled grew in numerous regions, from my prospective, the various types of onions are also a critical factor contributes to the disagreements of its birth-land. Frankly, it is extremely hard for historians to collect detailed data of all kinds of onions existed before, and compare and analyze all this information at the same time. Generally, in our daily lives, People tend to divide the bulb onion into three categories owing to the color: yellow onion, red onion and white onions. As Charleston Daily Mail explains in the "Tears of Joy, Onion Facts," that yellow onions are full-flavored and are a reliable standby for cooking almost anything. The red onion, with its wonderful color, is a good choice for fresh uses or in grilling and charbroiling. As for the white ones, which are the traditional onion, are often used in classic Mexican cuisine (Charleston Daily Mail). However, there are also other types of onion widely used in other countries, not in the United States. For instance, as the Chinese people believe that the green onion can perfectly blend with various food ingredients to make the dishes much more delicious as well as colorful, they add green onions into almost all the Chinese cuisine.

      By referring to The National Onion Association’s discuss about how onion was used in different countries in the ancient ages, I realized that due to the communities’ culture variety, onion acts as different characters in people’s lives. Onion was used in Egypt to do fete. As the National Onion Association writes in “History of Onion”, some wall paintings showed the Egyptian priests are pictured holding onions in his hand or covering an altar with a bundle of their leaves or roots. What’s more, the famous Indian medical treatise Charaka Sanhita discovered onion could work as a medicine because it was good for digestion, the heart, the eyes, and the joints (History of Onion). Onion had a superficial function in ancient Greek athletes’ lives, as they often used onions to strengthen themselves in the Olympic games. And in middle ages, the three main vegetables of European cuisine were beans, cabbage, and onions. In addition to serving as a food for both the poor and the wealthy, onions were prescribed to alleviate headaches, snakebites, and hair loss. They were also used as rent payments and wedding gifts (History of Onion).

      Throughout the reach, I got some basic information about onion in the history in different countries as well as under different culture background. Although we cannot draw a exact conclusion about where onion was originally grew and when it firstly came into people’s life, we can still understand that it has had a significant influence on us since 5000 year ago. 

Works Citied

"Tears of Joy, Onion Facts." Charleston Daily Mail: 0. Jun 25 2003. ProQuest. Web. 5   May 2013.

Shultz, Susan. "Onions." Journal of Agricultural & Food Information 11.1 (2010): 8-15.   Print.

“History of Onion”, The National Onion Association         http://onions-usa.org/all-about-onions/history-of-onions

P7

For my understanding, all the three articles point out the conflicts between the industrialization of modern food production caused by out increasing demand for food and the right way we should produce the food, from a traditional and humanity’s perspective.

In Christopher Cook’s info graphic, “Fowl Trouble,” he introduces how the workers in the chicken production industry were treated resulted by the increasing demand for chicken. As more and more chicken were requested and consumed and in order to make the demand and supply meet, USA upgrade the limited level of bird which focused on inspector’s capability of exanimating the bird, but fail to consider the amount that a farm work could handle. Underpayment, serious working environment, and excessive working burden leading to the unhealthy of worker’s physical condition, as well as their mental condition. It is ironical to admit that such a fact runs contrary to the initial health-conscious consideration-chicken is healthier than red meat.  

    In Michael Pollan’s piece, “An Animal’s Place,” he claims about how the industrialization changes the treatment of animals over time. Cited the example that how pigs and dogs used to get Christmas gifts, Pollan seriously questions the attitude we have towards to animals.  With the progress and prosperous the industry revolution bring to us, people were becoming more focusing on own benefit than any other time. By illustrating that some animals are sentenced to a life of suffering in our history, he makes an argument about whether or not it is acceptable to breed animals for a life of suffering and whether or not people should care about the procedure how their food were produced.

  In Barry Estabrook’s Introduction to “Tomatoland,” he write about how the demand and mass production changes the way the tomato was originally produced. In his article, Barry cites that tomato was initial found in northern Peru and southern Ecuador, which are very dry regions that facilitate the growth of tomatoes. Now one third of tomatoes are now grown in Florida in order to keep up with global demand. Florida is humidity and not suitable for tomato’s growth, worker should spear more effect to prevent the tomato from unharvest. Large demand and “severe” drive down the working condition seriously.

In comparison, all the three pieces talked about the change in the production procedure in mass-producing factories. Estabrook and Cook talk about the worker quality, such as low wages, as well as the mental and physical harm that comes with working in a modern day food factory.   And Pollan and Cook both talk about the mistreatment of animals. All in all, the three article are similar since they talk about the negative effects caused by modern mass production of food and such effect will continue to pass and a more wider range of stakeholders will suffer if the prevent phenomena are unchanged.