HW 23 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 2

Jamaica has grown to resent her obligation to care for her brother. She encounters a doctor who tells her that her brother's life will be extended if he has access to certain medicine. This medication is not accessible for him in Antigua. She has a doctor friend from the united states send the procreation to her. She likes that she is able to help her brother but contemplates weather it is worth it to spend that much time away from her family. Someone tells her she should take him to the United States for the appropriate medical care. She is angered and offended by this comment. She feels that everyone pays no mind to her emotions. Eventually he dies.

"My brother died. I had expected him to, sometimes it seemed as if it would be a good thing if he were to just die. And then he did die. When he was still alive I used to try although  imagine what it would be like when he was no longer alive, What the world would seem like the moment i knew he was no longer alive. but when that moment came, The moment i knew he was no longer alive, I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to feel" p.87

This feeling is often described as numbness. A friend of mine says that she felt guilty for not feeling sad automatically when she found out about her grandmothers death. My friend and Jamaica are both being faced with guilt. Guilt that is imposed when they see movies that make them think they are supposed to feel sad and fall into tears and have a break down.

"On one side, there is life, and on the other, there is death with a small patch of life attached to it. This latter is the life of AIDS; this was how i saw my brother as he lay in his bed dying." p. 96

Many people would consider this to be pacifistic and morbid. Maybe it is just a truthful way of looking at her brothers. I was so moved by this quote I shared it with my mother. She said, "This sounds like something a person who is afraid of death would." Not all people who are afraid of death would say this. Jamaica Kincaid may be afraid of death. But she just found a wise way to analyze her death.

"I said nothing about the death of my brother, which had actually occurred hours before (though really he had been dead for at least a year before the breath left his body) I had vowed to tell her nothing about and his illness and now his death"

I will be honest what initially drew me into this quote was the fact that it had the name of the unit in it "Illness and Dyeing" Besides the name of the unit the quote contains evidence of conflicting feelings. She says her brother had died a year before that but does that mean that he had died in the eyes of her family? Had he died to the doctors taking care of him? Had he died to her? Has he died to the whole world?

HW 21 - Expert #1

--Men are less likely to receive medical attention.

--Last years of marriage were the best

--“honeymoon from death”

--Acceptance instead of numbness sadness

Honeymoon from death:

The fact was brought up by our guest speaker that her husband had a honeymoon from death. This means that he felt better for a while. After a while his health plummeted. I just thought about how terrible that aspect of it must have felt. When my great grandfather was dyeing of old age, when i was about 9, I remember my grandmother calling and saying, “He is better, I think I am going to take him to see you this summer!” then all of her hope for her father rapidly withered away with in 2 days. He began to turn yellow. Then with in 12 hours he died. The emotional agony of the “honeymoon from death” can be blamed on our desire for miraculous recovery portrayed in movies. The guest speaker showed more wisdom on the topic. She was said she was never under the impression that her husband was going to live. She saved her self from the emotional trauma.

The guest speaker discussed how the last months of her marriage were the best. She said how she had never been able to spend that much time with him. That goes along with the idea “you don’t know what you have until it is gone” So to an extent she was lucky that she knew she would not have him ahead of time. When there relationship is is compared to many other grumpy old people who hate each other. Although the guest speakers family spent less time together they got to enjoy their last few months together.

HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

My Brother
by Jamaica Kincaid
The Noonday Press 1997

Precis:

Jamaica Kincaid doesn’t know why but she choose to go to Antigua to visit her brother who was dyeing of AIDS, and leave her family in the US. Her emotions on why she is there sway. The trip is demonstrating her confusing relationship with her mother.

"When I saw my brother again after a long while, he was lying in a bed in the Holberton Hospital, in the O'Reilly ward, and he was said to be dying of AIDS. He was not born in this hospital. Of my mother's four children, he was the one born at home" p.3

It is curious how people always tend to relate the end of someones life to the beginning of someones life. Often authors chose to connect the end of a story to the beginning. I suppose it leads to closure. This seems to be a dominant practice in our culture. When I went to my great grandfathers funeral the first thing that was mentioned was the date of his birth and the location of his birth. I have always wondered if this is an attempt to sum up someones life or if it is just an ice breaker.

"In that dirty room, other people before him had died of that same disease. It is where they put people who are suffering from the virus that causes AIDS. When he was first told that he had tested positive for the virus, he did not tell our mother the truth, he told her he had lung cancer, he told someone els he had bronchial asthma, but he knew my mother knew and anyone els who was interested would know that only people who tested positive for the AIDS virus were places in that room were in isolation." p.23

Jamaica Kincaid seems to be upset about how they isolated her brother. Which brings up an other question about the social norms of illness and dying, Why do hospitals have a separate ward for people  who are terminally ill, even if the percents are not infected with a contagious disease?

"He said that people who are not HIV-positive give up too soon on the people who are, but he tries to keep everybody alive, because you never know when a cure might come along. He said that-- you never knew when a cure might come along-- and i could not tell if, he was asserting native Antiguan foolishness or faith in science." p.35

Jamaica Kincaid was critiquing the way doctors have "faith in science." When someone is terminally ill, was the only reason to keep them in a hospital is to stretch whats left of their life with the hope that there will be a cure to the disease. Jamaica Kincaid seems critical of her family and all Antigenes. 

The way Jamaica Kincaid openly discusses the way it felt to observe her brother die, reminds me of how I believe my grandmother felt when she was observing the death of her brother. My grandmother felt more obligated to spend time with him then Jamaica Kincaid. But I know that it was easer for my grandmother to take care of him then it was for Jamaica Kincaid.

HW 19

When I asked my father what his mother thinks about alternative health care he said, "She is narrow minded. She only believes what Sarah Palin tells her to believe" One time my grandmother came over and had a cold. I asked her if she would like tea. She agreed. I pored her a cup of the only tea we had in the house called "Yogi breathe deep". She said, "Your mother is a which. How could she give you that hippy crap." So her view on health care is essentially that when someone is sick they should just drink an entire boodle of Night Quil and sleep for 12 hours. And if that doesn't work then go to the emergency room. So as my dad grew up he decided to appose everything he ever hurt his mother say. Which I think was, for the most part, a wise decision. 

My parents follow the recommended the allopathic health precautions. They are no ware near as afraid of homeopathic health ideas as my grandmother. My parents get acupuncture when they have health issues. There opinions on what to do when you are not terminally ill but are sick, are similar to mine.

When I asked my dad what he thinks should happen when someone is terminally ill he said, "Let them die in as much comfort as possible." I did not have the opportunity to ask him further details." I remember a few years ago I asked my mother what she thinks is the best way to deal with a terminally ill person. She replied, "to not let the family of that person bend over backwards and do what is needed to maintain there families sanity while allowing the person to live comfortably." I suppose they both are good. I think my opinions on the topic of illness and dieting will remain some ware in-between what my parents think.

I witnessed the way my great uncles illness was dealt with at the end of his life. My grandmother was stuck caring for him for about 4 years before that. I saw the stress put her when she was forced to take care of him while she was having health problems of her own. Once he had to go to a retirement home his children were only visiting him in the old persons home to get his money. So again my grandma was forced to stay in California, away from her family, just so he could have human interaction. It was amazing to see how someone was willing to neglect there sickly father, leaving my grandmother to absorb the stress. When he passed away my grandmother was able to move to Pensylvania to be closer to most of her family.

Dealing with a dyeing loved one is stressful and sad. I was told by my parents that once they need dippers to send them strait to an assisted living facility. They seem to think that would make things easer for me. I believe my parents said that they want me to send them to the retirement home just so I do not put my self what my grandmother went through with her brother. 

This goes along with the American social norm of how to deal with older people. Our cycle of life goes like this; Childhood, work all your life, 10-15 years of retirement, then your last 2-5 years are spent away from your loved ones in a retirement home. Although it sounds sick, it is convenient for the younger people who do not need to take care of there sickly parents. Maybe my grandmother was having trouble with the guilt of abandoning her brother. And that’s why she spent all of her time at the retirement home visiting him. I was told that in eastern Asia this would never happen. I met a women who said that her grandparents lived with them from the start of there retirement to the day they died. Both ways of dealing with things have specific benefits and disadvantages which I am curious to learn more about.

Hw 12

Thesis: Americans are under the false impression that the nightmarish industrial atrocities are necessary for maintaining our culture.

Claim 1Americans are in denial:

Americans are not healthy-http://newsroom.cigna.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=720

They believe they are-

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/health-care-security/overview/health-care-security-ov.htm

They are truly unhealthy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/the-true-cost-of-doubt-an_b_581514.html

CLAIM 2 Things can change:

Growth of green market-http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/29/sunday/main6816240.shtml

Other nations-

http://www.arla.com/

http://www.foodoresund.com/composite-313.htm

HW 11

As an experiment I decided to become a vegan for a week.
At first it went well. After a few days I had more energy and felt healthier. I found that the most convenient place to find vegan food was whole foods. They have a vegan desert section, a vegan veggie burger section, and a vegan version of just about everything. The people were a lot nicer and more helpful than cheaper grocery shops.
By the 4th day I was trying to find a way to stretch my money a little farther and look at the ingredients in the vegan food. I saw that most of it was made with soy. I decided to avoid soy. Saving money was a huge challenge. The restrictions almost limited my diet to just vegetables which are expensive if you are looking to get healthy ones. The goal of avoiding soy did not happen because of my budget. It was the primary meat and dairy replacement.
By the 6th day the initial feeling of more energy did not fully maintain itself, but I was still proud of what I had accomplished (except for the soy part). I found that I needed to eat more to get the same calorie intake and it was a challenge. It was becoming costly and I decided to continue for one more day.
IT WAS A FAILURE. On the last day of the experiment I went to my friend’s house for Shabbat dinner on Friday with her family. I had made the correct decision to eat dinner before I got there. I had a miss communication with the mother as she told me that I could eat the cookies she was surviving for dinner because they were completely kosher. She explained that that meant that there was no meat and no dairy products in the cookie. I ate it. I looked it up. There were no meat or dairy products. But there was an egg in the cookie.
The experiment was almost successful. Instead of an entire week with no animal products I went 6 days and 18 hours. Let’s just round it up to a whole week. I learned from some of the challenges which accrue as someone chose to abandon the American traditions and change there way of eating. I also learned that it is possible to abandon theses ways and make a change. There are affordable, healthy changes one can apply to a diet. For example, you can purchase 2 pounds of green beans for 4 dollars. The experiment taught me that people can find a balance between there traditional foods and healthy foods. Imagine an obese family who has hamburgers and french-fries every night from McDonalds. They can all split their hamburgers and get string beans and spend almost the same amount of money on that meal.

HW 7d

9)Summary: In the late 90's a man was infected with e-coli from a hamburger. This is because there is feces in the hamburger meat. People used to think that hamburgers were unsanitary but the companions like White castle worked hard to replenish the hamburgers reputation by hydrating the disgusting facts. E. coli 0157:h7 is a mutated form of E.coli needed in the human digestive system. The E. coli 0157:h7 causes disintegration of the lining of the intestine.

Quotes: "There is shit in the meat"
"A single fast food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle."

Responses: The first quote is blunt. It was placed at the end of the paragraph as a way to summarize the paragraph by giving his opinion.
When I eat a hamburger I don't thinks about the fact that i am eating multible cows. This fact made it difficult for me to eat ground beef for a while.

Chapter 10) Global Realization

In a small town in eastern Germany ware the people have repetitively protested for there freedom, A new McDonald's was built. McDonald's is trying to open more and more restaurants out side of the United States. The world is just as fooled as the united states as a pizza hut in Moscow making certain people so happy that they say "Hail to Gorbachev" as a way of thanking him for bringing the food to their nation. All over the world people are Americanizing and begin to eat and look like Americans. The United states has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation.

Epilogue) Have It Your Way
Dale Lasater is a farmer in colorodo who is a patrin to the idea of grass fed beef. Conway's is a restaurant near Colorado springs that has survived the fast food take over. They give there full time workers health insurance and pay them $10 and hour which is $2.64 cents more than the current Colorado minimum wage. These family run companies seem devoted to maintaining there dignity and not franchising.

7c

chapter 8

Precise:
Entering the slaughter house required heavy gear. While walking through you see people quietly cutting cow’s throats with out any expression on their faces. Workers injured, sexually harassed and told to take hormones, all of which is secret because these people are illegal immigrants

Gems:
"I stop and try to absorb the whole scene: the cool breeze, the cattle and their gentle lowing, a cloudless sky, steam rising from the plant in the moonlight. And than I notice that the building does have one window, a small square of light on the second floor. It offers a glimpse of what’s hidden behind this huge blank façade. Through the little window you can see bright red carcasses on hooks, going round and round”
Response:
I love how dramatic this quote is. The author went through a lot to get this bit of information. And it shows how sickened he was and how sickened he is trying to make the reader.

HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

Correlation vs. Causation in Freakonomics:

In the film, Levitt and Dubner go through several examples of how people confuse correlation with causation. They believe that there is a sharp difference between the two and some people just can not see it. One example is when Levitt examines the drop in crime rate in the early 1990’s. Money people have found a connection to the amount of people in prison at that time to the crime rate reduction. Levitt and Dubner argue that the crime rate reduction is due to the fact that many young criminals were never borne due to the legalization of abortion in 1973. The two of them never say that correlation is causation. They spend a segment of the storey discussing how it is quit the opposite. The two of them vaguely imply that “lack of proof is causation.”

Evidence in Freakonomics:

In Freakonomics several forms of evidence are used including statistics and experts. Statistics are used when examining the sumo wrestling scores. They identified cheaters by looking when which wrestlers won which match, They found that it correlated directly with which ever wrestler needed to win to keep there rank up. That means that sumo wrestling buddies were allowing each other to win to remain in control of there salary.

            When Levitt and Dubner were looking for examples of how names can portray someone’s outcome they went directly to two Harvard professors. This type of evidence can be considered a fallacy. More specifically a logical fallacy, because of the fact that both of these men are Harvard professors they seem smart. So by saying that these men are smart they must be right. Unfortunately this is a fallacy that is difficult to get around because of the fact that these men are smart and educated.

             

Response to statement about Freakonomics:

“Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the ‘hidden-in-plain-sight’ weirdness of dominant social practices.”

I agree with the statement. I agree because, the movie does attempt to expose what is, “hidden in plain sight.” This is shown in the film when they descuss the possibility of the fact that allowing un wanted babes to not be borne into un-wanting families may reduce the chances that they will become criminals. You do not hear people discuss this on a everyday basis just like you don’t hear people discussing how McDonald’s exploits immigrants.

7B

7:
Precis:
In the small smelly town of Greedy, Colorado, there is a there are tuns of "rural gettos in the American heartland" have taken place in towns like this. 100 years ago a book outraged the government as Roosevelt ordered investigation into a book that was written about the meat industry.

HW 8 - Growing Our Own Food

          This is what would have happened if I had any agricultural skill, but I do not. The true story of the sprouts experiment was a mixture of humorous and disappointing. The first few days were fine. I planted the sprouts and took care of them. Then I was told to bring them home for the weekend. Over the weekend I some how lost the sprouts because of my tendency to lose important objects. That was a complete failure. As you told me, I "neglected the little creatures that were depending on me. "This experiment gave me a new appreciation for farmers and even though the goal of growing sprouts was not met I still learned from the project. Although it was late to get school credit for the sprouts, I was determined to grow sprouts.

            The second try also was a total failure. I brought new materials to school and started growing them. After a day they started smelling moldy needed to through them out. I wish I could have done a better job with the experiment. Regardless of the outcome, I still decided to eat sprouts that I bout at the supermarket. I have always loved sprouts and liked having a reason to get them.

HW 7 - Reading Response 

Chapter 1

Precis: The fast food industry started in southern California in the 1930s as Carl Karcher started a drive through barbeque restaurant. Also in California, The McDonald brothers started there empire. The post world war 2 economy drove both of these companies to be what they are today.

Gems:

"Entrepreneurs from all over the countrt went to San bernardio, visited the new McDonald's, and built imitations of the resturant in their hometowns, 'Our food was exactly the same as McDonald's.'"

Thoughts:

Why did the McDonald brothers secede while the small town imitation restaurants did not secede to the same extent? This is a mystery that was not answered by this chapter. After hearing more about the copies made in small town's I first thought that Americans would have some sort of attachment to these restaurants. But no, looking at it you see that these people were completely open to abandoning there local smaller businesses and going straight to the new big flashy thing.

 

 Eric Schlosser fast food nation responses

Chapter 3

Precis:  Colorado Springs, a town that sprung up like L.A. after World War 2. And during the 90's many people moved from southern California to Colorado Springs partially because of the Christian appeal that grew from a conservative news paper in the town. The largest employment in the town is fast food. When you look farther into the fast food you see that it is all frozen or prefixed when it enters the shop. The employees just assemble the food. These people can be like Elsa, a 16 year old who gets up early in the morning to help prepare the local McDonalds for the day. Many students in Elsa’s school need to go to work in order to have spending money despite the conflicts it imposes on the quality of there education. One of the reasons that students of low income families put up with being abused by fast-food restaurants is because of something called stroking. Stroking is a type of positive reinforcement that is offered to young teenage fast-food workers who may not get parse at home.

Gems:

"They build large signs to attract motorists and look at cars the way predators view herds of prey." p.65

"The easier it is for him (the worker) to use, the easier for us not to have to train him."p.71

Thoughts:

I found this paragraph sickeningly enlightening. When I enter a fast food place i don't think of how kids my age chose to work there because they need the job in order to have spending money. These kids are stuck with there conditions because they are afraid of unionizing. This part was confusing to me. As part of the history of our country more specifically New York City unions have provided security to people. In middle school I was tough all about the New York City Unions and how people banned together to get what they wanted. I associated unionizing with part of American pride. From this chapter i learned that unionizing is not part of the American culture. But could i be wrong? Could it be the fact that these workers are students who are being putt through all of the unfair conditions?

 

HW# 6
Breakfast#1:

6 Grapes=50

Capri sun=75

On the morning of the first day I woke up late. I do not feel good unless I eat breakfast. The lack of time that was provided is what led to the decision to eat the grapes. My lack of water led to the Capri sun.

Lunch#1:

Luna bar=180

Coffee=200

This lunch was rushed. I needed to get back to school quickly and I had a budget. To be honest I often buy food just because it is cheep. I did not fully think through. Looking back at it I only pretty much only eat unhealthy foods when I am in a hurry.

Snack #1:

M&M=250

A friend of mine had been craving M&Ms all day. She and I split the bag.

Chowder

Chowder=325

What is the reason I ate this?

I ingested this chowder because it looked delicious. Also it is what my mother had cooked. It was corn chowder with bacon in it.

Total Calories of the day=1080

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breakfast:

Toast=75

Lunch:

Luna bar=180

Coffee=300

If you haven’t noticed I have a slight addiction to coffee. This is one thing that I need to get past. This addiction to coffee started a few weeks before school started.

Diner:

Cheese burger=400

Union Rings=200

It was the first night in a while where I was aloud to cook. So guess what my stingy self did. I went to the supermarket and purchased the cheapest meal I could and pocketed the extra grocery money. I do regret being so stingy about the food but it was so good. When my mom cooks it is usually far healthier than this.

Total=1155

HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

            After doing farther research I found that dominant discourse means the specific people who have ideas that often overpower other people’s specific opinion. Prior to thinking about the topic it seems that the dominant discourse is held by the media, government, and doctors. As thoughts over the topic of dominant discourse of food continue I find it is a shared discourse. The American people who continue to eat fatty, unhealthy, fast food, consist of over half the country. Doesn’t that put them some how in the dominant discourse of “foodways”?

            After reading the article, “Told to Eat Vegetables America Eats fry’s” from the New York Times, It becomes apparent that the American people do pick what they eat. The people control the food industry by only eating fatty foods. It is a shared dominant discourse. The food industry being discussed in this article is the baby carrot. It says that the people only eat the foods that they are told are unhealthy. The baby carrot company decided to label itself as junk food so that people would feel better about eating its food. The other discourse is the food industries. They have a shared dominant discourse with the people. They are always trying to alter there food to make it seem as fatty or American as possible so that people will buy it.

            When looking at “food as medicine” you see a similar shared Dumont discourse. Medical professionals are always telling people to eat healthy. I am not positive if that counts as food as medicine but it makes scene. It is confusing to me when I see so many doctors who are 300lbs. They control most of the discourse of the topic of food but not the actions required to be healthy.

           

hw #4

Luckily my family putts an effort in to eat what they consider healthy. I observed this in my mom and my grandmother. What seems to constrict there ability to cook completely healthy food is gender norms, economic class, and culture.

My mom tells me that when she was a child her mother taught her to eat a healthy “balance between crabs, proteins, vegetables, and fruit.” My mom says that her mother did follow this but she always loved to fry everything in “lard.” As a child my mother ate “beef stew baked potato, fried chicken, fried fish, and fried eggs in lard for breakfast.” I believe this is because of her culture. She was raised in southern Indiana where seemingly everything is fried. My mothers child food cuisine was “delicious and tried to be healthy”

The food that is prepared for me at home is “balanced” according to my mother but we do not have nearly as much fried food as my grandma cooks. When I asked my mom if gender norms effect the way we eat she says, “YEA!! I do all of the cooking and shopping. I don’t do dishes though.” This could be one of the aspects holding back the quality of our diet. When asking my mom what is more important, taste, price, or health value, she said that ideally it would be health but sometimes healthy food is too expensive for it to be the complete priority. She says that when times are hard she tries to find cheaper alternatives to the food she is used to. My mom, like her mother, has things holding back the way that we eat.

One thing I concluded from this assignment was that all caring parents think that they are feeding children healthy foods. My grandma tells me that the definition of health food has changed sense my mother was a child. The fact that any one has the best diet in the world.

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

            Entering a restaurant that is made to serve many costumers at once at such a grim time for business is depressing. Typically when I walk into a MacDonald’s it is full of teenagers after school and there is a more blissful mode. This time as I entered the same location as usual except it was full of old people. It was a disappointment when compared to the experience of walking through the farmers market seeing all of the bright and vibrant collars of fruits and vegetables. Added to all of the lively pedestrians walking around can put a person in a completely more up beet frame of mind than the MacDonald’s. I spent most of my time at the MacDonald’s observing the menu. I noticed that they had a salad menu. It appeared that most of the costumers were not leaving with salads or the healthy alternatives featured in the menus.  This was unlike the farmers market because it seemed that you had to search to find something unhealthy. By no means am I saying that the food at the farmers market was not good because it was healthy, but in opposition to MacDonald’s there was only one table of deserts for sale. Being in a MacDonald’s wile not ordering something was a new experience. At that point I was not in the mood for oily fried food or one of there watery, soggy salads. The differed from the farmers market because wile I was roaming around the market asking questions about what all the organic farmers were growing, I was sipping on a cup of cider I had just purchased. The only true similarity between the MacDonald’s and they booth sell food.

            Is food a commodity? There is no reason why food should not be. At the farmers market both the farmers and the costumers seemed to be using food as a commodity. The farmers were using food to there advantage by benefiting from the financial commodity. One can even argue that the customers of the market were taking advantage of a nutritional commodity. After being told how low the United States life expectancy was compared to other developed nations I saw that only owners of MacDonald’s and other fast food companies are getting a commodity from the deal. If I was asked this same question before the activity or before I was told about the life expectancy of Americans I would have probably written something like, The customers at the MacDonald’s were using food as a commodity by taking advantage of the low priced food. Although I see the anti MacDonald’s point, It would be hypocritical of me to say it is what is bringing our life expectancy down because, I chose to indulge in MacDonald’s once and a while. Food can be a commodity depending on how the consumer and the seller chose to go about sale. 

HW#2 SarahT                                                                                                             9-21-10

  

            Food is what we need to survive as animals. We eat whatever we are exposed to.  Michel Foucault’s idea of daily life being controlled by institutions, not only the government, can be related to food. This can mean that people are controlled by the food industry. It’s inevitable that someone will run across an advertisement for some sort of food. This can include supermarkets and fast food restaurants. I personally love the taste of fast food, pizza, and oily foods. This is because of how I have been taught to love these foods. Not by my parents because we usually eat healthy, but because of the rest of the world. I grew up spending a lot of time with my grandparents, friends, and other family members who love to eat the foods listed above. Foucault’s idea that small nongovernment groups of people have so much influence on the social norm is demonstrated in the way most of the world chooses to eat their food.

            Last year I decided to become vegan for an entire week. At first I craved meats and dairy. By the third day I started only craving the foods that I was allowed to eat. So instead of ice cream I craved vegan deserts. As a replacement for meat I was fulfilled by rice and beans. I was fine with eating vegan food. The reason I quit veganism was because my family was concerned I was not getting enough of the correct protein. My personal experiment farther demonstrated how Foucault’s theory on institutions controlling our daily lives applies to the way people choose to eat food. The reason people think they need meat and dairy is because of the social standards. Which according to Foucault are controlled by the “institutions.”

            I do not actually believe that it is healthier to not eat meat or dairy but I wanted to see if it was possible for me to be content without being dependent on it. What sparked my interest in the idea was a documentary on the way animals are treated. The animals, particularly cows and chickens, were forced to live in condensed spaces forcing them to be saturated in there own feces. This leads to the live stalk becoming infected with e coli. I thought that if I was able to live off of no meat for that long that I could live off of only organic dairy and meat that can not be infected with e-coli.