Assignments
Industry Food Diary Food List
This experience keeping two fairly different food logs really forced me to confront how much effort or thought I put into eating. On my first day logging food I mostly caried on about my day focusing on my schoolwork. I stuck with some of my comfort foods like chicken tenders or Pringles that I have been regularly eating since high school. Primarily I did some snacking of chips, crackers and a cookie in the evening when my dinner meal isn’t fulling enough for my appetite.
Though on the second day it felt like I had to constantly pause whenever I felt hungry and think about what I wanted verses what I thought was healthy to eat. This battle would persist all the way till dinner time when I was starting to get very hungry unsatisfied with my lunch at the cafeteria. Therefore, I forced myself to take the time to grill some raw chicken breast and cook some rice that I felt would be a decently healthier option than the previous day’s dinner. My cooking skills could use some work though since the meal felt rather bland, but I didn’t feel the need to snack afterwards. If I was to reflect on this experience, I’d tell myself that I probably need to choose less processed snacks and probably something greener and healthier. Yet I truly crave these specific salty and sweet snacks. A particular quote that resonated with me showcasing this was “While people liked and enjoy potato chips, they feel guilty about liking them” (pg.15, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food) and I completely agree and feel guilty, yet I still eat them. Perhaps part of this problem is how easy it is to binge chips and crackers since they do little to physically fill your stomach. While “Salads and fruits do not trigger this kind of response” (pg.41, Let’s Ask Marion), it will always be hard to prioritize them over the addictive taste of salt and sweets. |
Day 1:
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Day 2:
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Refrigerator Photograph Assignment
This photograph is from my roommate’s dad’s refrigerator. Immediately looking at the photo there is noticeably only a half full refrigerator. This leads to speculation that perhaps he only needs to feed himself or that he shops occasionally and then restocks everything. However, contrary to this statement there is applesauce and gogurts on the bottom shelf which indicate that there are still some children living in the household. Most of the items stocked are sauces or “topping” items so sandwiches, burgers, or tacos (as seen by the flour tortilla shells) might be a preferred meal.
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There are some leftovers as seen by the tub ware containers and fresh vegetables. This shows that he has the income and time to cook more complex dishes. Also, he likely doesn’t live in a big city since he has access to fresher ingredients while “supermarkets were few and far between” (pg.6, The American Way of Eating) in industrial cities. Even though there are some leftovers the sheer amount of available space does raise the question how much food is leftover each meal? Each meal could be exactly enough food or maybe some leftovers aren’t kept since they aren’t as good later. Leftover food in America is widely viewed as “uncomfortably close to garbage” (pg.3, History of Leftovers) so it shouldn’t be shocking that there are only a few tub wares of leftovers. Ultimately it is hard to get very specific information from the photo and there can be numerous other reasons for the speculations listed.
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