What you eat is what you are

Over the past few weeks, I learned a lot about food that I either didn't know or needed to be reminded of. I learned about the benefits and risks of genetically modified f0od and organic food, the way that corporate industries are taking over agriculture, the centrality of corn in the American diet, and America's unhealthy obsession with fast food. All of this knowledge about food certainly does have an effect on me, but it is hard to make an immediate change in my eating habits, especially considering that I rely on the dining courts to get my food and I don't have a lot of say in what kind of food that is or where its coming from. Heck, I don't have that much choice in the grocery store, considering that we really don't know if the foods we are buying and eating are GMO or not. I have already chosen to eat fast food only on rare occasions and I am going to make sure that next year, when I live in an apartment and am forced to make my own food that I am not going to fall into a bad habit of eating fast food. I am going to try to be aware of what I buy at the grocery store and ask the grocer if they carry organic food. It is going to be customer demand that makes a change in how much organic food is grown and if people can show the food industry that they want to eat organic food, then maybe it can help a little. During this unit, I also learned that meat uses up a significant amount of resources compared to grains-it takes 16 pounds of grain to go into 1 pound of beef! So even though I know I can't give up meat because it is such an integral part of my diet, I am going to at least be aware of my meat-eating and try to limit it and at least eat less beef. This shouldn't be too hard since I am living with a vegetarian next year, so hopefully I will be able limit the meat I eat, choose the food I eat more wisely, and eat healthier.