Over the past month in class we've been talking basically about how Americans are fat and grow food the wrong way. Well I am one of those Americans, not necessarily fat, but I eat unhealthy the majority of the time. I thought for my final project I'd choose the experimental option, which would be changing something about the way you eat, whether it be where the food is coming from, how it's prepared, or your diet completely. As I said earlier, I eat generally unhealthy foods. So for my original experiment I was going to eat fast food every meal one day, and record how I feel afterwards, then eat only healthy, organic foods one day and record how I feel. But then I changed my mind because that would be too pricey. I finally decided to change my diet completely. By not eating for 24 hours.
This relates to our class because it involves two main concepts in the unit. The diet of Americans, and the way we view our food. The book I read in class was Omnivores Dilemma, By Michael Pollan, and it discussed that because humans are omnivore's we have the problem of deciding what to eat. We have such a big selection of food we don't know what to eat. Every morning you can hear the same question over and over. "What are we eating for lunch?" Like panda's just know to eat bamboo, cows know to eat grass, but we don't know what to eat. So what happens when you have nothing to eat? That's not part of the omnivores dilemma, because were always supposed to have something to eat. Which is why this experiment opens up a new view, how do humans manage while they don't have anything to eat?
The experiment was from 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night to 7:00 p.m. Thursday night. No food, and the only thing I could drink was water. I didn't think it was going to be exceptionally hard considering I've known people that have fasted the same way for around 24 hours. And for the first 12 or so hours wasn't that bad, probably because I was asleep for most of it. But as the day progressed and I was around other people that were doing the same experiment, it got worst. At first, around 11 a.m. or so, I started to feel really hungry. But thats not horrible, but as time went by things started to get harder, with the urge to eat growing by the minute (or at least it felt that way) and by lunch time (which is around 1 at my internship) I was not feeling good. I wasn't able to get any work done, I was tired, and just uncomfortable. By 3 p.m., I was falling asleep. As soon as I got home from internship around 4 I went straight to sleep, waking up after 7, when I could eat again.
This experience wasn't a good one, but I learned a lot from it. First off, I learned do to do it by yourself because being around other fasters' makes me more hungry. I wouldn't do it again because it wasn't pleasant on any level. I learned that without any food at all, healthy or unhealthy, you can't function correctly. I'll try not to miss any more meals because it isn't healthy, it's like brushing your teeth, you can live missing brushing your teeth a couple of times,but if you keep doing it you're going to get a cavity (and a nasty mouth). So eating fast food three times a day is not healthy by any means, but if you haven't eaten and that's like your only choice, go for it. To answer my question I posed earlier, "how do humans manage when they don't have anything to eat?" The real simple answer is, they don't. They forget their dilemma and turn into rats, eating whatever they can to survive. Which is basically what happens to some people in poverty. They can't afford healthy foods, so it's either fast food or starve. Its a sad, but true reality to many. Which made me realize how like many Americans, I take food for granted. I don't consider it sacred because it's always there. The truth is I can't survive for more then a day without it. And a lot of people don't realize this because they always have food. When the truth is, they would probably suffer more then me. So for now on I will view my food as a little more special, as should other people.
No comments:
Post a Comment