Eater's Manifesto

Eater’s Manifesto

Recent years, news about food safety issues and the necessity of regular diet have continued flooded in major mainstream media in China. On one hand, I was forced to know many new words, such as Sudan Red1, melamine, and steroid spiked pork. I have to ask whether there is really so much poisonous food and do we really not have safe food to eat. On the other hand, the fast pace of life leads to my irregular diet, resulting I have to eat snacks in a hurry during the time of regular meals. Skipping meals become a common occurrence, especially breakfast. As a pursuer of a healthy diet, I have always believed that food safety is the premise of diet and regular breakfast eating is the foundation of healthy habits before we can proceed further.

Food is a means to sustain and enjoy life, but it is also a medium for hazards transmitting as well as disease and death transmitting. There is a broad consensus that China is the nation in which people attach the great importance to eating. However, food safety incidents happen every year in China. In their white paper, Assuring Food Safety and Quality: Guidelines for Strengthening National Food Control Systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) define food safety as food that is free from all hazards, whether chronic or acute, that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer (1). It is easier for us to prevent foodborn illness if we “avoid foods and water from unsafe sources,” “avoid cross-contamination,” and “practice good hygiene” (Hillers 5). In addition, it is also easier for us to pay attention to potentially hazardous foods, or foods are easily perishable, such as foods of animal origin and foods of plant origin, if we cook them adequately at safe temperatures (18). However, there are still many food safety issues are hard to avert.

The Chinese government has enacted an ever-more-strict policy to ensure food safety; however, “China’s food scandals are becoming increasingly frequent and bizarre” (Demick para.7). In Changsha, Hunan Province, more than 286 people show the same symptoms, including heart palpitations, nausea, and convulsions. Doctors at the No. 3 Xiangya Hospital “blamed pork contaminated with clenbuterol, a steroid that makes pigs grow faster and leaner” (Demick para.3). Since 2008, six children died and more than 300,000 children were sickened by melamine-tainted baby formula (Para.5) In Shanghai, a popular brand was using dye to make cheap wheat buns look like the more expensive black rice buns. In Jiangsu province, farmers state that their watermelons had exploded "like landmines" after they use too much growth hormone in order to increase the size of watermelons (para.13). Bigger, cheaper, faster become target of food production. Please crack down on illegal additives!

From chemical additives in powdered milk to toxic capsule, food safety issues have aroused panic and major concerns about people’s lives and health in the society. Michael Pollan provides a useful suggestion in his essay, Unhappy Meals. He emphasis to avoid food which contains unfamiliar, unpronounceable, and more than five food additives. “None of these characteristics are necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed” (11). As for myself, I have never pay attention to food additives before unsafe food news has exposure to society and I once knew seldom about the secrets of food additives. However, after I did some research about different types of food additives, the relationship between some food and I have changed implicitly.

Many people are familiar with nutrients in the food additive tables and used to ignore some terms they had never seen. As for myself, access to the production process and the ingredient list of a food help me become a better and healthier eater. I used to eat snacks based on their appealing appearance and delicious tasting; however, now I begin to define and study each snack before I taste them. Changes can seen from I would judge whether the food is health or not. I would study and compare the difference among ingredient lists of a same kind of food and some terms of food additives are no longer strange to me.

I will not eat food with color additives, flavourings and sweeteners, and food preservatives. For instance, Quinoline yellow, or E104, is easily found in the ingredient list of soft drinks, sauces, candies, and ice creams. It is banned in Australia, Japen, Norway and the U.K. due to it will leads to potential liver cancer (Gonen 1). Moreover, Sulphur Dioxide, or E220, can be found in many potato products and it is not banned anywhere. However, it will reduce vitamin B1 and cause fetal abnormalities and DNA damage (2). Some ingredients may have medicinal value but most of them have potential harm to human body. In addition, since dairy products, edible oils, seasonal foods and alcoholic beverages are among the major cataloging of unsafe foods, decreasing the frequency to eat them and choose reliable brand are both important for me.

Thus, solving food safety issues that are currently going on is the public polls in China. It should be taken to survey the broad opinions as to what the causes and the potential dangers of food safety problems. I propose food safety is the premise of eating because it relates to the future of a nation. As for a nation, if dairy companies can put poison in baby’s food and pharmaceutical factory can recover expired drugs with high price and reproduced, then all other healthy eating promotion programs and all other eating recommendation are meaningless.

Indeed, I am very envious when I see other food lovers talk about the importance of a nutritious diet and their delicacy manifesto. Because it is hard for them to imagine that not only “What else can I eat,” but also “have time to enjoy a breakfast,” can become a person’s pet phrases. I used to spend my morning like this: after alarm clocks wake me up, I always struggle for ten or twenty minutes; I rub my tired and sleepy eyes, getting up out of their bed. Because every second counts, I rush out of my dormitory without breakfast. The better situation is, sometimes I remind myself to eat “breakfast.” I open my empty refrigerator and then close it disappointed, getting into the crowd of college.

If you think this scene is familiar, do you remember how long you have not eaten breakfast so far? Although it is widely accepted that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the study of Krisha Thiagaraja and Mohammad R.Torabi, The Irregular Breakfast Eating and Associated Health Behaviors in 2009, indicating that nearly one-fifth of young people between 19 and 29 years of age stated that they never eating breakfast (9). After I did some research about the harm of skipping breakfast, “Eating Breakfast” has become my second manifesto in order to pursue a healthy lifestyle. To get up early every day for 15 minutes and to enjoy a good breakfast has become one of the “required courses” in my daily life.

Comparing to regular breakfast eaters, the logical analysis of Thiagaraja and Torabi show that students who always skip breakfast are more likely to sleep 5.5 hours or less. “Sleep deprivation would have caused them to be tired the net morning and, thus, lead to skipping breakfast” (5). Moreover, breakfast skippers are less likely to work out in contrast to those non-skippers, since eating breakfast can improve the energy intake to do extra physical activities. Furthermore, students who always skip breakfast have a high consumption of soda and other sugared beverages. Similar to some breakfast skippers will nibble snakes between meals, some others have to compensate their calories from the non-nutritive beverages. Their finding shows that students with regular breakfast eating have a lower risk of overweight due to the less snacks eating between meals (9). Since there are a lot of food additives in unhealthy and non-nutritive snacks and non-nutritive, and many people eat them due to their irregular eating times, eating breakfast is a good way to ensure safety food. Skipping breakfast, thus, is the root cause of many unhealthy behaviors.

I consider eating breakfast regularly as the most significant health promotion strategy because skipping breakfast is always associated with being overweight, the low frequency of health promoting behavior, and even high possibility of cardiometabolic risk in a longitudinal study. If the potential possibility of obesity and the short-term unhealthy lifestyle cannot catch your attention, a longitudinal study about the relationship between cardiometabolic risk and skipping breakfast has to get your attention. Kylie J Smith, Seana L Gall, Sarah A McNaughton, Leigh Blizzard, Terence Dwyer, and Alison J Venn conclude that to promote breakfast eating is an important public health message on account of the cardiometabolic health (1). They found that people who skipped breakfast in adulthood but not in childhood are similar to those who skipped breakfast at both time. For instance, they all have higher fasting insulin and LDL cholesterol concentrations, which are contributors to detrimental effects on cardiometabolic health, than non-breakfast skippers. There study shows that eating breakfast is a persistent work in your daily life. The cardiometabolic risk will directly influence your diet quality in the future.

My second manifesto towards eating breakfast, because it is a potential sign to slow down your pace of life. It means you can reduce the frequency of snacking, avoiding food additives. I propose regular breakfast eating is the foundation because it relates to the cultivation of other healthy eating habits. It is time to promote the habit of eating breakfast. To develop a habit usually takes 21 days. I set my alarm clock and to get up early for 15 minutes from last month in order to enjoy a nutrient breakfast. As for myself, a cup of cereal with skim milk is always the first food I choose to eat at breakfast, in terms of nutrition, weight loss, and low risk of cardiometabolic. A cup of cereal is quick, always less than five minutes to prepare, and healthy, which has fiber to lower cholesterol. For girls who always worry about their weight, skim milk also contributes to weight losing.

With the rapid economic development in contemporary China, to ensure food safety and to ensure timely breakfast, are both corresponding to sustainable development in terms of issues about human health. The body is your own, thus, rejecting food additives and eating breakfast are good beginning to develop a healthy lifestyle. I always believe that paying attention to your health is the best investment in the youth time.

Work Cited

Assuring food safety and quality: guidelines for strengthening national food control

systems. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and

World Health Organization, 2003.Print.

Demick, Barbara. “Food safety gives China a headache.” Chicago Tribune. 2011. Print.

Gonen, Julia. “Food Additives.” Drjuliagonen. Web. 23.May.2013.

Smith, Kylie J, Seana L Gall, Sarah A McNaughton, Leigh Blizzard, Terence Dwyer,

and Alison J Venn. “Skipping breakfast: longitudinal associations with

cardiometabolic risk factors in the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study.” AJCN (Oct.2010). Print.

Thiagarajah, Krisha, and Mohammad R. Torabi. “Irregular Breakfast Eating

and Associated Health Behaviors: A Pilot Study Among College Students.”

The Health Educator (Spring.2009): vol.41, No.1. Print.

Pollan, Michael. Michael, Pollan. "Unhappy Meal." The New York Magazine. 2007.

Print.

Hillers, Val. “You Can Prevent Foodborne Illness.” Pacific Northwest Publications.

April,2009. Print.