Food memoir except

In my early years, I was a fan of all sorts of foods. I enjoyed fruits, vegetables, meats, and sweets; I was open to it all. Unfortunately, due to stress from school, bad memories, disagreements, and medical reasons, that habit came to an abrupt end. It began in my early grade school years, with food becoming an enemy of mine almost overnight. Junk food and grease-covered pizza became a regular meal, and my mom worried herself sick, despite the fact that it didn’t seem to have any adverse health problems. I stayed skinny, and energetic as always. Unfortunately, I lost my taste and openness towards food. I became a picky eater almost overnight, a nasty habit that’s I've yet to shake.

Eating at the poverty line

Eating on a Budget: Making a meal for 5 with $15

Cooking a meal for five on a fifteen dollar budget was difficult. Finding a recipe that could be purchased for less than that was hard enough, let alone baked easily. We finally settled upon pizza- a basic, easy to make, and enjoyed by many, with different options available. This was a popular dish at the banquet, and proved simply to buy, cook, and bake. The recipe was found on “The Simple Dollar”, and could’ve been made for around six dollars, provided some of the needed ingredients were already sitting around the kitchen or hiding in the cupboards.

The first thing on the group’s agenda after settling on making a pizza was setting up a date to get together and purchase ingredients. After working out availability, we found that Reach and Julia were unavailable for most of the times Laura Beth, Gabriel, and I were. The three of us went on to purchase the ingredients, Gabriel and I riding with Laura Beth to Harris Teeter in her car. Looking around, we knew this was a more-expensive grocery store, but we were sure the ingredients we needed would be available here. On our list was flour, which was an easy find, water, easily available from the tap, olive oil, dry yeast, which was more expensive and harder to find than we had hoped, salt, tomato sauce, oregano, cheese, and pepperoni. We decided to circumvent buying spices and tomato sauce, and just bought pre-made pizza sauce. It was a tad less time and money consuming. The pepperoni was one of the most expensive ingredients, other than the yeast and olive oil. The total was around fourteen dollars, just under our price limit. If we didn’t buy things that weren’t laying around the house and didn’t use pepperoni, we would’ve managed to stay well under half the amount given, probably even manage to stay well under half of our limit.

    After gathering the ingredients, the group met a week later at Laura Beth’s house, with the exception of Reach, who had a Chemistry exam. Cooking began with us mixing a cup of warm water with 3 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of yeast, and a teaspoon of salt, with a mixing machine. Fortunately, we had electric mixers to aid us in the process of baking, I can only imagine the process being even more difficult without electric tools. We mixed until the dough formed a ball, and then checked to see how sticky it was. It was sticky enough to leave a residue on our hands, so we added more flour and water, which did the trick. We then kneaded the dough, and let it sit. Next, the dough was flattened out, and baked in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for six minutes. When it was finished, we popped the few bubbles that remained. We were able to skip making sauce and went straight into baking the pizza, layering our pizza. We spread sauce, added cheese, then layered more sauce and cheese on top of that, with the other side having layered pepperoni. When finished, we baked the pizza in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for sixteen minutes, and then checked to see if it was done. We ended up adding 4 minutes to the total, to make the crust a tad more crisp. After that, all that was left was slicing the pizza up and presenting it.

    At the potluck, as soon as I got in line, I heard someone proclaim, “Holy shit, there’s pizza!”. That’s all I needed to hear to know our meal was a success. By the time I got to the pan, there were only three slices left. I took one for myself, and by the time I was done, the pan was empty. I took the pan back to my room, our meal was gone before some people had even arrived at the potluck. I cleaned it, and returned it to Laura Beth, which concluded our meal.

    Looking back, there are many things that we could’ve changed in our recipe. We neglected to use Kosher salt, as it was more expensive than normal salt, and bypassed making our own sauce by buying premade sauce. This was less healthy, and we didn’t get the experience of making that ourselves, but proved effective in the long run. We also could’ve saved money by not buying toppings such as pepperoni.

    It should be noted that this project cannot accurately portray how a family of 4-5 can survive on a budget as low as this. There are factors to consider, such as job stability, disasters, conflict, different recipes, utilities, and the like. If this project lasted longer, perhaps it could be more accurate in portraying the struggle, as well as if we hadn’t had transportation or the ability to use cookware to easily mix the dough and knead it.

    When I began this class, I wasn’t a big fan of food, or knowing anything about it. I came into the class ignorant to anything in the realm of food, from farming to free trade, organics and processed foods, and the like. I felt like most of the class was biased and well informed on the topic, while I sat in the back ignorant to it all, feeling like my world was suddenly under attack. I was a picky eater, and still am, but as time went by, discussion and experience in this class allowed my eating habits to improve, and my horizons expand. Through service learning, I was able to plant food, watch it grow, and eventually eat and try it for myself, a huge milestone in my eating habits, as the vegetables I would eat are very limited in number. I’ve become more aware of what I buy at the grocery store in order to eat more healthy, while balancing my budget. I’m still not too keen on knowledge of organics, as it seems like another label for manufacturers to slap on products to gain consumers. Gardening is one way to insure you know where your food comes from, and allows you to sustain your own diet. As Erica Strauss says in Zombies vs. The Joy of Canning: Motivation in the Productive Home, “Be prepared for zombies! Grow a garden!” (Strauss 97).

    To conclude, it’s reasonable to say that I no longer have a huge problem with food, as much as I am slowly beginning to learn to cope  with food. I’ve learned to expand my horizons in the way of food, which has allowed me to gain a taste for new things and eat healthier. My views on food have changed, as Kingsolver says, “I find myself fundamentally allied with a vegetarian position in every way except one: however selectively, I eat meat.” (Kingsolver 187). I’ve found that I’d rather grow my own food or buy it local than eat from a chain restaurant (Except when I go through withdrawal from greasy food), despite not liking vegetables for many years. It’s been a great experience with service learning, that’s empowered me to be more proactive when it comes to food.I hope I can better expand my food horizons, so that one day I’ll be more open to food and eating choices.

Works Cited

Bauer, Holly, Barbara Kingsolver, and Erica Strauss. Food Matters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"A Guide to Making Inexpensive and Delicious Homemade Pizza - The Simple Dollar." The Simple Dollar A Guide to Making Inexpensive and Delicious Homemade Pizza Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

Research essay

The Psychology of a Picky Eater

So many factors, both environmental and inherited contribute to the development of Eating disorders such as bulimia or picky eating and to have close ties to psychological stress or trauma. The environmental factors, such as childhood stress or trauma are one side of this, while learned traits from parents or habits, or even from the media can attributed to eating disorders. As someone who has personally struggled with being a picky eater, recent reflections and lifestyle changes have forced me to dive deeper into the cause of this issue. I decided to delve into exploring the connection between psychological stress and childhood trauma that became associated with food, and caused a dislike for said associated food.

The connection between picky eating and psychological stress and trauma begins with post-traumatic-stress-disorder, panic disorder, and somatoform disorder (Graeme, Et. All; 562). These disorders normally have nothing to do with eating, but if they occur at an early age or in a situation including food, there is a twenty-percent increased chance of a eating disorder forming. Events such as family fighting, death, or divorce can cause this if brought up in a situation such as dinner or a meal together. Punishment for not eating, or punishment such as going to bed without supper can also contribute to this as well. This causes said psychological trauma or stress, and associates it with a certain food, characteristic of a food, or eating in general. In turn though, psychological disorders that were already present or developed at birth can contribute to the development of an eating disorder as well.

As previously stated, psychological ailments and conditions can contribute to eating disorders as well. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), and Perfectionists ( or traits related to perfectionism) are all examples of psychological conditions that can cause eating disorders.

OCD often causes bulimia and anemia, in cases where the subject sees themselves as overweight. This is also partially contributed to by the portrayal of body image in the media  (Agliata, Et. All; 11-13). On the other hand, the psychological condition can lead to self hate and half due to the portrayal of one’s body. The individual may feel the need to starve themselves or force themselves to gag or reject the food they consume. This becomes a dangerous situation often, and can lead to serious health problems and even hospitalization.

Though ADHD itself isn’t directly related to eating disorders, the treatment for it can often cause a lack of hunger. Medicine for ADHD often has a side effect of decreased hunger, and sometimes individuals forget to eat in general, and then eat absurd amounts of food when the medication wears off. This often leads to a decreased metabolism, and can cause weight gain in subjects. I’ve personally experienced this lately, and find myself forcing myself to eat three meals a day to regulate my metabolism and keep from gaining weight at the end of the day. This also causes me to pig-out and eat large amounts of food during the weekends when I don’t eat as much. Self-control is a large part of solving this issue, unfortunately, so results vary when trying to recover from large periods of taking medication. To an extent, it is almost like suffering from withdrawal, causing the individual to become hyperactive and overactive with food consumption. It is a recognized issue, but a necessary evil in ADHD treatment (Cortese, Et. All; 408).

Perfectionism is a prime example of a psychological trait that can produce an eating disorder. One particular study revealed that a high percentage of women who exhibited signs and symptoms of perfectionism developed some type of eating disorder, typically anorexia or bulimia (Bulik, Et. All; 366). I felt this personally in dealing with ADHD. With my medication, hunger is noticeably reduced, and when my medicine wears off, my appetite returns almost tenfold. I engorge myself with food, and then my metabolism can’t function enough to get rid of the fat I’ve eaten. Part of my problem though is my unhealthy eating habits to begin with, such as my dislike for vegetables and fruit.

I’ve never been accustomed to eating healthy. My underweight self could eat whatever I wanted and manage to lose weight. This has lead to myself becoming unacquainted with fruit and vegetables. If you were to ask me when the last time I ate vegetables or fruit was, I wouldn’t be able to answer. Though this isn’t a new problem to me, it’s something I’ve always put on the back burner, and would rather not deal with. Past experiences with trying new foods has made me stick to my inside ‘safe foods’ that I’m comfortable with, and prevent myself from trying new things. Even the scent or appearance of foods I don’t like can sometimes make me sick on my stomach. If I try to eat new things, It’s almost as if my brain rejects the food immediately, and my gag reflex goes wild, often causing a messy and embarrassing situation at the dinner table. Things weren’t always this way however, which is why I decided to take on the challenge of learning more about eating disorders, and what can cause them in cases such as mine.

As a child, I loved all sorts of foods, but that quickly came to an end after suffering psychological stress I associated with eating. My mother would force me to try things I had no interest in, and left a bad taste in my mouth, often literally. As a result, I began to refuse to try any new foods for quite a while, resulting in my picky eating. My mother, not being a huge fan of vegetables either, tried to get me to eat more fruit, which didn’t happen to do much, to her dismay. In this way, we differ, with my traits strongly reflecting my mother’s (to the extent that I disliked vegetables) but not in the way she preferred fruit. A study by Amy Galloway, Laura Fiorito, Yoonnia Lee, and Leann Birch revealed that it’s not out of line for children to pick up on their parent’s eating habits (541). To add to this though, there is an evident connection between body image and eating.

    Personally, I like to be within the weight and health standards set by society and portrayed by the media. As a result, I tend to prefer being a bit skinnier. In today’s society which is pressuring women towards an ‘ideal’ skinny body image, young women and adolescent females tend to eat less to lose weight. Unfortunately, this causes many young women to develop anemia, or even lead to them gagging themselves to not eat. Some go as far to almost starve themselves, landing them in the hospital. This isn’t exclusive to women and females though, as a study by Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn reveal. In their study, men were exposed to varying media portrayals of an ideal or attractive male, and their reactions were recorded. The results revealed that about sixty-percent of the males had some sort of negative reaction to the commercials, and felt more self-conscious about their looks, and were more likely to change what they ate, or how much they ate after the exposure (Agliata, Et. All; 11-13). This is a prime example of the involvement of the media on how we perceive ourselves and our looks. I’ve felt this way before, often in middle school I wanted to be skinnier, leading myself to stop eating as much as usual. This actually hampered my metabolism, and caused me to gain even more weight than when I didn’t eat, and making my solution to the problem pointless.

Picky eating isn’t just a personal issue, it’s a societal issue. We choose to set high standards for beauty and attractiveness, which doesn’t help the fact that many of those people already suffer from psychological conditions that affect their ability to  eat or eat healthy. Society is partially to blame for the issue at hand, but psychology holds the rest of it. Bullying due to appearance is one aspect, while depression and other conditions are to blame as well (Dovey, Et. All; 183). It is well understood that this isn’t an easy issue to fix, it could take years to mend, but ultimately is something to be considered.

While changing one’s eating habits is possible, it is a difficult task to carry out. It is a personal matter, with the individual having to change their state of mind and overcome psychological stress, trauma, or even condition to make it happen. I’ve personally struggled with this, but with time comes change. I’ve began to improve my eating habits to include more organic food and less processed or greasy food, which was the source of my original weight gain. Exercise and walking has become something I track daily and try to reach a goal of every day. While my picky eating with vegetables and fruit hasn’t changed much, I’m slowly working to overcome that barrier. I’ve made myself eat three meals a day, to work my metabolism, rather than letting it work harder to process more food. The information I’ve dug up from research has allowed me to see what personal changes I must make, as well as what societal issues there are and how people are generally affected by psychological conditions that cause picky eating. The results are astounding, and I can only hope our society not only changes its eating habits, but helps those who have bad health instead of ridiculing them.

Works Cited

Agliata, Daniel, and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. "THE IMPACT OF MEDIA EXPOSURE ON MALES’ BODY IMAGE." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23.1 (2004): 7-22. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Bulik, Cynthia M., PhD, Federica Tozzi, MD, Charles Anderson, MA, Suzanne E. Mazzeo, PhD, Steve Aggen, PhD, and Patrick F. Sullivan, MD. "The Relation Between Eating Disorders and Components of Perfectionism." Am J Psychiatry 160.2 (2003): 366-68. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Cortese, Samuele, MD, Bernardo D. Bernardina, MD, and Marie-Christine Mouren, MD. "Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Binge Eating." Nutrition Reviews 65.9 (2008): 404-11. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Dovey, Terence M., Paul A. Staples, E. Leigh Gibson, and Jason C.G. Halford. "Food Neophobia and ‘picky/fussy’ Eating in Children: A Review." Appetite 50 (2008): 181-93. Www.sciencedirect.com. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Fairburn, Christopher G., and Paul J. Harrison. "Eating Disorders." The Lancet 361 (2003): 407-16. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Galloway, Amy T., PhD, Laura Fiorito, RD, Yoonna Lee, PhD, and Leann L. Birch, PhD. "Parental Pressure, Dietary Patterns, and Weight Status among Girls Who Are “Picky Eaters”." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105.541 (2005): 541-48. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Taylor, Graeme J., James D.A. Parker, Michael Bagby, and Michael P. Bourke. "RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ALEXITHYMIA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH EATING DISORDERS." Journal of Psychosomatic Research 41.6 (1996): 561-68. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Visual Reflection

Blogging Reflection

I've decided to leave my blog public for the world to see, as I don't have anything to hide. I already do live streams and youtube videos so I'm not shy on the internet. I haven't invited or shown my blog to anyone, as I just don't find it interesting. I'm pretty sure my blog wouldn't affect my writing, and I included all of my reflections here. This reflection is here as well, because I want them all to be visible. Blogging has been comfortable for me, since I already enjoy keeping a journal.

Video reflection

In my opinion, this video did a good job of portraying the public's view of organic and smaller supermarkets, with the poor rather going to the grocery store to get cheaper, affordable food, instead of more expensive food at other markets. The poor feel attacked and oppressed in the long run, even when the new supermarkets are affordable.

Service Learning Reflection 3

My latest Experience with service learning was a success for me. I sat down and perfectly planned out the dates for me to go, and finally finished my service learning last week. I missed a few days though, since the instructor didn't show up without warning. That proved to be an issue with communication, unfortunately. It felt gratifying to give my time, but even better when I finished!