Download now
We have all noticed the expression “What you don’t know won’t harm you” and it has definitely applied to many situations in our lives that people are still unaware of. We like to toss around this phrase without having to worry too much by what it signifies because that is the whole level of the term, not to worry. When it comes to whatever we are placing into our systems, though, what we do not understand can indeed damage us immensely.
In the United States, we now have grown comfortable with not considering much about what we are consuming. The main factors we look to get in meals are flavor and price. We stay in a consumer society where cash rules our nation, it rules existence, and this rules all of us.
Money is among the most main target for every decision we make, but when considering something as important as our health, should we look for a few other elements? With communities concerns centering on wealth and profit, you cannot find any surprise which the food industry finds the lowest priced ways to create the most food. Consequently, this produces various negative effects on aspects of our lives such as our health and wellness and the environment.
When choosing what foods to take, we should start to pay more focus on factors apart from the price tag. The meals industry naturally plays a big role from this epidemic of processed meals, but they are certainly not the only kinds to blame. Yes they are the kinds taking advantage of each of our ignorance by simply mass-producing low-cost food that they can know we will not think twice about, however the ignorance is usually our mistake. Author of The Omnivore’s Problem, Michael Pollan, describes the current foundation of the foodstuff industry, “Our food system depends on consumers’ not knowing very much about it past the price unveiled by the peruse scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing” (Pollan 245).
Pollan is correct in his assumption that a lot of Americans have no idea much of their food besides how much that cost. Many of them are not even aware that they just do not know what is their meals. They subconsciously assume that chicken breast is poultry and cheese is dairy products, but however that is seldom the case. Various people choose to live along these rules of “ignorance is bliss” by not really paying attention to the horror tales of the foodstuff industry; they turn their heads coming from documentaries in animal treatment and connect their hearing at the mention of the real elements of their valuable snacks. Given that the food they may be eating likes good and did not cost a lot of money, they are content with not so sure how unhealthy it might be.
Pollan further clarifies another reason find the cheapest obtainable food: This makes very good economic perception that people with limited funds to spend about food could spend this on the most affordable calories they can find, specially when the cheapest calories—fats and sugars—are precisely the ones offering the greatest neurobiological rewards. (Pollan 108) People with reduced incomes are confined to obtaining cheap foodstuff, typically the the majority of processed and unhealthy food, mainly because with their limited funds they can not afford to care about the caliber of what they are eating. They buy what is most affordable because that may be all they will get. Given that they have meals in their stomachs, they do not grumble or worry too much regarding the side influences.
Eating food which may not become very healthier definitely outweighs the alternative of eating nothing and depriving. Americans are ignorant in the food that they purchase both because they will choose to never educate themselves or mainly because they really have no choice. In any event, they are missing out on other likelihood of obtaining foodstuff that have a large number of advantages. Not so sure what the food is constructed of also helps prevent us coming from knowing what option food options are available to us. Because we see simply no problems with the current food choices, we see no explanation to discover fresh ones.
The processed food at the superstore is all we understand because it is the most convenient and affordable by of nutrition we can get hold of. Pollan’s publication includes the testimony of somebody who will buy food via a local, organic and natural farmer, “…for me it’s all about the flavor, which is only so different—this is a chickinier chicken. Art’s chickens merely taste cleanser, like the chicken breast I remember after i was a kid” (Pollan 252). The food offered from local farmers is not just better intended for our health as well as the environment but it also tastes better.
We have expanded accustomed to the artificially tasting food we buy from food markets and do not understand that the food we eat could taste better and more natural. The grown locally food tastes healthier and more natural since that is what precisely it is. The artificially manufactured taste of chicken in a common poultry nugget is not what a chicken ought to taste like. Besides improved taste, buying from local farmers offers many other rewards as well.
An organic farmer interviewed in The Omnivore’s Dilemma points out some more benefits of buying nearby, With our foodstuff all of the costs are discovered into the cost. Society is definitely not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne ailments, of harvest subsidies, of subsidized olive oil and water—of all the invisible costs for the environment as well as the taxpayer which will make cheap foodstuff seem low-cost. (Pollan 243) One of the main reasons how come people tend not to want to look into these kinds of alternative strategies of eating happens because they are more expensive.
People neglect these possibilities because the organic and natural food looks overpriced, however when you evaluate all these factors it could not become as expensive as you might think. Yes the foodstuff is more costly but it stands true that you receive what you spend on. When paying out more, you are receiving a whole lot even more that benefits your health, community, and environment.
The extra cash that would be spent on food, you may save on your medical charges and fees. Locally created food is healthier for you personally and this carries a much less chance of made up of disease and illness. One other bonus of getting from community farms: there may be less pollution created as compared to the production facilities and slaughterhouses of the globalized food market. If persons became aware about alternative meals options plus the benefits linked to them, they will be more likely to shell out better focus on what they are obtaining. This would not merely improve types personal wellness, but also the environment.
Though money remains a very important part in deciding what we order, it would profit us to consider a nothing else aspects of the food that we get. Paying attention to specifics such as what goes into the meals, where it really is produced, and exactly how it is developed would lead us to generate healthier decisions. More often than not, a satisfying reply to these questions will not be found in the food at our regional supermarkets, but instead a local farmer. Buying by these maqui berry farmers would mean assisting a healthy environment and body.
Their development methods happen to be healthier plus much more environmentally friendly than any industrial facilities in a big-name food industry. While it may seem that this is an easy choice, metric scale system will always ignore these types of truths. So if it comes down to it, money rules every thing and it will require a lot more compared to the promise of higher health for folks to neglect a price indicate.
They say ignorance is enjoyment, but when that ignorance contributes to decisions that contaminate our bodies and our environment, the happiness will be short lived.
