A Pescatarian’s Eating Manifesto (EE2 Draft)

Yesterday I ate lunch in memory of my parents. It is a pescatarian meal consists of salmon sushi and vegetables. I always had lunch with my parents when I was in China although they were quite busy all the time. They are both pescatarians and I was already affected by them when I was very young. Usually, our meals consist of fish and vegetables. We seldom eat poultry and red meat only if some important festivals require them. When first observing this special eating habit of my parents, I was curious. So I asked my mother, “why not eat other meat?” Her answer was that fish and vegetable were much healthier than poultry and red meat. This is a really simple reason, which is not strong enough to eliminate my doubts. Therefore, I decide to do some research about pescatarian and find out whether it is healthier to be a pescatarian or not and how this eating manifesto affects people’s food choice.

Many people become pescatarian and give up eating other meat because they concern about eating ethically. For pescatarian, eating fish is more ethical than eating poultry and other meat for the reason that fish are cultivated more ethically. “Fish don't spend their lives in the harsh conditions that much livestock on factory farms does, and fishing generates less pollution and uses less water and fuel than farming.”(Sherman, PARA4) As Sherman says, compared with other factory-farmed animal products, fish suffer less pain during the process of breeding and producing. Some factory-farmed livestock such as chickens and pigs are treated badly. For example, thousands of chickens are locked up in relatively small sheds and cages, which are crowded and contaminated. Therefore, if one chicken died and is not separated from healthy chickens timely, other chickens will be infected. Also, enormous poultry plants force chickens bred for meat to grow too large too fast. Some may even feed chickens with chemical hormone, which result in “freaky chicken”. “Freaky chicken” is used to describe chickens with several heads and wings. Therefore, the bad treatments to poultry encourage us to be pescatarian.

Pescatarians like to eat high-quality fish like salmon not only because of the good taste of it, but also for the reason that it is full of essential nutrition, such as vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B-3, and vitamin B-6. “Sashimi fits into a well-balanced and healthy diet, providing a source of essential nutrients to nourish your body's cells and tissues.” (Tremblay, 3) As Tremblay says, sashimi provides rich resource of nutrition, which is undeniably beneficial for our health; strengthening immune system, preventing diseases, improving blood circulate on and helping the proper nerve transmission in our brains.

Many people become pescatarian not only for health and ethical reasons, but also for slimming. Fish is a pretty good substitute for red meat because it is also rich in protein. But fish has less saturated fat then meat has, which efficiently reduce the risk of getting fat. Although being a vegetarian seems more effective to lose weight, most people may prefer to be pescatarian eating fish and vegetables to fulfill their desire of eating meat. 

A group of people make up a study team and verify the connection between red meat consumption and higher mortality risk of chronic diseases. They organized two cohort studies, which effectively support their assumptions and analysis. “We found that greater consumption of unprocessed and processed red meats is associated with higher mortality risk. Compared with red meat, other dietary components, such as fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, were associated with lower risk.”(Red Meat Consumption and Mortality, 562) It is likely to be the conclusion of their studies, which indicates that eating fish will reduce the higher mortality risk and keep healthy.

Moreover, Sherman mentions that fishing is more environmental friendly in the quote talked above. For example, “Holy Cow! What’s Good for You” is a commentary article specifically explaining the connection between red meat consumption and increasing mortality of chronic diseases and global warming crisis. In the analysis of global warming crisis, the author says, “Many people are surprised to learn that animal agribusiness generates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined.” (PARA13) It does surprise me because in my mind transportation pollution is much more harmful than animal agribusiness and I never connect global warming problem with animal agribusiness. However, the data provided in the article verify that the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by factory-farmed animals and the large amount of earth’s entire land surfaces used to raise livestock are the main reasons resulting in global warming crisis, which cannot be underestimated and ignored. Therefore, being a pescatarian, eating fish instead of poultry and red meat is an effective and efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas.

The complicated, dangerous procedure and the fast speed of food production cause disorders among poultry workers. It is necessary for them to wear protective boots, gloves and aprons since there are many bacteria during the production and quick working speed will easily cause injuries. But many workers just have none of them because they cannot afford any of them; they are treated indifferently by poultry plants, doing one of the most dangerous works but earning very little money. “Injured foreigners aren't eligible for welfare or disability benefits.” (Christopher, 42) This sentence mentioned in “Fowl Trouble” effectively shows the inhuman treatment towards poultry workers, especially those who are immigrants. Nonetheless, one of the important factors leading to the dangerousness during production is the fast working speed. And it is the increasingly larger consumption of chicken products that result in the fast working speed. Therefore, being a pescatarian is good for reducing the consumption of poultry, alleviating the heavy pressure of poultry workers and increasing the safety of them during the food production.

I just said that I give up eating all kinds of meat except fish, which seems a little bit monotonous. However, pescatarians do have numerous kinds of fish dishes, which are delicious enough to satisfy our desire of eating meat. For instance, my friends and I like to eat salmon sushi. Last Sunday, I went to a Japanese restaurant with some of my friends to eat salmon sushi. Japanese food there is tasty, especially for us, who are tired of eating food in university cafeteria and want to make some changes. I still remember how satisfied I was when eating the salmon sashimi above the salmon sushi. The small slices of salmon sashimi taste good because of their softness and freshness. And the salmon sashimi in this Japanese restaurant is relatively thick and high-quality.

I used to made salmon sushi when I was in China. Sometimes, I brought them to school and shared them with my friends during the lunch time. I was glad that all of them liked the salmon sushi I made. My cooking process of salmon sushi is quite easy. First, cook some sushi rice. During the time of rice cooking, wash the salmon, cut it into small slices and freeze them. Once the sushi rice is cooked, put them into a small bowl and then stir in sushi vinegar and a little salt. Then, wash some cucumbers and cut them into pieces. After the preparation of these basic materials, place a nori sheet on a bamboo rolling mat and spread sushi rice evenly on the nori sheet. Next, place the slices of salmon sashimi, cucumber, pickled vegetables and some meat floss in a straight line at one edge of the nori sheet. Then, roll the sushi up from the edge and slice the sushi roll into several pieces. However, the Japanese restaurant I mentioned before made other types of salmon sushi. For instance, they will put slices of salmon sashimi above the sushi rice ball, which makes it easier for consumers to taste the softness and freshness of salmon sashimi directly.

What to eat?

According to Dupuis, we’d better stop asking the question “What to eat?” Stop listening to and following intermediaries, who keep advocating various eating guidelines without authenticities. Nowadays, a large number of people obey the food advice of popular food writers without consideration, no matter how confusing and implausible these food advices are. They just lost their faith in religion and science, letting popular food writers control their eating habits. We pretend that our food choices could resolve the politic problems. But the history has already showed the fact that we were pursuing eating perfectly while we always failed. Following various food advices will just result in inequality instead of making many improvements in our diets. Therefore, he is opposed to listen to popular food writers’ eating advices.

Different from Dupuis, Pollan still comes up with several eating advices although he mentions that many food advices today are confusing and unreasonable at the beginning of the article. For example, “Just last fall two prestigious studies on omega-3 fats published at the same time presented us with strikingly different conclusions.”(Pollan, page1) And he also points out that nutritionism is ideology instead of science. As he said, “Ideologies are ways of organizing large swaths of life and experience under a set of shared but unexamined assumptions.”(Pollan, page2) However, at the end of his article, he suggests that do not eat industrial foods and processed foods; eat real foods instead of foodlike things, which our ancestors wouldn’t recognize as foods. Also, he says that we’d better eat food with high quality instead of large quantity.

The most helpful suggestion by Pollan is that eating like French people, that is, eating various kinds of food but eat just small portions of them. This method not only fulfills our desire of eating a wide range of cuisines, but also prevents us from getting too fat and unhealthy. I am also confused to varied food advices advocated by numerous food writers and professionals, but i believe eating less and eating mostly vegetables will have positive effects on our health.

Thoughts on Eating Practices

I eat breakfast everyday, and this is the eating practice i want to keep. Eating breakfast early in the morning is a effective and efficient approach to recharge myself quickly. Also, i will drink a bottle of water when i get up everyday, which helps to improve the blood circulation and metabolosm.  I always eat a lot at dinner, which makes me feel uncomfortable at night. So i am considering change it and eat less during dinner time. And i will stop eating late-night snacks.

Reading Yusi's SE5

I read Yusi's blog and find some interesting points. For example, the tomato contained so many carotene lycopene, which is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants that can defeat the cancer. Also, eating tomatoes a lot will improve our skin’s ability to protect against harmful UV rays. Before i just knew tomatoes contained a lot of nutrition, but now i realize that they have many positiive effects on our bodies.

Are Soft Drinks Bad Or Good?

Is drinking soft drinks harmful to you? I guess the answer is yes. In fact, this question is not new for us. Numerous people hold the opinion that soft drinks are bad for our health, although they have neither substantial evidences nor persuasive analysis. Moreover, I find several classmates of mine like to drink soft drinks such as coke and soda from their eating journals. This fact reveals that drinking soft drinks already becomes a pervasive eating habit for people; it is also the comfort food for them. Therefore, the association between the increasingly more large consumption of soft drinks and our health encourages me to do some researches on soft drinks, verifying whether drinking soft drinks is harmful or not. And, is it better for us to reduce the large consumption of soft drinks?

During my research of soft drinks, I found a representative experimental study, which verified the negative effect of drinking too much soft drink: chronic diseases. This is the first large-scale study showing the association between the large soft drink consumptions and the increased risk of getting asthma and COPD. Asthma and COPD are prevalent chronic diseases in South Australia and people there often drink soft drinks. So this study randomly picked up interviewees among the adults living in South Australia. Each month, health interviewers use a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system to interview at least 600 selected Australia adults. They asked many questions about their personal history, symptoms of asthma/COPD as well as consumption of soft drinks to collect the important data. For instance, those interviewees would be asked “Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have chronic bronchitis or emphysema” and “On average, how many liters of soft drink and sports drink do you usually have in a day?” (SHI, P364)

After analyzing the data collected, the researchers found, “Among those with asthma and COPD, 13.3 and 15.6%, respectively, consumed 0.5 L or more of soft drink per day.”(SHI, P365) This group of data indicates that people regularly drinking soft drinks have higher risk of getting asthma and COPD, compared with those who rarely drink soft drinks. Also, the study figured out that the negative effect of combination of soft drinks and smoking is significantly associated with the increased risk of asthma and COPO, which emphasized the importance and necessity of healthy habits and lifestyle. Moreover, it mentioned that chemicals from the plastic bottles of soft drinks may also lead to asthma. Thereby, this experimental study verified that drinking soft drinks too often increases the risk of asthma and COPD as a result of various factors, recommending the reduction of soft drink consumption.

In addition, I found other harmful effects of soft drinks on the Internet. Drinking too much soft drinks for a long time will intake too much caffeine, which makes people addicted to it and feel uncomfortable right after stopping drinking soft drinks. More than that, people regularly drinking soft drinks will feel headache, tired and anxious after energizing nervous system for a long period by caffeine. Furthermore, a US research team also assumed, “One soft drink a day raises ‘heart attack danger’ by 20%.”(Fiona Macrae, 1)They verified these sugar-sweetened soft drinks contribute to the high level of dangerous blood fats and of proteins linked to heart diseases.

What’s more, I was surprised to learn about the positive effects of soft drinks during my research, because all my expressions of soft drinks before were unhealthy and harmful. According to Rice University, caffeine contained in some soft drinks could stimulate our nervous system and quickly recharge ourselves. Therefore, if we have to do some difficult work which needs lots of energy, we will benefit from the caffeine in soft drinks. Also, the alkaline of soft drinks helps to build bones while the minerals and vitamins contained in diet sodas enrich the nutrition in our body. Looking at these positive effects, it seems that reducing drinking soft drinks is not that necessary.

I feel glad to know more about soft drinks after doing these researches. Learning soft drinks comprehensively helps me to drink soft drinks in a healthy way. As all the factors mentioned above, soft drinks have both negative and positive effects. But above all, moderate consumption of soft drinks is the most important. Drinking either too much or too little soft drink cannot have a positive effect on our body. However, I still incline to the idea that it is necessary for us to reduce soft drink consumption because they are more or less harmful to our health. Some other healthy drinks, such as water, low-fat milk and unsweetened juice, are much healthier and safer. But if some people do not want to reduce soft drink consumption, drinking diet soft drinks is a good choice for the reason that they are sugar-free and reduced-calorie, which prevent people from getting fat and diabetes after drinking them regularly.

Food Journal

Thursday, May 10
Breakfast(8:00am): a bottle of skim milk + an apple + an orange + two overhard fried eggs
Lunch(2:30pm): a bottle of orange juice + a piece of sausage pizza + some French fries + small slices of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs and carrots
Dinner(5:00pm): hot water + vegetable salad + cheese cake

Friday, May 11
Breakfast(8:30am): a bottle of skim milk + an apple + two overhard fried eggs + butter croissant
Lunch(12:00am): a bottle of orange juice + some French fries + humburger
Dinner(5:50pm): hot water + vegetable salad + watermalon

Saturday, May 12
Breakfast(8:00am): a bottle of skim milk + an apple + an orange + chocolate croissant
Lunch(12:30pm): a bottle of apple juice + roast chicken + some French fries + cup cake
Dinner(6:00pm): a cup of hot chocolate + vegetable salad + broccoli + slices of tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and eggs

Salmon Sashimi: not just food, but also a life motivation.

Last Sunday, I went to a Japanese restaurant with some of my friends to eat Japanese cuisines. It is closed to the campus but I cannot remember its name. Japanese food there is tasty, especially for us, who are tired of eating food in university cafeteria and want to make some changes. I still remember how satisfied I was when eating the salmon sashimi above the salmon sushi. The small slices of salmon sashimi taste good because of their softness and freshness. And the salmon sashimi in this Japanese restaurant is relatively thick and high-quality. So the salmon sashimi, which is one of the main ingredients of salmon sushi, most interested me and left a deep impression in my mind. Therefore, I decided to do some research about salmon sashimi after coming back from the Japanese restaurant.

I used to made salmon sushi when I was in China. Sometimes, I brought them to school and shared them with my friends during the lunch time. I was glad that all of them liked the salmon sushi I made. My cooking process of salmon sushi is quite easy. First, cook some sushi rice. During the time of rice cooking, wash the salmon, cut it into small slices and freeze them. Once the sushi rice is cooked, put them into a small bowl and then stir in sushi vinegar and a little salt. Then, wash some cucumbers and cut them into pieces. After the preparation of these basic materials, place a nori sheet on a bamboo rolling mat and spread sushi rice evenly on the nori sheet. Next, place the slices of salmon sashimi, cucumber, pickled vegetables and some meat floss in a straight line at one edge of the nori sheet. Then, roll the sushi up from the edge and slice the sushi roll into several pieces. However, the Japanese restaurant I mentioned before made other types of salmon sushi. For instance, they will put slices of salmon sashimi above the sushi rice ball, which makes it easier for consumers to taste the softness and freshness of salmon sashimi directly.

This cooking process, however, is not that standard, which is convenient and only used by people making salmon sushi at home. After doing some research about salmon sashimi, I find that salmon sashimi requires a relatively high standard of hygienic production; the steps of dealing with the raw salmon sashimi are quite complicated and challenging. In order to kill poisoning bacterial, such as Salmonella and Listeria, raw salmon sashimi must be stored frozen in refrigerator for at least 24 hours at a temperature of no more than -20 ℃. Also, before touching the salmon sashimi, we should wash our hands and equipment carefully to keep all the things clean. Moreover, we’d better eat salmon sashimi above the salmon sushi with some wasabi. Not just the special taste, but also the use of killing poisoning bacteria encourages us to eat salmon sashimi with wasabi. So these complicated steps of salmon sashimi contribute to the safe production of salmon sashimi.

People like to eat salmon sashimi not only because of the good taste of it, but also for the reason that it is full of essential nutrition, such as vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B-3, and vitamin B-6. “Sashimi fits into a well-balanced and healthy diet, providing a source of essential nutrients to nourish your body's cells and tissues.”(Louise Tremblay, 3)Since the salmon sashimi provides rich resource of nutrition, it is undeniably beneficial for our health; strengthening immune system, preventing diseases, improving blood circulation and helping the proper nerve transmission in our brains.

The most interesting and startling part I found during my research about salmon sashimi was “salmon spirit”. They all know that it is extremely hard to reach the upstream; and they will certainly die after spawning at upstream. Nonetheless, they are still determined to follow this process. “Salmon are anadromous fish, meaning that they migrate from oceans to freshwater streams to reproduce.”(Salmon, 1) As the article “Salmon” says, thousands of salmons will swim to the upstream to spawn during the period from July to August. Most of them are coming from Pacific Ocean. Because the water is reverse-flow, salmons have to keep jumping during the whole period, which will make them hurt by the rocks along the riverbed. This is also the reason why the meat of salmon is red at upstream instead of light colored at downstream; their blood vessels are broken by the rocks. After spawning, salmons will die. Thereby, it is not hard to find that salmons have to experience numerous difficulties before reaching the upstream and some may be killed during this process.

Besides salmon’s tragic fate, I see more value in their persevering spirit when facing difficulties. “Salmon spirit”, also, is one of the most crucial factors contributing to success. Our life is similar to the spawning process of salmon. We both have to go through several frustrations. But the difference is we human beings will not die when reaching the destination. Therefore, I was educated by “salmon spirit” and it encourages me to fight against difficulties in my life with persistent effort and a strong heart. Only by going through these difficulties can we realize our goals.

As I mentioned above, I learned a lot from my research about salmon sashimi, which brings some changes to my attitude towards salmon sashimi. Now I will pay more attention to the hygienic production of salmon sashimi to avoid bacterial infection. Moreover, I know about “salmon spirit” while I just knew the nutrition of salmon sashimi before. Salmon sashimi now is not just a food for me, but also a representative of “salmon spirit” and a motivation of my life.

Salmon sashimi above sushi rice ball

Salmon sushi

Making salmon sushi with slices of salmon sashimi

                                          

Go back to food production, go back to poultry workers

The most noteworthy part I find in “Fowl Trouble” is the brutality to workers in American’s poultry plants. The writer uses broiler chicken as a representative instance, showing the complicated and dangerous procedure of food production. As the article mentions, broiler chicken are harmful because meat inspectors will examine the carcasses. However, they have to examine the carcasses in a very fast speed and other poultry workers have to process chicken quickly because of the rising demand of broiler chicken, which will inevitably cause disorders among poultry workers. “Scissors and knives quickly dull, and workers often lacerate themselves or their neighbors when blades slip off the slimy carcasses.” (Christopher, 14) The fast working speed causes heavy pressure of most employees in poultry plants. Also, these workers are treated indifferently. They are doing one of the most dangerous works but earn very little money. It is necessary for them to wear protective boots, gloves and aprons in that there are many bacteria during the production and quick working speed will easily cause injuries. But many workers just have none of them because they cannot afford any of them. Some workers lose their fingernails while some even lose the use of their hands due to the exposure to the bacteria in the chicken carcasses. Those people who are benefit from the hard work of poultry workers seldom care about the safety and health of their employees. As the article mentions, “Injured foreigners aren't eligible for welfare or disability benefits.” (Christopher, 42) Consumers who are enjoying the “harmless” broiler chicken will not concern about the health of poultry workers either. What a cruel world! This fact tells us that we have to pay attention to the production of food. Moreover, not only the food health, but also the safety and health of poultry worker during the procedure of food production should be widely concerned. And, this idea is the most meaningful and society-friendly part of writer’s tracing of food production.

Eating Disorder

In Pollan’s article “Our National Eating Disorder”, he analyzed the symptoms and the causes of American national eating disorder. I find out the two main factors, which cause the disorder eating habit of Americans. First, as the article mentions, “a scientific study, a new government guideline, a lone crackpot with a medical degree can alter this nation's diet overnight.”(Pollan, 1) Many Americans blindly pursue eating health without direction and consideration. Any scientific researches about food are authentic for them and they will follow these theories without hesitation.  Another factor that causes Americans disorder eating habits is their worrying about food.  For instance, many Americans will feel guilty after eating a piece of cheesecake or a chocolate cake because both of them may lead to obesity.  Eating healthily seems to be the primary food value of most Americans. However, people from French do not worry too much when they are eating; they just enjoy various delicious cuisines. The food value of most French people is eating for pleasure. And surprisingly, French people are healthier than most American people although they eat much “unhealthy” food to Americans. Why? As the author says in his article, “they eat small portions and don't go back for seconds; they don't snack; they seldom eat alone, and communal meals are long, leisurely affairs.”(4) This is exactly what I think. Americans may go back and get another chocolate cake after finishing the first one, while French people eat food in small portions and eat different kinds of food without going back for second one. French people can both enjoy various kinds of food and keep healthy because of their reasonable and right attitudes about eating. So Pollan comes up with the conclusion - “our anxious eating itself may be part of the American problem with food.”(4) But “social and psychological context in which it is eaten” is quite difficult to change in the near future. Pollan’s analysis about anxious eating attitude of Americans and the comparison between American’s food value and that of French people is the most interesting part of his analysis. As for me, eating for pleasure is the first priority; I eat whatever I like. But I still concern about eating healthily. I always eat a lot of vegetable and fruit during each meal.