EE2 Snacker's Manifesto

Adam Clark EE2-Eater’s Manifesto Writ-1133 Eric Leake A Snacker’s Manifesto Snacking, everyone does it and it can lead to a healthier diet, but it does just the opposite for many Americans. Not enough time for a meal? Grab a snack. Not hungry enough for a meal? Snack. Friend has a snack? Why not join them. The causes for snacking are endless and often lead to continual snacking. This is where snacking goes wrong. Snacks are not a substitute for a meal and should be had minimally throughout a day, not continually. It is not just the frequency of snacks that have lead to them to become unhealthy, it is what we chose to snack on and what is presented as snacks that result in poor habits. Fruits and vegetables are not often thought as a go to snack, but they can be just as convenient as processed snacks and lead to healthier snacking. I know my snacking habits have fallen to these unhealthy ideals that many Americans have placed on snacking and need to change. Our snacking habit as Americans does not have to disappear, but we need to change our ideas and goals of snacking to healthier ones. Snacking is something that we get brain washed to do at an early age, so it is a hard habit to break. As children, out parents let us snack. In analysis done by Barry Popkin, a professor of nutation at the University of North Carolina, on four national studies done on US youth ages 2-18, the first was the Nationwide Food Consumption Survey done in 1977 and the latest being the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey done in 2006, snacking of kids aged 2-6 increased the most over this time period with an increase of about 1.4 more snacks per day (399). This shows our addiction to snacking starts at a young age when we rely on our parents to make choices with our food. With this increase in snacking at a young age, it is not shocking that overall snacking among all children has risen over the years. In the 1977-1978 study, 74 percent of children studied snacked, but by the 2003-2006 study that number had risen to 94 percent of kids polled (399). It has gotten to the point were almost every child in the US snacks on a daily basis. With processed foods becoming more prevalent and easily accessible, an increase snacking on those products was also observed. The consumption as fruit as a snack has fallen by almost half from 1977 to 2006 while salty snack consumption has almost doubled (401). In the same studies done on adults 19 and older, a similar increase in snacking was observed with 71 percent of adults snacking in 1977 to 97 percent of adults in 2006 (Piernes 325). Our snacking habit is taught to us before we can make our on choices on food, sticking with us for life and has shifted to become less health and more frequent, raising concern. Our snacking today is often not healthy, but that’s by our decisions, consciously or subconsciously on the foods we chose to snack on. Since 1977, both adults and kids have began to snack more on salty foods and shifted away from fruits (Piernes). In a study done by Pascalle Weijzen, a professor of human nutrition conducted a study on male and females in the workplace. The participants were surveyed on which snack they would chose out of two healthy options and two unhealthy options. At a later time the same participants were give then options between the two healthy and two unhealthy and a quarter of those who said they would chose a healthy snack, switched to an unhealthy one while less than 10 percent switched from an unhealthy choice to a healthy one. This shows that many times people intend to have a healthy snack, but when the options are placed in front of us, it can often be hard to resist the unhealthy option. It has been ingrained into us that processed foods are snacks, not fruit or vegetables through medias influence over us. Commercials and advertisement have gotten the idea of convenient processed food as the ideal snack. Inn an article in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Annie Anderson writes “Snack food marketing and advertising represents one of the most successful industry investments of the last decade. The sums of money involved have produced spectacular presentations of bright eye-catching posters and adverts, seen everywhere from vending machines to buses and glossy magazines. Health promotion marketing and advertising pales in comparison” (Anderson). Advertisement is mostly for processed food so healthy food is minimally in ones mind as snack food. The advertisements claim the “healthiness” of their product; and many Americans believe this without question. But we must step back and question how the snack was made with zero fat and can be healthy for us. Fruits and vegetables provide natural and balanced compositions while our snacks today are filled with artificial ingredients. What Americans desire to achieve from snacking has become very unbalanced. We desire a single food that is healthy, balanced in nutrients, and can act as a meal supplement or replacement as needed. Our snack food today though does none of this, though many people treat snacks like they do achieve this. Snacks were intended as small amounts of food between meals to tide one over until it is time for a meal. Snacks were intended to be eaten in moderation, but many Americans struggle with this concept. If we enjoy something we are going to have a lot of that thing, but with snacks, we have begun to eat a disproportional amount of them. It was also intended as a time to take in vital nutrients throughout the day. Snacking on fruits and vegetables provides a small item rich in nutrients. A small snack on healthy food allows for nutrients to be taken in throughout the day and not in mass quantities at a single meal, but also prevents from overeating at meals because people are never craving for a large meal. Denise Webb a nutrition professor at the University of Cambridge talks about the benefits of snacking. In her article she writes that snacking on nutrient rich basic foods can increase daily nutrient count and decrease calorie intake. Snacking can reduce daily calorie intake because people are less hungry at meals and cut back on their calories at those meals. (Webb). Snacking also keeps our blood sugar from spiking which is healthier for both diabetics and non-diabetics. Snacking should not be eliminated, it offers too many health benefits, but it cannot continue as we know it. What comes to mind when someone asks for a snack food? Carrots? Or maybe cookies or chips? Advertising has a large effect on how we view a product. When was the last time you saw a commercial advertising fruit or vegetables as a snack? Processed food? I know I cannot remember the last time I saw fruit or vegetables advertised as a snack. With all the advertising for unhealthy options, they are subconsciously in our mind as good snack food. People must understand with all advertising, the producer is going to make any product appealing hiding its negative effects. We must not just submit ourselves to believe all the advertising about healthy processed snacks. Like meals, we must look for balance in our snacks as well. I am a person who tries to eat fairly healthy. I do not over obsess with healthy food, but I do try to not over eat and watch the fatty foods I eat at meals. This though gets thrown out the door when I snack. I almost view snacks as something that is calorie-less simply because it is not a “meal”. Snacking is not something I think hard about. If I am hungry, I will go get a snack, almost always without question. The issue is more than just getting snacks; it is the quantity and choices of the snacks too. I have the option everyday to grab and apple or banana to go from the cafeteria, but I rarely do that. My snacking is mostly on chips or cookies because they are easily available and have been instilled in me as snack food. Chips are obviously not the healthiest option, but I never question that, nor do I ever question how many I eat. I can easily get a bag of chips and eat the whole bag, which has 5-8 servings in a single sitting. Not only did I pick an unhealthy option, I eat it in ridiculous quantities. If I eat that much as a snack, I will be inclined to skip a meal and snack again later. Though my snacking may be a little extreme, I feel like it is not far off from many other college students. I also feel many people know their snacking is unhealthy but have a minimal desire to change it either because they enjoy the snacking or struggle to find other options. I, like most Americans, need to place a higher value on snacks. I should no long ignore healthy snacking options available in place of what has now become typical snack food nor can I think of it as calorie-less food because it is not a meal. If I can change my snacking habits soon, I can change a negative habit into a beneficial one for the rest of my life. Snacking is a habit, though hard to get rid of; it can be modified. Snacking on more fruit and other healthy options will allow everyone to have healthier daily eating habits by not over snacking, eating small meals and cutting out the over processed, un-nutritional snacks. There are always new diet crazes that people change their diets for, so why not treat healthy snacking as a new diet craze, it could prove to be more beneficial than many diets by balancing nutrient intake and cutting down calories at meals. People go to processed food as snack because of convenience, but can fruit be just as convenient? An apple sitting on the counter is just as easy of a grab and go snack as a bag of chips so why must start to view it that way. Works Cited Anderson, Annie. "Snacking Habits in Adults." Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 16.1 (2003): 1-2. University of Denver Penrose Library. Web. 1 June 2012. . Piernas, C., and B. M. Popkin. "Trends In Snacking Among U.S. Children." Health Affairs 29.3 (2010): 398-404. University of Denver Penrose Library. Web. 1 June 2012. . Piernes, Cameron, and Barry M. Popkin. "Journal of Nutrition." Journal of Nutrition 140.2 (2010): 325-32. University of Denver Penrose Library. Web. 02 June 2012. . Webb, Densie. "Regular Snacking Is Smart Snacking: Making It Happen." Environmental Nutrition 32.5 (2009): 2. University of Denver Penrose Library. Web. 1 June 2012. . Weijzen, P.l.g., C. De Graaf, and G.b. Dijksterhuis. "Predictors of the Consistency between Healthy Snack Choice Intentions and Actual Behaviour." Food Quality and Preference 20.2 (2009): 110-19.University of Denver Penrose Library. Web. 1 June 2012. .

Reflection Blog

This course made me see that food is marketed like any other product. Companies goals are to sell us food, not provide the healthiest product that is most beneficial to our health. Our desire for food has made us lose any control we once had over food. We allow companies to manufacture, control, and hide the truth about the food we are eating. I had never previously noticed how much I fall for companies advertisements without looking to the reasons/health consequences for eating the food I do eat and how little I actually knew about my food and eating habits. With this knowledge I hope to make healthier and less impulse based eating decisions, not simply falling for a new advertised product and being aware more aware of the changes in my eating habits to hopefully make positive changes.

Our diets issues today

The ideas of a perfect food and perfect diet have never been set on one thing. Society keeps changing what a perfect meals consists of based on current studies and it has done it for centuries. But as a study comes out with one conclusion a similar study can come out with a different one. Because of this our diets keep changing based on what science thinks is healthy. Since there can be studies to prove anything is healthy or not, it is hard to base new diets off a couple studies. These diets also change based on companies’ desires. A product can be marketed well to consumers as a new healthy food or good for ones diet, but this can be sparked because it is cheap for a company to produce. But our diets also come from our “right” to eat what we want. As Americans we do not want to be told we cannot eat something. If we like a food we are going to eat a lot of it even if it’s unhealthy because we can. With all these factors that play into creating a perfect diet, it will probably never be reached. There will always be stubborn people who will eat unhealthy because it tastes good and is what they like. There will always be a new product supported by one study and marketed as healthiest thing you can eat, but shortly after another study will attempt to disprove it. People have survived for thousands of years on our “unhealthy diets” so why must the healthiest diet be force on us.

Interesting food/health/nutrition facts

One interesting post was on snacking. It talks about how snack by itself is not unhealthy as it has been argued that eating 5 small meals a day is healthier than 3 large meals. But most everyone snack in the wrong manor. If you snack, the meals should be made smaller to account for the extra snacks, but this does not happen often. Because snacks are an addition and other meals are not adjusted, often our snacking is unhealthy. Another interesting fact was the amount of nutrion that we consume daily. The recommended daily consumption is 2400 mg or less, but a restaurant meal, like sodexo, can have between 2400-4600 mg of sodium per meal. having to eat there 2-3 meals a day, we cannot go without eat double or more of the recommended sodium per day.

SE5

Adam Clark Writ 1133 – Erik Leak 5/16/2012 A surprisingly Healthy Breakfast Eating breakfast is a dilemma for many college students. Eating breakfast requires getting up early for class and either making breakfast or stopping somewhere for it. Making breakfast can require a lot of time and having food available while the other, quicker option, stopping somewhere to get food, requires time and money. Neither time nor money is something many college kids have endless amounts of so breakfast is often skipped. This can have many negative effects on both school performance and health. Looking at our classes eating habits, it was clear that many people skipped breakfast on a daily basis. This is not shocking as the options offered in dinning halls are often not worth getting up early for. There is little debate against the benefits of eating breakfast, but new research has showed that eating certain things for breakfast can maximize the benefits. Cereal, a food always available in the cafeterias and an easy food for students to store and makes a quick meal form, is shown to large health benefits. The amount of daily nutrients consumed can vary greatly depending ones choice of breakfast. A study done by the British National Diet and Nutrition Surveys, which recorded all food eaten by participants for a 7-day period was analyzed to find correlations between breakfast and the daily nutrients consumed. The goal was to see if breakfast, or more specifically cereal for breakfast, had more health benefits than no breakfast. Non-breakfast eaters consumed on average fewer calories daily than those who ate non-cereal or cereal breakfasts, but eating breakfast was associated with a lower daily fat intake (Gibson 82). The analysis showed that skipping breakfast led to the lowest daily intake of micronutrients. The intake of micronutrients was 6-18% higher for non-cereal breakfast and 30-90% higher for cereal breakfast (82). Even though more calories were consumed daily when breakfast was eaten, these percentages still show that the food eaten was more nutrient dense, up to 14% more dense when cereal breakfasts were eaten (83). This analysis just offers some light into the benefits of cereal for breakfast, and is simply reporting on the data collected by the British NDNS, but the results do show significant nutritional benefits from consuming cereal for breakfast. Cereal is an easy food for a college kid to have for breakfast. There is no preparation needed and I can easily by made in a dorm room. A simple breakfast cannot only provide morning class performance benefits by providing energy for the mind; it can lead to the consumption of healthy food later in the day. Cereal is not always though of as the healthiest option as they are seen full of sugars and carbohydrates which may be why it was not common breakfast item in our classes eating habits. But all of today’s cereals are filled with numerous nutrients that cannot be provided by many other breakfasts. Starting the day with cereal can provide the body with vital nutrients early in the day and often leads to more nutrient rich food to be consumed later in the day as well. Cereal can provide the beneficial breakfast that all college students should have. This quick meal that is healthy and can be prepared and eaten in 5 minutes should have a large appeal to college students who focus on maximizing time and performance, but the negative assumptions that cereal is not that healthy limits cereals occurrence in breakfasts. Works Cited Gibson, S. A., and P. Gun. "What's for Breakfast? Nutritional Implications of Breakfast Habits: Insights from the NDNS Dietary Records." Nutrition Bulletin March 36.1 (2011): 78-86. Web. 16 May 2012. .

Commonalities in our eating

There was more variety in foods and places people ate than i expected. It was common for people to skip breakfast a couple of the days. The days recorded were weekend days so many people often get up late, past the time for "normal" breakfast so it is not convenient for them to eat it. Some of the breakfast were instant meals or quick things grabbed from a dininng hall, not a full meal. Most people get up around lunch so either a small snack of just waiting till lunch makes the most sense. It was also a common theme to see snacking in peoples daily eating habits. For many people a couple quick snacks spread out during a day is easier than sitting down for a meal.

What I ate this weekend

Thursday night- 730-strawberries, salad, burger, milk 10-kettle chips, Friday- 9 am – 2 glass of cranrasberry juice 2 nutrigrain bars 11 am- chips and salsa and turkey, iced tea 3- turkey sandwich beef stick, iced tea 5:30- pizza(cheese and sausage) 3 side servings of sausage, 2 cans of orange crush 8- multiple servings of pretzels Saturday- 9:30 bacon and 2 glasses of apple juice 11- kettle chips and turkey 5- cheddar cheese and wheat thins, strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, root beer 630- salad with lemon dressing, bread and steak, water 10:30 2 cookies, can of orange crush Sunday morning 10- eggs benedict, bacon and apple juice 12-turkey and lemonade 5-5 piece chicken strip from BK