Indian food is very popular. But there are many controversies that are attached to the Indian food name. Things like nutrition and food sustainability are a real, and big issue. Those two points make people have their judgment towards Indian food culture and the environment that the food has to endure. India’s nutrition is, to say the least, not amazing. India is known as the diabetes capital of the world, hitting an alarming mark of 69.9 million people by 2025 and a suspected 80 million by 2030. Also about 20 percent of India’s children under 5 suffer from wasting due to undernutrition and India accounts for every 3 out of 10 stunted children in the world. India’s diet is very odd because most of their country is vegetarian, due to religious beliefs, and in general aren’t the healthiest with having legumes, salt, sugar-sweetened beverages, and trans fats being some of their highest types of food consumed and things like omega-3, red and processed meats being the lowest consumed. Their country is very controversial in the way they eat, one reason being, is that they let their religion dictate what they consume. They are mainly vegetarian because of this and there are many people who do not agree with being religious or being vegetarian. Another reason is because of their bad nutrition and how it has affected their people badly. The environment that India’s food has to endure is very poor. Their environment causes them to have very bad sustainability with their food. The environmental issues in India, that affect the food is their growing water scarcity, with their water dealing with lack of government planning, industrial waste and human waste. The country also has to survive with land and soil degradation which is caused by land shortage, poverty and population. Due to these issues India has a problem with feeding their population in a sustainable way. These issues, of course, make India a controversial place because their government isn’t doing the most to fix these problems and it wouldn’t be this bad if they worked on these issues earlier but now they are dealing with the consequences. India is a very controversial place. From their nutrition to their food sustainability India has some big problems. These issues make people judge their food and culture without really looking into it properly and understanding what is actually happening. Sources:
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“Many people turn to cleanses because they feel off—they’re bloated and sluggish, dependent on caffeine and junk food cravings, breaking out,” says Stephanie Middleberg, a New York City-based registered dietitian. Most people start or continue these types of “detox’s” to rid their body of toxins and eliminate waste, when in reality these diets are doing more harm than good. That really is what your liver (and your kidneys and intestines) is for. “I don’t like the marketing around juice cleanses,” Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., associate executive director for clinical science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, told BuzzFeed Life. “That it’s going to detox and mobilize all these toxins and all that — this is pure marketing.” When people begin their cleanse for a duration of normally three days as long as they are healthy with no extreme health issues or problems, most physicians will not take their time to fight you on the negatives or the unrealistic outcomes that people expect out of them. If the cleanse makes you feel better for a little bit and boosts your confidence than no doctor truly has any issue with the idea as long as there are no risks within your own body. Most peoples thoughts when first beginning this diet is that the juice they are consuming for every meal is much better being a liquid oppose to eating solid foods than contain more energy their fore making you potentially feeling more full or bloated. Diets come in all shapes and forms but this one is especially controversial in many ways, the nutrition value and the ingredients can be very good for you but when consuming so much of the same thing you put yourself at risk of to over intake specific micro and macro nutrients. When juicing all the ingredients for you meals, people dont consider and realize that when extracting the juices from the fruits and vegetables you are taking in the sugar and extracting all the fibre, which leaves you feeling less full and makes you want to consume more and this can be extremely Un-healthy due to the levels of sugar you are taking in per serving and per day. Your blood sugar begins to rise because you are not taking in the fibre and the important macro nutrients that help with breaking down the sugar in the body. Your pancreas begins to produce more insulin causing some people to develop diabetes, your body tries to regulate all the extra being put in but sometimes too much is added at one time. The lack of sodium that people are having when juicing can cause most to feel very light headed and dizzy. Over all the cleanse has a lot of downsides that people are not particularly aware of and seem to only be interested in it to make themselves feel better or to drop a few pounds, when realistically you are just depriving your body of the things it needs to regulate and be healthy. Many juice cleanses limit you to around 1,000 calories a day (or less). When people limit their calories, “they tend to start feeling a little bit weaker,” Buse says. Low calorie-intake can also make you feel irritable, Leslie Schilling, RDN, LDN, Memphis-based dietitian and owner of Schilling Nutrition Therapy, LLC, Question: Does this information change you perspective on juicing and the bad behind it or would you still consider doing this cleanse to “detox yourself” http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20679227,00.html http://www.doctoroz.com/article/joe-cross-3-day-weekend-juice-cleanse http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Juice-Cleanses-Healthy-20145342 When recovering from a workout or sports activity what do you like to drink? What do you think is the best for your body? Water, energy drinks, protein shakes, sports drinks such as Gatorade, or chocolate milk? Personally I’ve always leaned towards Gatorade but always heard that chocolate milk was just as good. But I’ve never really thought about which is better for me or how they have been marketed towards me. After watching what seemed to be millions of Gatorade and chocolate milk commercials, it was clear that the Gatorade commercials and ads focused on professional athletes and professional sports. (Fun fact: Gatorade started as a university coach of the Florida Gators wanting to find out why his players would fade away as their games went on, find out more at http://www.gatorade.com/company/heritage.) As well, I’ve noticed that the commercials you see on TV are primarily Gatorade. The majority of these commercials feature well-known athletes in efforts to inspire you to be at your best through consuming their product. And if a health conscious professional athlete is endorsing these products then they must taste good and be good for you, right? These commercials also plays on people’s emotions and dreams of wanting to be a successful professional athlete and makes it seem easy and effortless. Chocolate milk commercials on the other hand were more factual and weren’t focused on the professional athlete promoting the drink. So, if you’re unlike me and the nutritional value is more than the taste, than you will find the “compare it” section of the Recharge with Milk website (http://www.rechargewithmilk.ca/#compare) useful and interesting. Chocolate milk is a source of vitamin A & D, calcium, and carbohydrates. But what makes chocolate milk the ideal recovery drink is that it replaces carbohydrates which is a major nutrient that is lost during exercise. Like chocolate milk, Gatorade does supply the body with carbohydrates and lost fluids but however it does not supply the body with protein which can assist in recovery. But if you think about it who were these studies on? Somewhat-regularly active people or athletes that train for hours every day? Personally I work out or play sports to maintain a healthy lifestyle and my weight – I am by far not a professional athlete. So I guess the question is, do our average bodies really need these drinks to recover? I would now say, after reading article upon article, that no I don’t need these drinks. Looking at the calorie intake of both drinks, all my hard work would have been for nothing as I would have just replaced the calories I had just burnt. So, do you think that your recovery drink is helping your body in the way you need it too? References: http://www.gatorade.com/company/heritage rechargewithmilk.ca http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/chocolate-milk-post-workout-nutritious-choice-or-big-glass-of-hype/article4381413/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chocolate-milk-the-new-sports-drink/ Genetically Modified Organisms, wonderful to some and a nightmare to others. No matter your position there is one common need, labels. With the dramatic and constant rise of GMO use, people have become very opinionated around this topic, and if I told you to eat them or not to eat them you would more than likely ignore this, so I won’t. I will however raise a very pertinent issue around them that is more for personal safety than anything else. In some countries such as the U.S and Canada, grocery stores do not require labeled GMO products. Some people shrug saying that they eat them anyway so labeled or not they are unaffected, but there are two things everyone should know about them. One, allergic reactions. Imagine you are allergic to nuts and you eat an apple, suddenly your off to the hospital with no idea as to why. The reason for this is that someone decided that there was something about peanuts they liked, and so they put it into an apple. Even though you are not allergic to apples the small peanut gene in it could still cause your body to react as if it were a peanut. This situation could have been easily prevented by a simple label saying that ‘this apple contains peanut genes and could kill you if you are allergic to peanuts’. You would probably want to reword it but this is the point that needs to be reached and told to people. Secondly GMOs will often be changed to increase nutritional value, which is a great thing and will help everyone get a proper diet, but because we can overindulge in nutrients with severe consequences, people must be made aware of the fact that it has been altered. Although seemingly simple, improper labeling and use of GMOs can lead to illness and quite possible death. For the two reasons previously stated: persistence of allergic reactions, and extra nutrition. I believe that GMOs must always be labeled, and yes I like the idea of GMOs and will support them in the future, but only if people are made aware of the possible dangers through easy to read and easy to see labels. If you are still curious about this topic I suggest watching the video on this site and looking over the article. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/consumer-reports-gmo-food-label-study-on-american-products/ And if you are in for a longer read try this site. http://www.iflscience.com/environment/myths-and-controversies-gmos-0 Also if you are wondering about countries laws around labeling check out the map on this site. http://www.iflscience.com/environment/myths-and-controversies-gmos-0 Finally if you or someone you know has allergies I would recommend taking a peak at this site https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/ge/allergies111603.php Food trucks. Are you really getting what you want? Are your foods really allergy-free? Are all the foods fresh and are they good quality? Is the food really clean and are the workers hands really washed? The answer to the questions are always unknown but for some reason people still love to eat from food trucks. The first known food truck was an army wagon which contained dried beans, coffee, cornmeal, bacon, salt pork, beef, and other easily-preserved foods. It was invented to feed cattlemen and people traveling. After this, the US Army mobile canteens were commonly used to feed the U.S. troops. This is one of the many reasons food trucks are so popular, because it was so easy to feed people when they were busy doing other things. I think the reason it is so popular in today’s time is because it is a very convenient way of buying food that is close to easily accessible places. The real question I have is, are we really getting the food that we are asking for? For example, the photo in the top right of this page was a food truck that sold tacos. There was a twist however, although the tacos were delicious people were getting a bad vibe because something was not right. After a bit of investigating, the food truck was shut down for selling tacos with a side of meth. Hundreds or even thousands of people could’ve eaten these tacos without even known that they were getting high, even children. Even though this certain food truck is not like every single food truck, you can not be guaranteed food that is safe for you if you have dietary restrictions. If you do not tell the people that are serving your food that you are vegan/vegetarian or have allergies they will never know and your food can be contaminated. The last problem I am going to talk about is sanitation. How do we know if the workers are constantly cleaning the surrounding around the foods or how often they are washing their hands. We also do not know if our food has been dropped on the floor because they can cover it up really easily. I have learned this from personal experience. I was working on a food truck at an outside concert. The co-worker I was working with dropped an ice cream cone. It didn’t break or look dirty and she was concerned with how many cones we had left so she used it. We both don’t know the last time someone washed the floor. My Question: If you heard all the stories from workers about how they actually prepared your food and the steps they take towards sanitation, would you eat the food? Links to history, videos and horror stories about food trucks: http://mobile-cuisine.com/business/history-of-american-food-trucks/ http://globalnews.ca/news/1578597/food-truck-busted-for-selling-tacos-with-a-side-of-meth/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/travel/how-america-became-a-food-truck-nation-99979799/ At a family barbeque last summer, as I sat with my family under the sun and drooled for the burgers being prepped inside, I found myself stumped by a conversational topic about the trend, the myth, the legend: the almighty Gluten-free diet. My uncle, curious about the latest trend in the fitness world being someone who leads an active lifestyle, posed the simple yet puzzling question; “Okay, but what actually is gluten?” At the time, all I was aware of was that it had something to do with bread and I was a firm believer of bread, a carb aficionado if you will, so this sudden widespread intolerance towards the concept was troubling as I scarfed down another handful of tortilla chips. My cousin, a young chef in the local culinary scene, has known his fair share of diners claiming to be allergic to anything in order to avoid having it on their plate whether or not this aversion is genuine. For example, a party once insisted they were allergic to celery until the chef explained it was a vital component to their desired dish and they had to admit they weren’t actually intolerant, they just hated the vegetable. However, nothing had spread so quickly and become so popular than the necessity for everything to be gluten-free. Although Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease which prevents the absorption of some nutrients in the small intestine, is estimated to affect 1 in 133 Canadians (Canadian Celiac Association) and is a genuine medical condition along with less extreme Gluten Sensitivity, the adoption of a Gluten-free lifestyle as simply a fad or method to lose weight is highly controversial. Now with more knowledge on what gluten actually is – a combination of proteins found in barley, rye, and some grains which effects things like the elasticity and chewiness of food – I find it interesting that some people have jumped onto the latest bandwagon because they assume gluten is bad without any further information to back up their assumptions; prejudice fueled by marketing campaigns, various celebrity endorsements, and ideals that avoiding gluten will help you lose weight. In reality, for people with genuine Gluten intolerance, this sought after diet trend is a necessary lifestyle for their medical wellbeing, making it irritating that some are buying into the lifestyle as an advertised simple solution for good health. Since gluten-free diets are often highly restrictive and cut out high calorie foods, they may have some slimming effects that leave celebrities like Miley Cyrus advocating that gluten should be avoided. However, for people who do not suffer from Celiac disease or sincere gluten sensitivity, cutting out gluten may result in a lack of nutrients like calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
What is your take on this controversial dietary trend? Do you think the gluten-free diet is a practical weight loss method or will it be eventually left in the diet trend dust along with other experimental fads of the past?
Sources http://www.celiac.ca/?page_id=882 http://www.livescience.com/53265-what-is-gluten.html http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/unraveling_the_gluten_free_trend |
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