Here is the Cultural Paper

Emily Horton
Cultural History

My personal dilemma with coffee is still outstanding; I can’t handle the caffeine. For a cultural history I chose to explore the effects of caffeine on the body, the effects of caffeine on this nation as a whole and the influences that it has on the people of the United States, also I’m going to tie in energy products because they do have caffeine but those products take getting an extra energy boost to another level. I find this topic interesting because some of my friends favorites drinks are energy drinks and I want to prove to them that they are terrible to consume.
Coffee and its importance to me is not so important when its compared to other peoples love and addiction. Some people in the United States have a pot of coffee in their morning routine. Some spend 3 to 4 dollars every morning with a trip to starbuck’s resulting in about 700 dollars or so a year on a cup of coffee every work day. Another group of people has energy drinks or other forms of energy boosts to get them through their day.
Caffeine has a very interesting history. It has a very wide following globally and is the world’s favorite drug; even though it’s addictive and has negative attributes on the body like nicotine it is not illegal. Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline material that acts as a psychoactive stimulant. The origin of caffeine is varied. Some anthropologists believe it’s been used back in the stone age; people found that by chewing on certain seeds or leaves it will elevate ones mood and stop fatigue. Many cultures have legends that attribute the discovery of such plants to people living many thousands of years ago. During that time coffee beans were only avaliable in their native habitat Ethiopia. Caffeine was first extracted from coffee beans in 1821. In 1573 coffee was introduced to the Europeans, tea was introduced later in 1657 and became very popular. In 1876 milk chocolate was introduced into Switzerland and then finally the coca cola products started to appear all over the world around the end of the 19th century.
Environmental consequences are long lasting and costly. Coffee produces millions of tons of fruit waist. It all can be composted but normally ends up in local rivers which leads to deadly pollution. To have the ideal conditions for growing coffee requires a huge chunk of deforestation as well. In today’s culture as well as other things there are products that are mandatory because of popular demand. There are some companies that put time and money into trying to correct the problem.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEFDE1E39F93AA3575AC0A9679C8B63
This is a new York times about the environmental problems and how Starbucks puts time into correcting the problem.
When it comes to energy drinks I’m going to start with the downsides to them, with every energy drink your consuming about 80 mg of caffeine per can. This is twice the amount of caffeine that is found in most sodas but about the same that is found in an average strength cup of coffee. However even if some energy drinks do not have huge amounts of caffeine in them they have other ingredients that can cause seriously negative effects. Here are some of the ingredients you may find in popular energy drinks and what they do in the body.
· Ephedrine - A stimulant that works on the central nervous system. It is a common ingredient in weight-loss products and decongestants, but there have been concerns about its effects on the heart.
· Taurine - A natural amino acid produced by the body that helps regulate heart beat and muscle contractions. Many health experts aren't sure what effect it has as a drink additive (and the rumor that taurine comes from bull testicles is false).
· Ginseng - A root believed by some to have several medicinal properties, including reducing stress and boosting energy levels.
· B-vitamins - A group of vitamins that can convert sugar to energy and improve muscle tone.
· Guarana seed - A stimulant that comes from a small shrub native to Venezuela and Brazil.
· Carnitine - An amino acid that plays a role in fatty acid metabolism.
· Creatine - An organic acid that helps supply energy for muscle contractions.
· Inositol - A member of the vitamin B complex (not a vitamin itself, because the human body can synthesize it) that helps relay messages within cells in the body.
· Ginkgo biloba - Made from the seeds of the ginkgo biloba tree, thought to enhance memory.
· Caffeine- Caffeine works by blocking the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical involved in sleep. When caffeine blocks adenosine, it causes neurons in the brain to fire. Thinking the body is in an emergency, the pituitary gland initiates the body's "fight or flight" response by releasing adrenaline. This hormone makes the heart beat faster and the eyes dilate. It also causes the liver to release extra sugar into the bloodstream for energy. Caffeine affects the levels of dopamine, a chemical in the brain's pleasure center. All of these physical responses make you feel as though you have more energy.

Countless people have died from their heart stopping from consuming to much of the product red bull, or monster. There’s a warning label on the can meant for pregnant women to advise them on using these products and there is even a ban of red bull in France because of the death of an Irish athlete that consumed 4 red bulls in one day.

Red Bull Banned!
Red Bull may be the best selling energy drink in the United States, but it isn't so popular in other countries. In 2000, the French government decided to ban Red Bull after the brand was linked to the death of an 18-year-old Irish athlete. The teenager died after drinking four cans of Red Bull at a game. French laws dictate the maximum amount of caffeine that companies can add to products, and Red Bull exceeds that limit. Denmark and Norway have also banned the drink. Other countries, such as Canada, require the can to carry a warning label for pregnant women and children.

Sites that talk about red bull and the people that have died because of it.
http://www.energyfiend.com/2007/08/death-by-red-bull
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/energy-drink.htm
In conclusion, personal problems with certain products are based upon what you believe them to be. Some sights say that energy drinks have no long term effects and other sights say that they are pretty horrible to consume. It seems that Europe is banning all the things that the United States is still using because they see the effects on people and their governments do not want those products leaping into their markets; which is very smart. The history of all the products and things that the people love in the United States and cant live without is really opening my eyes. Is there anything that’s good, that I shouldn’t feel guilty for not knowing until now.

Slow living...

this is going to be the last entry to this blog other then my paper that i'm going to post tonight. I'd like to talk about slow living. Cause even in this big crazy world people can still live non city lives.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.slowliving.com.au/veg-bins-

Heres a link for a store that talks about its slow living practices.

home.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.slowliving.com.au/&usg=__9BwHwz_ZqORyBBwT512vN1VGyoI=&h=200&w=150&sz=13&hl=en&start=18&sig2=y9R0DdoXL9Flvap9aKg_jg&tbnid=pe3K-vnoj5MYbM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=78&ei=QMe-SdLbIZK2sQOmu7k_&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dslow%2Bliving%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

this sight talks about if its possible to live slowly in Seattle

http://crosscut.com/2008/12/24/mossback/18729/

what needs to be done to have people eating healthier and helping all people to eat is taste education and showing people how to enjoy healthy foods and the pleasure one gets from preparing ones own meal. Showing how certain foods effect the body and foods direct relation to health and vitality show be mandatory in the educational system. Also teaching people to grow food for themselves would take away from the world hunger issue that we discussed in class. when the United States started to send relief food over to other countries it made it so they would become dependent on those sources. there are farmers in the regions that grow their own food and try to sell, but our kindness acts are putting them out of business because they can't compete with the cheap prices. teaching other countries how to provide their own food for themselves would make a serious dent in world hunger.

thank you for such interesting material to write about each week. : )

Emily

Is our food made for us? Or are we made for our food?

I really do love this question, Ive always thought things like oh my goodness what did people drink to get rehydrate after working out before there were sports drinks with electrolytes? honestly; people create foods for the new situations that they put themselves in. Now people take vitamin pills and supplements to get what they need daily for their body because they choose to eat things that have no nutritional value. Some don't even do that. For the past chunk of time the U.S. has been focusing all on the taste of food, and the poor food quality apparently the better it tasted for most and people were chopping at the bit to get there hands on Starbucks, McDonald's, pizza hut. In this new chunk of time, we are moving move toward organic and fat free while exposing whats really in those products.

Exposing whats really in food is what Ive been looking at ever since this class. the sight that i found that was pretty disturbing but also very informative was a sight called the meat trix kinda like the matrix but in the world of the farming industry. Ever since I saw that, I haven't eaten anything that wasn't made at home, and bought from the pcc or trader joes. Because all i can think about now is whats going on in those slaughter houses or holding pens. and truthfully its not that they are killed inhumanly which of course makes a big difference, its that they are not humanly treated and so they do not experience anything that their species normally does, not being able to move around and exercises keeps all the poisonous fats in their muscles and thats what we eat. The nutritional value is different in the meat of the animals that are treated properly.

http://www.themeatrix.com/

try and watch some of the movies on this sight, they're pretty great. Maybe even could be used for future classes.

For the last bit, I wanted to talk about the importance of cooking and preparing your own food. In the store your buying something that is made to look fantastic, and if thats what you want then thats what drives you but what your eating isn't necessarily the best.

Even though both these cakes have high sugar, what i want to focus on is the die content in the frosting's. here is a great blog about store dye's and now most of these colors should never be found in food.. http://greenlivingottawa.com/2009/03/10/happy-food-dye-to-you/

Italian Food

I'd really like to talk about my love for Italian food this week. I got distracted about the direction of the blogs so I'd like apologize if i wasn't discussing the proper material in the past couple weeks.

I lived in Italy for three months and during that time I spent most of my time focusing on wines and the wines that complement certain foods. During the wine tastings I went to I learned how white wines are ment for fish and chicken and sweet wines are ment for desert and the main focus of italy the red wine.. Red wine was a lense to the italian identity, the main center of all meals is the red wine. Depending on which wine is used for the meal is dependent on what will be prepared. The courses of meals are large and eating is a vert social and personal encounter. I had a large authentic italian meal that my land lord invited me to join them with and there were 6 course and then tiramisu for desert.

The younger acidic red wines are ment for appitizers because the acid when rinsed in your mouth will rinse your mouth of the salts of pork or heaviness of cheese that you would eat as an appitizer. And the older red wine, ones that are very expensive and take a long time to make are the ones that are used for the main course which is accompanied with a steak or a special pasta.. Holding the wine glass in the palm of your had is punished and you are told not to warm the wine with the heat from your hand, one must hold the glass at the base ( thats why its there) only young americans make this kind of mystake.

you can twirl the wine in the glass to see the thinkness of the syrup that drizzels down, this shows the amount of alcohol in the wine. and holding your wine against a white background will show you the true color of your wine which is semi purple. If a wine is chosen correctly then it will completely accent your food and help you enjoy your meal on an entire new level that most people in the United States have never experienced.

Italians lifestyles are much more laid back and focused on health and family. Their country is not run quickly or against the clock. People would close down their stores for several hours a day. The main meal of the day was lunch and it took all morning to prepare. instead of georcery stores women buy their ingredients from local sideroad markets. I would start at the beginning of my day stoping and buying all sorts of fruits and vegetables from roadside markets and filling up my backpack and jsut eating those choices. the apples were like candy, foods grown without growth hormones things have no watered down taste and apples have juices and flavors that I've never experienced. I'm always impressed how the italians are so healthy and how they eat and live in a way that is so different from what I was raised with. In class a great example that was mentioned was lardo. I would never have thought of eating solid fat by itself and it would have a taste and a texture and a healthy factor that I would enjoy.

Slow food which was discussed in class is very relevent to what I'm talking about in this blog. The author talks about how foods can be endangered and is a part of a social movement with chemically altered foods. Looking into how food is ment to be seen, as a sustaning and personal way of caring for ones self or others. Taste education which was mentioned seems like a very important responsibiility to children or people in the United States so they can understand how to enjoy healthy foods and be aware about how certain foods effect ones body.

Soups:

Soup has always been one of my favorite foods. One of my dads best soups is an Irish dish corned beef and cabbage that he makes in to a soup and there's never any left overs that he gets to enjoy. The preparation of soup is a neglected art, and some of the things that was said in class were things that I've never heard about the preparation of soup before. Even if people do eat soup because they assume that its a healthy choice, they unfortunately eat store bought canned soup instead of making it themselves, convince is important. most soups today are filled with not protein based broth and full of MSG to extend the flavor of the meat or other flavors already in the soup. But MSG is something that the body cannot digest naturally, and some people actually have an allergy or a problem with their bodies when they consume MSG.

Blended soups are more trouble to make but the new gadgets make the process fairly easy. In the kitchen we worked with a homemade soup that was meant to show us that we can get our protein that we need from things other then meat. we didn't evolve eating meat, it was actually a rare occurrence and only happened when there was a killing of an animal. daily life in the early generations of human life was sustained by women who were gathering roots, vegetables, and berries.

the meat that we eat has a history, as a way of shielding people from the horrors of food production they are only interested in buying their food from a store. Most people don't think about the lives that are taken to fill the large pack of chicken legs that they are buying on sale or the bulk pack of frozen shrimp. My family wouldn't face that fact but instead compensate with eating less meat and we're very big on never waisting any food. We're not as far as eating every single piece of the animal but we eat what we buy and most things are never put to waist.

http://www.greenphonebooth.com/2009/01/waste-not-waist-full.html here's a website about not waisting and being green, it was a pretty interesting website. now a days theres even cooking shows that talk mostly about condensing food portions and eating more well balanced foods.

All good examples of Americans trying to change their current situation.

That's about all that I wanted to talk about this week. : )

King Korn the movie that was shown in class, i watched it online and i really like how it talks about how we don't really think about what we put into our system; and how really we consume so much corn weather through the corn fed cow that makes our hamburgers or a 2 liter soda, we become essentially made of corn. I guess the quote you are what you eat is really true"

the movie explores why we are the richest nation in the world and yet we have the poorest eating habits. How did Americans get so fat so quickly? and also its about family that is growing corn and their experiences. Its pretty amazing how the decisions that were made back in the 70's have made such a difference so many years down the road.

I also really liked this commentary that i found, of the Aaron Woolf talking about his film

http://www.independentfilm.com/films/videogalleryfilms/king-corn-documentary-aaron-woolf-interview.shtml

There's not just one person that is responsible for these problems that the U.S. is facing today. Truthfully many countries and people are responsible and basically human growth and the process of trying to make things better and faster is just showing some side effects.

Teresa Mares came to speak to the class this week about the community gardening movement in Seattle. Along with a tour of a pea patch she talked about the seattle department of neighborhood P-patch program and the diversity of food sovereignty at Marra Farm. the reading this week "want amid plenty: from hunger to Inequality" Janet Poppendieck talks about how food was going to waste in the United States. how there is an abundent food production but also a huge amount of food waste. This article was interesting because it talked about how public and private groups are working to put a use to food that would have normally been wasted. A great deal of food that is provided for the soup kitchens in the United States today comes from coporate overproduction or mislabeled food that would have normally been discarded. This change will feed an extra 450,000 americans each day.

I took from this week, was the material that was showing us that people are getting involved; and their work is making a difference. Seattles efforts alone are enough to see that the nation is trying to become more economically friendly because of the obvious issues on the envoirnment.

http://www.seattlegreenmap.net/web-content/pages/people.html is a link for the seattle map project its a very good example of what seattle is doing to be green..

other states are joining in the campaign

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/07/national/main4782695.shtml is a great site about other states efforts..

Emily Horton...

Going off of the blog suggestions: Food and how you feel in terms of identity is so important when it comes to how it marks you as an individual. When I was in Italy, there was so much excellent food around me but for the first bit of my trip all I wanted was my parents cooking. Home made and healthy ingredients are what I was raised on so needing to go out to every meal while traveling because something I wasn't used too. This idea and aspect can be used with people going into any situation that they're not accustomed too. a person becomes defined by what they consume and its very important when they go to a new area that they find stores and foods that are in keeping with their traditions.


I'm going to tie this idea into the movie that we watched in class on Tuesday 1/27. The movie was about power hungry corporations that are systematically destroying food supplies. They do this by adding pesticides, viruses which makes crop seeds invaluable. This in turn destroys the livelihood of small farmers leading to monopolizing the global food supply.


I actually think the whole problem is within the genetically engineered crops; the become scientifically produced which goes against what nature intended. I found the lecture about this really interesting. That grocery stores take the fruit and vegetables that are not rip and that will do the best during the journey and have the longest shelf life.. But this takes away the food value and also takes away the quality of food that people are buying. However they are able to have all types of food all year round from all different places all over the world. So for convince and regularity there is a trade off. Part of this is not the corporations fault because they are trying to keep up with supply and demand the best the can but when they purposefully take out the small farm because of the tiny competition they produce, that's when its gone a little to far..




















I added some photos from the exercise we did this week. The group activity helped tie all the concepts together to teach us the how to make a simple sustaining meal from simple ingredients. Connecting regional cuisine through the experience of cooking and eating. All associated with the cultural and historical context. There are in the process pictures and then some final products..


thank you for these group activities I really love them...

Bento

Within the movie tampopo there were a lot of scenes and all within them the common denominator was food. Food was more then just a prop it was the main protanganist. With a funny outcome, the movie seemed to be ment to pock fun at the "obsession" of the japanese culture when it comes to food. The most interesting scene in this movie and a great example to the main message of this movie was the scene with the mother that was cooking her last meal and she was dieing. The father made the children eat the last meal to appriciate her last perfect meal. I think this is a great example of the mocking of japanese food obsessions it wasn't about her it was about making the food better. However within the movie there were only a few dishes that were indigenous to the japanese culture.

This scene made it seem universal that the interest in food and the care attention is within the entire country of japan.

The bento project expanded on the ideas that were in tampopo but also put things into perspective that not all japanese spend hours each day handleing food. The project that we did this week was something that i've never done before and there for so interesting and fun. Working with most of those foods that I had never seen before was actually inspiring. Because with the foods that one grows up with you learn how its suppose to look. So with these foods we were free to do whatever we want with them because we weren't following any sort of guidlines. I prepared it differently for someone else as I would have if it were just for me. I used gloves, made it look prettier, and made it all organized. Its definetly interesting to look past your own school lunch experience.

Special Holiday's

I actually really enjoyed the reading this week. Ancient stories really interest me, I didn't really see what or how it was tied into food this time but I guess the dancing rituals are as old and ancient as eating rituals.

I want to talk about Proustian Moments, while growing up my dad was the person that feed the family, there are things that he cooks that i constantly crave and I am constantly reminded of when I'm in a daily routine. Most people have a more increased sense of smell then I do so they respond to scents then I can. For me I respond more to hearing noises. When I hear a loud long beep that means dinners ready and I instantly get hungry.

There is foods that are directly related to my past, chocolate cakes, pies and sweets in general have always been a huge part of my life. If I had to choose between things to dedicate my time too. I would definitely perfect my skills in the making of deserts. At one point I took a cake decorating course and it was actually a lot of fun but also a lot of work. And very time consuming.

At all holidays I try a new style of desert. Of course the holiday's bring people together but now it has come to be a family tradition to enjoy the new deserts from all around the world that I've attempted to create. Without the holidays i would have no reason to create them : )

To tie into the reading the preparation of food goes beyond the physical need but the bring together of people. Creating and using skills that they would not normally utilize without the special occasion or reason to do so. pg 29

For my first blog in anthropology of food I wanna express how important food is to me and my challenges with it over my years and why I chose white gravy to bt the title of my blog.

As one can see in other blogs there is complexity in how people display their recipies but cooking and preparing food has one single purpose. Food is the only thing that completely nurishes the body with no other motivation. Some people love and study food because they want to learn the different flavors or master the art of taste but some people like me cook and prepare food because it cares for others, people need food to stay happy and healthy.

For me food is a major part of my life as it is for everyones life because I'm hyperglisemic which means if I dont eat regularly and eat the right foods then my blood sugar crashes to a dangerous level and can result in fatige, diziness, and fanting. And so with this knowledge of my body I then would go and research the different nutritional standpoints that i need to know to stay healthy. This is why food for me has been such a major factor in my life because like breathing I have to pay constant attention to it. Failure to do so now in life would result in much more serious medical conditions later. I only eat the healthiest of things and by far I eat my fair share of portions but because of a extremely high matabolism I've never felt the effects of eating every 2 or 3 hours.

It wasn't until I went to Italy for a study abroad

that I fully was exposed to the potential of food. There is an art to food preparation in Europe that is not in the United States.

I chose white gravy for the title of my blog is because of a silly history I have from my parents. My dad makes this incredible gravy along with this grilled chicken. I've never learned the name of it or what he does to it but all the has to do is say that we're having white gravy for dinner I start to shout and get excited and I change my day so that I can be home for dinner. It's a family favorite and joke. So thats why I named my blog white gravy in honor of my dad.

Emily