Omnivore's Dilemma Final Project
My Day of Being a Food Detective
By: Srinidhi Venkatesh
The Start of my Day Long Journey
They were:
- Avoid foods with high fructose corn syrup
- Cook
- Eat at the table
- Don't eat anything with more than five ingredients or ingredients you can't pronounce
I then reflected on each meal I had throughout the day including snacks.
**Note: I use HFCS in places to represent High- fructose corn syrup.
A Few Setbacks & Notifications...
Also, my family eats ethnic food which means that we mostly eat food that has been part of the custom and culture in our family for many years. In my case, it mostly is Indian food that my mom makes at home.
What's for Breakfast?
While eating this, I thought about what all this food was and if it was under the rules that I had made. I ran through my mental checklist
Checklist:
- High fructose corn syrup- My meal consisted of no possible sources of high fructose corn syrup since everything was made from fresh fruit, grains, or raw food and drinks as well as a majority of them being home cooked and ground.
- Cook- This was well satisfied since the main part of the meal was cooked as well as the side for it. The rest of the foods were fresh fruit and milk.
- Try to eat at the table- Breakfast is served nowhere except at the table. It is rule that is unbreakable.
- 5 ingredient rule- Well, for my entire meal except for the milk and fruit, they all had more than five ingredients. But, in this case, I allowed the rule break since all the ingredients were fresh, grains, or homemade. There were no processed foods involved, so I deemed my meal as okay.
Reflections...
A Hungry Part of School... Lunch!!!
That day, for lunch, I had whole wheat pasta with organic tomato sauce. I have a long afternoon with after school activities until 4:30. Therefore, my mom sends me some snack to keep me running just before track practice. With my lunch, I had an orange and for my after school snack, I had a cereal bar.
Checklist:
- Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup- Not in my lunch. The pasta has one ingredient, whole wheat, and the sauce doesn't have HFCS either. The orange... is an orange.
- Cook- Cooked pasta and sauce cover that though the basic ingredients were bought.
- Eat at the table- At school, lunch is eaten at tables with friends of your choice. This leads to fun lunches with chatting and eating.
- 5 ingredient rule- The pasta had one ingredient, whole wheat. The sauce, tomato garlic herb sauce, contained 14 though. I didn't really have much choice on whether I could eat it or not, but I accepted it. I understood that it really wasn't the best choice, but the ingredients were mainly a variety of tomatoes, garlic, onions, and herbs all pureed, diced, and chopped. They were the same foods in many different forms, all combined.
Snack before and after Track...
For the tips, it violates the five ingredient rule, cook, and eat at the table. I know it wasn't a good choice, but I needed an on the go snack that would give me some energy. It had no HFCS though.
I realized that this was probably the worst choice of what to eat and that I should have avoided it.
Temptations & Hard Choices
The Power Drink
The Final Meal of the Day
The Checklist:
- Cook- All the food is home-cooked from scratch
- Eat at the Table- Dinner is yet again a family meal similar to breakfast in my house.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup- The meal is all home-cooked from scratch and has no HFCS.
- Five Ingredient Rule-Though this meal breaks this rule, it is fully homemade and I know all the ingredients in it.
I agree that this was a pretty good meal to have for dinner since it isn't too heavy for the night, follows most of the rules, and is very delicious.