Interesting things

After I taking the 1133 writing class, I have found an interesting thing and an useful thing. The interesting is that when I was doing my research, I found American value is all about convenient. The useful thing is that I have knew how to do research, which I can not do before attend 1133 writing class. Because of learning how to do research, I can efficiently do my research in the rest of my undergraduate life.

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 27, 2012

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and the eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Hinayana Buddhism heavily affects my food values. My diet profoundly depends on the religious doctrine, which restrains people eating meat, fish, and eggs.

Why I always call myself as Hinayana Buddhist instead of the simple word--- Buddhist? The reason is that Buddhism has several branches, and there are two main Buddhism, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish. In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson claimed that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol. Buddhism Ohlsson talked about refers to Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is not forbid people from eating meat and fish.

However, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. According to the article, “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking”, in China, Hinayana Buddhist also has to avoid eating strong-smelling plants, such as shallots, onions, chives, garlic, and leeks. Because Hinayana Buddhist believes that the strong tastes of these vegetables can stimulate the senses and being an obstacle to Hinayana Buddhist seeking to control their desires. Monks and nuns are more devout than lay people, so they have stricter diet rules than lay people. Monks and nuns always eat only twice a day, in the morning and at noon. They always are fasting for the remaining day and night. Yet, I am not a monks and nuns. Instead, I am a layperson; nevertheless in order to become more devout to my faith, I am always fasting on the first and the fifteenth of lunar calendar. It is very important for me being a Buddhist, not only because religion is my spiritual ballast, but also believing in one belief can make life meaningful. I am steadfast in being a Buddhist and also maintain the Hinayana Buddhism diet.

Moreover, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist is good for my health too, because Hinayana Buddhist always eat vegetable, which has low level in saturated fat so that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some researches have already given some evidences to show that vegetarian always are healthier and have longer life than who always eat meat. In the article, “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method Stresses Plant Proteins”, the author stated that the vegetarian who seldom eat meat have low risk of having heart attack, and the people who always eat meat likely have high-carb diet, which raises the risks of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the author indicated that the vegetarian who has low-carb diet always could easily lose their weight and lower the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Losing weight by eating vegetable is quite effective. Vegetable makes the blood becomes slightly alkaline, so that can promote the metabolic activity. Thus, vegetable can burn the accumulation of body fat and sugar off, so eating vegetable would achieve natural weight losing goal. In addition, people who often eat vegetable are vibrant, and the skin appears soft, smooth and ruddy.

Therefore, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist or vegetarian is important for me. As a Hinayana Buddhist, on the one hand, I can keep my faith, which can help me get through difficulties. If I do not have my faith, probably I would throw my computer out of my window when I am frustrated on my homework. One the other hand, the lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist is like vegetarian whose diet is very healthy. Furthermore, Hinayana Buddhist does fasting regularly, which also is a healthy activity.

Consequently, because of the religion reason and the healthy lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist, I am insisting my diet, which does not have any meat or fish or eggs, no matter how bad the taste of vegetable is. Of course, I can refuse to eat meat or fish or eggs, even though they are much more delicious than vegetable. These are the reasons why I insist my food values, which are healthy, abstinent, and regular.

There is a question frequently flow in my mind--- Why Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat? After I have done some researches, I know that agriculture is a reason, for which Mahayana Buddhism does not mind eating fish and Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Mahayana Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some researches on early India farming. In the "Early Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to eat vegetable, so the food they can eat is meat, such as pork, beef, and chicken. By contrast, Hinayana Buddhism is originally comes from Southern China, in where soil was fertile, so people can grew a lot of vegetables. Hence, Hinayana Buddhist has the condition (having many vegetables, the substitution of meat) so that they can choose do not eat meat. They considered the meat is being specialized killed for consumption, which would distract them from cultivating.

After talking about why I am a Hinayana Buddhist and strictly abiding by the religious doctrine, which does not allow people eat meat, I am going to talk about how I eat in my family.

My grandmother and I are both Hinayana Buddhists, but my mother is not Hinayana Buddhist. My mother love to eat scrambled egg with leek, which is a famous Cantonese dish and is prohibited to eat for Hinayana Buddhist. Also, Cantonese love to cook with shallots, onions, chives and garlic. So my mother does. All kinds of condiments are my mother’s favorite, but they are all forbid to eat for my grandmother and I. Therefore, there must have many conflicts on what we eat. The solutions for these conflicts are the same. Every time my grandmother is cooking meal, she would separate the same dish into two dishes; one is for her and I, which does not contain any condiment. Another one is for my mother, which is very delicious, tender and crisp. Even though my mother’s dish is very tempting for grandmother and I, grandmother and I always can withstand the willing of eating the delicious food. No matter how inconvenient to cook the same dish into two different dishes, my grandmother do not complain about it, because she is a very devout Hinayana Buddhist, and willing to abide by the doctrine. I think I am as devout as my grandmother, because I weigh the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine heavier than the delicious dishes, especially for a foodie like me!

Actually, being a Hinayana Buddhist is very difficult for me, because I think the food diet of a Hinayana Buddhist is very austere (no meat, no fish, and have to fast two days a month). Before high school, I did not have any religious faith. Nevertheless, because the exam in high school is extremely intensive, I choose to believe in Hinayana Buddhism to relief my pain from study. Although it is very challenging to preserve the diet habit, I force myself to love eating vegetable, which is healthy to my body. Because eating vegetable, which has low calories, is not satisfy my hunger very well, and I usually work out, which takes a lot of calories, I always have to eat a lot of rice.

I was in a dilemma since I came to the United States, because vegetable was usually uncooked, which was too tasteless to eat. Rice is not common in American food diet, but I have to eat vegetables and rice. At last, I eat sandwich (two pieces of bread with some vegetables) instead. According to my research of American food culture, I found out that American are concerning about convenience. Hence, I think it is the reason why the vegetables in the United States are always raw. Because I can hardly accept the uncooked vegetables, I sometimes would break my religious precept--- eating meat instead of raw vegetables. I would feel guilty every time I eat meat. Therefore, in order to obey my doctrine, I would choose to move out campus and cook by myself. I can be fully mindful of my eating, so that I would not be particular about food. Mindfully eating is an important idea of Buddhism eating habit. In the article, “Engaged Buddhism in Retreat”, the author argued that “If we are fully and genuinely mindful of our eating, we will not allow our choice of foods to bring needless suffering and death to living beings.” Thus, I think I can strictly execute my eating schedule when I can practices mindfully eating very well. Mindfully eating can solve my difficult dilemma, which is very exciting.  

       Hinayana Buddhism affects my food diet a lot. My food diet is austerely abided by the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine, which does not allow people to eat meat. Even though the food diet of mine is too lite, I am very glad to execute my food diet, because my food diet is very healthy.

Work Cited

Anonymous. “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method
    Stresses Plant Proteins.” Edmonton Journal: A.11. Print. 2009.

Balisunset. “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking.” Journal of Religion and Philosophy
    (2009). Web. 2009.

“Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition.” CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest
      Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.
Kemmerer, Lisa. "Engaged Buddhism in Retreat." Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge 6.3 (2008): 135. Print.
Thapar, B. K. “Early Farming Communities in India.” Journal of Human Evolution
    7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 27, 2012

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and the eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Hinayana Buddhism heavily affects my food values. My diet profoundly depends on the religious doctrine, which restrains people from eating meat, fish, and eggs.

Why I always call myself as Hinayana Buddhist instead of the simple word--- Buddhist? The reason is that Buddhism has several branches, and there are two main Buddhism, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish. In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson claimed that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol. Buddhism Ohlsson talked about refers to Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is not forbid people from eating meat and fish.

However, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. According to the article, “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking”, in China, Hinayana Buddhist also has to avoid eating strong-smelling plants, such as shallots, onions, chives, garlic, and leeks.

Zhou 2

Because Hinayana Buddhist believes that the strong tastes of these vegetables can stimulate the senses and being an obstacle to Hinayana Buddhist seeking to control their desires. Monks and nuns are more devout than lay people, so they have stricter diet rules than lay people. Monks and nuns always eat only twice a day, in the morning and at noon. They always are fasting for the remaining day and night. Yet, I am not a monks and nuns. Instead, I am a layperson; nevertheless in order to become more devout to my faith, I am always fasting on the first and the fifteenth of lunar calendar. It is very important for me being a Buddhist, not only because religion is my spiritual ballast, but also believing in one belief can make life meaningful. I am steadfast in being a Buddhist and also maintain the Hinayana Buddhism diet.

Moreover, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist is good for my health too, because Hinayana Buddhist always eat vegetable, which has low level in saturated fat so that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some researches have already given some evidences to show that vegetarian always are healthier and have longer life than who always eat meat. In the article, “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method Stresses Plant Proteins”, the author stated that the vegetarian who seldom eat meat have low risk of having heart attack, and the people who always eat meat likely have high-carb diet, which raises the risks of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the author indicated that the vegetarian who has low-carb diet always could easily lose their weight and lower the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Losing weight by eating vegetable is quite effective. Vegetable makes the blood

Zhou 3

becomes slightly alkaline, so that can promote the metabolic activity. Thus, vegetable can burn the accumulation of body fat and sugar off, so eating vegetable would achieve natural weight losing goal. In addition, people who often eat vegetable are vibrant, and the skin appears soft, smooth and ruddy.

Therefore, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist or vegetarian is important for me. As a Hinayana Buddhist, on the one hand, I can keep my faith, which can help me get through difficulties. If I do not have my faith, probably I would throw my computer out of my window when I am frustrated on my homework. One the other hand, the lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist is like vegetarian whose diet is very healthy. Furthermore, Hinayana Buddhist does fasting regularly, which also is a healthy activity.

Consequently, because of the religion reason and the healthy lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist, I am insisting my diet, which does not have any meat or fish or eggs, no matter how bad the taste of vegetable is. Of course, I can refuse to eat meat or fish or eggs, even though they are much more delicious than vegetable. These are the reasons why I insist my food values, which are healthy, abstinent, and regular.

There is a question frequently flow in my mind--- Why Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat? After I have done some researches, I know that agriculture is a reason, for which Mahayana Buddhism does not mind eating fish and Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Mahayana Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some researches on early India farming. In the "Early

Zhou 4

Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to eat vegetable, so the food they can eat is meat, such as pork, beef, and chicken. By contrast, Hinayana Buddhism is originally comes from Southern China, in where soil was fertile, so people can grew a lot of vegetables. Hence, Hinayana Buddhist has the condition (having many vegetables, the substitution of meat) so that they can choose do not eat meat. They considered the meat is being specialized killed for consumption, which would distract them from cultivating.

After talking about why I am a Hinayana Buddhist and strictly abiding by the religious doctrine, which does not allow people eat meat, I am going to talk about how I eat in my family.

My grandmother and I are both Hinayana Buddhists, but my mother is not Hinayana Buddhist. My mother love to eat scrambled egg with leek, which is a famous Cantonese dish and is prohibited to eat for Hinayana Buddhist. Also, Cantonese love to cook with shallots, onions, chives and garlic. So my mother does. All kinds of condiments are my mother’s favorite, but they are all forbid to eat for my grandmother and I. Therefore, there must have many conflicts on what we eat. The solutions for these conflicts are the same. Every time my grandmother is cooking meal, she would separate the same dish into two dishes; one is for her and I, which does not contain any condiment. Another one is for my mother, which is very delicious, tender and crisp. Even though my mother’s dish is very tempting for

Zhou 5

grandmother and I, grandmother and I always can withstand the willing of eating the delicious food. No matter how inconvenient to cook the same dish into two different dishes, my grandmother do not complain about it, because she is a very devout Hinayana Buddhist, and willing to abide by the doctrine. I think I am as devout as my grandmother, because I weigh the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine heavier than the delicious dishes, especially for a foodie like me!

Actually, being a Hinayana Buddhist is very difficult for me, because I think the food diet of a Hinayana Buddhist is very austere (no meat, no fish, and have to fast two days a month). Before high school, I did not have any religious faith. Nevertheless, because the exam in high school is extremely intensive, I choose to believe in Hinayana Buddhism to relief my pain from study. Although it is very challenging to preserve the diet habit, I force myself to love eating vegetable, which is healthy to my body. Because eating vegetable, which has low calories, is not satisfy my hunger very well, and I usually work out, which takes a lot of calories, I always have to eat a lot of rice.

I was in a dilemma since I came to the United States, because vegetable was usually uncooked, which was too tasteless to eat. Rice is not common in American food diet, but I have to eat vegetables and rice. At last, I eat sandwich (two pieces of bread with some vegetables) instead. According to my research of American food culture, “Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value”, I found out that

Zhou 6

American are concerning about convenience. Hence, I think it is the reason why the vegetables in the United States are always raw.

       Hinayana Buddhism affects my food diet a lot. My food diet is austerely abided by the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine, which does not allow people to eat meat. Even though the food diet of mine is too lite, I am very glad to execute my food diet, because my food diet is very healthy.

Work Cited

Anonymous. “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method
    Stresses Plant Proteins.” Edmonton Journal: A.11. Print. 2009.

Balisunset. “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking.” Journal of Religion and Philosophy
    (2009). Web. 2009.

“Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition.” CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest
      Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.
Thapar, B. K. “Early Farming Communities in India.” Journal of Human Evolution
    7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.
Zhou, Yuan. “Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value.” (2012) 18 April.
    2012.

Draft

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and my eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Nevertheless, different from vegetarians who eat fish, Hinayana Buddhist also does not eat fish, because Chinese consider meat and fish as “Hun”, and consider vegetable as “Su”. Even though nowadays Hinayana Buddhism religious doctrine restrains people from eating meat, fish, and eggs, it is very important for me being a Buddhist. Not only because religion is spiritual ballast, but also believe in one belief can make life meaningful, I am steadfast in being a Buddhist.

The Buddhism has several branches, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Buddhism--- can be called Vajravana Buddhism or Mantrayana. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish.

Obviously, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism are not forbid people from eating meat and fish. Why are they having different food values eating habits?

At the beginning of founding Buddhism, Sakyamuni does not clearly defined the abstinence of meat, but avoid of killing. He specified people should not eat animals killed by human, but he advised people that meat should be eaten only when the animal had not been specifically killed for consumption.

In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson’s claim is that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol.

//going to explain why eat meat.
   There is a reason, for which Hinayana Buddhism does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some research on early India farming. In the "Early Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to have meat.

For me, in such a thriftily society, the reason why do not I eat meat is that being a Vegan is healthy for my life.

            //explain why I eat vegetable.

"Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition. " CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.

Wiist, W. H., et al. "Buddhists’ Religious and Health Practices." Journal of Religion and Health 51.1 (2012): 132-47. Print.

Thapar, B. K. "Early Farming Communities in India." Journal of Human Evolution 7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.

Food Advices

After reading the article, “History of Food Advice”, written by Dupuis, I found an interesting thing. Nowadays, popular food writers write many confusing food advices. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of people obey the food advices without thinking, and they just let the popular food writers changing their diet habits. They even do not have think about the food advices are reliable or scientific, and blindly follow the popular food writers. Obviously, in this article, Dupuis is opposed to follow the popular food writers. He gave an example that in the past time, we were always pursuing eating perfectly, and we failed every time. People always liked to follow the food advices, and the advices did not help, because the advices did not improve our diets.

In the opposite side, Pollan gave some eating advices in his article, “Unhappy Meals.” However, at the beginning of the article, he mentions some food advices, which were unreliable and confusing. He points out that nutritionism is not science. Instead, it is ideology. After talking about some confusing food advices, he gave us some his points of view of eating. He suggests that industrial foods and processed foods are not natural and, of course, not to eat. Instead, we should have natural food, which is higher quality than industrial foods or processed foods.

All in all, I agree with Dupuis’s point, and I always choose do not listen to what the popular food writers said. Instead, I would eat in Chinese tradition. One of the traditions is that having more vegetable than meat is healthier. 

Review post

I have read Yusi's blog and found some interesting things. Yusi is talking about tomatoes, which contained carotene lycopene. Because carotene lycopene is a kind of natural antioxidants, it can heal cancer diseases. Moreover, eating tomatoes even can protect ourselves from harmful UV rays!

Healthy Breakfast

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 17^th, 2012

Healthy Breakfast

            Among my writing classmates, I find that some people do not have scheduled mealtime, while some people strictly implement their meal schedule. The classmates who do not have scheduled their mealtime always miss breakfast, and they sometimes do not have a regular lunchtime or dinnertime.

Most of the people who do not have constant daily schedule do not have class before 10:00 am. Of course, the people who strictly execute their daily schedule often have class before 10:00 am. From the class time distribution, we can easily conclude that the schedule of class heavily affects the mealtime schedule.

In the article, “Harvard Men’s Health Watch”, the author mentioned that “It is important to start your day with a good break- fast, and your first meal of the day will help flip the switch back to energy storage, so it’s important to do it right”, which means that not only breakfast is important to ourselves, but also how to have breakfast is important. In the rest of the article, the author talked about breakfast can lower the risk of diseases, such as diabetes and heart diseases, if and only if people start right at breakfast in healthful way. Additionally, the people who usually do not have breakfast would have higher risk of contracting a disease. Therefore having breakfast is significant to our lives, and having right pattern of breakfast is also important. If you do not have healthful pattern of breakfast, your health were not better than those of who do not have breakfast.
           I am the one who having the healthful pattern the author talked about. I always have breakfast in the morning at the certain time--- 9:00am. I also have lunch and dinner on time according to my timetable. I choose to eat the food with high protein in the morning--- eggs and potatoes. In order to take in vitamins, I drink orange juice every meal. According to the article, it is not important to eat vegetable in the morning. Thus, I seldom eat vegetable, because vegetable always is raw in the United States, and raw vegetable is hard to eat for me. Therefore, orange juice becomes the complement of vegetable.
           By contrast, Difei, one of my classmate, usually prefer to drink coke when he eating, which is bad for his health. He likes to eat fried food, which may causes cancer. Erratic mealtime would causes digestive system diseases, and missing breakfast is abnormal and is harmful to people, especially teenagers.
         In addition, during the discuss in the class, I noticed one point that the people who have erratic daily scheduled rules often were addicted to computer games, and were likely to follow television show. Moreover, they always eat food before computer screen or television, which is very unhealthy. Because of addicting to computer games, they stay up so late that they always miss their breakfast, which is a very unhealthy habit.
           According to “Breakfast and Mental Health”, written by Andrew P. Smith, having breakfast is good for our mental health. Regular breakfast eaters were significantly less stressed, less depressed than the people who have irregular breakfast. Furthermore, breakfast even can affect health-related behaviors, such as smoking. Regular breakfast eaters were less likely to smoke than the people who usually do not have breakfast.  
           All in all, breakfast is significant to our lives. It is not exaggerated to say breakfast equals healthy lives. In order to have healthy minds and bodies, we should have breakfast and keep our diets healthy.

Work Cited

"Breakfast and Your Health." Harvard men's health watch 9.7 (2005): 1. Print.

Smith, A. P. "Breakfast and Mental Health." International journal of food        
      sciences and nutrition 49.5 (1998): 397-402. Print.