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.

Post 8 comment

Some people have scheduled meal time, while some people do not have scheduled meal time. Almost the people who do not have scheduled meal time are likely to play computer games. However, most of the people who have scheduled meal time have class before 10:00 am.
Ying Zhang always have an apple in the morning, and eat healthy food in lunch and unhealthy food in dinner. She’s meal is like mine. I always have orange juice, in breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Food journal

10^th May, Thursday.

I got up at 8:30 am and have breakfast at 9:00 am. I went to Nelson dining hall to have some fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums (eggs). I drink some orange juice.

At 12:00 am, I had some Navy Bean Soup and turkey burger, and then I had some Entrée--- Greek Gyro. Also I drink some orange juice. After that, I ate some Angel Cookies.

At 6:00 pm, I had some Onion Soup and BBQ Burger with Crispy Onions. I love corn, so I eat some steamed corn. For sure, I drink some orange juice, too. After finished my meal, I eat some almond cookies.

11^th May, Friday.

In the morning, I have breakfast at 9:00 am. As usual, I went to dining hall and have some fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums and some orange juice.

At 11:30 am, I had some Chicken Corn Chowder, and ate some Tuna Melt in Nelson dining hall. French fries are my favorite food and I ate some. Dessert time, I ate some Berry Blue Jell-O Parfait. Orange juice for sure.

At 5:00 pm, I had some Cheese Pizza and orange juice, because I was not hungry.

12^th May, Saturday.

At 10:00 am, I ate the same breakfast everyday--- fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums. Orange juice is the necessity of my daily life.

Because on the weekends, the dining hall only offers the brunch beginning at 10:00 am, I do not have lunch on weekends.

At 6:00 pm, I ate some chicken taco and Pepsi in my dorm. I brought that food from Nagel dining hall.

Always, I have my meal at school dining hall. This is my three days food journal.

An Amazing Aquaculture Product

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 9, 2012

An Amazing Aquaculture Product

            I was amazed at one extremely delicious seafood dish, Sauteed Shrimp in Szechuan Style, last week in Star Kitchen. Sauteed Shrimp in Szechuan Style is only made of shrimps and red peppers. Ingredients of this dish are so simple that I cannot believe the facts, because the shrimps in that dish not only are fresh and soft but also are peppery and biting. Because of the taste of the shrimps, the dish is very delicious and becomes my favorite food.

            Seafood Health Facts, a project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, said that “Shrimp is the most popular seafood eaten in the United States. It represents over 25 percent of the nation’s annual per capita seafood consumption. This calculation indicates that the average consumer eats 4 pounds of shrimp per year.” We can see that shrimp is important to Americans. Shrimp is a normal food in our daily life.

In this paper, I am going to talk about the production of this amazing food. As we all know, shrimp is an aquaculture product. There are so many kinds of shrimp in the world. Like the classification of fish, the classification of shrimp can be divided into two classes, freshwater shrimp and saltwater shrimp. According to PlanetInverts, a non-profit website, there are more than 300 kinds of shrimp in the world, which means shrimp is a huge class of living creature. Here are some kinds of shrimp we used to eat.

In Seafood Health Facts websites, I have learned that there are significant number species of shrimp but they can be sold only in one word--- shrimp. Sometimes people sold shrimps and call them prawns, because in certain international markets people are more likely call some types shrimp as prawns. Moreover, in Spanish, people call shrimp or prawns as camarones. Here is an interesting thing. In China, lobster and shrimp have the same appellation, because Chinese call everything looks like shrimp as shrimp, for the convenience.

However, there are only five types of shrimp we usually eat. They are Cold water shrimp, Warm water shrimp, Wild shrimp, Farmed shrimp and Imported shrimp. Farmed shrimp is consists of cold water shrimp and warm water shrimp, which are both farmed by people. According to Seafood Health Facts, “Over 90 percent of the shrimp eaten in the United States come from farmed sources grown in other countries around the world”, which means farmed shrimp is significant to the United States.  Moreover, the imported shrimp refers to the farmed shrimp imported from China, Thailand and many other Asian countries, and the imported shrimp is a major component of American shrimp market.

Cold water shrimp, known as Pandalid shrimp, are small varieties farmed and harvested in ocean waters comparing to other sources of shrimp. We often remove the shrimp shell and previously cook Coldwater shrimp, and commonly used them in salads, soups, or chowders.

Warm water shrimp are farmed in tropical area. Based on the color of the shell, we can recognize the warm water shrimp (white, brown, and pink shrimp). Tiger, banana and hopper shrimp are the species of shrimp. People buy the warm water shrimp depending on the taste, texture, size and costs. Of course, different species of shrimp have different prices.

            Wild shrimp is either cold water or warm water species, and people harvested them from the coastal ocean waters by using traditional vessels. Because there is an annual production limits set by management programs, wild shrimp consists less than 10 percent of the shrimp people consume. Thus, the wild shrimp always used to make traditional flavors and recipes, which are very delicious, because of the precious raw material--- wild shrimp.

            By looking up the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, I found that the word shrimp originally comes from the Middle English shrimpe, akin to the Middle Low German schrempen, which means “pygmy”, or to contract or wrinkle. It is very interesting that the people in ancient time are likely named things using their appearance. The book also mentioned that harvesting of shrimp is starting at 17^th century. People in where Louisiana bayou used seines in circumference to catch shrimps. Moreover, people start to use machine to harvest shrimps after 1917.

            After the research on shrimp, I have found that the shrimps are more complicated than I was thought, because before my research, I did not know there were so many kinds of shrimp. The most astonishing thing is that most of shrimps we have eaten are farmed instead of the wild shrimps. Additionally, before I do the research on shrimp, I am afraid to eat shrimp, because I think the shrimp are wild and might become extinct. Therefore I am in a “to eat or not to eat” dilemma, because shrimp is a kind of very delicious food. However, after I knew most the shrimps are farmed by human beings, I am not afraid to eat shrimp anymore.

Work Cited

Merriam-Webster.Int. “Shrimp”. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. October 13, 2008.

Planet Inverts. “Shrimp Species”. http://www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html.
            2010.

Seafood Health Facts. “Shrimp Market”.
             http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood_choices/shrimp.php. 2010.

In the infographic, “FOWL TROUBLE”, Cook talked about the differences between nowadays chicken and the chicken in the past time, and those between nowadays chicken production and the chicken production in the past time. The chicken is bigger than the chicken in the past time. He mentioned that “And as demand has increased, so have line speeds in processing plants: in 1979 the USDA limit was 70 birds per minute; today it stands at 91 birds per minute, a figure based not on how quickly workers can safelydo their jobs but on how quickly USDA meat inspectors can examine the carcasses”, which means that the limit of number of chicken killed is larger than before. (Cook, first part) The demand of eating chicken is increasing. Cook mentioned the chicken plants too. Because of the worse of the working condition, there is fewer and fewer Americans want to work in the chicken plants.

            In the introduction part of the book, “Tomatoland”, talked about the taste and the look of the tomatoes. The author argued that different tomatoes, which were grown in different area, would have different taste and look. Because of the reason of this, she claimed that we should compare the taste and look of different tomatoes, which were grown in different area, to find out the history and production of different kind of tomato.

            In the Michael Pollan’s article, “An Animal’s Place”, she talked about her experiencing “Animal Liberation”. In order to illustrate and do research on Animal, she went to observed different animals’ living condition in different farms. She found out that whether people chose to eat animal or not, animal would die. Thus we should respect what animal deserve, and make their death more meaningful. She concluded that it was not right enough to talk about whether people should eat animal or not.

            The most interesting part I think is that whether people eat animal or not, animal death rate would still increase, and the best way to solve this dilemma is that people should go with the flow and respect what animal deserve. 

My point of view of "Our National Eating Disorder"

    In the article, “Our National Eating Disorder”, Pollan talked about why the national eating disorder and how the national eating disorder using the causes and symptoms to illustrate his point of view.
     First, in the third paragraph, the author pointed out that the medical degree can make the national eating disordered. As long as the author pointed out the medical degree cause the disorder, he give us few examples that “But the basic pattern was fixed decades earlier: new scientific research comes along to challenge the prevailing nutritional orthodoxy; some nutrient that Americans have been happily chomping for years is suddenly found to be lethal; another nutrient is elevated to the status of health food; the industry throws its marketing weight behind it; and the American way of dietary life undergoes yet another revolution.” (1)
    Second, in the ninth paragraph, the author argued that “As a relatively new nation drawn from many different immigrant populations, each with its own culture of food, we Americans find ourselves without a strong, stable culinary tradition to guide us.” (3) As we all know, the United States is a immigration country. Because the immigrators have different kinds of food cultures, and different culture has different structure of taboos, rituals, manners and culinary traditions, etc, which can make us eating in order, America’s national eating becomes disordered.
    One part of the examples, which explain why medical degree can make the national eating disordered, is most interesting to me. I, like most people do, considered the nutrition of the food first, because having healthy food can keep me healthy. Nevertheless, because of doing like me, some people have had the food they thought healthy, which actually are lethal to themselves. It is ridiculous to some extent. As me, I am very strict to my diet habit. Because of the food traditions of China, I eat everything good (based on my mother’s words). The traditions are last for thousands of years, so they cannot be wrong!

EE1 about American food culture

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

April 26th, 2012

Research on how convenience affect Americans. 

In this essay, I am going to incorporate and expand upon my short essay 2 and short essay 3. In my short essay 2, according to my research of coffee advertisement, I found that the American culture is about convenient. Based on different classes, there are different kinds of advertisement. I used two different brands of coffee, Nestle Instant coffee and Blue Mountain coffee, to do my research. In this research, Nestle Instant coffee is not an expensive coffee and can afford by working class people. Blue Mountain coffee is aristocrat of coffee and expensive, which means the Blue Mountain is offered for the minority. 

Because of lacking time to brew coffee, the working class people would prefer to buy instant coffee instead of buying coffee beans brewing by themselves, which would take lots of time. Time is the thing they very needed. In order to earn more money, they have to spent more time on their work but when they spent more time on their work, they have to be awake. Fortunately, the instant coffee solve this problem for them. Therefore, the advertisement of Nestle Instant coffee is very concise, and powerful. 

Why the advertisement of Nestle Instant coffee is very simple?

In the article, “Authenticity in American, Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising”, Freedman and Jurafsky argues that the education is strongly associated with differences social class. As them said, “In addition to having fewer and shorter words, the inexpensive chips use more common words. Using a standard measure of word commonality based on how frequently the words occur in standard reference texts, we assigned each word on all the packages a frequency score.” (48) Because the Nestle Instant coffee is primarily face to working class people, its advertisement would be short and easy to be remember. 

The advertisement of Nestle Instant coffee shows that Americans are pay attention to convenience. For example, there are two slogans, “On the Go” and “Push and Open”, which are very concise and powerful in the advertisement of Nestle Instant coffee. These slogan would give people the first impression that the coffee is very convenient to drink during the busy day, which are also reflect the “fast and convenient” idea of the working class people. This kind of coffee has 7 packets in one package. It is save time for the working class people, because people can buy one package and have it for a week long. Every time they want to have some coffee, they just need to open the packet, put the instant coffee into hot water, and wait for a while. Moreover, people can take the coffee wherever they want, such as office and home. By contrast, if the working class people buy coffee beans to brew coffee, they would not have enough time, which is very important to them. People just need to put the instant coffee in water and wait for a while, then people would have a cup of coffee. Although this kind of coffee does not have the original taste and the smell of coffee, the instant coffee still have caffeine which can keep people awake. Because usually working class people have busy schedule and have stressful work, the instant coffee is very suitable for them. It is reflect the American culture, convenient and productive. 

In my short essay 3, according to my observation of customers behavior in Subway. I mentioned that convenience becomes the primary concern of Americans, because most of the customers are white-collar and blue-collar people, which means they are busy and on the go. Therefore, they prefer to go to Subway rather than other non fast food restaurant, because they can just wait for a minute and then take the food out of the Subway. Comparing with the food need long time to cook, the sandwich in Subway is very suitable for the working class people, because they are lacking time to wait for the food, which need long time to cook. In order to serve quickly, Subway had already cooked the food--- the meat ball, the beef and the chicken, and save them in a iron container heating them. 

Moreover, I observed that most costumer of Subway are likely to order a foot-long sandwich and then take out. I am very surprising at Americans can have a foot-long sandwich, because I and my friends usually only eat a 6-inch-long sandwich and would be full. Thus I asked 5 customers who order a foot-long sandwich and take the sandwich out of Subway. All of them said that they usually eat 6-inch-long sandwich, and the other 6-inch-long sandwich would be saved until next meal so that they can save time to work. They thought that when they got out of the office to buy food, they were wasting time. At this point, we can see Americans are weigh the convenience a lot, and they are hard-working people too. 

In addition, the costumers who prefer to take the sandwich out of Subway usually order the Lay’s potato chips, which are already be packaged. By contrast, the costumers who would like to stay in Subway did not like to order the Lay’s potato chips, maybe because the Lay’s potato chips are not fresh fried and are having higher price than other stores have. In other non fast food restaurants, such as Claim Jumper and Cheesecake Factory, the chips in there is fresh fried instead of already packaged. Because almost the customers in Subway were likely to take the food out of the restaurant, Subway offered the packaged chips instead of fresh fried chips, which would take a long time to make. In order to make customers feel convenient, Subway had a special way to attract customers. In Subway, when you order a sandwich, you should order the food from left to right, because the staff of Subway would make the sandwich while the customers are ordering the food. This kind of method cut down the prepare time of making sandwich. Most the customers like this method, because they can spent less time on food. 

Eating at the edge~

In “Eating at the edge”, Horwitz talked about the changes in the places, the time, the ways modern people have their meal. More and more modern people do not have meal with family and friends. Instead, they would like to eat on their own. Many people have their meal on their own space and on their own time, which is not the normal mealtime. In order to prove his point of view, he used a simple example, which is about the soup. The volume of the soup many years ago is much more than today’s soup and is hold by a bowl or pot. At that time, people are get together to have the soup. In her article, "Consider soup. What was once an archetype of the com- mensal is now widely available in a variety of single-serving packages"(42). "By contrast, people are more likely to have the soup when they playing computers or doing other thing, and the size of the soup have changed to single-serving package (42).
Nowadays, People’s attitude to the food changed a lot. In the past time, the food is a bridge connecting people to people. It is kind of social communicative tool. People mostly get together have meal in the past, because they can communicate with each other and share their own experiences. However, the situation has been changed from people-to-people to people-to-computer. People are free to have meal--- they do not have regular mealtime and eat whenever they want. People are isolated. For me, I do not like the changes in people’s attitude to food, because the society would become less warm and being cold-blooded, which is not good for people to live. 

            I think that most Chinese would get together to have meal. In my short essay 3, I observed that the Chinese restaurants are having waiters or waitresses, because the customers most likely stayed and talked and ate. I would like to eat with my friends. Not only eat in the dining hall in school, but also eat outside of the campus. Because of having meal together, I would feel that I am not alone and be happy. As my example in my short essay 1, I made shrimp dumpling with my friends in Chinese Spring Festival, and we were very happy, because of the process of making shrimp dumpling. We talked, we laughed, we sang songs! The best time I spent in Denver, is the time I spent with my friends. 

Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133-21

Dr. Eric Leake

April 18, 2012

Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value

         I went to Subway on Saturday morning around 8:30 am, and stay for observing until 9:15am. During this one hour, I have found that American food culture is completely different from Chinese food culture, in the aspects of food nutrition, food collocation and dinning area.

         Around the University of Denver, there are lots of fast food restaurants rather than the restaurants have waiters or waitresses. Every Chinese restaurant must have waiters or waitresses, because Chinese like to get together to have meal and talk with friends. However, American more focus on quick and convenient, so restaurants, such as Subway, Jimmy Johns and Deli Zone, are more popular around the University of Denver.

         During my observation, I mentioned that the customers were more likely to take out the food out of restaurant than stay at restaurant to finish the food. In addition, they were come to Subway on their own instead of coming with their friends.

         Because the people usually stay at Chinese restaurant to finish their food, Chinese restaurant have more dinning chair and dinning table. Subway is much smaller than other restaurant, such as Jason’s Thai and Star Kitchen, which are Chinese restaurants. Subway has normal standard of fast food restaurant, such as McDonald and KFC, where have 2-people-desk more than 4-people-desk and the decorations are simple and contemporary.

         Moreover, I found that people usually come to Subway alone or with his or her friend. People seldom come to fast food restaurant with two or more friends. That’s why Subway has 2-people-desk more than 4-people-desk. The desk configuration in Subway is very suitable for people who come to fast food restaurant and save money, because 4-people-desk is more expensive than 2-people-desk.

         In the aspect of food collocation, I observed that most costumer of Subway are likely to order a foot-long sandwich and then take out. There was few costumer stayed in Subway and finished the sandwich they ordered. In addition, the costumers who prefer to take the sandwich out of Subway usually order the Lay’s potato chips, which are already be packaged. By contrast, the costumers who would like to stay in Subway did not like to order the Lay’s potato chips, maybe because the Lay’s potato chips are not fresh fried and are having higher price than other stores have.

         Maybe because Subway used “Five dollars a foot” for advertising, American usually order a-foot-long sandwich in Subway instead of ordering 6-inch-long sandwich as I usually do. When I went to Subway with my friends, my friends also were tend to have a 6-inch-long sandwich, because we thought 6-inch-long sandwich is enough to fulfill our stomach. However, Americans are usually can consume a whole a-foot-long sandwich. Chinese likely to eat vegetable oil, while American usually made food with animal oil with high cholesterol, because animal oil tastes better than vegetable oil. Maybe it is the reason why American restaurant would offer such large size food.

         In the aspect of food nutrition, the Menu of Subway is very representative of American food culture. Even though Subway is using “healthy” for advertising, it is not that healthy than Subway’s advertisement said. There is few option of green vegetable in the menu, and most of food has very high protein. Furthermore, there are many choices of cheese, such as American cheese (white cheese), provolone, pepper jack, swiss, mozzarella and cheddar. All of them are not good for health! Because of lacking cellulose, it is very common to see a person having the digestive system diseases.

         Additionally, most of the customers in Subway do not heat their sandwiches and just have them with cold temperature. It is very different from what Chinese would do when have meal. The food in China is more focus on “Guoqi”, which means the food should be cooked in big fire. If the food cooked in big fire, the food would be more delicious and make people have appetite. Therefore, usually Chinese food is hotter than American food.

The last detail I have observed is that a number of customers came in Subway with coffee. Maybe Starbucks is right next to Subway. It reflects the American culture--- Productive, because coffee may increase blood lipids and stimulate the heart so that people can be awake during all day. It is efficient to work drinking a cup of coffee.

After I went to Subway for my research paper, I knew the differences between American food culture and Chinese food culture.