Author: Jennifer Oddo (Page 2 of 2)

First and foremost: babies are not classified under the US Dietary Guidelines until they are two years of age. So in these two years, a lot of the baby’s food choices surprisingly has to with the mother’s socioeconomic status. It was found that babies who’s diet included more breastfeeding and solid foods are more-so related to higher income homes. Babies who’s diets consisted of high sugar and fat, seemed to derive from families of low-income parents.These high fat diets evolve and end up seizing bone growth in babies as they mature, and the FDA is trying to educate families on this. Definitely an interesting read, focusing on food justice.

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141030133532.htm

John Oliver does a hilarious take on our modern day sugar industry- and how we have come to a point where we think adding sugar will improve taste. The sugar industry holds incredibly high power, and is constantly in alliance with the Corn Refiners Association, which tends to implement high fructose corn syrup into every type of food known to mankind at this point. At this point, foods that are being created, are further being added sugar. Oliver uses the analogy of ‘clamato juice’, a mixture of clam juice and tomato juice. He says it can be improved by adding sugar, meanwhile you can just take out the clam juice!..Definitely some food for thought in today’s society.

Read more: http://grist.org/list/john-olivers-takedown-of-the-sugar-industry-is-pretty-sweet/

According to a recent New Yorker article, we’ve gone from eating four ounces of meat twice a week in 1920 to eating 4.4 to 6.9 ounces a day. It is scary to think how messed up our food system has gotten due to this industry, and how expensive meat is in the industry. Similarly to what we discussed in class, overconsumption of meat is something we must limit at this point; but it will take a lot of convincing the butchers and slaughterhouse workers that are shifting our food chain.

Read more: http://grist.org/food/should-meat-be-a-luxury/

Many corporations are realizing that “enjoy by”, “sell buy”, or “best-before” labels on foods are not legitimate, they are just from the manufacture that are gauging when their food will be the tastiest. You can eat most of these food items up to a few weeks after their due by dates. People throwing away lots of food due to abiding by this date, are tremendously adding to the massive food waste our world has today. A new food labeling system called Cue Bump Mark’s goal is to reduce unnecessary tossing of foods. The only issue to this Cue Bump Mark industry is that the sticker will cost more than the original “best by” sticker.

I think it’s worth it. Do you?

Read more: http://grist.org/list/food-expiration-dates-are-garbage-heres-a-new-label-thatll-make-you-think-before-you-toss/

I found this article about the U.S. fraud of shrimp mislabeling to be very compelling, being a frequent seafood eater. In a report released last week, Oceana conducted a survey of 111 restaurants and grocery stores across the U.S., and found that over 1/3 of the shrimp was mislabeled entirely, whether stating “farm raised’, or “gulf”.  New York, where I am from, had one of the highest rates of shrimp-fraud, with 43 percent of samples misrepresented, which is so frightening! What I have been eating this whole time?…

Read more: http://grist.org/news/sorry-but-your-shrimp-platter-didnt-come-from-the-gulf/