The Restructuring of McDonald's

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/09/27/business/27mcdonalds-span/27mcdonalds-span-articleLarge.jpg

I saw this article in The New York Times about McDonald's aiming to change it's menu and marketing and advertising campaigns to promote healthier eating. This includes no longer marketing less healthy options to children and adding fruits and vegetables to their menu. These plans are to be enacted in 20 of the company's largest markets which accounts for 85% of their overall sales, but will take at least 3 years to be put into place for half of those restaurants, with the remainder not having changes made until 2020. These changes are being made in response to contemporary tastes for healthier foods, criticism over the nutritional and caloric content of McDonald's food, and the growing obesity issue in America.

While  I do think that it is a good idea that McDonald's is trying to add healthier options to their menu and promote a healthier lifestyle, I think that the team restructuring McDonald's is missing the point. Consumers still have access to sugary sodas in extremely large sizes as well as to their burgers and fries that have bad nutritional value. McDonald's may be adding seemingly healthy food to choose from but they aren't actually fixing the problem with their food. The burgers and fries that they sell that are high in fat content, sugar, and calories, which are probably the most frequently ordered items on the menu, aren't being modified to be healthier. Additionally, I had remembered hearing reports that the salads from McDonald's actually weren't that healthy and found this article that claims that having a chicken caesar salad with dressing and croutons is actually more fatty than a burger and fries. This then raises the question if these new "healthy" options are actually healthy. In order to actually make McDonald's an establishment that promotes healthy living and sells healthy food, the entire menu has to be restructured. Simply adding things that seem to be healthy isn't going to change anything.

I love shrimp!

Shrimp Scampi is something my mother makes very often and I decided I wanted to try it on my own. It is very easy to cook which is just perfect for any college student. I didn't follow a cook book or any cooking recipes online and instead just followed the instructions my mother gave me. I don't like to measure things out when it comes to cooking so I usually just estimate and hope for the best. (sounds silly but I constantly taste it to see if anything is missing) I found a recipe online for the Shrimp Scampi which is very similar to my mothers recipe. Here's the recipe I found online:

• 1 pound large (16-20 count) shrimp, shelled* and de-veined, tail-on for presentation if you want
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• Salt
• 3-4 garlic cloves, slivered, or 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/shrimp_scampi/

Out of the ten ingredients listed above I only used five, but then again this is what I am used to and how I'm used to eating it. I used shrimp, butter, garlic, parsley, and cooking wine. With these five ingredients I made the perfect Shrimp Scampi, in my opinion at least. 

Ingredients:

- 10-12 shelled shrimp

- 2 tablespoons of butter

- 1/4 cup of cooking wine

- 1 teaspoon of blended garlic

Procedure:

I first peeled the hard shell off the shrimp before doing anything else. After peeling the shrimp, I then began to melt the butter on a pan. The burner was set on a medium level so that none of the ingredients would burn. After the butter had melted completely, I added the garlic and the parsley. Before introducing the parsley I had cut it up into very small pieces. I let them sit for about 1 minute and proceeded to add the cooking wine to the pan. I let all those ingredients sit together for about 2 minutes so that all the different flavors would mix. I then poured the shrimp into the pan and cooked them for about 5 minutes until they had a nice color.

Here are pictures of the process and end result:

The peeling of the shell of the shrimp

Cutting up the parsley

Butter

Blended up garlic

White cooking wine

All the ingredients mixed together 

Final product

Even though I didn't follow a specific recipe online or the traditional one, my shrimp scampi was perfect for me. After a few more times of cooking the shrimp, it will get better and easier and maybe I will try some of the other recipes as well. 

 

down on the farm, part 2

This week was dairy week in Food, and today we capped off our discussion by visiting Red Gate Farm, run by Bruce and Nancy Rivington, just south of Hamilton.  The Rivingtons' farm is a bit different than the standard dairy in our area, since their cows graze on pasture land for much of the year and are dry during the winter months.  Bruce gave us a nice tour of his farm, which produces milk for  Kriemhild Butter.  Some of our students got to help with the afternoon milking, and we got to hike to the top of a hillside pasture, with an amazing view of the valley below.

Ever since I was a child, I always heard that eating breakfast was important to start off your day. I personally found it difficult to eat so early in the morning but sometimes I would try eating a fruit or even some cereal. I was always told that eating breakfast was also a way to maintain healthy and for that reason I thought it would be interesting to look into this belief. I came across this article in the New York Times stating that skipping breakfast doesn't necessarily lead to weight gain.

A study was done in Vanderbilt University where it showed that skipping breakfast instead created weight loss instead of weight gain. This study lasted about 12 weeks and each participant had the same calorie intake for each day and the results showed that those who skipped breakfast actually lost 3 more pounds, on average, than those who ate breakfast everyday. Although from a sociological point of view there are many flaws that could change the results of this study but it is still very interesting how either way there was no weight gain from either of the groups.

In this same article, it is stated that researchers at Cornell University feel that in some cases but not all skipping breakfast allows for more calories to be taken in during lunch which in that case would lead to weight gain. At the same time, Cornell researchers believe, just like Vanderbilt University researchers, that skipping the breakfast meal will lead to weight loss.

In the end, whether you eat breakfast or not I don't think it will lead to the path of obesity. It all depends on the choices we make of what we will eat and how much but here are a few pictures of typical breakfast foods that my family and I eat at home.

Cereal w/milk

Typical Dominican breakfast: Mangu con salami y cebolla (Mashed plantains with fried salami and onions on top)

Another typical Dominican breakfast: Yuca con huevos y cebollas (boiled yucca with fried eggs and onions)

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/myths-surround-breakfast-and-weight/?ref=health&_r=1

http://dominicanflavor.com/meat-dishes/fried-salamisalami-frito.html

http://www.growupstrong.com/kid-cereals/cocoa-puffs

http://www.gasparense.com/2010/06/yuca-huevo-y-cebolla-hay-es-que-prende.html

The Dark Side of Greek Yogurt

http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/whey-too-much-greek-yogurts-dark-side/

I absolutely love Greek yogurt but have been hearing some rumors about the yogurt-making process being harmful to the environment. So I decided to do some research and found this article to be very thought-provoking. Apparently the waste product of Greek yogurt is an acidic whey which they are having a difficult time finding a use for, and it cannot just be released into the environment because it would be extremely detrimental to the biota. So as the popularity of Greek yogurt rises, tons and tons of acidic waste is produced and there is no way to dispose of it as of yet. Several companies are attempting to find a way to utilize it (from infant formula to animal feed), and mostly just trying to find a way to profit from it, but there is still just too much.

The way they say Greek yogurt is 'strained' also relates to this week's reading from Changing Works because it's not actually separated out using cheese cloth (the traditional way), but centrifugal force from a large machine is what does it. The industrial focus on mass production which thus creates these vast amounts of whey is something to think about as well. It's pretty interesting to think about how some of your favorite foods may be potentially harmful to your world ecologically and it's not something one really thinks about everyday. And it's also interesting to note that despite the poor potential effects, it's not like they will ever stop making Greek yogurt just to save the environment--the profitability is just too enticing.

Because I Bragged About My Rice Cooker: Kabocha Pumpkin Bread

Do you guys know what this is? This is known as Kabocha, an Asian variety of winter squash. It is commonly called the Japanese pumpkin or the kabocha squash in North America. It's always a deep green on the outside but the inside can range from an intense yellow to orange color. It is naturally extremely sweet (sweeter than butternut squash) and its flesh is thick; it almost feels like you're eating a yam or sweet potato. 

By the way, Kabocha is sold at the farmer's market now! And I've seen an abundance of them at price chopper recently! 

I've never tried making kabocha bread before but I figured if normal pumpkin bread can be done, so can kabocha bread. And since kabocha is naturally sweet, and going along with our sugar theme, I wanted to try baking just using the natural sweetness of the kabocha. However, I had a super ripe banana that I needed to get rid of as well, so I also mashed that in as a natural sweetener. 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup kabocha, mashed (about half)

1 ripe banana, mashed

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

~ 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1. Stick the whole Kabocha in the oven at 375 for about an hour. Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes before cutting it.

2. Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients together: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt.

3. Grate a generous teaspoon of fresh ginger. 

4. Cut the Kabocha in half and scoop out the seeds. Scoop out the flesh of the squash and mash. You need approximately 1 cup of mashed Kabocha, which is probably slightly less than half the squash. Mash in the banana. 

5. Add the rest of the wet ingredients into your mashed Kabocha and banana: milk, egg, ginger. Mix well and then pour that into your dry ingredients bowl. Mix well.

6. Coat rice cooker lightly with oil and place your mixture in.

7. Cook in the "white rice" setting. One round is approximately 40 minutes. I found that it was not long enough for mine, as different brands of rice cookers have different heat settings, so my bread went through two cycles in the "white rice" setting. 

VOILA!

A Visit to Farm Sanctuary

Gene Baur began his career selling veggie hotdogs out of a VW can at Geatful Dead concerts to fund farm animal rescues and is now the President and Co-Founder of  Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s largest and most effective farm animal rescue and protection organization. Farm Sanctuary posts on their website that their mission is “To protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats animals, and promote compassionate vegan living” (cite). They do so by focusing on three principle efforts: rescue, education, and advocacy.

            Farm Sanctuary has three sanctuaries located in Watkins Glen NY, Orland CA, and Los Angeles CA. I myself have had the immense pleasure to visit the sanctuary in Watkins Glen (only about a 2 hour drive from here, you should all check it out!) on multiple occasions and experience the work that Farm Sanctuary is doing first hand.

            When driving up to the Farm for the first time, the first thing that I noticed were the two big red barns right beside the parking lot, one labeled “Animal Barn” and the other, “People Barn”.  Upon entering the appropriate Barn, I was able to look around at the displays of actual battery cages and holding pens obtained from slaughterhouses and try to imagine a cow, probably up to 3 times my size, spending it’s whole life in quarters that are so tight, they often do not have enough room to sit down or turn around. For anyone who has closterphobic tendencies, this scenario seems nightmarish. Fortunately, not too much time is spent on the depressing, horrific details of the meat industry in America, and before long I was walking outside towards the barns where they keep all kinds of farm animals such as chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys, goats, and many more. I was able to pet and interact with these loving and adorable animals and learn fun facts such as:

            -The staff need to put sunscreen on the pigs whenever they go outside because they burn easily

            -Cows form grooming partnerships similar to monkeys, learn from one another, and make decisions based on altruism and compassion

            -sheep are almost notoriously friendly. They wag their tails like dogs when they see people approaching and have been known to knock over a small child or two in their attempts to get attention

I finished the tour feeling such a strong connection with these lovable animals, as well as an overwhelming sadness that these lucky few who get to live out their lives at the sanctuary are just a fraction of a percent of the billions of farm animals that live our their lives in factory farms and end their lives in slaughterhouses. I have since gone back to the sanctuary in Watkins Glen two more times and have acquired a sister (pictured with my human sister Laura on the right) who spends her days rolling around in the mud at the sanctuary and having sunscreen applied to her skin by the staff.