Chewing The Cud

Chew On This, has some good points: Americans eat too much fast food, we are an obese or overweight society, and that fast food joints have become a normal part of the American lifestyle. The first chapter was interesting in the history of fast food and the details of how it all got started.

However, listening to Schlosser speak on the Today Show (view the interview) proved many things about his take on food in general. He has a point that people abuse fast food by ordering the large fries, chicken strips, and jumbo shake, but on the contrary, Eric misses the mark entirely on the agriculture industry. In the interview, they reveal a clip of his fictitious movie, Fast Food Nation. The movie clip portrays a converstion of the two main characters about a "slaughter" house. Details like "chopping the cattle's heads off and standing ankle deep in blood"are mentioned. These grousome and false accusations on the beef industry are insulting and a bit humurous. I believe if one were to witness the harvesting of a beef animal, one would truly understand that it is a humane and necessary process.

I LOVE DISNEY!!!

Who cannot honestly say they have not watched those classic Disney movies: Cinderella, Little Mermaid, or Aladdin? This chapter from, Chew on This, discusses the ins and outs of how Disney made it big, how McDonald's found success, and how other aspiring businesses use these two franchises to promote their products. What is wrong with successful advertising? What is wrong with business appealing to kids? I was a little kid not too long ago, and personally I had strong opinions on the kinds of things my parents bought and exposed to me. I feel no offense at commercials being targeted to a younger age group. It's simply good advertising and good business.

The "Chew on This" chapter entitled, "McJobs", revolves around testimonies from real fast food employees. They complain of long hours, low pay, and no benefits. That is what defines a McJob. I myself had a McJob, and I would like to share a real testimony of what working at this kind of job is really like.

Well, after another insightful read with our buddy, Eric Schlosser, I learned more about how my brain, tongue, and nose detect flavors and fragrances than I ever wanted or needed to know. In all actualitiy, I did learn alot of useful things, but it makes me wonder where this innocent science lesson is leading to. Sure, McDonald's got in a tight spot by cooking their fries with beef fat, and maybe the fast food industry survives off of having a great taste you'll never forget....but isn't it all in the name of good business? Again, that's what it comes down to. McDonald's runs a business. This is the fast food industry. Of course they want you to LIKE their food! Schlosser is trying to blame the whole obese and overweight epidemic on fast food. Give me a break! I agree that fast food may not always be the most healthy of choices, but it's just that, a choice. We as Americans don't have to CHOOSE to eat fast food, we don't have to CHOOSE to eat unhealthily at home, and we don't have to CHOOSE to not exercise and take care of ourselves. Yet in this society, it seems that more and more people are choosing to make poor decisions when it comes to our health. I don't agree when people sue McDonald's blaming them for becoming fat because I believe we only have ourselves to blame. You want fast and easy? Try an apple and a deli sandwich on the go. We are not limited to fast food for the quick and easy, but it's up to us to start making conscious decisons about what goes in our mouths. To learn more about what foods to incorporate in a healthy lifestyle, check out this USDA website, My Pyramid . Through this we can learn how to "chews" wisely!

The chapter, Big, from "Chew on This", was absolutely ridiculous. It would be so easy to fall for every little trick used in this chapter to disgust, repulse, and pretty much blame the entire obesity epidemic on the fast food industry. Give me a break. That would be like saying that guns kill people. Noooooo, people kill people just like people feed people. The fast food industry has come a long way in providing a healthier menu, educating the public on nutritional information, and promoting a better lifestyle. Here are some examples:

• Apple dippers, apple juice, milk, and salads have become a huge marketing tool to appeal to health conscious citizens.


• Selling products like pilates and yoga cds to go along with their new salads promotes exercise as a perfect companion to better eating.


• Nutritional information on every item on their menu is available upon request to help people make smart choices about what they are eating.


• New advertisements promoting their healthy items and healthy living show that McDonald's really does care about the quality of life of their customers.

The movie Fast Food Nation is out today. Are you going to see it? If you do see it, come back here and leave what you thought about the movie in the comments section. For now here is a review of the movie from Spero News.

Movie Review: Fast Food Nation
Ostensibly, the movie is about Greg Kinnear playing an executive at Mickey's, a McDonalds clone who investigates the problem of fecal coliform bacteria in their meat

Thursday, November 16, 2006
by John Mark Butterworth

Tendentious movie making at its worst (or would that be at its best?), Fast Food Nation is the kind of sophomoric nonsense you get when you turn a Berkeley teach-in into a fictional film. Made by the folks at Participant Productions, funded by an idiotarian eBay billionaire who has given us such tedious, coprolitic goodies as Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and North Country, this movie does have a few surprises in it. Such as -- what's Bruce Willis doing in this thing? I thought he had some adult sense.

But a number of celebrities make cameo appearances in order to demonstrate their Hollywood solidarity in this low budget, even worse than Al Gore lecture. We get Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, Greg Kinnear, and pop tart Avril Lavigne pops up to lend her weight to the role of serious college student who will save the world from the evil, white male, corporate bad guys.

This cinematic polemic was like strolling through an anti-war demonstration and catching snippets of conversations expressing righteous indignation at the Man, man. Like, see man, the Man is raping the planet. Cutting all the trees, having their cows pooping all over the ground so we can eat their feces laden burgers that the Madison Avenue Man made us want to eat by making us conform to the uniform straightjacket world, man. And the Patriot Act. That's really out to get us. . . . . man!

It seems to me that there is alot of hype surrounding this new movie fast food nation. So much of this hype seems to be stemming from one radical group, PETA. This organization will stop at nothing to end animal agriculture. They pull stunts to use as propaganda. In this case, PETA has chosen to use Hollywood to spread vegetarianism across this great Nation. PETA distributed an alert announcing the creation of its special “Fast Food Nation” page on GoVeg.com. The page includes an interview with Richard Linklater, a behind-the-scenes look at the movie, a description of the movie, a link to a feature article on Eric Schlosser’s book “Chew on This” and a link to an interactive game to promote the movie. I visited this page, and it not only disturbed me but made me chuckle as well. The game consisted of crawling up a ladder and hitting parts of a burger down to the bottom. If you hit one of the "adorable pigs" you either caught ecoli, killed an animal, or had a death by heart disease. Does this seem like fact or fiction to you?

As found at MeatingPlace...

According to PARADE magazine's biennial "What America Eats" survey, 21 percent of Americans would choose a hamburger as their only food on a deserted island.

If a TV family could join them for dinner, 29 percent of respondents picked the cast of "Friends", while 24 percent preferred "The Brady Bunch" and 15 percent want to eat with "The Simpsons." Only 7 percent want to eat with The Costanzas from "Seinfeld". Rachael Ray was the pick (38 percent) for the chef Americans want to cook their dinner, followed by (30 percent) Emeril Lagasse.

Just an interesting article I ran across today. After all of the negative media attention the beef industry has undeservingly received, I enjoyed this article as proof that American's still have a love affair with beef. And it's good for you too!

I was shopping yesterday afternoon and even though I don't often have to buy meat at the grocery store as I eat my own steers, I usually swing through the meat case just to see what's new in the world of beef products. I know I'm a bit wierd, but humor me and keep reading okay?

Boy oh boy did I get excited!

Beef is so versatile, but I didn't realize just how easy it was for people to prepare these days. You're familiar with convenient, all-in-one, just warm 'em up from the box, type meals like this one... Cook in 5 minutes, this potroast includes potatoes, carrots, onions, and seasoning. Scrumptious and doesn't take all day in the crockpot to simmer. A perfect option for those that don't think about supper until they get home from work (By the way, do you say dinner or supper? Let me know.)

Then I found spectacular Tyson's Foods new outlook on their meat products. I picked up a package and found these instructions for easy preparation. Add cloves into the slits of this chuck roast for a gourmet flavor.

This one looked tasty too. For this top round, Tyson recommends pan broil in a bed of sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms for a delicious meal.

Now for those of us who had super moms that prepared for us the most WONDERFUL beef meals without the help of labels, then I think that's great. (Thanks Mom!) In these days, however, life is busy and food is often on the go. You can still be a super mom though will all of these amazing options! Why not pick up one of these bad boys and warm it up in 5 minutes or less? Or, go big and grab these cuts ready to prepare and throw in your own vegetables. Meals in minutes, and they are oh soo good! :)

*So what is it dinner or supper? The debate is on!