Just keep eating. Just keep eating. Just keep eating, eating, eating...

When Dr. Hartman, our Reconnecting with Food professor, first made the observation that fast food leaves him unsatisfied, I couldn't relate. Apparently, when munching on a burger and fries, one feels the need to keep eating one bite more but the food never really delivers its promise of quenching the craving. "Maybe this bite will be satisfying, or maybe this one," the taste buds say, but it never is.

Last Thursday, I experienced this phenomenon in action, but it wasn't with a burger and fries. It was a take-out box full of noodles, veggies, and sesame chicken. I took a bite, and then another. It was nothing spectacular, yet I kept eating. I seemed to remember having better food court Asian fusion somewhere, and I kept eating, looking for that deliciousness that I thought I remembered.

Who are the true culprits in this odd, disappointing occurrence? No formal investigation has been made at this time, but we have three top suspects: Salt, Sugar, and Fat.

"Salt, Sugar, Fat" Intro Response

After reading just the introduction to Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, I have some thoughts about who is really at fault for America's obesity problem.

We are. We, the consumers, who buy food and put it in our own mouths, are at fault. The food giants are responsible to honestly tell us what is in their products and to produce those products safely, but the consumer is responsible for deciding how much of that product to purchase and consume.

However, I am lucky enough to have been raised in a financially comfortable, moderately health-conscious, highly educated family. The real ethical question comes with acknowledging those who struggle financially. I cannot imagine how that might restrict one's food options. Are the food giants responsible for the health of the poor and uneducated, who cannot afford better or don't know any better?

In Part IV of Michael Pollan's Cooked, aesthetically but perhaps inappropriately titled "Earth," Pollan delivers an absolutely delightful mix of food, microbiology, and one accomplished nun.

With a title like "Earth," one would expect Part IV to be about potatoes or some other other tuber, but although Pollan does mention a few roots in his pickling chapters, the methods of food preparation discussed in "Earth" require being underground at all. Rather, Part IV discusses the many and varied miracles of fermentation: pickled veggies, cheese, and alcoholic beverages. This section of Cooked isn't about the earth, it's about the wonderful world of microorganisms--that's what I got out of it, anyway.

There are microorganisms everywhere: in our intestines, between our toes, in our yogurt, and they even help out in our bread, as Pollan discussed in Part III. In my day-to-day life, I usually only hear and think about the bad bits of microbiology. After all, an E. coli outbreak is a serious and newsworthy thing. It was refreshing to hear about bacteria and fungi in a not-so-harmful context.

The "Air" chapter of Cooked by Michael Pollan inspired me to complain about it to a friend. Then I sat down to read most of the chapter. As Pollan introduced me to all the intimate details of yeast, I found myself--frustratingly--enjoying the chapter. I enjoyed it because I could see myself baking bread from scratch someday, just for the fun of it, although not necessarily with a recipe as complex as the sourdough recipe Pollan used.

I prefer a denser loaf of homemade bread over this airy sourdough stuff Pollan aims for.  When I bite into my bread I want to taste food, not air with a food-like taste. A thin slice of Irish brown bread with orange marmalade or a plain slice of my mom's fruit-'n-spice recipe made with plain store-bought yeast and a bread machine...

Admittedly, the process of growing a starter is fascinating. I was first introduced to sourdough while playing at a friend's house in elementary school. Her mom called us over to take turns kneaded the dough and explained how much goes into making this type of bread--yeast starters, kneading, letting the dough rise, etc.

As a side note...look at these! The medical field is finding creative ways to encourage healthy lifestyle, particularly food choices.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/18/223405641/just-what-the-doctor-ordered-med-students-team-with-chefs?utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/12/221757539/no-bitter-pill-doctors-prescribe-fruits-and-veggies

 The reading and class discussion of The Omnivore's Dilemna Part 2: "Grass" has given me a few thoughts. The pastoral definitely holds sway over me. I just see a field--grazing animals or no--and I feel wistful. Or joyful. Or both. And it usually makes me want to frolic. I'm also one of those people who enjoys looking at grass and the things that inhabit it at eye level. It's safe to say that I like green space and pastoral settings.

Despite all that, I have yet to notice the draw of the pasture on packages and cartons in my limited grocery shopping experiences. Low prices are far more attractive.

The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan, 2006) gets real disturbing around Part 1, Chapter 5: "The Processing Plant." This is how we treat our food? I had always wondered where those mysterious ingredients come from.

I had always naively hoped that xanthan gum comes from a xanthan plant (meaning a green leafy living thing, not a building). To my disappointment, Pollan lists xanthan gum as a corn product (page 116), but according to a simple Google search, xanthan gum is produced by a bacterium.  What have you heard about xanthan gum, dear reader?  Is the bacterium used to process corn product? Or did Pollan get his facts wrong?

Pollan also spoke briefly about TBHQ, which is used to preserve food and, coincidentally, can cause " 'nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse' " (page 114, indirectly quoted from A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives).  That seems like a risky substance to be spraying onto food.