Rburenstein Q2 Benchmark <3

For my project I thought that I was going to make kugel, but after realizing that I wouldn't be in class I decided to make matzo ball soup because it's more culturally relevant.


Reflection:

I have learned a lot of things in this food unit. I learned a lot about the diseases that unhealthy eating can cause, and what those diseases can do. I think the most interesting part of the unit was when looking at supermarkets. The graphs that showed the obesity percentages vs availability of supermarkets vs income and population density were very eye opening. At first I thought that it was strange that although there were more supermarkets in places where there were more supermarkets, more people were obese. Then I saw that these places also had a high population density, and they were usually on the lower end of the income bracket. I came to realize this is because there is also a lot more fast food in these areas. The fast food is much cheaper, but unhealthy to it makes sense that people of lower income would go here more than to supermarkets which are a lot more expensive. Something like this was shown when we watched "Food Inc." There was a family that just ate fast food because they didn't really know it was unhealthy, and it was so much easier to get. This showed a real like family that was in the situation that I couldn't really imagine. I have a supermarket .6 miles away from me, and that's almost exclusively where my family shops. This unit showed me how different eating conditions are available for other people, and how much it can effect lives. 



Recipe and Analysis:


Matzo ball Soup:


  • 2 (10 ounce) packages matzo crackers  - 877 calories. 0 fat. 

  • 1/2 cup butter - 814 calories. 809 fat

  • 6 eggs - 428 calories. - 268 fat

  • salt and pepper to taste - 0 calories

  • 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley - 3 calories

  • 2 onions, minced - 0 calories 

  • 5 ounces matzo meal - 516 calories - 13 fat. 

  • 96 ounces chicken broth - 96 calories - 96 fat


Analysis:


Only three out of the eight ingredients are processed food, unless eggs are counted then it's four. The rest are mostly natural ingredients, or things that aren't processed. The nutritional information is shown above next to the ingredients to make the soup. Most of the calories are from the processed food, in fact the three processed ingredients have 80.7% of the calories in the whole mean. The butter is also the main contributor to the calories from fat. Almost all of the calories from butter are fat, making it the most fatty and unhealthy part of the meal. The natural ingredients of the food are much more healthy than the other parts, with eggs somewhat excluded. All the other ingredients have barely any calories, and almost none from fat. The chicken broth has the highest calorie to fat from calories ratio at 1:1, but it is still a very small amount. Eating Matzo ball soup every day wouldn't be unhealthy, but probably shouldn't be consumed every day. The butter in the soup is the most unhealthy part of the meal with all the fat it has, but it's not really enough to be harmful because one person wouldn't eat all of the soup made with this recipe.

Most of the food in this has probably been sent from somewhere else. Because this is a Jewish meal, some of the food has to be prepared specific ways, so it can't just be sent from anywhere or straight from where it was produced. Some has to be blessed by a rabbi, or kept from other ingredients. Most of the natural ingredients were probably not grown organically, or in the healthiest way possible. It's much more efficient for companies to mass produce the ingredients, so it more than likely came from large fields that were treated with chemicals or other things to make the food grow faster/taste better. 

The meal costs about $15 to buy all the ingredients, possibly a little more or less. This is a lot more expensive than most fast food. Most fast food is less than $5, and although the soup isn't for just one person, fast food would be more cost efficient. The items in this aren't really regulated. It's not very hard to buy any of the ingredients except for maybe kosher matzah because of the requirements for it to be kosher. The people that made money off of the meal are the supermarkets that sell the products, like Walmart and ACME. Also the places that supply the supermarkets with their products (the places where the things are made). There aren't many small corporations that would make money off of this, because most likely all of the ingredients come from places that mass produce the food. Walmart sells several of the ingredients, so they will be making money off of the sales for matzo ball soup. 

Walmart gets some of it's eggs from Sparboe Farms. Sparboe farms claims that it is "family owned since 1954". This might be true, but that doesn't really mean anything. A whole page of their website is devoted to being family owned, but that doesn't mean they're better than other companies. This just means that the family owns the company, and doesn't say anything about how the eggs are made, or who works for Sparboe. They also say that their chickens are "cage free". This is the same thing as free-range, which just means that the chickens have access to go outside. They could be allowed outside for only 1 minute a day, and have the space allowed as a 2x2 foot small cage. This, along with the "family owned" claim are both technically true, but are purposely misleading. The companies use the definitions to their advantage, making customers think that they are more person and animal friendly than they are in truth. 



Food rule:



food rule
food rule

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