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:

​For my Food Benchmark I decided to make Sheer Khurma (Muslim dish especially made on of Eid ul Fitar) 

Go down to see my personal reflection, food rule and recipe & analysis 

                                    

                                        PERSONAL REFLECTION                                                          

This food unit helped a lot in learning of some healthy and unhealthy foods that human body consumes on daily basis. It is really hard to conclude the whole unit with some most important points. I have learned a lot about food and how it effects our health in positive or negative way. I realize that people around me have been playing an important role in providing benefit and profit to some industries which produce junk food and fast food. We discussed about different graphs showing obesity rates, income vs availibility of supermarkets.This entire learning through graphs helped in great understanding of how each thing is related to every other thing in case of food and health.

Everyone has different role in their food systems. My role is simply to eat that food which can benefit me health wise and also provide enough energy, vitamins, calciums etc. If I would be eating just junky and fast food that could make me unhealthy and cause diseases ( just like we learned about diseases that can be caused by eating unhealthy food), then I won’t be a healthy person anymore. It would also contribute in providing more benefits and profit to supermarkets because people would be leaned to go and buy healthy food including fruits and vegetables to keep obesity and other fatal diseases away from themselves. For my role, I would conclude this by saying that in order to become a role model, I eat fruits, vegetables and drink enough water to provide minerals to body and to stay away from diseases. 

I think there can be made a lot of changes in food choices for society but for me I don’t need to make a lot of changes in food choices because my family has already been eating organic and healthy food from years. And I learned this same thing from my family that eat natural, organic and cooked food instead of junk food. I lived in village which is one of reasons that why my family has been eating organic food from own fields. From my childhood to now, I have eaten a small amount of junk food. But still some changes are needed to make. I can say that I would eat more fruits and drink milk because I personally don’t eat too much fruit and drink milk. So changes in food choices can be concluded by saying that I would eat more fruit and drink milk to provide necessary calciums to my body in order to make my bones strong. This means I would definitely eat fruits because my uncle brings a lot of fruits in house and I have easily access to fruits and milk. 

                    Recepie and analysis of SHEER KHURMA

 

Cook time: 10 minutes

Serves: 1 medium sized bowl

 

Ingrediants:

milk 1 liter

shan sheer khurma mix 1 pack 

 Ingrediants in above pack:

Sugar

vermicellies 

raisins 

dry dates

pistachio

green cardamom

saffron

 

Directions

Boil milk and add Sheer Khurma mix. 

Keep stiring.

Keep boiling for about 10 minutes so that vermicellies are cooked and milk becomes thick.

Ready to go. Serve hot.

 For adding different tastes

Add one cup condensed milk in the boiling milk in above recepie.

OR

Make the Sheer Khurma cold, then add one cup of fresh cream and serve cold. 

 

 Analysis of recepie

 

This dessert has nothing to do with processed food on one side, although the “Sheer Khurma mix” pack is found in market but it has no artificial ingrediants or flavours. All ingrediants including nuts and dry fruit are just meant to put together in one pack so that people could buy and make the whole recepie in 10 minutes instead of 20-30 minutes. Ingrediants are produced and found naturally, without any other manufacturing processes. On the other hand, milk is processed because it is pasturized and that is why it is considered among processed food. 

 Nutrition Facts

Calories 232

Fat 5g

Carbohydrates 51g

Proteins 3g

Cholestrol 0 mg

 *232 calories in 1 serving

Calories Breakdown: 17% fat, 78% carbohydrates, 5% proteins 0% cholestrol 

 It is a traditional dish for muslims and is made especially on Eid ul Fitar. It is a healthier, satisfying and mouth watering dish which is a dessert but is not too sugary because it contains enough sugar with healthy dry fruits. If a person consumes this dish, his body would definitely respond in positive way because of balanced calories breakdown in recepie. It can be eaten in every season but I think if it is consumed in winter season, poeple would be able to feel energetic and warmed becaused of dry fruits and nuts in it which is considered as an important part of winter season. Eating this food daily wouldn’t be healthy because of the fact that amount of sugar would exceed in the body which would be bad for health.

 The “Shan Sheer Khurma mix” is a Pakistani brand of recepies and this pack came from Pakistan. While the gallon of milk is US brand and it was processed in the country (not sure of which state because it wasn’t mentioned). So obviously “Sheer Khurma mix” travelled farthest. As I said, milk is pasturized to kill bacteria responsible for many diseases which is obviously good for our health because it is a safer way to keep yourselves away from bacteria. The process of pasteurization requires energy and ultra pasteurization requires a lot more energy than simple method. It does use energy which is not good for the environment but if clean energy source is provided then it could not be bad.

 This meal cost about $5 or $6 because the pack is for $2 or $3 and milk for $3. It is close to cost of fast food. The reason why it is so cheap than other meals because it doesn’t require to buy all the ingrediants separately unless you buy for  decoration of recepie. All the ingrediants are placed in pack which is not so much expensive to buy. Pakistani brand and shoprite both make money off of it and also the dairy farms, food company, where milk was processed and ingrediants were packed or produced, respectively. 

 Companies do pasteurization to kill bacteria which can cause diseases. It is also done based on the reason that the milk would be refridgerated for some time and so that it would not cause any harm to the body. I think drinking fresh milk or using fresh milk (without pesteurization) is more healthier than this one. My family does not consider this milk more healthier than the one they had used to which is totally unpesteurized. 

Here's how it looks like. 
Below the meal is my food rule (: