In Defense of Food

For this assignment we had to answer two questions after reading and article.

1. Why do people choose to eat products that are unhealthy for them?

2. What roles/responsibilities does the gov't have in framing your choice?
(Should they be responsible for educating us? should they be responsible for managing all products we consume? GM included, plastic chemicals - poisonous additives)

_____There are several reasons that people eat products that are unhealthy for them. One reason is because they don't know it is unhealthy for them. Most of the food we eat has a food label on them, a lot of people don't know how to read them. I didn't know how to read them until I came to HTHI. Three years ago I didn’t know what I was eating. Over the years of having different food projects I have learned what was in my food and started to make better choices. Another reason is that it’s cheap and taste good. If the healthier foods were cheaper I think people would eat them more. I enjoy the healthier foods, but sometimes it’s expensive in the long run. The food that America mass produces is cheaper, but it can be unhealthy for you. For example GM (Genetically Mortified) crops are grown in monocultures and use a lot of pesticides. They also contain genes from other organisms, the health factors are unknown. The pesticides get into the water and cause other health problems.

_____I think that the government should provide easy ways to be educated about food. I also think that the government should have to companies label if the food is a GM, organic or whether the product comes from a corn feed animal. So people can choice what type food they want to eat. Products should tell you if the product was grown using pesticides and other chemicals, because whatever chemicals that are in the product could make the consumer sick.