Do you know what your eating

1. Introduction

            Food is essential in our everyday life. It supports our immunity and sustains our health. Nowadays the food we eat can become a threat into our lives especially when we do not eat the right kind of food and attain the right nutrition that we need.

Because of the busy world that people are in today, they do not mind what food to eat. Most of the time they buy prepared foods in cans and preserved foods for easier and most comfortable way to cook. People today do not bear in mind the risk of ready to eat and preserved foods.

            One of the pressing issues in Biology today is focusing on what do people eats today. Analysis on the hazards and health risks of the components of foods that man intake today is under study and should be known for the public. The main goal of this research paper is to inform about the hazards and health risks of the food people eat and to supplement beneficial alternatives for better living and less health risk.

            This research paper also aims to educate people on what food is useful and to discuss the effects of some foods that most people liked to eat. This research also focuses on the genetically altered food production, cloning, food enhancement and reference and the most recent invention today is the stem cells in the food we eat. At the end of the research the researcher would be able to enumerate and point out the advantages and disadvantages of the food commonly eaten by majority of the people in the world.

1. Corpus/Body

Here are some of the major food groups that most of the populations in any nation eat:

Meat

            On most of the household, meat is one of the most common foods we eat and prepare. It is easily purchased on supermarket at very reasonable and low prices. Meat is a favorite menu especially on meals at home because a lot of delicious recipes require meat.

Eating different kinds of meat like pork and beef is becoming unhealthy when it is taken in the human body of too much quantity because on some meats it will take 72 hours to be digested completely and broken down into different components for the use of the human body. It means that you will still be digesting meat the other day if you eat too large meat in one meal. This will result your body to have excess amounts of fats and undesirable minerals which is found in meat and not easily excreted as waste.

            According to some researches, many of the autopsies resulted to 5 to 40 pounds of undigested meat are still found the human body. Many of the chemicals from the excess meat stay in the body fibers wherein no amount of antibiotics will remove any excess of these harmful chemicals.

            Thus the best thing to bear in mind is to eat the proper amount of meat in every meal to avoid toxicity from harmful meat chemicals.

Fish

            For the countries which are near the coastal areas fish meat is their primary food for every meal. Thus, many precautions in eating fish must be considered. In a research, it is stated that many of the fresh fish bought in the market are filled with preservatives for the fish to look fresh and desirable to the consumers. Chemical like formalin are used as preservatives. And formalin is the same chemical used in embalming human cadaver. The chemical can cause serious health problems in human especially when taken in large amounts.

            Not only that, many vendors of fish add food color to enhance the freshness of the appearance of the fishes they sell. These food coloring based from studies can cause serious health problems like cancer and among others. Because food coloring usually contains monosodium glutamate the tendency would be a high risk to the consumers’ health.

            To reduce the risk of health hazard brought by eating fish, consumer must be careful in purchasing the fish meat they buy and cook. And to be able to enjoy benefits from fish meat, households should buy them from a reliable vendor.

Bread

            Most of the temperate regions in the world eat bread as an alternative to rice as carbohydrate provider for the body. But bread based from studies is hard to digest. Most of their residues stay in the intestines and will cause blockades in the intestines. Eating bread especially white bread may also cause sugar level in the body rise. And the better alternative for white bread is wheat bread because in is better for the human body and more nutritious. But the only caution when eating wheat bread is that most of this bread is preserved with chemicals because it is commercially produced.

            In choosing the right wheat bread to eat look for the ingredients first, if it is filled with whole wheat flour then it is safe to eat.

Processed Foods

            If we were to pass by a grocery store, most of the processed foods are seen in many parts of the grocery. Instant noodles, fruits in cans, processed meats and many more are most of the food that people buy because it is cheap and easier to prepare and ready to eat.

            Processed foods undergo artificial processes and chemicals like additives and preservatives are used as treatment for the preservation of this processed food. Some of these processed foods can cause cancer and according a source some processed foods like the instant noodles are banned in some nations.

            Not only that, processed foods usually lack nutrition because of the various processes it undergoes. And to sustain the nutritional value of this foods companies of processed foods put synthetic vitamins to have nutritional appeal for the consumers. But the truth is these vitamins do not give the nutritional requirement the human body needs instead it can cause your health to be in danger.

            Consumers who loved buying processed foods should reduce their diet of it. They should be careful on the ingredients especially on the preservatives the processed food contains. Consumers should always look on the labels of the processed food and choose the right one for a more nutritious and healthy food to eat.

Genetically Modified Food/Cloned Food

            From the above mentioned food groups, it is observed that a lot of issues regarding the food intake should be considered. Nowadays, technology arises and people is not aware of what they are eating is right or not. Due to the issue of cloning, issues on genetically modified food arises. People were alarmed and it became a major concern of the world.

            Cloning is not only appropriate for human but also in the food we eat. Some of the cattle and pork industries in the world used cloning to produce the best qualities of the meat. But because of the disadvantages it brings to the consumers cloned meat and food became a dilemma for food safety. Cloned food might cause health hazards to the human body especially when the cloned animal has a disease which is deadly.

            In cloning animals for food production might me prone to diseases and might transfer it to other animals cloned. This is a risk that cloned animal industries must consider because it can be risk for human health especially when they purchase cloned foods.

            Not only cloning of foods became alarming today, but also the alteration of food components of the food we eat. Multinational companies altered the food by using genes from bacteria, viruses, unknown plants and animals are being inserted to some of the vegetables like potatoes, squash and papayas. Almost all of the grain crops like corn and soybeans are being altered by insertion of genes from foreign materials.

            Many of the altered crops are tested to harmful for the environment and is harmful to human health. From a study, it has been found that almost sixty percent of the grocery items in US contain genetically altered food and ingredients.

            The hazards that genetically altered food brought to the consumers is that toxic are being inserted in some of the altered genes of the crops which might cause health problems to the person who eat. And most of the genetically altered foods now contain toxins which are the common cause of sickness today.

            There are ways on how to avoid genetically altered food. Consumers today must be careful in picking up on a grocery item because it might contain toxins because it is genetically altered. People today must examine the products they are about to it, they should make sure that it does not contain inorganic ingredients. And avoid buying foods which do not have origins like cereals, junk foods and soybean curd.

Stem Cells in Foods

            Stem cells in food are parallel with cloning and genetically modified foods. Stem cells are the major component in cloning and modifying the genes of an organism.

             On the brighter side scientists have approved that stem cells are proved to cure diseases like injury in the spines, diabetes and a lot more. But the problem with stem cells is that because of some ethical reasons.

            It has always been an issue in the United States about stem cell in the food we eat. The issue here is not about the safety of food we eat, but for some humanitarian reasons. To be able to get a stem cell you must have a human to gather stem cells. Most of the pro life movements are against this experiment. Thus, knowing that stem cells in our food can reduce the risk of health problems still if we were to look at the other side it is not humane.

            Though stem-cells in foods today in under study I can say that it is an effective way to improve the quality of food we eat and might as well an alternative to the medicine world. I am not against stem cell to be inserted in our food but for some reasons I remain neutral because it presents to sides the humanitarian issue and the food quality and safety issue.

            But to make sure if we are eating the right kind of food I would probably be extra careful on the genetic make up and label of the foods we chose to buy.

Enhancement of Foods and Reference

            Because of the crucial state of the foods we eat. Many regulations on food distribution have been made to reduce the rate of diseases which is caused my altered foods and synthetically processed foods.

            In food enhancement programs, hazards are being identified in the harvest by optimize consumption and implement regulations and preventive measure o-n how to control them. And to be able to control the hazards, in food enhancing it is important to know the critical control points of the food. And also, critical limits of the food must be established and should be attained in every critical control point. But there should be monitoring procedures that are appropriate for each critical control point of the enhanced food. After all the procedures in food enhancement are done the passed foods will now be safely distributed for human consumption.

            Enhancement of foods and reference is beneficial for food safety. The main goal of food enhancement is to upgrade the quality of meat, fruit, cereal products, and dairy to be safe and of nutritional value. Meats are being improved by increasing muscle growth in animals that produce meat by optimization of hormones. Food enhancement is not a risky thing to do in foods instead it can improve the quality of food we eat because it is properly monitored and tested by various scientific methods.

            Most of the enhanced foods are safe to eat because it undergoes series of tests and is scientifically tested. For the consumers it is better to buy enhanced food because it gives more benefits for the human body like minerals, vitamins and essential chemicals which do not put health in danger.

1. Conclusion

From the gathered information and facts on the food commonly eaten today, the result shows that it is important to be a good buyer of products in the market. A good consumer should be conscious about the food he will buy. He should always consider the nutritional facts and chemicals contained in the food.

As a result of this research paper, it has been fount out that over consumption of foods like meat, bread, fish and especially processed foods can lead to serious health problems and eventually death. To eat the proper food and its right amount is essential in choosing food to eat. Not only that, foods should also be properly cooked and prepared so that it will give the essential nutrients which are desirable for the human health.

Moreover, it has been found out that cloned foods, genetically altered foods and the most recent the stem cells inserted in foods are being threats to the humanity. Most of the cloned foods can cause health hazards because of the toxins and harmful chemicals they used in producing cloned meats, vegetables and fruits.

Genetically altered foods are also dangerous to human health because it contains inorganic and synthetic materials that can cause an alteration into the human body that can lead to diseases and disorders. Knowing that genetically altered foods are largely distributed, consumers should be extra careful on what food to but and eat. People purchasing this food must be educated with the health hazards it can give. Genetically altered food might be pleasing in the eyes but can cause destruction in the human health. And to avoid any incident of health problems if possible do not eat genetically modified foods and stick to what is healthy and safe.

And the issue on stem cell in food is still hanging for me. I am for the benefits it can give to the human. But might as well afraid on how the stem cell is gathered on human bodies. But when it comes to the safety of food with stem cells are inserted, based from this study it could be an alternative medicine and might as well contribute to have a healthy body.

Thus, enhancement of foods is a good invention today. According to my resources it can improve the food that we eat without any harmful effects on the human health. This study highly recommends that enhanced foods should be eaten by people instead of the harmful and hazardous foods in the market.  Studies have shown that it gives the essential nutrients needed for the human body and maintains a good health.

            Lastly, knowing the food we eat is essential in our everyday life. People should be well informed on what is harmful and what is not. The food we eat reflects our health. So for a healthy life eat the proper food and do away with the harmful ones. Always be extra careful in choosing the food to eat. It may put your health at risk Choose what is healthy and safe to eat. Maintain a balanced diet and be health conscious.

References/Bibliography:

Campbell, J. “Did You Know Your Food is Genetically Altered?” 23 April 2007 < e http://www.cqs.com/gmorg.htm>.

Goldberg, J. “Frankenjournalists: A spooky story of double standards.” 23 July 2001 from http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDYzNTljZThjZGFiZmQ0MTEzMDEyMzIzNjY0MTM1MDc=>.

McRandle P.W. “Clone on the Range.” Rockville MD. 23 April 2007 <www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/dockets/comments/commentdocket.cfm?AGENCY=FDA>.

O’neill, J. “ Food Safety: Do you know what you eat?” 23 April 23, 2007<http://www.ideamarketers.com/toolbox/www.mrgymhealth.com [email protected].>.

Reid, J. F. “Genetic Enhancement and Food Safety and Quality Section.” Ontario, Canada. 23 April 2007 < http://sci.agr.ca/ecorc/section1/index_e.htm>.

Zimmer, Carl. “Of Stem Cells and Neanderthals.” 31 January 2005. Science/Nature. 23 April 2007 < http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_15398.shtml>.