How is convenient food making you less efficient?
Jordan Bowles, word count-1233
The United States is and always has tried to figure out the key to being more efficient, and sometimes focuses too much on convenience/efficiency which causes the quality to slowly plummet. Between 1870 and 1916, the value of various goods that the industries produced increased drastically. Even after the industrial revolution and reform, we have continued finding ways to motivate workers to work more efficiently and more recently, replacing the physical workers with machinery that will produce the same goods more efficiently and cheaper. By 2047, humans should be technically obsolete if we look at statistics showing the technology advances and how they are doing things more efficiently.
Focusing on the food industry of course, we have seen that processed food is the result of not having enough time to cook home meals anymore. Certainly we should wonder how we no longer have time to cook home cooked meals, while it seems that before the processed food spike, people had plenty of time to cook wholesome meals. It is because of this desire to be the best, most efficient, and make the most money. Currently, fast food joints are starting to implement self serve and self-order, which will ultimately wipe out the work force in fast food (but that's a different story for a different time).
If we base success solely on the numbers that efficiency produces, we could say that the U.S. has a pretty successful food industry. 'The Key Concepts FOOD' by Warren Belasco says that the we produce $5300 worth of food a year. As stated in the book, fast food has appeared to be successful and continuously growing. We, as hard working and efficient American workers, go through fast food lines all the time so that we can eat while we drive and various other things. Sitting down to enjoy your home cooked meal with friends seems to be non existent these days. In a clip about convenience food, we see that the problem occurring is the lack of nutrients we are getting. Processed food does not only lack the nutrients we need to function, it also makes us full significantly slower.
Speaking on efficiency and how it affects our diet, we are tied into the question, "How is convenient food making you less efficient?". One of the most common disorders we see among young Americans these days is ADD or ADHD. These are attention deficit disorders that make it extremely hard to focus in the class room. It is more and more common to see very young children prescribed to various medications that help them "pay attention" in the classroom. As a person who was diagnosed with ADHD at a very early age, but chose the naturopathic route instead, I can speak to the easiness and very accessible supply of Adderall and various other forms of the same drug. These medications have done a lot of good for the public in making students having a hard time in the classroom focus up, but have steered a lot of people in the wrong direction.
As we have seen over and over again, we have one of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in the United States. When we eat processed food, we don't get the protein, omega 3, vitamin B, and various things that keep us functioning during activities. This can cause bad cognitive functionality, poor muscle performance, and very frequent distraction issues. When we have food deserts and various other food inadequacies, it is not surprising that students, especially at a young age where brain development matters the most, have a hard time performing in the classrooms. Exercise also plays a role in how you perform in the classroom, but it is important to remember how hand in hand nutrition and exercise are. If you are not getting enough B vitamins for example, your energy level is going to drop significantly and ultimately giving you less energy and motivation to exercise.
As a young child, I was told that I needed medication or I would be unsuccessful. When going the naturopathic route, I learned that nutrition and exercise are not the only factors that play into classroom performance. Red dye is a huge contributor to inability to focus and easily distracted. When we cut out red dye and less processed fast food, we noticed immense changes in my performance and social life. Unfortunately, when we think of the kids most affected by ADD and ADHD, we think of inner city kids or kids without access to healthy food. If healthy food is so hard to access by children in places of low income, how are these kids going to develop into critical thinking adults with skills to offer society? The answer is attention deficit prescriptions. If you have ever taken a heavy prescription drug, you will know that it is very hard to wean off of them. Not only are they addictive, but doing whatever the drug was assisting you in, is now near impossible. By taking these drugs, we are not only turning a blind eye to the real issue that is negatively affecting our well-being, we are also diminishing our ability to do normal and every day things such as reading books, taking notes in class, and working a day time job.
A list of foods that help you focus from EVERYDAY health shows some of the foods that help our brain functionality in the classroom. To no surprise, we see lean meats, nuts, and vitamin filled foods. A McDonald's burger on the way to work is not exactly the vitamin rich food they are referring to. While this issue is affecting adults, the children are the most important victims here as they are still in their most important years. For brain functionality, physical and motor skills, and language skills the prime ages are 12 and below. When we are feeding children the same processed foods that we eat, their brain development is much slower than a child in a different and healthier situation. Unfortunately, these are years that these children will never get back. We can learn things like this as adults, but the speed at which we pick up language, and motor skills greatly decreases and ultimately lowering your efficiency when you are older.
Speaking to naturopathic doctors over the years, I have realized that the very last resort for a child would be a prescription medication. I spoke with several over the years and asked what a time frame in terms of writing a prescription would like for them, and most of them suggested 3 plus months, which is a huge increase in comparison to a few visits for most other doctors. When doctors are told to limit visit time so that they can visit more patients through the day, care is going to be affected. When we think of cereals and other various foods that say 9/10 doctors recommend for a healthy heart, we see that money can make anybody say anything. Of course a doctor is going to write a prescription if he only has around 20 minutes to diagnose a child. Any naturopathic doctor will ask questions that take upwards of 1 hour to diagnose. These include dietary, exercise, and home life. If we continue to turn a blind eye to the real contributors to poor class performance, diabetes and obesity will not be the only problem we face.
The United States is and always has tried to figure out the key to being more efficient, and sometimes focuses too much on convenience/efficiency which causes the quality to slowly plummet. Between 1870 and 1916, the value of various goods that the industries produced increased drastically. Even after the industrial revolution and reform, we have continued finding ways to motivate workers to work more efficiently and more recently, replacing the physical workers with machinery that will produce the same goods more efficiently and cheaper. By 2047, humans should be technically obsolete if we look at statistics showing the technology advances and how they are doing things more efficiently.
Focusing on the food industry of course, we have seen that processed food is the result of not having enough time to cook home meals anymore. Certainly we should wonder how we no longer have time to cook home cooked meals, while it seems that before the processed food spike, people had plenty of time to cook wholesome meals. It is because of this desire to be the best, most efficient, and make the most money. Currently, fast food joints are starting to implement self serve and self-order, which will ultimately wipe out the work force in fast food (but that's a different story for a different time).
If we base success solely on the numbers that efficiency produces, we could say that the U.S. has a pretty successful food industry. 'The Key Concepts FOOD' by Warren Belasco says that the we produce $5300 worth of food a year. As stated in the book, fast food has appeared to be successful and continuously growing. We, as hard working and efficient American workers, go through fast food lines all the time so that we can eat while we drive and various other things. Sitting down to enjoy your home cooked meal with friends seems to be non existent these days. In a clip about convenience food, we see that the problem occurring is the lack of nutrients we are getting. Processed food does not only lack the nutrients we need to function, it also makes us full significantly slower.
Speaking on efficiency and how it affects our diet, we are tied into the question, "How is convenient food making you less efficient?". One of the most common disorders we see among young Americans these days is ADD or ADHD. These are attention deficit disorders that make it extremely hard to focus in the class room. It is more and more common to see very young children prescribed to various medications that help them "pay attention" in the classroom. As a person who was diagnosed with ADHD at a very early age, but chose the naturopathic route instead, I can speak to the easiness and very accessible supply of Adderall and various other forms of the same drug. These medications have done a lot of good for the public in making students having a hard time in the classroom focus up, but have steered a lot of people in the wrong direction.
As we have seen over and over again, we have one of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in the United States. When we eat processed food, we don't get the protein, omega 3, vitamin B, and various things that keep us functioning during activities. This can cause bad cognitive functionality, poor muscle performance, and very frequent distraction issues. When we have food deserts and various other food inadequacies, it is not surprising that students, especially at a young age where brain development matters the most, have a hard time performing in the classrooms. Exercise also plays a role in how you perform in the classroom, but it is important to remember how hand in hand nutrition and exercise are. If you are not getting enough B vitamins for example, your energy level is going to drop significantly and ultimately giving you less energy and motivation to exercise.
As a young child, I was told that I needed medication or I would be unsuccessful. When going the naturopathic route, I learned that nutrition and exercise are not the only factors that play into classroom performance. Red dye is a huge contributor to inability to focus and easily distracted. When we cut out red dye and less processed fast food, we noticed immense changes in my performance and social life. Unfortunately, when we think of the kids most affected by ADD and ADHD, we think of inner city kids or kids without access to healthy food. If healthy food is so hard to access by children in places of low income, how are these kids going to develop into critical thinking adults with skills to offer society? The answer is attention deficit prescriptions. If you have ever taken a heavy prescription drug, you will know that it is very hard to wean off of them. Not only are they addictive, but doing whatever the drug was assisting you in, is now near impossible. By taking these drugs, we are not only turning a blind eye to the real issue that is negatively affecting our well-being, we are also diminishing our ability to do normal and every day things such as reading books, taking notes in class, and working a day time job.
A list of foods that help you focus from EVERYDAY health shows some of the foods that help our brain functionality in the classroom. To no surprise, we see lean meats, nuts, and vitamin filled foods. A McDonald's burger on the way to work is not exactly the vitamin rich food they are referring to. While this issue is affecting adults, the children are the most important victims here as they are still in their most important years. For brain functionality, physical and motor skills, and language skills the prime ages are 12 and below. When we are feeding children the same processed foods that we eat, their brain development is much slower than a child in a different and healthier situation. Unfortunately, these are years that these children will never get back. We can learn things like this as adults, but the speed at which we pick up language, and motor skills greatly decreases and ultimately lowering your efficiency when you are older.
Speaking to naturopathic doctors over the years, I have realized that the very last resort for a child would be a prescription medication. I spoke with several over the years and asked what a time frame in terms of writing a prescription would like for them, and most of them suggested 3 plus months, which is a huge increase in comparison to a few visits for most other doctors. When doctors are told to limit visit time so that they can visit more patients through the day, care is going to be affected. When we think of cereals and other various foods that say 9/10 doctors recommend for a healthy heart, we see that money can make anybody say anything. Of course a doctor is going to write a prescription if he only has around 20 minutes to diagnose a child. Any naturopathic doctor will ask questions that take upwards of 1 hour to diagnose. These include dietary, exercise, and home life. If we continue to turn a blind eye to the real contributors to poor class performance, diabetes and obesity will not be the only problem we face.
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