What are we eating??

If you don't know what it is, you shouldn't eat it, right? If you think about this phrase it makes perfect sense - why would you put something into your body if you have no idea where it came from or what it does? However, I literally do not know a single person who abides by this rule, and in today's world it seems kind of impossible to do so. Everyone buys pre-packaged food at some point, and those are made with preservatives so they can be kept on the shelves for weeks at a time. Have you ever looked at the ingredients of Oreos, frozen pizza, Doritos, or thought about what exactly goes into hot dogs? Fast food is even worse to think about. I love Krystal and Taco Bell like any good American girl should, but I do not want to know where that beef comes from or how long those beans in my bean burrito have been sitting out. It's blissful ignorance, and there's no escaping it. Even if you bought nothing but organic vegetables, there is still no perfect guarantee that they have not been exposed to any pesticides or handled properly in their trip from the farm to the grocery store. It's a scary concept, the fact that we are a generation of chemically-altered fake food. I could go into a tangent and predict the zombie apocalypse due to radioactive hamburgers which will be the downfall of mankind, but I think Katt Williams explains the effects of chemicals in food and medicine better than I could. The whole video is hilarious and should be watched, but the section about food starts at 4:40. 

nom nom boredom

Food is used for much more than sustenance and nutritional value. It is the center of social gatherings, comfort, creativity, and not to mention the basis of any first date -- I mean who doesn't take a girl out to dinner? But I have a terrible habit -- I eat when I'm bored. When I have nothing else to do, all I think about is food and what salty delicious junk I could be consuming. Why can't I get bored and instead have the urge to go jogging, or clean my house, or work on that twenty page capstone I keep determinedly ignoring? The worst was when I worked at Schroeder's in Calhoun, which at certain times of the day got absolutely no business at all. With nothing to do and an entire kitchen full of ingredients, I found myself constantly craving nachos, cheesecake calzones, or my personal favorite, pesto pizza with jalapenos. The head managers were never there (like I said, there was nothing to do), so those in charge indulged in food as much as I did. Why sit around and do nothing when we could create a gigantic pile of nachos with every possibly topping and entirely too much cheese? I will say, perhaps partially for the sake of self-defense, that my habit has contributed to my creativity in the kitchen. Some of my best dishes have come from me being so bored that I walk into my kitchen and just start throwing things together until something delicious happens. However, most other times my habit causes me to start grabbing ready-made things out of the cabinet and stuffing my face until I find something productive to do.

javajavajavajavajava

Coffee is one of my favorite substances on the planet. I have had it almost every single morning since I was 15, which could possibly be bad for my health because of all the caffeine, but I need something to boost my energy and keep up my perky disposition when I have only had 3 hours of sleep the night before. However, it's strange how coffee also serves to calm me down when I've had a stressful day. When I want to sit back and relax, I often have a cup or two of coffee and can sometimes even fall asleep soon afterward. Maybe it's because I am comforted by the familiar taste and the feel of the warm mug in my hand like hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Or, more likely, it's because the caffeine stimulates my mind as well as my body and releases endorphins into my system. Some of my best writing and best conversations with friends have come from drinking coffee. For example, I have never worked so hard or had so much to talk about than last semester at Cups & Mugs. Maybe it was the soothing atmosphere and the comfort of being surrounded by friends who were struggling with the same classes as I was, or maybe it was because we all hadn't slept for 3 days and were hyped up like crack fiends. Either way, part of the reason I love coffee so much is for the good associations I have with it, and the inspiration it gives me when I write. I'm actually drinking coffee right now so I can write four assignments before I go into work in an hour.

Although my body has become used to the gratuitous amounts of caffeine I have filled it with for the past several years, sometimes my tolerance mysteriously disappears and I end up bouncing off the walls and talking incessantly until I finally crash like a semi-truck of Starbucks into a brick building. I basically end up something like this: