Health and Fitness: Supersize Me Add-ons

So you might have watched a video extra from the movie Supersize Me, a movie which I have recommended last week. Good! Have you tried the homework? Try it if you haven't. Answers will be released next Friday (5th November). How about a little more add on to this?

Once in awhile, I would like to have hamburgers too, and Burger King is my favourite choice, but I hardly ever order French fries/chips, just because they are too unhealthy (I guess you can tell from the movie), plus, they are expensive when ordered à la carte, and I don't like the sugary fizzy drinks. Why wouldn't mould grows on the chips? Would it be unhealthy to eat the chips that even the mould won't eat? Yes. Was it because there were just too much preservatives in the fries? Yes and no.

Here's an article that explains the reasons.

Moulding bread

Image from FlyBlackChick

Picking out the essence of the article above,

The truth is many processed foods don't decompose and won't be eaten by molds, insects or even rodents...Potato chips can last for decades...With meats, the primary reason why they don't decompose is their high sodium content. Salt is a great preservative, as early humans have known for thousands of years. McDonald's meat patties are absolutely loaded with sodium -- so much so that they qualify as "preserved" meat, not even counting the chemicals you might find in the meat...The real question in my mind is why don't the buns mold?

In short, chemicals and more chemicals.

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

I like the author's last few paragraphs the most,

chihiro: I'm hungry.
No face: Here you go.Just pick any mcBurgers you want.

Image from Nanba.Kisame's Page

No normal animal will perceive a McDonald's hamburger bun as food, and as it turns out, neither will bacteria or fungi. To their senses, it's just not edible stuff. That's why these bionic burger buns just won't decompose.


Which brings me to my final point about this whole laughable distraction: There is only one species on planet Earth that's stupid enough to think a McDonald's hamburger is food.


Opinions:
Sometimes, I will ask myself why more and more people are getting cancers. The most likely reasons in my opinions, the water, the food, the air and the home. Hang on, that is everything. Well, basically, yeah. You see, since the largest organ of our body is exposed to all these every single second, we are in fact in contact with a lot of chemicals.

Some people, particularly the doctors who see life and death day in and day out, consider there is nothing we can do, so we should just try to live a happy life. I think this is just semi-true.

If you know jumping down a building is dangerous, at least you should not stand too close to the edge. If you know the water is full of chemicals, shouldn't you at least get a water filter? How about staying away from chemical-packed food most of the time and only allow yourself to eat a little once in awhile? How about getting an air-filtering machine at home? (Though it is not eco-friendly) And how about using those eco-paints when you paint your apartment? Use less turpentine and smelly glue? Keep a few pieces of activated carbon at home to absorb the gaseous chemical?

Activated Carbon under microscope

Image from SMIAnalytical

Instead of waiting, I will always at least take some actions. Can't cover all of course, but at least I try to do what I can do (same as learning English). What about you?


Homework: 

1. What is the largest organ of a human body?
2. If 'soft drink' is 'fizzy drink' or 'soda', what is 'hard drink'? 
3. What is the English word to describe a hard drink that is not sweet?

Vocabulary:
à la carte -- (adv) [before noun] If you eat à la carte, you choose each dish from a separate list instead of eating a fixed combination of dishes at a fixed price
fizzy drink -- (n) soft drink
decompose -- (vb)  [I or T] to decay, or to cause something to decay
rodent -- (n) [C] any of various small mammals with large sharp front teeth, such as mice and rats
preservative -- (n) [C] a chemical used to stop food from decaying
perceive -- (vb) [T] to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something
bionic -- (adj) humorous used to refer to a person who has greater powers of strength, speed etc. than seem to be possible for a human
distraction -- (n) [C] an activity that you do for pleasure


Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wmac-INoXg
http://www.naturalnews.com/030074_Happy_Meal_decompose.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/a-la-carte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/decompose
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/rodent
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/preservative
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/perceive_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/bionic
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/distraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpentine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon