A Convient Meal Isn't Always a Healthy Meal

When I was posed with the question of what to have for dinner, one busy night, I immediately thought of the most convenient meal I could prepare: A serving of Easy Mac, a can of pineapple, and milk. My primary motives for preparing this meal were the low cost and low hassle associated with this meal. To get the ingredients, I only needed to walk about 5 minutes to Carson’s Carryout, and the meal cost approximately $3.50. The total preparation from this point took about 5 minutes. For the Easy Mac, all I needed to do was add water and microwave for 3 ½ minutes. Then I stirred in the cheese and allowed it to cool for about 1 minute. In the meantime, I opened the can of fruit, and got out a disposable spoon. After eating, I was able to clean up the mess by either throwing away or recycling everything with no additional time needed for dishes.


While I had a very convenient alternative to eating in the regular dining hall, I definitely consumed what Michael Pollan considers to be a “damaging innovation.” In section 7 of his book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan discusses what he believes to be another of America’s problematic views of food. This view is that, in the western diet, taste is becoming less important than nutrition. Consequently, this is putting the American diet in the hands of the scientists. These scientists have proceeded to “flood” American cooking with “damaging innovations,” like low-fat processed foods. Nutritionally speaking, low-fat processed foods may have less fat than their whole food counterpart, but these new improvisations haven’t lead to the cure of “western diet” diseases; it has even caused some of these diseases. These processed foods contain more than 3,000 additives and preservatives. Additionally, these chemicals have only recently been introduced to the body, and so far we just haven’t quite adapted to the chemical imbalance.


After reading this section of In Defense of Food, I now feel quite poorly about the choice I made. I made a convenient choice; however, the choice I made ended up being quite harmful to my body. This case is a clear example supporting Michael Pollan’s claims proposed in section 7. After reading, I realize that I probably should have eaten fresh fruit, and a main dish that didn’t consist of so many calories and sodium.

Pineapple: Fresh vs Canned?

I have been eating pineapple since I was very young. It has become one of my favorite fruits. It is a very sweet fruit that I have been enjoying with meals and snacks for quite some time. In years past, I have always enjoyed a fresh pineapple from the grocery store; however, in my more recent college days, I have been resorting to the more convenient canned pineapple. Canned pineapple is a convenient alternative, but is it really an equally nutritious choice?

Fresh pineapple is a delicious fruit that when ripe is deep yellow in color, and has very sweet, sour taste. Its counterpart, canned pineapple, generally tends not to be as pure yellow in color, and also tends to be more liquefied. Additionally, canned pineapple has a much more sugary, sweet taste, and less of a sour taste. This comparison also holds true for smell; canned pineapple generally smells more like the sugary juice it is stored in. Even though the taste isn't there with canned pineapple it is still a nutritious alternative.

Fresh pineapple is one of the more nutritious fruits containing many vitamins and nutrients. Pineapple aso has been found to contain nutrients that act as anti-inflammatory reagents, according to Dr. Andrew Weil. Canned pineapple; however, isn't considered to be quite as nutritious. It still has anti-inflammatory properties, yet it loses major vitamins when it is canned. According to the American Dietetic Association, major vitamins, like vitamin C, are lost due to heating processes when pineapple is canned. Canned pineapple also contains higher levels of sugars, and it contains more calories. Canned pineapple doesn't quite compare with fresh pineapple on a nutritional level, yet convenience has motivated me to switch.

I switched from fresh pineapple to canned pineapple when the convenience began to outweigh the nutritional value. In college, without a vehicle, it is too time consuming to go to a local grocery store to buy fresh fruit. It is much more convenient to buy canned pineapple from the small, nearby campus grocery store: Carson's Carryout. I prefer to eat fresh pineapple based on both taste and nutrition, and I plan to resume eating fresh pineapple in the future. But for now canned pineapple's marginal benefit, convenience, outweighs its marginal cost, lack of nutrition, effecting my switch from consuming more fresh pineapple to more canned pineapple.