Response to "In Defense of Food" Section 7

In order to fully appreciate a meal for more than just its nutritional components, I decided to make a home made pizza for my friend and I at his apartment. Contrary to having a pizza conveniently delivered to the door, there were several steps I needed to take in order to plan and prepare the meal successfully.
The planning stage was completed in three simple steps. The first thing I did was choose what kind of pizza I wanted to make. Since I wanted the meal to be balanced, I decided upon Hawaiian pizza because it has both fruit and meat as toppings. This step contributed to the overall experience since it made me feel like I had control over what I was going to eat. Next I thought about possible side dishes. Since I wanted the meal to be colorful and satisfy many of the food groups, I made a garden salad. Being able to choose things to eat based on other aspects than nutrition added to the enjoyment of cooking. Finally, I checked to see what ingredients I had in stock. Realizing I needed a pineapple and lettuce, I made a quick trip to the grocery store. After organizing all my tools and ingredients, it was time to start cooking.
The preparation stage took slightly longer but was the part I enjoyed most. This phase was also broken into a few steps as well. First, I preheated the oven and made the dough. This took the most time but good crust is essential to making a good pizza. Next I added the sauce, cheese, Canadian bacon and pineapple to the pizza and put it in the oven. This gave me time to make the salad and set the table which I surprisingly enjoyed doing both. Finally, when the pizza was ready, we were able to eat, socialize and clean up which prevented the typical eat and run situation.
After taking the time and energy to cook a full meal, I agree with Pollan when he describes the willingness of American’s to eat pre-made processed food. While the taste and overall satisfaction of eating real food left me feeling good, I think that eating to survive is a lot easier than eating for enjoyment with so many stressors in everyday life. Therefore when people see processed food products “[they] indulge a lot more in low-fat versions of processed foods than in their regular counterparts, and overweight people seem especially vulnerable” according to an article by Nanci Hellmich in USA Today since it is so convenient.