Eye Opener: CSPI

CSPI

For this eye opener we had to go to the CSPI website and take a quiz on the weekly amounts of food that we eat. According to their website, the CSPI has been a "has been a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science. Its award-winning newsletter, Nutrition Action Healthletter, with some 900,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada, is the largest-circulation health newsletter in North America." They work to do things like get junk food out of the schools, reduce sodium in restaurants, make sure honest labeling is on food packages, and much much more!

Eye Opener

For this activity I chose to do the Eating Green Calculator. I had to put in how many servings of pork, beef, eggs, milk and cheese, and chicken I eat in a week. After putting in how many I eat a week, they give you the results of the environmental burden of the animal products you eat in a year. My results kind of surprised me. My most shocking result was the amount of manure created by the animals that I eat: 6,196! That's really gross I think. I used 27.9 pounds of fertilizer to grow the animal feed. I was kind of surprised that I only used 1.0 acre of grain and grass for the animals, but that could definitely be a lot lower as well. The last of my results we're that I use 0.2 pounds of pesticides that were used to grow the animal feed. I think that most of my results we're like this, because I eat a lot of chicken and cheese. I don't eat eggs or pork though, so hopefully that helped out my situation a little bit. After your first results, you then put how many servings a week that you are willing to take out your diet and see how your scores are affected! With only a little bit of change it can help a lot! At the end of the quiz, there is a pledge that you can take to help you eat better and more healthy foods. I decided to take it, as I think this is a very good thing!

Pledge

To protect my health and the environment, I will eat a more plant-based diet—more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and fewer fatty meat and dairy products. When I do eat animal products, I will emphasize ones that are lower in fat and raised in humane ways that minimize harm to the environment.