Peer Review of Kirby's Blog Post 5

For Kirby's 5th Blog Post, she decided to prepare a meal for her family when she was home a few weeks earlier. She decided that she wanted to make spaghetti for her family. She went to the grocery store to get all of the ingredients and then she started to prepare her meal. She began by browning the beef in a pan and boiling a pot of water for the noodles. While those were cooking away, she melted the butter for the garlic bread and put the bread in the oven. After that the meat was brown and the water was boiling so she combined the tomatoes with the meat. She then prepared the salad and by the time that was done, the meal was ready to eat. When she ate the meal with her family, they had wonderful conversation and got to bond together as a family. Her mom helped her with the dishes and they had a great night.

Kirby concluded that she felt great about the experience because she got to prepare a special meal for her family and they got to enjoy each other's company. She agreed with Michael Pollan and notes that today's society is very focuses on getting a quick meal. She emphasizes the important of sitting down with family and enjoying a real, homemade meal. Kirby gives the example of her childhood as the meals they spend together being a very important time. i completely agree with her because I, myself, often choose convenience over quality. It's a huge problem with society today.

Peer Review of Jake's Blog Post 4

For the celebrity endorsement assignment, I decided to Review Jake Sweitzer's blog post about Tiger Woods. His article was regarding Tiger's contract with Pepsi/Gatorade before and after his "scandal". Jake says that Tiger is the greatest athlete of al time and that Pepsi/Gatorade was lucky to have him. He states that with Tiger on their team, they can increase their revenue and their reputation. He says that when consumers see Tiger drinking Gatorade, it makes them want to drink Gatorade, thus being more like him.

Jake goes on informing us that Tiger was dropped from his contract with Pepsi/Gatorade after he cheated on his wife and was publically humiliated in front of the entire nation. Jake says that this is a bad thing for Pepsi/Gatorade because they will probably lose money without Tiger on their side. I agree with this to some extent, but I can see why the company dropped him. He is seen as a "bad guy" to many Americans and many golf fans as well. They made a business decision and chose not to represent someone that should not be a role model. I agree with Pepsi/Gatorade's decision to drop Tiger from the endorsement ads because he should not be someone that children look up to. Only time will show us what decision the company should have made, but for now... I think it was the right one.

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Blog Post 5: Prepare a Meal

I was very excited for this assignment because I love to cook and I don’t often get the chance to make great meals, especially here in college. I wanted to make something healthy, yet hardy and delicious. I finally decided on making a salmon filet seasoned in Dijon mustard along side baked sweet potato fries seasoned with no salt spices and organic almond butter.

I bought all of the ingredients at the new Madison Market on University Square. The Salmon had already been deboned and was cut prior to my purchase. I began by chopping up the sweet potatoes into “fry-like” rectangles and placing them in a bowl of organic almond butter and a little extra spice. Then I placed the lightly coated potatoes onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 45 minutes. Next, I began on the salmon. I seasoned it with Dijon mustard only and instead of frying it, I decided to broil it in the lower oven. I served the salmon on a bed of organic greens lightly tossed in a vinagrette along side the crispy sweet potato fries.

The meal was absolutely delicious and I even felt like it may have been better than my dad’s salmon at home. I felt really good after the meal because I felt like it was a balanced dinner that was healthy and hardy and completely satisfying.

After reading Michael Pollan’s section about America accepting damaging foods labeled as “low fast” and “low cholesterol”, I agree with his view that this has been detrimental to the American diet. We have been told for so many years that “low fat” is better and “low carb” is necessary to lose weight, when in reality this is not true.

This article from ABC Health and Well Being, explains many of the ideas that Pollan was trying to get across. We need fats to survive, instead of choosing foods labeled “low fat”, we need to choose the good fats and place them into our diets. I completely agree with this because not very many people have gotten very far on a “low fat” or “low carb” diet.

Blog Post 4: Comparing High Fructose Corn Syrup Articles

For this post, I compared two articles regarding the effects of high fructose corn sugar on our health and the obesity problem in our country. The first article, entitled Sugar Coated describes the effects of high fructose corn syrup as being detrimental to the health of Americans. This article directly related the consumption of high fructose corn syrup to the climbing obesity rate in America. It says that sweetner flooded the American food supply early in the 1980s around the same time that our nation's obesity problem began to escalate. The author notes that the increasing amounts of high fructose corn syrup have packed more calories into us and tricks the body into wanting to eat more and storing more fat.

The second article, entitled Is High Fructose Corn Syrup bad for you? looks at the issue in a different light. The author says that chemically this high fructose corn syrup is the same as table sugar and that our bodies break this down the same way. The author does agree that obesity rates skyrocketed around the time that this fructose sugar because increasingly popular, but they are insistent that consuming this sugar is no worse than consuming the equivalent amount of table sugar. They note that the real problem is that we, as Americans, are consuming too much sugar. It is a much too prevalent ingredient in almost all the foods we consume on a day to day basis. The authors suggests limiting the amount of sugar that one puts in any food that they consume everyday.

I think the second article is more convincing because it uses information from doctors and various studies about high fructose corn syrup. It also makes more sense because I have seen those commercials that tell you HFCS is perfectly fine to consume, as long as it is done in moderation. I completely agree with the second article because I personally believe it is fine to have high fructose corn syrup as long as it is not consumed in excess.

Demonstration Speech Evaluation

My demonstration speech was to make butterfly decorations with a coffee filter, markers, some glue, and pipe cleaners. I thought my speech went really well because I practiced it many times. I think my speech was effective because it was easy to understand and follow. Any one who walked out of class after seeing my speech could easily make their own butterfly after watching my demonstration.
I connected my intro, demonstration steps, and conclusion together very well. I gave the audience relevance of the butterfly in that it is a great project to do with kids or have on hand for babysitting. I connected that relevance with the actual steps in created the butterfly and followed it by the conclusion. In my conclusion I covered the relevance of my topic as well as relating it to my own life and how I have used this project in the past. I think I connected with the audience fairly well and that everyone enjoyed my speech.

Peer Review 2

I reviewed Paula’s blog post about “Real” vs. “Fake” foods. She talked about how she used to eat real hamburgers that were made on a grill with real homemade French fries. Now, because she is in college and has fewer resources to good homemade meals, she has switched to the “fake” version of hamburgers and French fries. She gave information about how there are chemicals in these “fake” foods and how they are not beneficial to one’s health.

Paula also referred to an article by Dr. Leslie Van Romer talking about how many foods that our families eat are processed and have been altered from their original state. The article gives great information about how foods become processed and refined. It also talks about how preservatives are added to foods which adds additional chemicals that one shouldn’t put in their body on a regular basis.

I completely agree with Paula’s arguments and opinions regarding “Real” versus “Fake” food. She raises a good point about the chemicals that one is ingesting when he or she consumes a processed food or product. Her switch to the “Fake” hamburger and fries in college is completely understandable because she doesn’t have the time, money, or cooking utensils to make a quality meal. She notes that she will go back to eating the real thing this summer when she is with her family, which I think is a wonderful idea.

Peer Review 1

I have reviewed Erin’s blog post on the first section of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. She begins by talking about Michael Pollan’s philosophy that we are not eating food, we are eating nutrients. She talks about Pollan’s opinion that consumers should pay attention to the labels on products and avoid products making suspicious health claims. Erin also gives a background of the information about governments involved in the Food Industry. She talks about how the Food and Drug Administration placed a law that allows imitation products to not have a label saying IMITATION if it is not “nutritionally inferior.” She disagreed with this law because she doesn’t believe the two products are nutritionally equal. She ends her blog talking about how many companies mislabel their foods and make false health claims. She links to an article about a Candy Company that was sued for their false labeling problems.

I agree with Erin’s argument about imitation foods. If it is not the real thing, then it shouldn’t be labeled as such. She gave really great information from the book and connected it to the article that was linked in her blog post.

"Real" versus "Fake" Food

When I was in high school I would eat apples quite frequently. Just like the doctor said, I ate an apple a day to keep him away. Now that I am in college I really don’t eat very many apples. I eat applesauce more often and it ‘s usually full of sugar, cinnamon and extra preservatives. This is definitely a more “fake” form of eating apples even though it’s not necessarily “bad” to eat. It is definitely different from an apple in the fact that it’s in a jar along with added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives. Thus the applesauce does not provide the same amount of nutrients in a healthy way than does an apple. There are no added nutrients in the applesauce that I typically buy, but the label does say “FAT FREE.”
I would say that I switched to applesauce because every time I bought fresh apples, I would forget to eat them and they would rot. Applesauce lasts much longer than a fresh apple and tastes delicious with the cinnamon and sugar added. However, an apple can be equally delicious dipped in caramel or cinnamon sugar; it’s just with applesauce there is no preparation time versus preparing an apple and something to dip it in. It certainly is not more convenient that I have switched to applesauce because I can’t just grab and apple and go to class with it.
After writing this blog post, I have decided that I would much rather switch back to eating fresh apples as opposed to eating applesauce. Then I can get all of the nutrients of apples without the added sugars and preservatives of applesauce.
I found this article that talks about the debate between whole fruits versus processed juice because it talks about similar issues between whole fruits and their processes counterparts.

Celebrity Endorsement: Alton Brown for Welch's Grape Juice

I chose to look at food network celebrity, Alton Brown's new commercials for Welch's grape juice. He advertises Welch's grape juice as healthy and nutritious. He talks about the Concord grape or "vitus labrusca," stating that when the grapes are squeezed, they release natural antioxidants called polyphenols which help prevent cell damage. This all helps with one's immune system, heart and mind and the juice is tasty too! Here's the commercial, called "To Health". I think Alton Brown was the perfect celebrity to endorse this product, because he really knows what he is talking about. He is an amazing chef as well as a food scientist and has his own show on food network devoted to discussing the nutrients and attributes of various foods. The add campaign is relatively new, but I think it will certainly increase the sales of Welch's juice due to Alton's credibility as well as the information presented in the commercial. There is a lot of information about the health benefits of red and purple grapes. I looked to Mayo Clinic to provide answers and found an article regarding the health benefits of grapes to be similar to the heart benefits of wine. The article mentions that grapes can help lower risk for blood clots, reduce cholesterol, decrease damage to blood vessels in one's heart, and helping maintain healthy blood pressure.

Review of Section I "In Defensive of Food"

In the Introduction of his book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan discusses how Americans have strayed away from what a diet should be. He states that food is not at "real" as it was back in the day. He comments on how America has become reliant on a "western diet" full of highly processed foods, refined grains, added fats and sugars, as well as increasingly larger portion sizes. This type of diet has, in Pollan's opinion, made Americans unhealthy and fat. He gives an overview of what the rest of the book will be like getting into details of nutrition, the "western diet," and an overview of healthy ways to eat in one's everyday life.

The first few sections (1-4) of Chapter 1 discuss what Pollan calls, “The Age of Nutritionism.” He explains that in the 1980s “real” ingredients vanished from the supermarkets in America. It became almost impossible to buy vegetables that hadn’t been sprayed with chemicals or buy foods without the terms “low cholesterol,” high fiber,” or “low fat.” He gives a history of vitamins and nutrients and talks about when people stopped eating food and began eating nutrients. He clarifies the difference between nutritionism and nutrition, explaining that “nutritionism” is the ideology of understanding the nutrient in order to understand the food. Pollan refers to food as being about divided into the healthy ones and the unhealthy ones, the good nutrients and the bad ones. The author insinuates that eating margarine, while advertised to be smarter and healthier, can actually be more dangerous than eating the butter it was designed to replace. He talks about how there are so many “fake” products in the market, such as imitations of actual ingredients. When the imitation law requiring those ingredients to be labeled “imitation” was thrown out the window, it paved the way for manufacturers to produce more of these fake low-fat products. Pollan discusses the “Golden Age” (after 1980) for food science, when the food industry began to reengineer popular foods to have more of the good nutrients and less of the bad. He makes a good point that many foods in the supermarket have health claims that do not necessarily mean that what a person is eating is good for them.

I agree with a lot of Michael Pollan’s key points, but I think he presents the information in such a way that is scares the audience into thinking that no matter what they are eating, it isn’t healthy and it will make them fat. The way he writes makes it confusing to know what is his opinion and what is fact. For example, I found an article from the Mayo Clinic regarding the butter margarine issue, which states that most margarines are actually better for your health than butter. I suppose he'll address some of these issues later in the book and things will be clarified.