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.