Final Post

Over the course I have learned more about how to conduct proper research from legitimate sources and to effectively apply them within my paper.  Within each essay, I have improved finding good sources and implementing them within my research paper to illustrate what I am attempting to say rather than simply stating my point and hoping the reader will agree with me.  This really helps improve my arguments within the paper so that it is seen as a more reliable piece of writing.  I will use this skill throughout the rest of my career to write effective and reliable papers.  This is very important in careers because many professions use a lot of writing and research, and by having a good foundation in this area, it will make it easier to be noticed by those higher up in the career. 

EE2

What should I have to eat?  This is a question that billions of people ask themselves every day across the globe.  The question is, what tributes goes through the person’s head when making this decision? In other words, what ultimately makes people decide on what to eat?  Granted, this question is more recent than one might think.  Not too long ago, or in some locations around the world today, people did not have much of an option, so the question was rather redundant.  Today however, most people in the Western world have a choice in what they are going to eat.  Some people factor tributes such as taste, nutrition, availability, or cost when deciding on what to eat.  Personally I am not that picky of an eater as I once was.  It does not matter to me how many calories are in a salad or an energy drink, frankly I do not even know what a calorie really is.  I base the question of “what should I have to eat?” on two ideas. The first is what my schedule is like, do I have any races or games or training that requires more food than normal? The second is what I have a taste for, something spicy, and something filling or simply cereal?  Essentially, if I decide on what to eat based off of what I have planned and what I feel like eating.

Ever since I was little, my family never put any nutrition talk into my head; I never heard them talking about taking in so many calories or eating a specific food or anything like that.  Don’t get me wrong, they wanted me to eat healthy and I was like any little kid where I could not have candy or coke or other unhealthy treats, which is not what I am talking about.  As a kid I grew up on a farm, where my father would work all day and my mother was a personal trainer at the local gym.  My brother and I helped my father as best we could for our age on the farm and would play in every sport available to us in rural Missouri. We were, and still are, a very active family, so my parents would not discuss calorie intake or fats, they would simply say that I did not need to eat a cheeseburger at the moment or have a coke, that it would not be good for me.  I usually left it at that.  Due to this, I could not really describe what a calorie is, I just know it has something to do with food and if there is too many, it could be unhealthy depending on your lifestyle. 

Another reason why I am not picky about the food I consume is because of my lifestyle.  When I was growing up on the farm, I was very picky.  My favorite food, which at times still is today, was a grilled cheese sandwich with french-fries and a coke from The Roundhouse (a local restaurant).  I have had that same meal from Seattle, to Orlando, to Amsterdam and beyond.  The best one is no doubt at The Roundhouse back home.  This was how picky I was, it was all I could eat, and it was safe.  Once my father joined the State Department, we were heading on a plane to Krakow, Poland in less than a year.  Now I have been accept into the TCK world, a Third Culture Kid, which is basically a kid who has spent the majority of their life outside of their home country; that they do not really mix 100% in the country where they live because of being a foreign nor in their home county because they have been gone for so long.  Naturally, with these adventures outside of the U.S. it is not surprising that most other countries do not have grilled cheese.  We ordered it onetime overseas and they brought back cheese that was grilled.  So I had to branch out a bit, trying foods that I did not know what was inside of it or what it was called, it was either all that was available or it sounded good from the waiter’s description in broken British English. Searching new foods this way, people do not inform you about the calorie intake or other health facts, if they wanted to it would be an interesting conversation to see how they would converse.  Since we spent most of our time in countries that did not speak English, we spent a lot of time with each other, which we still did not ever talk about nutrients in foods. It was not until recently, when we moved back to the U.S. where I have started to hear my parents and family discuss about eating properly in the form of calories. 

            Typically during the school year and at certain times during the summer I am very physically active due to sports, work or AFROTC.  This is what I normally base my food intake off of.  I am the sort of person where ingesting certain kinds of food at certain times before large physical events would certainly mess with my performance the day of the event.  For example, when I was in high school I was on a Dutch rugby team in Leiden.  We would typically have games fairly early in the morning, or we would have to be there early for a mini practice before the game.  I learned that certain foods either the night before or the morning of would upset my stomach and have to constantly search for a restroom.  This also applied for cross country, which is why I first ask myself if I have anything that day or the day after where I would have to be unavailable for most of the day, at a game or race. If I do not have anything nearby, my choice falls on what I feel like having, what tastes good at the time?

            What I feel like consuming is my next question when deciding what to eat.  Upon walking into the dining halls or ordering from a menu, I determine what type of food I would like to have. Usually I like to eat food that is filling such as burgers, lasagna, steak, food that you can sink your teeth into, as long as it is not too dry.  If I decide to have something like Asian, where there is a lot of rice and smaller food to eat, there is usually a second meal of some kind not too far in the future.  This decision usually involves the texture and taste of the food as well.  Due to various reasons, spicy and foods of the like are typically avoided in favor of other flavorful foods.  Characteristics like texture and taste are leading causes into what I decide on eating.

            It is true that one factor that emerges every now and then when deciding on what to eat is nutrition. I still maintain a healthy lifestyle, so I am not too concerned with what I eat.  However, instead of looking calories or fat in a food or simply how fattening a food will be, I look at my diet as a whole.  If I notice I have been eating a lot of unhealthy food recently, such as pizza, burgers and coke, I will eat more healthy foods.  This is the extent to which nutrition comes into my diet.

            Food is major component into ones’ life and the decision on what to eat can drastically change a person’s life if they continually make the wrong decisions.  However, it is no secret that with a balanced diet and regular exercise, your chances of falling ill to food related diseases or sicknesses falls drastically.  Due to my past and my healthy lifestyle, my decision on what to eat is fairly simple; do I have anything physical planned in the near future? And what do I feel like having?

           

P9

P9: Read the essays by Pollan (“Unhappy Meals”) and Dupuis. Write a post in which you connect the essays to one another and to a contemporary food issue. In other words, read the essays alongside one another and use that reading to inform your commentary on an aspect of our food cultures.

 

Pollan and Dupuis both write about how essential it would be for humans to eat like they were supposed to, no diets, not fast food, just plain old healthy sustenance.  Pollan discusses more about how fast food and similar unhealthy foods have become the norm for human society and that we are digging into healthcare to treat those who are getting sick from it as opposed to letting nature take its course.  Dupuis on the other hand talks more about how diets have taken charge of the American public for years, not just the past 50 years or so, and that we have always looked to other to discern what is good to eat, even though the diets change every other week.  Essentially, they are both explaining how modern society has reverted to unhealthy forms of eating, that we have become utterly corrupt in our eating habits.  Which is true, our society has relied less and less on home-cooked meals and more on the dining out, fast food, and easy-to-make meals.  Naturally these foods are less healthy than homegrown salads with a real farm-raised chicken breast on the side.  Our society needs to learn how to eat healthier again.  The only problem is that our food has developed with society, it has become faster paced, which means that not everyone can have homegrown salads and chickens; there simply isn’t the time to do so.  The food industry just developed with society and began making food faster at the cost of health.  It is possible, but an entire system would have to be altered to bring homegrown quality to every human being.  It will cost a lot of time and money, something which big industries are not willing to give up.

How I Decide What to Eat

My decision on what food to eat depends on a few things. One is how hungry I am/how I feel, the second is if I have any physically demanding activity coming up and lastly it depends on the options.  Nutrition comes into play a little bit, but I tend to vary my food across the whole "pyramid", so I'm never worried about that.  Basically, depending on how I feel, I might stick with only bland foods, try something more spicy or flavorful, etc..  Also, sometimes the dining halls doesn't serve a lot of food that is filling, unless you eat the pizza or burgers that are always provided, but get old pretty fast.  If I have a physcially demanding activity comong up like a race of some sort, I will tend to eat pizza, pasta, water, etc..  Besides those reasons, I really decide what I eat based on what I feel like having a the moment.  I like eating healthier foods as well as having variety, so health rarely comes into mind.

SE 5

The Miracle Drug

There is a miracle drug in the form of a beverage that billions of people around the world take for granted.  Only those who are lucky enough to know the truth about this drink are able to harness the greatness within.  It is primarily consumed to accompany breakfast however it is not uncommon for the lucky few to enjoy it throughout the day and even into the night, especially on college campuses.  Surprising to most people is that coffee has numerous health benefits to the consumer, making it virtually unhealthy to not drink coffee.

Even though it is one of the world’s most widely consumed beverages, many associate coffee with negative tributes such as addiction and unhealthy habits.  That could not be further from the truth.  It is true that older tests seemed to have deemed coffee to have some negative health affects but with every new test being published, we see more and more health benefits of coffee.   It is even believed that coffee could prolong one’s life span.  This is not due to any specific chemical in the drink that prolongs life, but the benefits of the drink combined.  Through various studies it has been determined that certain chemicals in coffee reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease, liver problems, diabetes, Parkinson’s and certain cancers like brain and neck cancer (Cano-Marquina).  These benefits combined are what make coffee a potential substance to prolong life.  Cardiovascular disease alone is the single most deadly disease in the United States, by reducing the odds of obtaining this disease or any other mentioned above automatically increases one’s chances of surviving longer (Anonymous).  Other major diseases that sadly end multiple lives prematurely are Alzheimer’s and dementia.  Moderate consumption decreases the odds of contracting these diseases by as much as 65%.  Now that there are more accurate tests available, it is becoming blatantly obvious that the health benefits from consuming coffee are enormous and demolish any old claim that it is an unhealthy product.

                Not only does this amazing beverage improve one’s ability to stay alive longer but it also boosts one’s daily performance.  It is known to increase characteristics such as attention/focus, decision-making, reaction to time and increased energy while being consumed moderately (Chu).  This is what makes coffee ideal for students; it gives them these key abilities when they are exhausted from work, it is what helps them stay awake late at night or during the 8:00 a.m. class.   The description above causes coffee to sound like the drug NZT from the movie Limitless, where Bradley Cooper is introduced to a drug that increases his energy, focus and memory; effectively making him superhuman.  There is no evidence that coffee will bestow the consumer with superhuman abilities to the same extent as in the movie, but it has been proven to increase one’s abilities mentioned above.  Combined with the previously explained health benefits and the increased abilities just mentioned, why would one not drink this beverage; it is practically the only medicine that truly helps you and tastes amazing. 

In fact, the only recurring “negative” health tribute of coffee is due to the most widely abused drug in the world, caffeine.  This drug is in so much more than coffee such as chocolate and coke.  One negative aspect of quitting anything with caffeine is that it will cause headaches, although coffee has dopamine which prevents headaches so there is no real reason to stop permanently (CPGrey).  The thing that makes coffee different from coke and other products with caffeine is they do not contain all of the health benefits that coffee has.  If one would be addicted to the caffeine in coke, it is fairly unhealthy due to the other sugars and chemicals in the coke, whereas coffee does not.  It is not well known, but black coffee is very low calorie, only seven calories in a 6-gram cup (Anonymous).  The part of the coffee that is somewhat fattening is the sugar and milk/creamer added to it.  Even the “negative” aspects of coffee are not actually negative if one continues to use it moderately.

Unfortunately coffee has had a negative reputation in recent years due to perceived disadvantages.  In reality it is one of the few drinks that provide so many health benefits from increased focus to protection against cancer. The beauty is that these benefits can be achieved through as few as two and as many as six cups of coffee a day (Anonymous).   It is true that the sugar and milk added to coffee is what really make it fattening, but as long as the consumer practices a healthy lifestyle of continuous exercise and healthy eating, there is no reason to stop drinking this miracle drug.

                                                                                                                                                                    

Works Cited

Anonymous. "To Your Health: Coffee." Automatic Merchandiser 53.1 (2011): 12. Print.

Cano-Marquina, A. "The Impact of Coffee on Health." Maturitas 75.1 (2013): 7-21. Print.

Chu, Yi-Fang. Coffee: Emerging Health Effects and Disease Prevention. Ames, IA: Wiley-Blackwell/IFT, 2012. Print.

Grey, Colin. "Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever." Video blog post. Youtube. C.G.P. Grey, 22 June 2011. Web. 13 May 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg>.

Observations

Jay and I believe there is a correlation  between staying up late at night and not eating between 6am-8am, due to various reasons.  Many people skip breakfast in general or eat it later in the day.  There was a fair amount of meat consumption and many people did not mention the accompanying drink.  Fairly structured or regulated eating schedule.

Skipping breakfast and health affects:
http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/219663183

P8

Thursday, 9th:

  Breakfast: Lucky Charms, Chocolate milk, yogurt with musli and brown sugar, bacon and French toast

  Lunch: Salad with Italian dressing, pasta with tomato sauce and water

  Dinner: 3 enchiladas, Dr. Pepper, Chips and salsa (On the Border in  Colorado Springs)

Snacks/other:  coffee with milk and sugar

Friday, 10th:

  Breakfast: Coffee, plain bagel with blueberry cream cheese

  Lunch: bigmac with fries and coke

  Dinner: baked potato with sour cream and cheese, chili with cheese, corn bread and Oreo ice cream cake for desert

Saturday, 11th:

  Breakfast: pancake with syrup, coffee and bacon

  Lunch: tortilla wraps, chocolate chip cookies, and potato chips

  Dinner: cheeseburger from sonic with fries and a coke

Other: starbucks mocha Frappuccino in glass bottle from target and a shirley temple.