Month: October 2018

Jeremy Diaz

Eric Drown

English 122

October 21, 2018

When reading the “XXXL: Why are we fat” article a big question appeared to me. Initially , I I eventually eventually decided to move on from that question because I noticed that there hasn’t been any significant positive change in fast food ever. If they have not changed yet, why would they change for people’s health now. Many other questions came to mind and I continued to read Kolbert’s article. I read interesting facts about rapid weight gain and Kolbert pointed out some possible reasons for this weight gain. I eventually came to the point where I was wondering why these people who run the fast food industry aren’t doing anything to help people with weight when it is primarily their fault. I

What I have come to realize from Kolbert’s work is that people are gaining weight at an unhealthy amount and nobody can find out why. They went back and checked genetics to see if there had ever been a time before when people gained weight at such an unhealthy  amount as we’ve seen in recent years and there is no correlation. The only major change we can see in both now and back then is that we now have fast food. Therefore, this could be the cause for major weight gain. Back then people actually had to do hard labor to have good food. If you wanted chicken, you had to raise it and then kill it yourself. On top of that you would have to take all the feathers off and cook it yourself. Now people just go to the super market pick up a pack of ribs and throw it on the grill. In other words, it takes little to no work to get the food you so desperately want. So, I encourage people to at least find the healthiest way to prepare food and cook it ourselves. Yes, it is more time consuming and a little more expensive, but I think having a better body and feeling healthy is worth the investment.

In Kolbert’s article she introduces a new argument when Kessler begins to say some people have an addiction to eating food.. Kessler argues “Foods like Cinnabon and Starbucks strawberries and cream Frappuccino are like drugs.” He also  compares this to the addiction of gambling. It is similar to high risk high reward. People know that there is a high risk to gambling but they do it anyway because if they are successful there is a high reward. For food there is always the reward of enjoying the taste of what you are eating but at the same time you are putting your health at a high risk. The people Kessler is trying to reach here is fast food eaters as well as nutritionist. If fast food eaters hear this maybe they will be more cautious with the amount of fast food, they eat weekly. Nutritionist can use this as leverage when advising people what to eat and what is bad to eat. Hopefully by hearing about this some people who can’t stop eating these unhealthy foods everyday will try to reach out for help and be more cautious with what they are eating.

I thought to myself in order to get people to boycott these fast food places, I would have to find a way to convince them that the food isn’t good for them. But some people don’t care about how healthy the food is so then I realized I would have to prove to them that these fast food industries didn’t care about their health. There are multiple examples of this within Kolbert’s article, one of the main one’s being that the calories in the food has increased over time. Kolbert provides evidence of this with research that states  “Before McDonalds discovered the power of re-portioning, it offered just a small bag of french-fries which contained two hundred calories. Today a small order of fries contains two hundred and thirty calories.” This is a clear sign that they don’t care about people’s health and wellbeing.  Kolbert introduces some facts that show people have been getting weight at an unhealthy amount based on research. She states, “in the early nineteen sixties, 24.3 per cent of American adults were overweight.” Kolbert eventually explains “During the nineteen-eighties, the American gut, instead of expanding very gradually, had balloon; 33.3 per cent of adults now qualified as overweight.” McDonalds, among other fast foods, should have taken these facts into account back then and changed what goes into their foods so it could be a little healthier.  But they didn’t change back then and won’t change their methods anytime soon. Instead, they feel as if they put more into the food that people will instead feel like they are getting a bargain and continue to eat at their restaurant and making them money. I feel like if people realize this is who they are buying from and supporting then they will feel a sense of urgency to discontinue their support of this food chain.

In conclusion I think people will see that they need to cut back on all the fast food they are eating if not cut it out of their diet completely. Everyone deserves to be healthy, but you can’t accomplish that if you are not eating properly. The fast food chain will never change what it is serving to us because that is what they make their money off of. If someone wants a healthy meal they know where they want to go for that. Same thing goes for if someone wants something quick and greasy they will go to a fast food restaurant. Since they will never change we must change our lifestyle and eating habits or else the numbers of obese people will just continue to increase. One day I hope we can reach a moment where getting a meal isn’t about money or time but about others health and well being.

Jeremy Diaz

Eric Drown

English 122

October 21, 2018

When reading the “XXXL: Why are we fat” article a big question appeared to me. In my own view, I wondered how we can get big corporations such as Mc Donalds or Burger King to change their ways. Would we need to cut them out of our diet a little or should we boycott them completely? Many other questions came to mind and I continued to search for the answers in Kolbert’s article. I read interesting facts about rapid weight gain and Kolbert pointed out some possible reasons for this weight gain. I eventually came to the point where I was wondering why these people who run the fast food industry aren’t doing anything to help people with weight when it is primarily their fault. I realized that fast food won’t change so it is us that must change, but how? We must limit our fast food eating to little or none at all.

I thought to myself in order to get people to boycott these fast food places, I would have to find a way to convince them that the food isn’t good for them. But some people don’t care about how healthy the food is so then I realized I would have to prove to them that these fast food industries didn’t care about their health. There are multiple examples of this within Kolbert’s article, one of the main one’s being that the calories in the food has increased over time. Kolbert provides evidence of this with research that states  “Before McDonalds discover the power of re-portioning, it offered just a small bag of french-fries which contained two hundred calories. Today a small order of fries contains two hundred and thirty calories.” This is a clear sign that they don’t care about people’s health and wellbeing.  Kolbert introduces some facts that show people have been getting weight at an unhealthy amount based on research. She states, “in the early nineteen sixties, 24.3 per cent of American adults were overweight.” Kolbert eventually explains “During the nineteen-eighties, the American gut, instead of expanding very gradually, had balloon; 33.3 per cent of adults now qualified as overweight.” McDonalds, among other fast foods, should have taken these facts into account back then and changed what goes into their foods so it could be a little healthier.  But they didn’t change back then and won’t change their methods anytime soon. Instead, they feel as if they put more into the food that people will instead feel like they are getting a bargain and continue to eat at their restaurant and making them money. I feel like if people realize this is who they are buying from and supporting then they will feel a sense of urgency to discontinue their support of this food chain.

But that’s just for McDonald’s. What can I do to continue to convince people to not eat elsewhere? Well the answer is that they have an addiction. The definition of an addiction is  . In other words, it is something that you feel you can’t live without. Kolbert introduces Kessler to elaborate on this. Kolbert argues “Foods like Cinnabon and Starbucks strawberries and cream Frappuccino are like drugs.” He also  compares this to the addiction of gambling. It is similar to high risk high reward. People know that there is a high risk to gambling but they do it anyway because if they are successful there is a high reward. For food there is always the reward of enjoying the taste of what you are eating but at the same time you are putting your health at a high risk. The people Kessler is trying to reach here is fast food eaters as well as nutritionist. If fast food eaters hear this maybe they will be more cautious with the amount of fast food, they eat weekly. Nutritionist can use this as leverage when advising people what to eat and what is bad to eat. Hopefully by hearing about this some people who can’t stop eating these unhealthy foods everyday will try to reach out for help and be more cautious with what they are eating.

The last way I would try to convince people to stop eating fast foods is based on the recent rapid weight gain. What I have come to realize from Kolbert’s work is that people are gaining weight at an unhealthy amount and nobody can find out why. They went back and checked genetics to see if there had ever been a time period before when people gained weight at such an unhealthy  amount as we’ve seen in recent years and there is no correlation. The only major change we can see in now and back then is that we now have fast food. Therefore, this could be the cause for major weight gain. Back then people actually had to do hard labor to have good food. If you wanted chicken, you had to raise it and then kill it yourself. On top of that you would have to take all the feathers off and cook it yourself. Now people just go to the super market pick up a pack of ribs and throw it on the grill. In other words, it takes little to no work to get the food you so desperately want. So, I encourage people to at least find the healthiest way to prepare food and cook it ourselves. Yes, it is more time consuming and a little more expensive, but I think having a better body and feeling healthy is worth the investment.

In conclusion I think people will see that they need to cut back on all the fast food they are eating if not cut it out of their diet completely. Everyone deserves to be healthy but you can’t accomplish that if you are not eating properly. One day I hope we can reach a place where getting a meal isn’t about money or time but about others health and well being.

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

October 21, 2018 

When reading the “XXXL: Why are we fat” article a big question appeared to me. I wondered how we can get big corporations such as Mc Donalds or Burger King to change their ways. Would we need to cut them out of our diet a little or should we boycott them completely? Many other questions came to mind and I continued to search for the answers in the article. 

I thought to myself if people were to boycott these fast food places, I would have to find a way to convince them that the food isn’t good for them. But some people don’t care about how good the food is so then I realized I would have to prove to them that these fast food industries didn’t care about their health. There are multiple examples of this within Kolbert’s article one of the main one’s being that the calories in the food has increased over time. Kolbert provides evidence of this with research that states “Before Mcdonalds discover the power of re-portioning, it offered just a small bag of french-fries which contained two hundred calories. Today a small order of fries contains two hundred and thirty calories.” This is a clear sign that they don’t care about people’s health and wellbeing. They feel as if they put more into the food that people will instead feel like they are getting a bargain and continue to eat at their restaurant and making them money. I feel like if people realize this is who they are buying from and supporting then they will feel a sense of urgency to discontinue their support of this food chain. 

But that’s just for McDonald’s. What can I do to continue to convince people to not eat elsewhere? Well the answer is that they have an addiction. The definition of an addiction is the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. In other words, it is something that you feel you can’t live without. Kolbert introduces Kessler to elaborate on this. Kolbert argues “Foods like Cinnabon and Starbucks strawberries and cream Frappuccino are like drugs.” He also compares this to the addiction of gambling. It is similar to high risk high reward. People know that there is a high risk to gambling but they do it anyway because if they are successful there is a high reward. For food there is always the reward of enjoying the taste of what you are eating but at the same time you are putting your health at a high risk. Hopefully by hearing about this some people who can’t stop eating these unhealthy foods everyday will try to reach out for help. People sometimes know they need help but struggle to go out and seek for it.  

The last way I would try to convince people to stop eating fast foods is based on the recent rapid weight gain. What I have come to realize from Kolbert’s work is that people are gaining weight at an unhealthy amount and nobody can find out why. They went back and checked genetics to see if there had ever been a time period before when people gained weight at as an unhealthy amount as we’ve seen in recent years and there is no correlation. The only major change we can see in now and back then is that we now have fast food. Therefore, this could be the cause for major weight gain. Back then people actually had to do hard labor to have good food. If you wanted chicken, you had to raise it and then kill it yourself. On top of that you would have to take all the feathers off and cook it yourself. Now people just go to the super market pick up a pack of ribs and throw it on the grill. In other words, it takes little to no work to get the food you so desperately want. So, I encourage people to at least find the healthiest way to prepare food and cook it ourselves. Yes, it is more time consuming and a little more expensive, but I think having a better body and feeling healthy is worth the investment. 

In conclusion I think people will see that they need to cut back on all the fast food they are eating if not cut it out of their diet completely. Everyone deserves to be healthy but you can’t accomplish that if you are not eating properly. One day I hope we can reach a place where getting a meal isn’t about money or time but about others health and well being. 

 

When reading the article “XXXL: Why are we so fat?” written by Elizabeth Kolbert I found that there were many things I didn’t know about the food industry. Kolbert goes in many directions to find an answer to the reason why we are gaining weight so rapidly and this leads her to look at others research as well as look into the history of the food industry. When reading through Kolbert’s journey through this question I began to for some questions of my own. Some of these were about food itself and others were about finding ways to prevent unhealthy weight gain. 

The first place I found myself surprised was when I read a fact Elizabeth wrote. This fact was a discovery made by Eric Finklestein in which he states “For most people, an iced Coca-Cola used to be a treat reserved for special occasions. He continues his research with “Today, soft drinks account for about seven per cent of all the calories ingested in the United States, making them the number one food consumed in the American diet.” Even though I understand soda tastes good to people I still had many questions to ask. Why don’t people limit the amount of soda they drink if they know it is bad for them?” Is food just addictive as drugs are? That could be one explanation for it or it could be because of the price. Multiple times I have walked into the local convenience store and bought a bottle of water for two or three dollars and gotten a soda for half the price. This is too big of a problem for us to just sit around and let people get fat. I understand for some that they just have a slow metabolism and due to this they will struggle to lose weight regardless of what they eat, but for other we must find a new plan to get America back on the right track. Finkelstein closes his research by inserting a new argument “If it’s cheap to consume too many calories worth of ice cream or Coca-Cola, it’s even cheaper to consume fewer.” Though I agree with Finklestein’s idea I don’t think it’s all that simple. We must do more than just say don’t buy something because it is unhealthy. 

Another place in the article that was interesting to me was the history of how sizes came to foods. Kolbert introduces a man named David Wallerstein and begins to tell his story. Wallerstein was the first individual to serve different sized popcorns in a movie theater. Ray Kroc who was the owner of McDonald’s argued “if people wanted more fries, they could always order a second bag.” Wallerstein repels this argument by saying “they don’t want to eat two bags—they don’t want to look like a glutton.” There was a strategy behind Wallerstein’s moves and it was that if people were seen with two bags of popcorn or fries then other would judge them as fat. But if they were seen with just one bag that contained the number of fries two smaller bags could hold then they wouldn’t be as self-conscious. This is a good strategy but at the same time taking advantage of people. Wallerstein knew that people would order the bigger sizes and all he was worried about was increasing revenue. He didn’t care if that meant that all of America would begin to gain weight at an unhealthy amount. At the same time, I believe Wallerstein is not to blame for this. If he weren’t to come up with this concept someone else would have. Then we would be talking about that person instead of him in this article. Kolbert also investigated the experiment conducted by Wasnik. The experiment is explained as follows “Wasnik invited participants to cook dinner for themselves with ingredients he provided. One group got big boxes of pasta and big bottles of sauce, a second smaller boxes and smaller bottles.” Kolbert states that “the first group prepared twenty-three per cent more and downed it all.” This led me to ask is there a psychological theory to why people eat more when given more? Maybe this is because we eat with our eyes instead of our stomachs. 

The last thing that shocked me was reading in the article that America was no longer the “fattest” country in the world. A book titled Globesity states “Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta and Slovakia, the portion of overweight adults is actually higher than the U.S.” This was funny to me because foreigners always make jokes about how Americans are fat and we eat like garbage. It turns out that we are not the only ones. This got me to question if American food is really the problem. Has American Culture begun to spread all over the world? Is there a loss of traditional food in these countries as well? Maybe instead of having a Gyro stand in Greece now there are McDonalds everywhere. I also realized that this was my first-time hearing this and I wondered if the government was trying to keep it a secret. It must be because they also aren’t doing anything about it which I believe they should. They try to enforce certain fixed meals within public schools but there is only so much you can do and as it is kids don’t like the food being served in schools. Do we have any access to healthy foods? Maybe there is a few farms that could be used to make sure people are getting the right nutrition on the daily. Overall as a planet we need more individuals and programs to step up and help us tackle this issue. 

I’ve come to conclusion that McDonalds and Burger Kings will never stop serving what they do. They make so much money off it and that’s all they care about. For there to be some type of change we must act against the fast food industry and any unhealthy junk food. We can have junk food every now and then even maybe one or twice a week but as soon as we are eating it every day for every meal then a bigger problem is presented to us that must be stopped.

My question maps have shown me that curiosity is like an engine that needs fuel. The fuel for curiosity is questions. You can feed your curiosity by asking questions that will lead to an answer. That is what was done on my question maps and these questions will guide you from start to end. They stimulate the mind and lead to even more questions. One of the best things about curiosity is that even when you feel like you’ve reached a conclusion in some aspect there is still more to be discovered. A great example of this is when George creates his formula on instincts. He found an answer to his one question on if he would ever discover something new. But this led him to discover that humans really only do things if it benefits themselves or someone the care about. Because of this result George was saddened and wanted to prove it wrong. Basically, George’s curiosity was stimulated by the results to his initial question and he wanted more. This side goes hand in hand with understanding an argument. The first time you hear and argument you may be confused by the mindset of the person explaining it to you, but this doesn’t mean we should shut it off. For all we know we may go on to agree with this argument at some point, but we won’t know unless we listen. Even then listening isn’t enough. This goes back to asking questions on things you don’t understand so you can be brought to the light. A person who is arguing is going to be able to answer most if not all questions about their argument. If they’re not able to do so then they may not have a good argument. But you won’t be able to know this unless you at least give their opinion a listen. If I was to write an essay about one of these bigger question ideas, I think I would track my thought process when reading so I can use that as a tool to explain my initial thoughts, thinking process and my conclusion from the overall reading. By doing so I would also give the reader an easier time reading my essay and understanding where I got all my ideas from. This is what is done through both conversations and I was able to see this through the question maps and listening through multiple times. One opened ended question I’d like to read and write about is “Why are we here?” This question is a big question and crosses multiple platforms and ideas while never really reaching a conclusion. For some there is religion involved with their conclusion to this question and for others they aren’t really sure. But overall this would be a good question to explore.

 

When I was drawing I was thinking about what I wanted to pay the most attention to. One of those things were the lines themselves. I knew I would be able to get a good shell of the drawing if I focused on the lines and the way they went. Another thing I was thinking of was trying to replicate as much detail from the drawing as I could. I realized from first glance that the drawing had a lot of detail, so I tried to put every line and shade I could into it. One of the places where I used that was drawing the man’s hair. Because I did this I was able to make his hair look pretty good and I think it was the part I did the best on but also the easiest. Even though I tried to put a lot of attention to the details in the drawing there was a few places where it could have been better. When I was finished I realized that I needed to shade a little better because the was places where it looked incomplete. I also noticed that some parts of my drawing look uneven. Specifically, the eyes could have been better because one is bigger than the other, but the detail of the eyes seem ok. The ears look a little weird and I’m not sure if it’s just the way it was in the drawing or the way I replicated it on the paper. It isn’t too bad, but they could have been better. Other things I felt I did pretty well on were the suit and his hands. The suit was one of the easier parts because it didn’t have as much details as the face or hands. The hands were the first thing I started drawing so I think that could be why they are one of the best things I drew. Since I had just started my focus was on the hands and I wasn’t tired of drawing yet. I realized is that I am better when I am focused on a specific part of the drawing then when I am all over the place. If I choose a specific aspect to work on, then it will be the best part of the drawing as well. My eyes and mind just need to be focused on the same thing. I think I see well in everyday life unless I am comfortable. When I am outside or somewhere I don’t feel comfortable I am constantly watching my surroundings because I feel like someone is watching me or try to get me. It’s just how I grew up I never felt safe unless I was with my family and friends at home. I think I see intensely when I am on the football field. This is because everything is so fast that if you are not paying attention you will mess up and get beat on a route or miss an assignment. That is why you must always be seeing fast.  

During my self-portrait I felt like I was focused. Due to that I was able to replicate most of the features in my picture onto the paper in my drawing. To do something like this you need to be able to see things and in order to see you need focus. In class when looking at the picture of the frog’s eye we learned that it took time and focus to get a picture that looked that great. It almost never happens that someone gets something “perfect” on the first try. Even then there is probably something even more they could have to make whatever they were working on better. People often set high expectations for themselves but once it comes to doing something they become lazy. Being focused blocks out your laziness and therefor provides you with a better outcome. For me when I was drawing myself I was made an effort to stay as focused as I could because we had a limited time. When writing we should try to be as focused as we can because that’s when we start generating new ideas and it leads to even more writing. I also learned this when writing essays. I was able to come up with new ideas as well as add my own personal experiences. Paying attention is also important because it leads to learning. The more you pay attention the more likely you are to remember what you learned and apply it in future works. This is what I learned from the exercise and I feel like I can continue to use these skills in my future essays and in class lets writes.

What I learned from the feedback I received was that even though I have a long way to go I am headed in the right direction. For my writing process I have to work on a few things. One of the biggest things I need to work on is creating new ideas. I do a decent job of explaining ideas and giving my opinion on them, but I haven’t created any ideas of my own. Once I start doing that my writing will take another step in the right direction. I also need to do more revision. If I do revise more my writing will seem more evolved.  My reading is in a pretty good place but there is a little more I could do to make it better as well. I need to work on identifying key words and concepts brought up in my reading. This will allow my writing to evolve as well. I need to build on the text as well as other writers’ ideas. This will help with developing my own ideas. With integrating ideas, the one thing I really want to work on is choosing the right passages to represent certain ideas. Sometimes I choose something that isn’t too clear in representing an idea I’ve mentioned, and it becomes confusing.  I do a really a good job of engagement as a learner.  The two things I need to work on here is making clearer connections and improving the signaling of sources. 

I mentioned the things I need to work on but to get them done will take work. To improve my writing skills, I will try to write more. Practice will allow to improve and acquire new skills. You can never stop improving and getting better. For my reading I think I need to reread sometimes since occasionally I confuse ideas and who is saying what. By rereading I will get a better understanding of all view. I think to improve my engagement skills I need to continue doing what I am doing and stay focused. If I stay focus and keep working hard then I will continue to be engaged. With integrating ideas, I need to choose the right ideas to add. This will allow me to create stronger arguments. To find new ideas, I need to look for them in more than one place. 

Overall, I just want to keep improving and becoming a better writer. I feel like I am headed in the right direction, but I need to game plan and do certain things to reach that next level. I feel like this meeting and the assignment put me on the right path. I will continue to strive to be better and try to meet with Eric more. I enjoy meeting with Meaghan because I feel like she helps me a lot with my writing and getting my point across. I know I will become a better student if I keep doing these things.