Where's the Fruit??

Fruit snack companies are claiming that their produce contains real fruit and consists of a full serving of fruit. The little purple squishy grapes and the tiny oranges are consisted to be healthy versions of the actual fruit they are imitating. Researcher’s methods of selling these products to kids use cartoons to sell their product. The parents also fall into the trap of buying fruit snacks because it claims to have real fruit in it. The similarities between the actual fruit and the imitation are so small that the only thing that they have in common is that the imitation look like the fruit. The imitation has so much sugar in it and other chemicals that it tastes nothing like the actual fruit and is nowhere close to the nutritional values of the real fruit.

The fake food provides essentially none of the vitamins or nutrients of the real food. The first ingredients of fruit snacks are sugar, modified corn starch and gelatin. It has less than 2% of actually healthy ingredients like ascorbic acid (vitamin C) but this is a chemical component and does not actually come from the actual fruit.

At home and at college when I want a snack it is easier to grab a pack of fruit snacks because they can sit on the shelf for a long time and doesn’t expire. Even though I eat fruit snacks I know they have basically no nutritional values so I also try to eat real fruit at the cafeterias. Once I get out of college and get my own apartment where I have a refrigerator and have an income to buy my own food I will buy fruit so I can have it for a snack instead of fruit snacks.

Peer Response #4

Marijuana, a psychotropic drug, is the most illegally used drug in the United States. Great debates have ensued over its legality. Proponents of legalizing marijuana argue that it is a right to be able to choose to use marijuana or not. Opponents state that the use of marijuana can lead to stronger, more powerful drugs and can cause many psychological difficulties. Mike Sorenson’s blog compares the opposing sides to this debate.

The first article Mike uses lists different reasons why marijuana should be legal. The main point this article brings forth is that alcohol and tobacco are legal and so should marijuana. It argues that marijuana is much less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol and because those two substances are legal then so should marijuana. If marijuana became legal the government would have saved millions of dollars that has been used to arrest people with marijuana.

The second article Mike writes about opposes legalizing marijuana. This article says that marijuana is addictive and can lead to other drugs and therefore should be illegal. Marijuana has many psychological effects on the human body and can be very detrimental. Proponents to marijuana argue that it has many medical uses to relieve pain for patients. However, many other drugs can achieve the same effect.

The second article made many more points to support their side. Each of the points had factual information supporting reasons why marijuana should be illegal. I agree with Mike in that marijuana should remain illegal. The first article was not very persuasive because it didn’t have any data supporting its side.

Cranberry Walnut Salad

My friend and I made dinner a few nights ago. We wanted to make our own dinner instead of getting a typical meal at Frank’s. So we walked over to the Fresh Madison Market to get our food. We decided to make a cranberry walnut salad. We weren't that hungry and we figured a salad would be a lot cheaper than anything else. For our salad we got a bag of mixed greens, cranberries, walnuts, and lite blue cheese. The total came out to be around 16 dollars.

We made the salad in the dorm’s kitchen. There was no preparation to make the salads. We poured in however much of the ingredients we wanted into our own salads. Clean up was also very easy. Threw away the plastic bowl and fork and we’re done.

I support Pollan’s claim that scientific advancement in foods has changed the way we eating from savoring the food to only eating what scientists say is good. The food we ate supports this because we decided what we wanted to eat based on what looked good not on if it was healthy.The lite blue cheese did not support his claim though. The dressing was chemically engineered to have few fat calories in it. Additives were added to replace the lost taste from the fat calories, I think low fat products are healthy with fewer calories from fat. The pros outweigh the cons when it comes to low fat products. This article shows that low fat foods can reduce heart disease. It refutes Pollan’s argument that we should not be eating scientifically altered food. I think that it is important to watch exactly what you are eating. It is healthier to have a low fat diet but safer to eat natural food that hasn't been altered.

Peer Response #3

The subject of abortion is extremely difficult to argue because these choices are based on moral and ethical ideals. In Amy Reynolds’ blog, she compares two online articles one that is pro-life and the other, pro-choice. Amy’s response to the articles was unbiased and summarized the main points of each article.

The first article was on pro-abortion or pro-choice. This article is gave the history of the pro-choice movement. It discusses the legal history of abortions. The Supreme Court case, Roe vs. Wade, was the first law to ever legalize abortions. This was a huge victory towards the pro-choice side. This article more brings up the debate of abortion and lets the reader decide rather than persuade the reader one way or another.

The second article Amy used came from an anti-abortion organization siding with pro-life. Within the website of this organization, there were many different articles that were very persuasive towards pro-life. It uses many different facts and data to show that an abortion can be dangerous and harmful to the woman. This organization uses this data to persuade the reader that abortions are dangerous and considered murder.

I happen to be pro-choice but I think the pro-life article was more persuasive. It had more scientific data to support what it was saying. At times this article was very persuasive in an aggressive way. However, it had strong points that supported the pro-life movement. The pro-abortion article was more on what pro-abortion is and its history. It did not make a good persuasive article. Rather, it brought up the issue of abortion and let the reader decide which is better, pro-life or pro-choice.

I Gotta Feeling ...about Target??

During the 2010 Grammys, the Black Eyed Peas endorsed a Target commercial. Target was advertising for the Black Eyed Peas remixed CD, The End. During the commercial, the band, Black Eyed Peas, were dancing to their song, I Gotta Feeling. This song is on the top music charts across the country. The Target logo was displayed through the commercial on the wall and floor advertising that this commercial was for target.

Many endorsers use famous people such as movie stars or musicians. Using these celebrities draws in people focus because a majority of the viewers know or have heard of these people. Target advertised this commercial during the 2010 Grammys. I think this was beneficial to Target because many people who watch the Grammy’s know the famous musicians, such as Black Eyed Peas. Target also featured Nick Jonas, The Administration and Pearl Jam in their commercials during the Grammys. By featuring the Black Eyed Peas during the Grammys, more people were drawn to the commercial because the viewers are watching an award show for musicians.

I think this commercial was beneficial to both Target and The Black Eyed Peas. The CD advertised in the commercial is only offered at Target. This draws fans of the Black Eyed Peas to Target. I don’t think it would draw as many people as thought because the CD released was only a remix of songs the Black Eyed Peas have already released. This article supports my opinion, that Target benefited from having the Black Eyed Peas in their commercial.

Peer Response #2

Shelby’s blog compared two online articles about the public smoking ban. I think this is a very important topic and should be discussed. She compares an article that supports the smoking ban with a story of her cousin who died from secondhand smoke to an article that lists three strong reasons why smoking in public places should not be banned.

The first article, “Why smoking in public places should be banned,” conveys to the reader that there should be a smoking ban because it disrupts and can hurt other nonsmokers. Smoking can cause cancer and be harmful to the human body. The author’s cousin died from cancer caused by smoke. This article helped support Shelby’s stance on the smoking ban because it portrayed a realistic effect of smoking.

The article that disagreed with the smoking ban, “Why ban smoking in public?: Arguments against” lists three arguments that refute the ban. The article argues that it is the smoker’s rights to smoke in designated public places for smoking and that people have stressful lives which gives them the right to smoke.

My opinion, like Shelby’s, was not changed after reading both articles. I am not a smoker so I have no desire to smoke. Secondhand smoke is also very harmful to people so I support the ban. However, I think this article, “Big drop in heart attacks after smoking bans, studies say” is much more effective at supporting the ban on smoking. The other article gives an example of a true story of the effects of smoking and secondhand smoke. This article gives strong points and factual data that confirms smoking is unhealthy for you. I think this article is more convincing than the other article because it provides factually supported information

Image from: http://www.battelle.org

Demonstration speech self-evaluation

My demonstration speech was how to fold the American flag. After watching and seeing my speech from the audience’s perspective, there are some aspects to my speech that I would have changed and there are also strong areas in my speech that I would not change.

The informational content to my speech was beneficial in answering why Americans should know how to fold the American flag. The history of the American flag added to the importance of it in the history of the US and the honor the flag should be given. The steps on how to fold the flag were easy to follow but could have been described better. Holding the flag up in between steps would have helped demonstrate what was done during the last step.

My physical presence during my speech needed the most improvement. I spoke very fast during my entire speech. In order to improve my speech I need to slow down and not rush what I am saying. This made my speech under the five minute mark. Because I spoke so fast some of my words are hard to hear. This made it difficult to understand what I was saying during the introduction of my speech. The strengths of my physical presence would be my volume and eye contact. I looked up at the audience often during my speech and I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

I would do the same presentation again. I think it was very interesting and my visual aid was large enough for everyone to see. I would speak much slower so everyone could understand what I was saying. I would fold the flag again so everyone would be able to see again how to fold the flag.

Image from: http://www.militarytrader.com