Spring 2011 End of Trimester Karaoke Potluck!!!!

Who: YOU! and me =)

What: Food + Karaoke = YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!

Where: Room 505

When: Thursday 4/14 @5:30pm-ish

Why: Because the trimester is over and food is yummy and Karaoke is fun and hanging out for a reason other than studying is the funnest ever!

RSVP: Just put what you are planning to bring in the comments section.

Hope to see and hear you all there!

Week 14: living Diversity and Cognition

Diversity of species

Around where I live there are different kinds of trees, and flowers and grasses. Also there are squirrels, possums,raccoons, rats, cats, dogs, birds, fish, ants, butterflies, spiders, bees, skeeter eaters, worms and humans! I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, but those are some of our neighbors.

Cocoa = yummm and woooo!!!!!!....maybe?

It seems like the Cacao plant is the thing that is beneficial. Chocolate has a lot of things added to it that end up negating the benefits. Consumption of refined sugars is very bad for our health as we learned in the "Question of Balance" in the Chemistry class, refined white sugar is found in the extremely acid forming food section with a pH of 5-5.5 and the note says, "poison! Avoid it." I'm assuming that a healthy food becomes less healthy if you add poison to it...I think.

Studies have shown that milk actually blocks the positive effects of antioxidants. The studies have been done on chocolate, berries, teas, and coffee. Also the processing of chocolate where it is heated multiple times causes the nutritional content to be vastly diminished.

I do believe that diet is a major key in avoiding many of the health problems in our society, but I don't think it it should be based on any one food. Like ecosystems, diets are best when they include a diversity of plants, not just one super plant.

Class Discussion: Vegan Diet and Arthritis

I find diet studies to be extremely beneficial in helping individuals know what types of foods that cause them problems. We are what we eat. Literally, our Qi and cells are made out of the raw materials of the food that we put in our mouths. It is not surprising that we can control many illnesses with changes in diet.

Unfortunately the public is kept in the dark about how important diet is. Everyone knows what we eat is important, but I don't know that we know just HOW important. There is no real profit in changing diet, and doctors are no more knowledgeable about diet and its relationship to health than the general public. Most medical schools don't even require diet to be studied, and the few that do require only a 2-3 hour nutrition course.

In my opinion, diet is the cheapest and easiest way to change our healthcare system. If dietitians were more respected for the invaluable contribution they give with their knowledge of diet and how it effects our health, it would go a long way to keeping our medical expenses down. Prevention is so much cheaper, safer, easier and less environmentally destructive than chronic illness maintenance.

Week 13: Free Radicals and Antioxidants

Do we rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants?

In my opinion, yes. Many people would rather pop a pill than eat some plants. Also many of the plants that are eaten are not the most nutritious like iceberg lettuce or white potatoes, or they are grown in a way that depletes their nutrition such as with the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Supplements are generally trying to be as nutritious as a plant but I would argue that it is impossible to do since we still don't know how the thousands of different vitamins, antioxidants and other phytochemicals interact with each other within the plant, not to mention the fiber, plant sugars and naturally distilled water found in plants.

How might we deal differently with the effects of environmental pollutants?

I think the better plan would be to not worry so much about the effects, and try to do something about the source. We don't really know how to deal with toxic chemicals once they are out in the world, but if we could stop making them in the first place, I think that would be a good plan. Of course, it would mean that we would have to stop producing things that create toxic chemicals as a waste product. And that's almost everything, including the computer I am writing this blog on right now...

Class discussion: hands free faucet = gross!

It was in one way insanely shocking to learn about how the hands free faucets harbored more germs than the traditional faucet, and at the same time, I was not surprised at all. It reminds me of all the things we do to try to defeat nature that blow up in our faces. It was brought up in class that we act like we are separate from nature by trying to eliminate germs and dirt and trees. We always seem to find out in the end that all of those things were maintaining a balance necessary for us to thrive. No matter how much we fight it, we are still human-animals that live as a part of our ecosystem just like the trees, squirrels and germs.