Repsond to a Classmate

In Conor’s “Celebrity Endorsement” blog, http://coneilllsc100f09.blogspot.com/ he discusses how coke uses Troy Polamalu to endorse their coke zero brand. The commercial was a copy and updated version of Mean Joe Greene’s early coke commercial. The commercial is a great way to promote coke. Troy Polamalu seems to be a great athlete for endorsement deals. His promotion of the coke zero is eye catching and makes you just want to go get a coke zero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjII6F-nJBQ In the commercial he is hurt and once he drinks the coke zero he seems to be happier and feel better which in a way is saying that when you are having a down day all you need is a coke zero and you will feel better no matter what has happened.
Conor also talks about how Troy has been used not only for the promotion of coke zero. He has another head and shoulders commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3BaPi94bWs In the commercial he discusses how great his hair is and how great it is because he uses head and shoulders. The reason he is the perfect candidate is because if you look Polamalu does have great looking hair. So in a way head and shoulders is saying that if you use our product then you will have great hair like him.
Head and shoulders and coke picked the perfect candidate to promote their products. He is not only a popular figure he also has attractive figures which makes him eye catching. Whoever decided to use him for their commercial was smart because he has everything you need, he is pretty, smart, and a well known figure.

Comprehensive Sex Education is Needed

http://www.wholefamily.com/aboutteensnow/sexuality/consequences/prg_liz.html Teen pregnancy is something that needs to be dealt with. It is becoming a problem and every year rates of teen pregnancy do not decline. The United States has higher pregnancy and STI rates than most foreign countries, large or small. The only way to make this change is to take action and do something in our schooling systems and at home. Schools need to be more open to teaching comprehensive sex education and they also need to encourage parents to teach their teens more about being safe if they choose to have sex. Of course abstinence is the only one hundred percents full proof way to prevent pregnancy but as the statistics show that is not what teens are about. They want to have sex and they are going to do it whether abstinence is promoted or not. So in order to make a difference sex education classes need to teach teens not only the basics of reproduction but how to put a condom on, use birth control, and communicate with their partners properly in order to ensure that they have safe sex. Parents need to talk to their teens about sex because a big problem is that they avoiding talking to their teens about the subject of sex because they would rather believe they are not doing it. The reality is that it is happening so they need to step up and talk to their teens as soon as possible.
STI rates are another problem. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23574940 In short the only thing to do is talk to teens and to promote safe sex and to teach teens how to protect themselves from STI’s in their sex education classes and in the home. Parents and schools need to talk to teens and show them that not having sex is an option but if they choose to have sex then they should know how to do it safely. Safe sex needs to be promoted and if we continue to ignore the realities, that teens are having sex, then STI and pregnancy rates will continue to rise and never stop.

Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger?

When you turn on the television you are constantly bombarded with commercials from athletes trying to sell you sports equipment to restaurants trying to sell you their food. In 2005 the famed Paris Hilton made a thirty second commercial for Carl’s Jr./ Hardees, Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger. In the commercial you see her walk in wearing a very skimpy bikini and high heels. She begins by cleaning a car in a very sexual like manner. The commercial continues with her cleaning the car and only showing the hamburger, the product the company wanted to sell, a few times very closely together. This is an example of a company using sex appeal to try and get buyers to endorse their product. The commercial is supposed to be about buying a Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger, instead you become so absorbed watching Paris Hilton that you do not pay much attention when the hamburger is actually advertised. The advertisement may have worked due to the fact that women may believe that they will be considered sexy, like Ms. Hilton, if they eat that burger and men may believe that if a sexy woman like that is eating this burger then it must be pretty great.
I do not feel that this endorser used proper representation for their product. They want to sell a hamburger not sex. There is nothing wrong with having Paris Hilton in the commercial but maybe toning down the clothing and focusing more on the product. I do not believe that this product will get the sale outcome that Carl’s Jr. wanted for the simple fact that the focus is more on Paris and the car then on the actual hamburger.

Pro-Life or Pro-choice

Abortion is an extremely controversial topic. There are people who are for it, against it and some who do not have much say either way. According to an article on pro-life website issues and abortion at About.com, it is not an option. This website explains the different options you can have instead of abortion such as adoption. Adoption provides an alternative to for many families who cannot conceive the conventional way. In addition, abortion can put women at a higher risk for ectopic pregnancies, a pregnancy outside of the womb, and increases their chances of miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease.
However, despite its negatives, abortion also can be seen as pro-choice. Every woman should have the right to do with her body what she pleases and every woman should have the right to decide if they want to have a child or not. According to Things Eternal, a pro-life website, the threat of taking away abortion can lead to women doing illegal or self inflicted abortions which are extremely dangerous. Women will begin to depend on these procedures and they can lead to death or serious, long term injury.
I believe that the pro-choice side of abortion is more convincing. To me it deals more with the facts and results of abortion rather than the emotional side and in this case facts are more important. The lifestrategies page showed more of an unbiased and factual side to having abortion as an option and that is why I feel I can relate to it more. It does not argue that abortion is something that does or does not have to happen but rather that it should be available as an option. There are many beliefs and opinions about abortion and everyone has the right to express what they feels is important, so therefore I will never judge anyone based on their stance on

Food Labels, Truth or Not?

I will be the first to tell you that I may not always read the labels on products. A lot of the time I will look at it and see a sticker saying it is healthier for you to buy it without thinking. After reading http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/24/smart-choices-food-labeli_n_332477.html I was shocked to see that the green label was being put on food products such as Fruit Loops and Cracker Jacks. Everyone know that they may taste good but those products are not very high on the nutritional scale. I believe that it is a great idea to postpone the green label use until they do a further investigation to find out if the foods using this label are truly meeting its believe requirements. It is a falsehood to people when they believe they are buying something that they, or their families, not only like but is healthy for them when in reality it is not. http://www.stoplabelinglies.com/news/Food-Labeling---The-Problems-of-Mandated-Information-for-Biotechnology.html is a website that is devoted to trying to get consumers to be more specific about labeling their food but making sure it is understandable to those of us who do not know everything about food products. While this site may be allowed to be considered one sided in some ways it does a great job of showing some of the problems with food labeling that consumers deal with and how it is easy to understand why they would just choose a food because it has a green, healthy choice, label on it.

I believe that until the producers of these products realize the potential harm or violation they are causing their consumers they will continue to be harassed to make their labels more specific. Of course it is always the choice of the consumer to buy the product but most of the time they buy it without knowing anything about it. It is a right for the consumer to know and maybe by doing this companies will not have to worry about getting in trouble for keeping the realities of their products a secret.

Demonstration Speech

Watching my demonstration speech has been enlightening. After watching myself I have learned my strengths and weaknesses. To start I will talk about some of my strengths. I feel that my introduction was pretty good. I kept my voice loud and clear during the presentation making it easy for my audience to hear. Organization was good because in order to field a ground ball you have to learn how to field it at you and then you move to the side. Also the relevance of my topic was similar to my class since it is mostly an athletic based audience. My conclusion was not great but it was not bad. Maybe not ending it so quickly will help. With my speech I have also noticed a few negatives. The first being the time limits that were set. Our speeches were to be between five to ten minutes and mine was almost two minutes short. More practice next time will allow me to make sure I meet the time requirements. The next is language use. While my words were not inappropriate, eliminating the word "um" and "gonna" may make my audience not lose interest and keep my presentation more appropriate. Finally I feel that eliminating some of my nervous jitters such as extra hand movement and giggling. Eliminating these aspects can help me to give a better presentation.

Overall my presentation was not bad. There is room for improvement and I believe it is the little things such as time limits and more practice that hurt me in this presentation. So next time I know that I will need to practice more in front of myself and an audience to improve my overall effect. As they say, with practice comes perfection.

Which is better for you, whole or low fat milk? When people ask this question they are usually told low fat milk because of the reduction in calories and fat. What most people do not know is that whole milk is better for you up to a certain age or under certain circumstances. According to http://pediatrics.about.com/od/milk/i/05_milk_2.htm, whole milk is best for you from the time you are born until you are two years of age. The reason for this is while you are growing you need the fat provided from whole milk. But the older you get the less you need whole milk, except with certain situations. It is shown that when you get older, and if you are not underweight, whole milk can provide extra calories that can add to weight and fat gain. A few circumstances allow people to continue to drink whole milk, if they are underweight or if they are picky eaters who are at a healthy weight. It is shown that most of the time the extra calories from whole milk will not make a difference. But for people who are older, have a slower metabolism, or consume a lot of excess calories whole milk is not a good choice. According to http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/whole_milk_vs_lowfat.html, most people who consume three eight ounce glasses of milk will reach their limit of saturated fat for a whole day. So while milk, or calcium based products, are essential to our physical health a high consumption can be detrimental as well.

I agree with what the experts say on milk. As a younger child, whole milk is essential to our growth and development, but once we reach a certain age low fat or skim milk is what is healthier and more beneficial. The numbers show how many more calories come from whole milk than low fat milk and that can make a huge difference. Of course, naturally, there are exceptions of people who can go their entire life drinking whole milk. But, I believe that low fat milk is more beneficial to you as you age because you are getting your calcium intake without the extra calories and the older you get the less likely you are to maintain a high metabolism.

A Good Tasting Meal Leads to Unhealthy Habbits

One day I went to the store and decided I would make steak, mashed potatoes and corn. I bought three packaged steaks, a bag of potatoes and a bag of frozen corn. Once I bought it I went home and began to prepare my meal. I went home, got a big pot and filled it with water and put it on the stove to heat. While I waited for the water to boil I began to peel about ten potatoes. Once I peeled them I washed them, cute them up and pout them in the boiling water to cook for about forty minutes. About twenty minutes later I began to warm up the grill. So I took the steaks and put season salt and pepper on them. Once the grill was warm I cleaned it and put the steaks on trying to make sure I did not burn them. While watching the steaks I began to finish the mashed potatoes. I took the pot and strainer and strained the water out of the potatoes. Once I did that I put the potatoes back in the pot and bean to mash the,. Once I felt they were soft enough I added milk, salt, pepper, and a quarter stick of butter. I mixed them together, put the lid on and took the corn from the package and put it in a bowl. Once it was in the bowl I put it in the microwave and cooked it for about four minutes. While the corn was cooking I went and got the steaks off the grill, medium-well, just the way I like it. I put the steaks on the counter and got the corn our, added salt, pepper, butter and stirred it up. On the nights I cook my brother cleans so there was no clean up for me. Each step required work but not too much exertion since corn was pre-made.

Pollan quotes what Levenstien believes about food. He basically says that eating foods just because we think they taste good does not necessarily mean they are what is best for us and we as a society tend to eat what tastes good rather than what is best for us. We are constantly promoting foods that are unhealthy for us, McDonalds, and we are also trying to promote foods that are healthy for us but with one difference, we are trying to promote that they are healthy and taste good. People seem to not want to eat food unless it tastes food so there is a constant battle to try and find food that tastes good and is good for you. Even the Health Forum Exhibition tries to say that healthy eating can taste good too, seeming to show that people will be more accepting to eating healthy food if it tastes better. I think I have to agree, I did not eat my meal necessarily because it was good for you but more because I love the way steak and mashed potatoes taste. I guess I was trying to find something healthy by eating corn but adding butter to it probably did not make it very healthy. So it seems that I am a follower of what Levenstien believed, that we eat for taste instead of health.

More Non Processed Foods then, More Processed Foods Now

Processed foods are more convenient and common then we would like to believe. It is not just the days we give in to our desires and head to McDonalds to get that Big Mac or when we feel like sitting down and having a pre-made dinner that you just throw in the microwave. Believe it or not we eat processed foods even in our more traditional meals. Anything that comes from a can, is frozen or packaged is a processed food. So even having a home cooked meal can be full of processed foods, especially if your meat was packaged from the store. Processed foods are a part of our everyday lives whether we realize it or not.

The last time I had a hamburger it was from McDonalds, now while it may have tasted amazing it was not necessarily the best burger for me. I began to remember the last time I had a really great burger. It was about five years ago and my father had our cow sent to the butcher and we got back all the meat. There was plenty of steak and hamburger to go around. Since it was butchered we had to make the hamburger patties ourselves. The meat, once GRILLED, tasted delicious and to top it off even the bread was homemade. When I compared the homemade hamburger, from five years ago, to the one from McDonalds, there was no comparison. The meat was tender, smelled fresh, and tasted better. The reason for this is because when you ho to McDonalds they just take a frozen, processed, hamburger patty and throw it in the fryer for a few minutes, adding to the unhealthiness of the product. Once I realized this I began to question why I switched from the unprocessed hamburger to the processed product and the only reasons I could come up with is that is less time consuming and more convenient to my schedule. I do not always have the time to go home and round out a hamburger and cook it. Most of the time I only have minutes to get a meal and eat it. So I believe for me it was more a switch of convenience then dislike. The following website shows some processed foods can provide just as many nutrients as unprocessed foods http://www.afic.org/Myths%20&%20Facts%20about%20Processed%20Foods.htm

Comparing the two foods to one another has made me realize how much better non processed food tastes and is for you. Unfortunately it is not as easy for me to just switch back to the non processed foods so I will be sticking with the processed foods for now. I am hoping that when my schedule is less hectic and I have more time to take to make a meal that I can go back to having home cooked meals that are unprocessed or have less processed foods in them.

How Different is the Food We Consume Now then Fifty Years Ago?

In the introduction of Michael Pollan’s Defense Against Food, he talks about how eating habits, and the food we consume on a daily basis are constantly changing from when his mother was a child to even when he was one. Everything we eat from basic meats and vegetables, to butter has a different makeup from fifty years ago. Instead of it being homemade and reduced in the fats and carbohydrates, it is now filled with every bad thing we could imagine. But we as a society are being told that it is ok to consume these products because what they have been filled with is added nutrients our bodies need to make them healthier, when in fact most of the foods we consume can be considered “imitation” foods, hence they are not the natural supplements our bodies need and get from foods such as vegetables and grains. Pollan argues that in American we are the most body and health conscious but yet we have the highest rates of obesity and heart disease. Why is that? The foods that we consume are not “real” foods, they are in some way, shape, or form genetically modified for the most part. Pollan discusses how even the animals we consume for meat are fed different types of grains so that their bodies can be filled with better “nutrients” when in actuality they are being filled with what is helping cause the obesity and heart disease numbers we have in our nation. According to Deborah B. Whitman there can be postives from gentically modified foods but the negative possibilites are risky and in some cases, completly unknown (http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php). I feel that if what we are being told, which is that the healthy food we eat is full of the everyday necessities we need to live long healthy lives, is not the complete truth then that should be shown on the labels of the products. If this is not shown on the products then it is almost as if we are not allowed a choice in what the food we eat contains. Not having a say in what the food we eat contains is part of why we are having the health problems we do, but yet we do nothing about it. I feel that we should fight for the right to be told everything that goes into our food from the time it is grown, raised, or manufactured until it reaches the shelves of our grocery stores.