Author Archives: Urszula Pawka

Are Flaxseeds Really a Superfood?

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The media often portrays items which are labeled as “superfoods” as something magical that will change your life if consumed. One such superfood that people supposedly believe increases your health benefits is flax seed. Even though flax seeds are advertised as a food that can be beneficial to your health, based on scientific research, they are really just something blown up through advertising and are not really worth the hype or the money.

Due to the fact that it is high in fiber and contains mucilage, a gummy material, they both expand when they come in contact with water, making a person feel full. The consumption of flax seeds has been increased due to its amazing health benefits. However, research shows that its chronic consumption may offer risks considering the effects of lignans in men and in pregnant women, as well as the existence of other phytochemicals and toxic factors with adverse health effects in the seed. Flax seed marketers claim that flax seeds have so many health benefits, but what they do not mention is that the body’s conversion of the omega-3 fatty acids found in flax seed oil into the more complex EPA and DHA of fish oil is very inefficient. The dose of flax seed oil found in a single pill failed to raise blood levels of omega-3s other than ALA. The National Library of Medicine claims that flaxseed oil does not significantly reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Furthermore, even though there is evidence for other possible benefits, they are claimed to be insufficient to draw any kinds of conclusions (Tufts University, 2012). There are also concerns with the commercialization of genetically engineered (GE) flax which includes potential movement of transgenes by pollen and seed, and subsequent introgression with weedy and wild relatives, impact on non-target organisms, and changes in biodiversity (Jhala, Weselake, & Hall 2009).

Flax seed contains 264-354 mg of cyanogenic compounds per 100 g of seeds. Cyanogenic compounds are toxic to the human organism and large amounts may be lethal to adult individuals. Although these items found in flax seeds are toxic, if cooked in microwaves or boiled, the toxins are released through this process (Cardoso Carraro, Dantas, Espeschit, Martino, Ribeiro, 2012). Moreover, flax seeds may cause obstruction of the esophagus, intestines or bowel if taken in large doses or without enough liquid.  Consuming large amounts of flax seeds may also have estrogen-like effects, and women taking flax seed daily may experience changes in menstruation (Cardoso Carraro, Dantas, Espeschit, Martino, Ribeiro, 2012).

Flax seeds provide many health benefits and therefore are labeled as a superfood, but consumers are also encouraged to be cautious when consuming large amounts because some studies claim they can be harmful to the body. Flax seeds are an excellent source of fiber and are advertised as something that can be beneficial to curing certain types of diseases. The word superfood has become a popular term in our society today, but there is no technical definition of the word and no scientific evidence for the health effects of these foods is really present. To conclude, flax seeds are really just something blown up through advertising and they are not really worth the hype. If someone eats a diet based on a variety of nutritious foods, including fruits and vegetables, then this too will have the same effect as “superfoods” claim to have.

 

References:

Cardoso Carraro, J. C., Dantas, M. S., Espeschit, A. R., Martino, H. D., & Ribeiro, S. R. (2012). Flaxseed and human health: reviewing benefits and adverse effects. Food Reviews International, 28(2), 203-230. doi:10.1080/87559129.2011.595025

Jhala, A. J., Weselake, R. J., & Hall, L. M. (2009). Genetically engineered flax: potential benefits, risks, regulations, and mitigation of transgene movement. Crop Science, 49(6), 1943-1954

Khalesi, S., Irwin, C., & Schubert, M. (2015). Flaxseed consumption may reduce blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials 1-3. The Journal of Nutrition, 145(4), 758-765E.

Ryszard M. Kozłowski, Agnieszka Kręgielczak, Dana G. Radu, Andreea I. Pag & Cecilia Sîrghie (2014) Flax seeds–source of biomedical and food products, molecular crystals and liquid crystals, 603:1, 122-135, DOI: 10.1080/15421406.2014.968076

 

Eating at home vs. Eating at College

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Over thanksgiving break I noticed how different my eating habits were away at school compared to the way I eat at home. This immediately triggered my mind back to the beginning of the semester of psychology class where we talked about food cues. The main reason, I believe, that I constantly eat when I am away at college opposed to at home, is because I have a pre-purchased meal plan. I feel that I have to use my meal swipe because I am paying for it. Furthermore, our meal swipes at Wagner have a specific time which they must be used. For example, the lunch swipe runs from 11:01am-4:29pm. Even if I am not hungry I have to eat during this time period because that is when the swipe runs. At home I am able to eat whenever I want, therefore I do not have to eat even when I am not hungry.

Oxfam Hunger Banquet

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Last night, our entire Learning Community participated in an event called the “Oxfam Hunger Banquet. Honestly, going into this event I had no idea what it would be about. When I arrived, everyone received different colored cards and was told to sit at a specific table. I was a 40 year old middle class women, therefore I got to sit at the middle class table. As I looked around the room I noticed there was 2 tables set up with salads and soda, my table was not set but we were still seated at the table, and there was a large group of students sitting in a circle on the floor. When the banquet began the speakers shared stories of different types of people to show examples of the way people live. In my experience, they asked two people from the middle class table to stand up, and so I volunteered (thinking I might be bumped up to the higher class.) Well, I was wrong. After reading a scenario, I soon learned that I had lost my job and was bumped down to the lower class. So, I made my way to the floor along with the rest of the students sitting there. Later in the evening, we were finally allowed to eat. The higher class was allowed to eat their delicious salads and sip on sodas, the middle class was able to get up and walk over to the buffet and have some pasta with butter, bread, and water, and finally the lower class was only allowed to eat rice and beans from a cup.

This event was a huge eye-opener for me and got me to think a lot about everything I had. It also made me realize that in one moment and with one event your entire life can change. I finally was able to understand that I am so fortunate to have what I have because some people cannot even put a meal on their table and so they walk around hungry. Even though this event only consisted of a small group of Wagner students, I believe more people should attend an event like this because it is a real life example of how people live in the world today.

McDonald’s Exchanging $1 Menu for 2 for $2

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As I was doing research on the New York Times website for our final history paper, I came across an article written by the Associated Press titled “McDonald’s Exchanging $1 Menu for 2 for $2.” This immediately set off a light bulb in my head as I connected the content of this article to our class discussions in psychology about obesity. The article is a very short one not revealing much information but does describe that McDonald’s is launching a new sale replacing the Dollar Menu. Because the Dollar Menu has been around for about a decade, senior vice president for marketing in the United States Deborah Wahl believes the customers should have more of a flexibility of choice when deciding what food items to order. These new food items will include: McDouble, McChicken, small fries and mozzarella sticks.

In the BBC documentary watched in Psychology class, “The Men Who Made Us Fat,” this issue of increasing portion sizes such as the Big Gulp drink and supersize portions was a huge issue discussed. People will usually go for the bigger portion so they don’t have to get up a second time to get up for two. Furthermore, the price would be lower instead of buying two of the same item so people would just upgrade the size of their meal. With McDonald’s beginning to create this 2 for $2 menu they are forcing their customers who would normally just eat one food item off the dollar menu to now purchase two food items, making them consume more calories then originally intended.

Exploring my Food Voice

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This past weekend, together with my sister and some friends from home, we traveled to Elmwood Park, NJ to a restaurant called Royal Warsaw. This restaurant offers a typical polish cuisine along with some typical American food choices. I thought I would write about this since in class we always refer back to our food voice. For my essay on food voices at the beginning of the semester I wrote about pierogies and what they mean to me and how they tell my story. Sure enough this is one of my favorite foods and so at Royal Warsaw I decided to order them as my main entree. As an appetizer I ordered traditional Polish soup called “zurek.” This was served inside a bread bowl which made the dish extra appetizing. Although this food is not nearly as good as the homemade polish foods my family makes, it brought back many memories of how we make pierogies and other dishes as a family back home. I even brought back some extra pierogies for my roommate to try a traditional dish from my culture. Having opportunities like dining at this polish restaurant allow me to explore my food voice further.

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Importance of Recipe Reading

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Yesterday, I decided to go visit my mentee Saniah at Port Richmond High School. On our first visit to the high school, Mr. Ryan said Monday’s were the “boring” days since they only reviewed the recipes and this had to be done before any cooking actually began. Remembering this I was very skeptical about going on a Monday thinking it would be boring. Well I was wrong- I actually learned so many new things that I was able to bring back and use next time I cooked.

This week’s food was knish. Mr. Ryan took the recipe from allrecipies.com and this particular recipe was titled Sarah’s Knish Recipe. I found this to be very interesting because the Thursday before going to PRHS, my group did a presentation on the Rogarshevsky family who made knish as a regular dish in their family when they immigrated here from Lithuania. One very important thing I learned from this visit to Port Richmond High School was that you must read the recipe thoroughly before beginning to make the food. Mr. Ryan explained to the class that there are both two different cooking oils and sugars used in this recipe and that if not read correctly the students may use the wrong one and mess up the recipe. I am really looking forward to returning to Port Richmond High School on Friday to see how this dish turned out!

Reunification of Families on Staten Island

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This past Thursday, October 1st, Wagner College held a seminar titled “Transnational Families: Staten Island and San Jeronimo de Puebla.” This was a touching event in which families shared their emotionally moving stories of being reunited with each other after ten, fifteen, or even twenty years of being apart. This project allows the family members of the families left in Mexico to come to America for a week or more to be reunited with the family for a short period of time. The family members coming from Mexico had to learn a dance in order to come to the United States and the family members here in America worked hard for a year, attending meetings, in order to make the reunification possible.

The first speaker spoke about how the world now is not the way it should be and that nothing can be changed by just building giant walls between two countries. He emphasized that young people are the ones that must make the change in the world. Following his beautiful words, another family was able to tell their story of being reunited. A mom and daughter gave a beautiful statement on what it was like to be away from each other for such a long time and how great it felt to be reunited. When the mom came to America she left her three daughters behind (ages 4, 5, and 8) in Mexico and tried to do everything to be able to make them happy even though she was so far away. She talked about how difficult it was to come to somewhere where she did not know the language and did not know anyone here. Following her words, her daughter spoke about how wonderful it was to see her mom after so many years. Her mom left when she was four years old and now she is nineteen. She continued to say how she was raised by her grandmother and the only relationship she had was through photos and telephone calls. Thanks to her mom coming here she was able to get an education and was able to pay for her college. This would not have been possible if her mom wasn’t working in the United States and although it is very difficult there are some positive outcomes of it.

The rest of these immigrant’s stories are very similar. They all touched my heart in a special way because I realized how hard it must be for these people to be able to stay in the United States without having their families around.

The families that were reunited through the "Nani Migrante" project.

The families that were reunited through the “Nani Migrante” project.

Personally this event touched my heart because at the age of 19, my mom left her entire family in Poland in order to come to America to work and create a life here for herself. After a long twelve years she was finally able to be reunited with her family. The stories my sisters and I have heard from her are almost identical to those told by these Mexican families on Thursday evening. They all came here not knowing the language, worked hard in order to support their families back home but most importantly they left the people they loved the most back in their home countries. This inspires me because I know how much dedication and work my mom put in into being who she is today. She came with nothing many years back and now has created something of herself. This was only possible through the endless hard work she put in and the mindset she had of achieving her dreams. I think we can all learn from immigrants today because most of them come not knowing anyone in the United States and not knowing the language but through believing in themselves their dreams become a reality in this beautiful country.

Unintentional Eating and Food Cues

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Food cues can either be a good thing or a dangerous thing in reference to our eating habits, but as long as we are able to identify the negative cues, it is easier for us to substitute it with positive cues. Some cues include seeing/smelling food, specific food labels, time of day, seeing a person we usually eat meals with, and being in places related to food. After discussing in class what a food cue was, I realized how these cues influence my daily life, without even thinking about it.

First of all, a very common food cue for not only myself I’m sure, is the time of day you eat. On Mondays and Wednesdays right after my 11:10 class and Tuesdays and Thursdays after my 12:50 class  it is a must to stop in the cafeteria for lunch. On some days I am not even hungry but because of this food cue, my body tells me the second class is over it is time for lunch. It is amazing how our bodies are programmed to signal that it is time to eat. Moreover, whenever I see the usual people I eat meals with here in college, my body alerts me to make my way over to the cafeteria. Lastly, a very common food cue for me is that of being in places related to food. Sometimes a friend will ask me to sit with them in Hawks Nest just so they don’t have to be alone and even though I am not hungry I start to munch on some of their food and even proceed to buy my own meal.

These are all common food cues that each one of us experience every day. Due to the fact that we are now in college and we do not have our parents putting dinner on the table for us and told to eat at a certain time, we often eat because we are bored and in times when we are not even hungry. All of these food cues are caused by Pavlovian Association because we become conditioned to these food cues.