Orthorexia

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Cheryl Manole

Last week in Dr. Nolan’s class we talked about eating disorders. He mentioned something called Orthorexia. Immediately I remembered it from when I saw an article about it from CNN. Orthorexia nervosa is basically an eating disorder in which a person eats too healthy and in turn causes malnutrition.

The CNN article I found follows Ashley Bailey who fell victim to Orthorexia nervosa. At first she just decided to cut dairy from her life because she was having irritability and bloating problems. When that solved the issue she was intrigued to go further. Within a year she cut out grains, gluten, meat, starchy vegetables and most fruits. What first started off as a quest to stop her slight discomforts turned into an obsession.

Mental health experts are now increasingly worried about people who take healthy eating to an extreme. They believe that Orthorexia nervosa is a new eating disorder that coincides with today’s obsession of eating natural, “raw” food. What can first be a new diet can turn into a lifestyle where a person will avoid going out with friends just to avoid other food.

The end message of the article is that too much “good” food can in fact be bad for you.

The CNN Article

Calorie Counting vs. Intuitive Eating

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Kathryn Scarfo

After reading an article titled “The Limits of ‘intuitive’ eating” by Gretchen Reynolds in the New York Times, I was shocked at the results of her study. In the study, Gretchen took 16 college males and females that were overweight and after counseling and education on healthier food options and calories, split the group into two groups where one group was told to calorie count, limiting to about 1200-1800 calories per day, depending on their body weight and the other group to use their body as guide to when and what to eat. Depending on the body is known as intuitive eating, or body mindfulness. This is the idea that your body knows what it needs and wants and to eat what you like depending on signs from your body such as hunger and fullness.

According to Reynold’s study, the group that used calorie counting overall lost more weight than the group who used intuitive eating. This is because after a few weeks the group who depended on their body began to not keep on track and actually gain a net weight of two pounds. As tedious as it is, calorie counting is actually a better way to monitor and sustain a healthy weight. In the case of trying to lost weight, body mindfulness can work for some but overall calorie counting is more efficient.

We discussed this idea of body mindfulness in Psychology class so when I came across this article I was intrigued to learn more about it through an actual study. Many people today are very conscious on calories, as it is on almost all menus next to all food selections and on the label of all packaged foods. Apps on phones are now used to help count exactly how many calories are eaten. I think these are very useful and this study proves that, while it is difficult to keep up with religiously, it is beneficial and necessary in efforts of weight loss and keeping a healthy weight.

Genetically Modified Salmon

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Ipek Miminoska

This morning, I had woken up earlier than usual and turned on the television to watch one of those morning talk shows. The talk show I was viewing mentioned that the FDA had approved genetically modified salmon. I decided to look into it further and visited the FDA site online. It was stated that “FDA has approved a new animal drug application concerning AquAdvantage Salmon, a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon.” I also viewed an article in The New York Times to find out more information about it. The article can be viewed here. Andrew Pollack stated that “The officials said the fish would not have to be labeled as being genetically engineered, a policy consistent with its stance on foods made from genetically engineered crops.” Basically, this means that there would be no way of knowing whether you are buying salmon that has grown normally or salmon that has been modified to grow 2x as fast.

I disagree with this whole situation. In my opinion, fish and meat should not be modified. I feel that letting it grow on its own would be much healthier to consume rather than having it grow quicker by altering DNA. There isn’t a good enough excuse for altering DNA and I personally do not feel comfortable eating salmon that is altered in order for it to grow faster. However, a way to make this situation more efficient would be to label whether the item is considered to be a GMO or if it’s GMO-free. Some people could agree with me and choose not to eat genetically modified salmon. Why should I eat a certain food like salmon without knowing whether it was altered or not?

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

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Urszula Pawka

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.

Port Richmond Mentoring

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Allison Krauza

For the past four Mondays, I have spent my mornings visiting my mentee at Port Richmond High School. I’ll admit, the first time I went I was nervous about meeting with him. What would I say? What would we talk about? We were still very unfamiliar with each other. The only time that we met prior was when we visited Port Richmond High School to introduce the program as a class. For the first meeting with my mentee, I went with Laruen, Shannon, and Kim. I’m sure that this helped make the visitation more relaxed for the mentees, and even for us as well. We decided to sit down for the period as a group and ask each other questions to get to know one another. We were able to learn so much about each other in a less awkward setting. We listened as the mentees spoke about themselves and speculated about what their futures may hold. Each mentee told us a little about themselves, their family, their favorite foods, what they like to cook (they all had a difficult time answering those two), and some other random fun facts that helped us break the ice.

I also discovered a lot about my mentee’s current cooking class. Every Monday, the students receive a new recipe for what they will be tackling that week. In class, they review the recipe in depth and make sure they are familiar with all of the ingredients that are necessary to make the dish. Knowing the ingredients and measurement amounts is very important to a successful dish. For example, one of the recipes my mentee was given called for two eggs, but it did not specify what size. I never realized that the size of the egg matters. My mentee explained that a larger or smaller egg than what was called for by a recipe will disrupt the consistency of the dish. This is now something that I’ll look for and keep in mind whenever I cook or bake.

On Tuesdays, the students begin to gather and prep the ingredients that will be used in the recipe. Actual cooking is reserved for Wednesdays and Thursdays. Every Friday, the students plate and eat the meal that they prepared. This process repeats each week with a new recipe. Although the dishes are typically chosen at random, the class prepared something special during the Mets World Series week. Mini knishes were the fare of choice, since this finger food reflected a menu item served in a baseball stadium.

While I was hesitant at first, I have come to enjoy spending my Monday mornings at Port Richmond High School. My mentee is a lot of fun, and I look forward to hearing about his cooking experiences. It has been a pleasure getting to know him as I try to help him focus on his plans for the future.

The Devastating Paris Attacks

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Olivia Silvestri

During our History class with Dr. Smith we spoke about the Paris attacks and the impact it would have on us. Many of my classmates did say that these attacks on Paris did effect their decisions on going on trains or into Manhattan. This was an obvious anwser to me because we are all young adults who are witnessing horrible acts from people who are threatening NYC.These terrorist are threatening our home and many are worried they are going to hit NYC next.

I am definatly concered about ISIS and their next attack but it is not going to stop me from living my life and going to NYC. I believe that ISIS wants people to live in fear because its a sign that they are succeeding. I do have to say my parents are nervous about me going to the city and going on the train but they also realize that you cannot be scared and stop your life because the fear of being attacked. NYC is beloved by many and should not stop being enjoyed by all who come.

I think New Yorkers should be aware of their surroundings and precautious. In all reality we don’t know if NYC is going to be attacked but I belived that everyone should just becareful and enjoy what NYC has to offer.

Dumpster Diving in NYC ?

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Olivia Silvestri

When I hear the word Dumpster I automatically think of a huge container that is filled with piles of grarbage spanning from food/drinks, to furniture and maybe even clothes. During one of our RFT-LC 13 class meetings my class and I watched a film on people called Dumpster divivers. At first I was a bit grossed out thinking that people who dont really need to be rumaging through the trash was, in order to attain perfectly fine items in the dumpster. But the more I watched the video I was actually very intreged and suprised how much good food was being thrown out for no reason.

In the video when the guy was outside on the streets and there were huge bags filled with freshly made bread it made me think of how wasteful many people are. When I saw that bag filled with loafs of bread I thought to myself, why wouldn’t these places donate their extra food to a homeless shelter or soup kitcken? I think that is these loafs of bread that are going in the garbage can be used to benefit many starving Americans.

I believe that these resturants and supermarkets should donated their extra food to charities that could use these products to support people in need. I feel instead of filing up garbage bags of food to be discarded owners of these places should drop of the excess food to places who would put these foods to good use.

The Virtual Attack on Paris

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Peyton Beck

In history class, we had a very good discussion over the attacks on Paris, done by the seemingly unstoppable terrorist group: ISIS. The discussion not only focused on the actual events of the attack, but it also raised questions of why this attack happened, and what it might mean for us in the future. The key term involved in these questions is: “us”. Who is “us”? Who are the ones being affected by the attacks, and for what reason? I had never questioned the ingenious strategies of this radical assembly, but I’m assuming ISIS never went in without a plan nor an agenda.

It turns out, from what we concluded in our history discussion, that ISIS is actually targeting… us. And by us, I mean young western adults. Many 20-30 year old Europeans and Americans can fit into this category, spending money to splurge in their first-world interests and activities. ISIS is not only targeting our generation for what we idealize in as a culture, but they are also trying to strengthen their numbers with an influx of Western followers. They are striking fear into the ones that do not follow their group, while encouraging the ones who might be on the fence or looking for a “better life” in joining their “war efforts” against the “Christian crusaders”. However, the scary thing is that they are actually becoming successful. The attacks on Paris ended up being allocated at venues and districts where many young western Parisians would be spending their money in order to have a fun and memorable weekend, such as a concert or a soccer game. Especially with Syria’s messy past with France in regards to the bombings, these attacks caused “an act of war”, which is ironically what ISIS wanted. It gives them an actual reason to intensify their numbers and create a bigger following. The crazy thing is that people are actually following!

People from western Europe and even the United States are picking up their young families and moving to the lands of Iraq and Syria in order to start this “better life” that they are promised as a result of their dedication to ISIS. But how are they being convinced be people who are either undercover in their own community or half way across the world? The answer is social media and technology. In our discussion, an interesting point was made that ISIS is one of the first terrorist groups to totally take over technology and social media in order to either distill fear in other cultures across the globe or create a following outside of its own borders. The assembly’s videos and messages through youtube and the news are not going unnoticed, and it makes us, whether we want to or not, keep their presence in the back of our minds.

As a conclusion of our discussion, we contemplated if ISIS is being successful in controlling us and our actions. At the time of the discussion, many disagreed with their successful control because many of my classmates’ disregarded the safety precautions recommended, especially in a place like New York City. However, that took a turn this weekend, as many threats were directed towards New York City through… you guessed it… social media. I, a person that also disregarded the safety precautions, had plans to go out for my friend’s birthday, but those were even shot down as soon as our friends heard about the potential danger. It’s sad to say this is a world we live in today, and a radical group of dangerous political aspirers is succeeding in the one thing they strive for: changing our behavior through distilled fear, which could eventually lead to an even scarier possibility: conformity.

Dumpster Diving and Freegans

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Kathleen Leavey

The article, “Not Buying It” in the New York Times, explains the concept of dumpster diving with a whole new perspective. People who dumpster dive, also known as freegans, may be smarter than we think. Freegans are people “living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism.” Coming from a family where I was taught not to waste food, I could not believe the amount of food freegans are able to scavenge off of the streets and in garbage cans. At first, it was surprising to me that the freegan culture of eating out of garbage cans is so prominent; yet, after further research, freegan’s actions are starting to seem a little more normal to me and actually maybe even practical.

The New York Times Article follows a group of NYU students who are trying out dumpster diving after the semester is over, and students have moved out. When I was reading this I was shocked at the amount of goods students were able to find in the trash and I was even more shocked that students even threw these items away in the first place! These dumpster divers found items such as a Sharp television, full cases of laundry detergent, a working desk lamp, and much more. This actually opens my eyes to the amount of perfectly good items this generation considers as waste. This wastefulness is the reason dumpster divers are so successful. After finding out how much can actually be scavenged out of the trash, I actually do not blame people for turning this into a culture. Why not take it if its legal, free, and in good to decent condition?

This article also mentions a more modern take on dumpster diving. There are actually websites available where people post their items online to give away and freegans can log on to claim these items for free. The website is freecycle.org. It is as simple as typing in your area code, and a list of free items pop up that are fair game to claim. I even found a 55 gallon fish tank, a sweater, and microwaves being given away just in my town, how crazy!

Dumpster Diving and Food Waste in Popular TV Shows

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Lauren Fay

Recently, we’ve been discussing food wasting and dumpster diving in class. During these discussions, I kept thinking about episodes that I have seen of some of my favorite shows that incorporate either food waste or dumpster diving. There are shows about these topics and documentaries about these very real problems, but I wanted to talk about these problems as seen in popular sitcoms that present the problem in a humorous way. Even though this issue isn’t a laughing matter, I think that it’s great to have television shows that people actually watch showing this very real problem.

In The Office, Steve Carrell plays an incredibly uneducated boss that lives in his own little world. In one episode he gets lost in Scranton, PA (even though that’s where he lives and works) and also doesn’t have any money or a cell phone on him. Starting to get hungry, Michael looks for a way to get food. He stops at a hot dog stand and asks the worker if he can have a hot dog even though he can’t pay. Michael tells the man he will leave his watch with him and will come back later to pay. The man says no and Michael says “what do you do with the hot dogs you don’t sell at the end of the day.” “Throw them out,” the man replies. To add humor to the situation Michael responds with “well then why don’t you throw one out into my mouth.” Of course the man does not go for this and turns Michael away leaving him hungry. Although this is a funny and fake situation, it calls our attention to the problem of food waste. This stand was throwing away perfectly good food at the end of the day instead of giving it to the poor and hungry. Although this a fake stand, I’m positive there are stands in the real world that do the very same thing.

The next show is Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld (as Jerry), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as Elaine), Jason Alexander (as George) and Michael Richards (as Kramer). In one episode, Elaine gets the idea for a muffin shop that only sells the tops of muffins because the tops are the only parts that people really want to eat. Her idea is stolen and the muffin shop is opened and becomes a hit. After yelling at the man who stole her idea, he lets her become a partner in the business and she tells him he’s making the muffins wrong. He was just making the tops, but Elaine tells him he needs to make the whole muffin and cut the stumps off and throw them away. Kramer is asked to take the bags of perfectly good muffins stumps to a garbage dump. He unsuccessfully tries to throw the muffins stumps away at two different dumps. He gets turned away because what he was throwing away wasn’t garbage, but food. The muffin stumps end up with one of Jerry’s neighbors who eats them all. Again, in this fake situation we see food almost being wasted and thrown away. Of course the stumps do eventually get eaten, but not by someone in need. That food could make a difference if distributed to the right people.

One short example of dumpster diving is in Parks and Recreation where Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) dumpster dives in order to avoid going back to his job in London. He hides in the dumpster and his wife April (played by Aubrey Plaza) finds him. After encouraging him to go back to work, Andy dumpster dives once more to find his wallet. He also finds noodles and goes to eat them, but April tells him not too.

The last example has to do more with dumpster diving then it does food waste, but shows the life of a freegan, a group of people we learned about in class. In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, two of the main characters, Charlie (played by Charlie Day) and Frank (played by Danny DeVito) embrace a life of dumpster diving. In fact they furnish their entire apartment using the dumpster. They find things they need and things they most certainly do not in the dumpster and view it all as treasure. Their apartment becomes insanely cluttered and disgusting and makes for a very funny situation. The episode shows that there are real people that do this and that valuable things can be found in a dumpster, but in this situation not everything you find is valuable. You know what they say, one man’s trash is another mans treasure.

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