Post 1: Response to In Defense of Food

In the beginning of Michale Pollan's In Defense of Food, he discusses the fact that food has been switching to "fake" or substitutes of normal food. This food, even though many advertise their food as containing low amounts of cholesterol or saturated fat, contains many chemicals, and has a high cost for the human body. He also discusses the topic of "nutritionism" which causes people to look at only the nutrients provided by the food, causing artificial foods to seem healthier than their organic counterparts.

First of all, I agree with the idea of eating natural food as opposed to processed, artificial foods. This, however, is not as easy as it seems, as it may difficult and expensive to obtain organic foods if you don't know where to look, but the benefits definitely outweigh the monetary cost. This article from MSNBC warning of the high sodium content in processed foods is just one of the hundreds of thousands of articles in opposition to these foods.

The next point I agree with is his argument regarding the flood of artificial food is caused by big companies trying to make a profit. They pump all of those chemicals into the food for flavoring, as they know good flavor will sell the product, and nutrients, which also cause it to sell thanks to nutritionism. This seems reminiscent of the big tobacco companies selling a product while trying to downplay its negative effects.

My First Blog

Hello, my name is Alex Seabloom, and I am a freshman here at UW Madison. This is my first ever blog and blog post, so I'll try to find something that at least I think is interesting deal with the lift sciences.

This article here talks about a man who claimed to regrow part of his finger after using some type of medicine in powder form derived from the bladder of a pig. This article also talks about growing organs, one of which was successfully transplanted into a patient (although only a bladder). It all seems very promising, but I'm still a little skeptical on the magic pig bladder powder.