Peer Response March 26

Darius's blog, which covered the prepare a meal topic, involves the processes of making traditional fried chicken. He then goes on to describe how to prepare the chicken by adding seasonings, rinsing it off, and coating it in the flour-batter. Then the chicken is placed into hot oil where is is left to cook for about twenty minutes. Finally add some mashed potatoes and the meal is finished. The final part of the process involves the clean up. The final part of his post covers the reading for In Defense of Food which he says that he agrees Americans eat too much processed food because we enjoy eating too much and our lives are fasted paced so we like fast food, and his article he linked to also agrees with his and Pollan's thoughts about this topic.

To respond to his post, I completely agree that Americans eat too much unhealthy food due to lack of time and that we like to eat too much. I also agree with his comment about people needing too cook or eat meals that have been made with healthy, natural ingredients to reach a healthier lifestyle. I do think, however, that he should have expanded upon his arguments and provided a little more information as to why he believes what he stated.

Post 3: "Real" Food vs. "Fake" Food

Today I will be examining the differences between “real” food and “fake” food. Today nearly all of the food we eat is “fake” or processed instead of “real” or organic. To demonstrate the differences I will compare one type of food commonly eaten in America: the hamburger.

When I was growing up in northern Wisconsin my family would gets it ground beef for hamburgers from the local meat shop. This shop would get its beef from local cows which were raised naturally, so the meat we received was “real”. Today, however, I rarely have organic hamburgers, and instead get the processed version from McDonald's or Burger King.

To be completely honest, I think the processed hamburgers taste and smell better, but there are other notable differences. The “fake” version definitely looks worse when compared to its “real” version. Unlike many processed food companies now, however, these fast food restaurants don't try to make you buy their product of organic products because it is fortified with vitamins and nutrients. The nutrition facts between the two types of meat seem to be the same, but the cholesterol seems to be a little lower in the processed version.

I switched to this fake version of hamburgers a few years ago when I first started to drive. This is because it was cheap and easy to get. I didn't mind the health differences and I thought the fast food version tasted very good. I think that I will probably end up returning to the normal version in the future. When I have my own house and a job I will be able to afford to buy the healthier version, and a place to prepare it.

The article “Are You Filling Up On Real Food or Fake Food?” discusses what “fake” food really is and its possible health implications. I completely agree with this article's argument against processed food and why organic food should be consumed instead.

Today I will be self-evaluating my demonstration speech. To begin, I'll start with my performance involving informational content. I believe my explanation its relevance was expressed well as I stated a valid reason as to why this skill could be useful, and I restated the relevance at the end of the speech as well. I provided an adequate explanation of the topic, but I believe I could have added some more background information, as it is a topic that not many people know much about. I appeared to be well organized during my speech, but my breakdown of steps needed some work. I was very nervous ( I have a very difficult time speaking in public), and I forgot to add the step of removing the cables from the back of the computer and showing how to replace the CPU on the computer.

Moving on, I will discuss my physical presentation. My energy and enthusiasm seemed to be too low, again most likely due to my fear of public speaking. My volume and visibility seemed to be good, but it's difficult to tell from the video. Right before the speech I made a mental note to work on eye contact, so it was good for this speech. Finally, my body language could have used a little more work, but it was adequate, and my physical demonstration of my topic was good.

My visual aid seemed to be very effective as it was what my speech was based around, and I hope it provided interest. I should have held it at an angle because it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on from a seated position.

Now for the general questions. I would definitely choose this topic again. I've always been interested in computers and it's a very fun topic for me. To change my speech, I would add more content/explanations and, as I already stated, I would make my visual aid a little easier to see. The one thing that I would add to my speech if I could give it again is more content.