Grain Brain Review Does Grain Brain actually stand the test of empirical science? After the book’s release, America went gluten free. It used to be that only those with a gluten allergy needed to be on a gluten free diet, but now it is for everyone- or is it? After reading the notes provided, I noticed there were some bad science being used to support this new fad diet. Dr. David Perlmutter talks with James Hamblin during an interview, which makes clear that there are to be holes poked in Perlmutter’s theory. Two of the problems with Perlmutter’s evidence is that he is inferring causation from correlational data and using data from small sample sizes. Throughout the interview Perlmutter gives research citations to back his claim, and says
In “Can You Build a Better Brain”, the author, Sharon Begley discusses how the cognition processes better. He starts by presenting some experiments that prove nutrition did not support the brain smarter. According to the article, he believes that the “cognitive capacity” can be amended by concentration in people’s behavior. He further believes that people’s intelligence do not depend on own skills; however, as long as people peceive new things, their synapses and brain systems will
Escape from the Western Diet describes Pollan’s primary occupation as an author of food and eating books, not a food scientist, however, Pollan bases his entire article off of his opinion of how Americans should eat (Pollan, 420). Pollan 's rules, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” might serve as a fine setup for a fad diet, but these rules don’t necessarily provide a reasonable solution for America’s obesity problem. The rules don’t provide a solution because they are too vague; you can’t solve a nationwide issue using a system that fails to acknowledge any other factors besides what Americans should supposedly eat. Logical fallacies pop up throughout Escape from the Western Diet and stunt its credibility, such examples being the False Dichotomy, Begging the Question, and the Hasty Generalization. In Pollan’s quote, “people eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets” (Pollan, 421), the Hasty Generalization fallacy is apparent, as not every person who eats a Western diet is prone to chronic diseases. The quote, “the healthcare industry...stands to profit more handsomely from new drugs and procedures to treat chronic diseases than it does from a wholesale change in the way people eat” (Pollan, 422) is a prime example of the Begging the Question fallacy, as this
In The article “Brainology” “Carol S Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, differentiates between having a fixed and growth mindset in addition how these mindsets have a deep effect on a student’s desire to learn. Individuals who have a fixed mindset believe they are smart without putting in effort and are afraid of obstacles, lack motivation, and their focus is to appear smart.. In contrast, students with a growth mindset learn by facing obstacles and are motivated to learn. Dwecks argues that students should develop a growth mindset.
In Carol Dweck’s “Brainology” the article explains how our brain is always being altered by our experiences and knowledge during our lifespan. For this Dweck conducted a research in what students believe about their own brain and their thoughts in their intelligence. They were questioned, if intelligence was something fixed or if it could grow and change; and how this affected their motivation, learning, and academic achievements. The response to it came with different points of views, beliefs, or mindset in which created different behavior and learning tendencies. These two mindsets are call fixed and growth mindsets. In a fixed mindset, the individual believes that intelligence is something already obtain and that is it. They worry if they
As far as I could remember I was never really any good at school. I couldn’t concentrate on things for no more than 5 minutes at a time I would either get discouraged or find it too easy and just give up. An author by the name of Carol Dweck wrote an article called “Brainology” in it Dweck describes that there are two types of mindsets fixed and growth. Those who are afraid to fail so they never try anything new are ones with a fixed mindset and the growth mindset are those who are not afraid to fail and find a new challenge an opportunity to learn something new. I guess you can say that I had a bit of a fixed mindset growing up I was always too scared to look stupid that I didn’t want to fail because I didn’t want to disappoint my siblings
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
As a result, she concludes that science has nothing to do with Pollan believes that Americans rely on nutrition science, the study of individual nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and antioxidants, to fix the Western diet because it is the best source that exists. However, scientists have developed conflicting theories that confuse people to conclude as to how the Western diet causes disease, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Pollan disagrees with any type theory and instead blames the food and health industries who take advantage of new theories but do not to fix the problem of the Western diet. In turn, not only does he suggest people spending more time and money on better food choices, but he also proposes many tips to eat better, as well as a rule that will allow Americans climb out of the Western diet: Eat food.
The only problem with Michael Pollan’s outlook on nutritionism is the fact that he is completely against scientific research on the subject because history in this matter has not been reliable. With any good, there is also bad that follows. This relates to scientific research on nutrients which have provided many useful things to society, yet brought some evils such as processed foods which have plagued the American Diet for many years. Amongst all the countries in the world the United States of America has a population in which two-thirds of their people are obese. When it comes to processed foods, people should take this chemically engineered food with a grain of salt, take a more traditional approach and use current knowledge to promote a healthy
His first point to support his claim is that chocolate is fattening. He uses prior knowledge to support this fact by saying that candy bars can be upwards of 200 calories, they contain fat and sugar, and skinny people are vegetarians or athletes. Diego’s second point is that newspapers are not always trustworthy. He uses examples from his experience, the news going back and forth over the health benefits of red wine and the push for gluten-free food unnecessarily. His final point is that the study from the newspaper article was not valid. He uses the proof that testing only healthy people leads to skewed results and the study should have included chocolate eaters who were unhealthy.
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: am I really eating healthy? Recently, I’ve come to the realization of what I’m eating on a daily basis isn’t entirely healthy for me. Michael Pollan, who is author of the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has opened my mind. While reading the first couple of chapters of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve realized that I don’t know much about the food that I am eating. For example, I didn’t know that farmers not only feed their animals, corn but they also feed them antibiotics (Walsh 34). In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan makes a strange statement, “You are what what you eat eats, too” (Pollan 84). Pollan continuously emphasizes this remark through various examples, and he’s right because strangely enough the food
The popularity of a gluten-free diet has risen in recent years due to several factors and misconceptions. A decade ago, gluten allergies were thought to be rare outside of Europe. Now, however, the number of Americans living with an entirely gluten-free lifestyle continues its exponential growth. The statistics of those adopting the diet show a vast combination of people, ranging from those with severe Celiac Disease to those with a desire to lose weight (Sapone). The factors and misconceptions include: the growing number of people with gluten allergies, the idea that gluten is harmful and has no nutritional value, and the idea that a gluten-free diet generates weight loss.
The topic I plan to research is the Paleo Diet vs Standard American Diet. The purpose of this paper is to present how the shift in the standard American diet to an emphasis on grains, sugars, refined and processed foods, as well as dairy and the major government subsidized crops (soy, corn, wheat, dairy, etc) has made our society less healthy and reverting back to Paleo is the alternative.
Repeatedly the news will highlight a story about the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. Although the news and health experts bombard the common citizen with quick and easy ways to eat healthier and exercise more, the source of the issue is kept hidden behind closed doors. Before placing blame on the eating habits, it’s essential to take a closer look at what is being consumed. With rapid change in the food industry, progress must be met with caution because “The way we eat has changed more in the past fifty years than in the past 10,000” (Pollan and Schlosser). It is easy for the common man to provide the blanket statement of eating “better”, yet few actually proceed to do this. The average American has one of the worst diets in the world although opportunity and variety of options are overwhelming. Food industries are deceiving by masking the true process of how their food is produced. Not only does the eye not see how the food was made, but there is also a false sense of variety in the grocery market. The grossly unbalanced American diets and genetically modified organisms both coexist to create a greater problem than previously thought of.
Neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to remap itself in response to experience. The theory was first proposed by Psychologist William James who stated “Organic matter, especially nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity". Simply put, the brain has the ability to change. He used the word plasticity to identify the degree of difficulty involved in the process of change. He defined plasticity as ".the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once" (James, 1890).
As the human body goes through different experiences, the brain grows, develops, and changes according to the environmental situations it has been exposed to. Some of these factors include drugs, stress, hormones, diets, and sensory stimuli. [1] Neuroplasticity can be defined as the ability of the nervous system to respond to natural and abnormal stimuli experienced by the human body. The nervous system then reorganizes the brain’s structure and changes some of its function to theoretically repair itself by forming new neurons. [2] Neuroplasticity can occur during and in response to many different situations that occur throughout life. Some examples of these situations are learning, diseases, and going through therapy after an injury.