...“What If It’s All Been a Big, Fat Lie,” by Gary Taubes In the first paragraph of the essay, Taubes inserts the statement “Any theory that tries to account for obesity in America, has to account for that,” referring to the sharp rise in obesity in the 1980’s and setting up his thesis that carbohydrates, not fats cause obesity. What does this mean? Taubes makes it seem plausible that fat causes obesity and offers reasonable doubt that carbohydrates may be the culprit, instead. William Dietz who runs the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Center of disease control said “As far as exercise and physical activity go, there are no reliable data before the mid-80's.” In 1990’s study by Center of Disease Control shows "exercise activity remains unchanged from 70’s to 80’s.” Why was the data not reliable? People in the 70’s and 80’s were not exposed to fast food and junk food which lead them to eat healthy. We watch television and most of the time we see fast food commercial. Since we see these fast food commercials, we crave for it and we drive ourselves to the drive thru and buys are self meals. However, we tend to eat so much unhealthy food, most us tend not work out which leads us to have health problems. What foods have good or bad cholesterol in them? Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish. Foods high in bad fats include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream, as well as processed...
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...Movie Review Movie Review COMS 4100 Summer2013 Andrea Holmes COMS 4100 Summer2013 Andrea Holmes The movie I chose to analyze is “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett and other bigger than life stars. This movie is about a young Greek woman, Toula Portokalos, who struggles with her identity and does not feel like she fits in. She desires more in life and is confused as to how she will fill the role her parents require of her. Toula’s family migrated from Greece to give her and her siblings, Athena and Nick a better life. Their father, Gus, is sure to remind them of this every chance he gets. He believes the Greek way is the only way and is very intolerant of pushback from his children. Toula’s mother, Maria, is a strong woman who believes in working hard, loving hard, and cooking huge meals at any given moment. Toula fights the fact that she is nothing like her family. She is quirky and finds that she is a square peg in a round hole. The Portokalos family is very big and exceptionally close. Every occasion calls for a party and every party calls for the most food any person could ever imagine. This rambunctious lifestyle has always been a thorn in Toula’s side and no matter how hard she tries, she is unable to find her niche in life. As a Greek woman, she is expected to marry young, have many children and work in the family business, a diner called the Dancing Zorbas. Not only is she to marry a nice man, he is to be a nice, GREEK...
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...Film Techniques of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ * At the beginning of the film, she is very upset because she was different and of different culture to the kids in her school, but then the movie gradually shows that it is actually a positive because that is what Ian liked about her. * In the opening segment, there is the use of voiceover, which is a reflective technique. * What she said when in the first scene, she said she wanted to be blond girls, that later Ian likes her because she is different and not blond. She didn’t want to go to Greek school but that was what Ian liked. During the scene with her in Greek school, there was Greek music playing in the background which emphasises how distinctly Greek she is. * When it shows their house, it pans across the street and there is a medium shot of the house. Their family is mono-culture. Gus has very set beliefs and he is so convinced that all of the human accomplishments have been because of the Greeks, that’s why he wants her to marry a Greek. * The main thing is humour. It conveys the message of this film in an interesting way. * The film introduces the usage of repeated motifs with the Greek language, Windex and the idea that you have to get married, have babies and feed everyone. * We are showed that when she was young, she was embarrassed by her parents. The irony that when she was young, she didn’t want to be Greek but in the later years, this is what was made her special. They brought her...
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...Eunhye Kim May 18, 2016 After Watching “My Big Greek Wedding” The movie “My Big Greek Wedding” is about the wedding between Tula, who is a Greek-American and was wearing out of fashion style and Ian who is local American white man. Even if now she is in her early thirties, her mother and father want to find a husband in hoping of sending her to Greece. At this time, she meets a perfect guy who is American. The major conflict in this movie came out after she met him. In this movie, there are a lot of cultural things that have learned in this class. For example, dominant culture, a minority group, oppression, culture difference, and collectivism. Here are the reasons why I thought of many those concepts. First of all, this movie showed the family living in America with Greek culture, showing dominant culture and a minority group. At the start of this movie, it illustrated how this girl had grown up in America. Since this Greek family immigrated to America, the dominant culture is American culture. So, Tula was illustrated adjusting in American culture was hard, avoiding other American girls. However, her family was different. Even if they are in American, they didn’t remove their own culture, especially their house. In the movie, they lived in normal Chicago town. Whereas other houses are similar with American traditional style house, her family houses are similar with the temple of the Parthenon. Indeed, they always have their meal with Greek food. In this point, even...
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...My Big Fat Greek Wedding Analysis Our culture is a part of what makes us who we are and how we communicate with others. My Big Fat Greek Wedding does an amazing job at illustrating cultural differences and all the dilemmas that occur from them. More importantly, the film shows us that with proper communication people can find a way to get along, no matter how significant the cultural differences may be. Cultural communication barriers are seen many times throughout the film. One example of this could be when Ian’s parents were attending his wedding and mentioned they couldn’t understand anything the Greek orthodox minister was saying and were astonished at the sight of people in the audience spitting on the bride. Another example might be when Ian mentioned to Toula’s Aunt that he was a vegetarian and she insisted that lamb was not considered meat. In the film we see also many instances of misunderstandings that arise due to the differences in culture. For example, when Ian met Toula’s father for the first time, Toula’s father took it as an insult that Ian did not ask permission before attempting to date his daughter. Due to Ian’s ignorance of nurturing culture like Greek culture, Ian unintentionally angered Toula’s father by his actions. Another example is when Ian’s parents meet Toula’s family for the first time. Ian’s parents also unintentionally upset Toula’s father by acting too uptight. Greek culture is classified as a collectivistic culture, so it easy to see...
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...“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a charming romantic comedy that explores cultural differences in a combination of adorable romance and cute humor. The story revolves around Toula, a thirty-year-old Greek American single woman, who lives with her family in the suburb of Chicago. Like many obedient Greek daughters, she works in her family’s business, a restaurant called “Dancing Zorba’s.” Toula belongs to a traditional collective upbringing where all good daughters are expected to marry from their ethnic background. However, she struggles with her father’s limited ambitions for her and she longs for something else in life. She enrolls in college and takes computer classes. With the computer diploma under her belt, a rebellious Toula emerges. She manages her aunt’s travel agency and starts dating Ian Miller, a white high school English teacher. They date secretly for a while, before she has the courage to introduce him to her family. Her father is livid over her dating a non-Greek. The climax of the story occurs when both sides try to adjust to each other. While Ian has to let go of his rigid white individualistic upbringing and learn to accept her collective big family and Greek traditions, Toula has to come to terms with her own identity. My Big Fat Greek Wedding not only exposes the cultural difference between the individualism of Ian and his family and the collectivism of Toula and her family, it also offers a wide array of misconceptions in interpersonal communication. Collectivism...
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...Ethnocentrism is a major reason for divisions amongst members of different ethnicities, races, and religious groups in society. Ethnocentrism is the belief of superiority is one's personal ethnic group, but it can also develop from racial or religious differences. Ethnocentric individuals believe that they are better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their heritage. Clearly, this practice is related to problems of both racism and prejudice. While many people may recognize the problems, they may not realize that ethnocentrism occurs everywhere and everyday at both the local and political levels. Ethnocentrism in History Present Day Politics To solidify the definition of ethnocentrism, looking at the present day politics of the United States is helpful. With instances occuring since its conception, the United States has often thought of itself as more powerful, more economically sound, and just generally "better" than other nations. This has been shown by the country's tendency to dabble in situations occuring in other nations, such as the country's current involvement with affairs in the Middle East. Although the idea of every citizen in the United States belonging to one ethnicity is certainly debatable, since the country has citizens who originally came from all over the world, the feeling of national pride can stand in for a pure ethnicity in this case. European Imperialism Imperialism, the practice of taking over other lands, was heavily...
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...A nice romantic-comedy about a Greek-American girl which has to fight against her family's strict traditions in order to marry a non-Greek boy. I think that, for the Greek people, this movie must be full of strange topics and stereotypes, but for the ones who don't know about the Greek way of life it is pretty amusing. There are all kind of weird characters, like the grandma and the starring actress, Nia Vardalos makes an outstanding job showing us the metamorphosis of a timid girl to a liberated woman. `My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' directed by Joel Zwick, will make you laugh and make you cry, but most importantly, it will make you `feel.' It is one of those rare cinematic experiences that after watching it seems to make the sky seem bluer, a single step lighter and a smile easier to come by. It is clearly evident that the film follows the story of Toula and Ian’s love life, through all the bumps and hurdles they face....
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...Lisa Simmons September 3, 2013 First Draft Professor Scherf People never think about what defines them as a person but when they do it will be clear that either there are a great deal of things or very few things that define them. Something that defines someone even if it’s as simple as how they wear their hair or the clothes that they wear every day, are still characteristics that define a person. I have given this topic a great deal of thought and the most important things that define me are my adoption, heritage, and passion for the game of softball. It is not just one aspect that defines me. It is through my past experiences, and future ones that shape who I am as an individual person. My adoption would have to be what defines me the most because being adopted shows a person that they can’t take their family for granted. Building and keeping the strong relationship with my family is very important to me. These relationships continue to grow every day. Without my family I don’t know where I would be right now. The basically saved my life and that’s what family is for. Another thing that adoption has taught me about is inclusion. My family took me in when I needed it the most and they didn’t treat me like I was an outsider even though they didn’t know anything about me or where I came from. Including someone is something me and my friends are doing could change someone’s life for the better. I was taught that I shouldn’t exclude anyone and if they are shy go over to them...
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...it comes to statistics and he’s not to prove the incapability of the education system. In this article, the author, Joel Best is talks about how society is continuously fed by hyperboles and how they only pay attention to the numbers and not the context. For example, the statement "Brand X is 84% fat-free" sounds good until you realize that this means the food product is 16% fat by weight. Also, "fastest growing" could mean that there used to be one customer and then there were five more, making a five-hundred percent increase. The media runs on the society’s credulity using statistics to bolster their weak arguments. For example, in advertisements saying a product is the fastest growing, but specifically compared to what or when. Isn’t it that numbers are supposed to represent ”objective scientific data” which we can’t deny because it has been studied by experienced experts. But some people like dirty business mans who would lie and would want to make his argument undeniably scientific so they use magic numbers to trick those people in the society who lacks optimal knowledge on basic mathematics into believing to what they’re selling. So they say that statistics doesn’t lie, that may be true, but liars use statistics. But to be honest, who has time to question or verify every single graph or numbers and information that are...
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...Summary There are many issues with this world, but I think the biggest one that affect everyone is hate. People are constantly hating on someone and putting people down because of their lifestyle choices. They are being abused for their religion, the people they like, their gender, and most commonly the way they look/ their weight. People become self-conscious because of this, just because you do not have the ideal body type you can be treated as a lesser person. Someone always has something to say, you are either too fat, too skinny, or look too butch because you have muscles. People need to stop worrying about the ideal body image and start working on being healthy. Introduction In today’s society, people have a big misconception on the...
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...professionals from around the world, and the packed house at Arizona Grand Resort made it clear that Taubes was a headliner. The writer, trained in applied physics at Harvard and aerospace engineering at Stanford, specializes in parsing hot science controversies in articles and books (such as 1993's Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion). He is widely credited with kicking off the national low-carb diet trend with his July 2002 New York Times Magazine article, What If It's All Been a Big, Fat Lie? In 2007, he published Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease, a book that led the New York Times to assert that "Gary Taubes is a brave and bold science journalist" who shows that "much of what is believed about nutrition and health is based on the flimsiest evidence." Taubes' message: political pressure and sloppy science over the last 50 years have skewed research to make it seem that dietary fat and cholesterol are the main causes of obesity and heart disease, but there is, in fact, little or no objective data to support that hypothesis. A more careful look (Taubes researched his book for five years, its 450 pages include 60 pages of footnotes) reveals that the real obesity-epidemic drivers are increased consumption of...
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...case data to be skewed and made to look a certain way. We have been tricked into believing the various fads that have come along. Fads such as the consumption of foods that are fat-free or taking supplements because it is never a bad thing to consume more vitamins. However, our body is a system. It does not work on individual vitamins but a whole bunch of them. When eating fruit, for example, not only do you get multiple vitamins but you get fiber as well. It is this concept of a quick and easy fix that we are constantly being...
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...Mendacity is the trend to lie. In the case of A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, the Pollitt family is living in deception. Living in mendacity can cause competition in between family. The Pollitt are an un-united family. They don’t have communication, the family lacks honesty. Mendacity plays a big role in Brick’s life; on the play he blames falsehood for the cause of him becoming an alcoholic and marrying Maggie under certain circumstances. Big Daddy the wealthiest man in town needs to play the good man, lying that he stills loves Big Mama. There’s no communication neither love in their marriage. “That’s right, a ball a ball! Hell! I slept with Big Mama till, let’s see, five years ago, till I was sixty and she was fifty eight, and never even liked her” (Williams 70). In a trip with Big Mama to Europe where wanted to buy everything, made him feel uncomfortable about her behavior. As well in that trip he encountered a five years old girl, who went to zip his pants for money and which made him feel disgusted. Big Daddy knowing he is sick, he plays around making everybody thinks he is fine. “Who said I was leaving this place to Gooper or anybody? This is my sixty-fifth birthday! I got fifteen years or twenty years left in me! Ill out live you! I’ll bury you an’ have to pay for your coffin” (Williams 94). Big Daddy prefers Brick instead of his other son Gooper. Even though, Big Daddy and his son have no communication. He tries to have a conversation with Brick the day...
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...Guidance In today’s society many children have grown up to become emotionally stable and successful whether they had one or two parents to show them to get through the unsteady difficulties life brings to all human beings. The problem is that none of these children are being raised right nor given good advice that will help them succeed in life. Countless people believe that if a child grows up in an unstructured household, then he or she will not be instilled with the right morals, ethics, and values, which is untrue. But, today, the youth in our society is being inspired by the ignorance we see on social media and it is not heading in the direction of righteousness. In the essay “Advice to Youth” by Mark Twain, he offers some seemly good advice to the young people. The advice he offers is that “all young people are given rules or advice to guide them as they grow up and to keep them on the right path to live a good life”. Mark Twain states “Always obey your parents, when they are present”. Yes, you should obey your parents, but if they are not present, you cannot solely rely on their standing orders to make the best decision. Of course you should be respectful to your superiors, but if those same people are not respectful to you then you cannot be expected to continue the gesture of being respectful towards them. With a statement like that, society presumes children are more likely to have behavior problems because they would not believe in showing respect toward their...
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