Journal #14: Summary/Paraphrase Practice

Hirsch, Jerry. (2009, March 23). Student obesity linked to proximity to fast-food outlets. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fastfood23-2009mar23,0,7483715.story

It is evident that a cosiderable number of American students are suffering from obesity and most people attribute this problem to junk food in fast restaurants. Hirsch(2009) informs us of the recent research about the connection between obesity and higher chances to eat at fastfood restaurants near schools. According to Hirsch, this study was conducted by UC Berkeley and Columbia University, and they found that the higher was the number of fastfood restaurants near a school, the more were obese students. As one of their findings, Hirsch(2009) shows the comparison between a rate of obese students in Fullerton and that in La Habra.

In terms of causes, obesity has many factors like gene variants, environments, nutirtion and exercise. However, high school students are much more affected by proximity to fastfood restaurants than other groups beacuse they are not able to get around farther for lunch. Hirsch(2009) also reports that Latino and female studetns are relatively vulnerable to obesity. His article includes the conclusion that high school students are still exposed to bad environment for thier health and cities should consider limit the number of fastfood restaurants near schools. I hope that the government or cities will implement proper regulations to resolve this problem and students will have a variety of choices for their meals.

Anna and Kurt

Journal #13: My First Source

Roberts, S. B., & Pittas, A. G. (2003). The role of glycemic index in type 2 diabetes. Nutrition in Clinical Care, 6(2), 73-78. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from
http://search.ebscohost.com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=22450586&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

The authors of this article are Roberts, Susan B and Pittas, Anastassios G., and they are with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, MA. In the article, they show several advantages of carbohydrates with a low GI, glycemic index. They conclude that consumtion of low-GI carbohydrates cause more satiety than consumption of high-GI carbohydrates and contributes to weight loss and maintenance. Consequently, they state that glycemic index could be efficiently used to treat for type 2 diabetes.

For my research paper, I need specific sources related to type 2 diabetes and nutrition therapy for diabetes. After searching some databases, I found several useful article about my topic. Among them, this article could give me key information about recent diet for type 2 diabetes. Therefore, I decided to use this article as one of my sources for doing the research. I believe that this aritcle could be a reliable guide if I combine the information from it with knowledge from another sources like academic books. During this spring break, I will have time to relax, yet I have to concentrate on my two research papers. Fortunately, I can enjoy the study despite some stress.

Mai, Kurt, and Ryoko

Journal #12: Advice

"Study hard. ", "Listen to others.", "Don't be sensitive too much.", "Find your own way ", "Be slow and steady"... I cannot remember how many times I have ever been given advice. I also cannot recall clearly whether I paid attention to the advice. Nonetheless, I believe many people around me have influenced my life by giving me useful advice and seeking my advice.

"Don't give up your dream. However, if the dream is not good for your soul, change your dream!" One day, one of my friends sought my advice. He was struggling with his study at that time, so he was considering changing his major. When he asked me about my opinion, I could not tell any words immediately because it's not easy for every body to compromise dream with reality. After thinking deeply, I gave that advice to him. At last, he followed with my advice, and he changed his dream. Fortunately, he reached his new dream, which made me very happy.

From "Hi!" to "See you!" I think the best advice for me is people themselves. When I talk with my family, teachers, friends, and strangers, I learn a lot of things from daily conversation. In other words, the interaction with them gives me wise advice every day. Their feeling, talking, acting, and responsing convey important messages to me. Sometimes they give me advice directly, yet the existence of them is meaningful advice. Especially in the U.S., I regard the various people on campus as great advisers.

"I really appreciate your advice." I would like to tell this to my friends. If I do one day, please don't say "What? I didn't give you any advice, Sunny. Are you OK?"

Tonny, Mai, Kurt, Ryoko, Kachina, and Elaine

Journal #11: Research topic

This Friday, I had complicated feelings after I handed in my first research paper in my biology class. On one hand, I was so happy becuase I completed my paprer and could be free from the stress. On the other hand, I regreted not doing my best while preparing the paper and worried that I would get a bad grade. Although it took around a month for me to finish the paper, I did not spend enough time to find sources and information. I also could not visit the writing center in the library for lack of time.

After submitting the paper, I learned about choosing a research topic as the first step to start a research paper in composition class. Wikipedia is very familiar to me beacuse I already have used it to brinstorm and find useful information for my papers and presentations. I know that Wikipedia could be a good adviser or couselor, but I could not depend on everything in it. In addition, sometimes I am coufused by less coherent articles because of the fact that a number of users could revise it every minute. Evidently, there are the pros and cons of using Wikipedia.

Lately, I have been very interested in nutrition, so I looked for some ideas and information related to nutrition in Wikipedia. Nutrition is connected with my major; moreover, I want to deepen my backgroud knowledge about nutrition. When I read several articles about nutrition, some words such as "diabetes" and "sports nutirition" caught my eyes. At last, I narrowed down my topic and listed three research questions. I will think about the questions some more to select an appropriate one between them this weekend.

Hopefully, I will learn many things at this opportunity to write a research paper in composition class. I am eager to obtain basic skills how to prepare and complete a research paper. Furthermore, I want for my reserch paper to not only satisfy my academic hunger about the topic but also give my readers helpful information, advice, and influence.

Kachina, Kurt, Ryoko, and Michael

Journal #10: American Food

I am so busy these days because I have many things to do, homework, presentations, and papers. I am also preparing for mid-terms and other test. Today, I wanted to complete some jobs according to my plan and did not want to waste my time, so I chose fries for my lunch at a fastfood restaurant instead of rice or noodles. It took only a few minutes to order and get the fries, and I took them outside. Then I enjoyed my lunch while I was studying. The warm and crispy fries allowed me to not only have a pleasant meal but also save my time.

When I thought about American food in Korea, I usually pictured hamburgers, fries and soda. Sometimes pizza came into my mind as a typical American food although it is originally from Italy. Those kinds of food remind me of some words 'fast', 'conveinient', and 'greasy'. I also conceived that steak was famous American food while I watched a movie in which people ate juicy steak for dinner at a fancy restaurant. A roasted turkey and stuffing are regarded as specil American food, too. I still have a little bit similar conception; however, I changed my thought about American food after I came to California.

Frankly, I don't now well about American food now; even I am coufused about it. I have had many chances to eat out here, but I have just experienced various types of food such as Mexican food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and Vietamese food. A variety of tastes made me happy, yet they made it difficult for me to tell what is so-called American food. If I happen to eat real American food, I can answer the question. The only one that I am sure is that main American food is basically made of meat such as beef, chicken, or turkey and this is very different from Korean food which is based on rice and several side dishes.

I roughly know that the U.S. does not have many kinds of traditional food in comparison to other countires. That is obviously attributed to relatively short American history and ethnic diversity. Furthermore, globalization is another factor of that situation. On the contrary, a lot of countries in the world have been influenced by American fastfood. Especially, developing countries are accepting American fastfood and taste at a considerable speed. Although cutural interchanges among countries are inevitalbe and natural, I hope that every country will retain thier own traditional cuisine.

Michael, Rachel, Ryoko, Y, Kachina, Mai, Elaine, and Kurt