Sunday, October 16, 2011
Blog Three: The End Of Overeating
"The End Of Overeating" by David A. Kessler is a book based solely on how America's diet consumes us not only on an emotional level but a mental one as well. Kessler explains the reasons why so many Americans are morbidly obese; and how it's not just due to lack of will-power/laziness - but actually much attributed to what exactly is in our food that propels us to binge. During one particular passage, Kessler describes the reward system as something that is "essential to survival, encouraging us to seek out pleasurable things like sex and food. Powerful biological forces are at play that make us want something enough to pursue it and then make us feel momentarily better once we obtain it." (Kessler, chapter two, page ten) Basically, the reward system is a region of our brain that seeks out the satisfying things (food). Once our reward systems are gratified, our brains become stimulated and crave more food, even if they are not hungry. An experiment was studied on animals to prove the power of the reward system. Food was placed on the far end of the room over an electrified floor. The strength of the reward system shows to be extremely strong when the animals still continue to try and reach the food even though they're not physically hungry. The overall discovery of this passage is that temptation for food (primarily junk food and sweets) is not just built upon actual hunger, but lies within our mind as well.
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ReplyDeleteI really like how you introduced the text and stated what it is about(very important). To my understanding though, it seems like your writing a review about the book. You do not have a specific "topic sentence", so as a reader I am finding it hard to understand what your writing about. I said this because after you introduced what the text was about, you then specifically used "the reward system" as your main talking point. I would suggest that should have been your topic sentence instead.
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph structure needs to be revise. Everything seems too clustered. You should consider after your topic sentence, and introduction of the text you will be using, make a 'new' and separate paragraph that then proves your argument.
The quotation and citation also needs to be revise. When quoting and citing from a book, follow this format; (last name of author # of page)
An example of this is; In the text Kessler says "__________________" (Kessler 10). I really like how you paraphrase the quotation you used, that's something I actually can learn from. Overall all I would say that you need to revise your topic sentence(main point), structure of body paragraph, and quoting and citing. Good job though, very well structured sentences, and use of grammar.
This blog is interesting because it highlights an extremely important issue in our society. I was unaware of how the "reward system" works, so thanks for highlighting what it is, and what it means. Obesity is hampering the process of our society, it is literally killing people daily. I will consider reading this book later in the semester.