Salt, Sugar, Fat Overview

        For the Fall 2014 College Composition course, the students were suggested to read the book Salt, Sugar, Fat. The book was about the food industries and their uses of the three substances as well as the alarming decline in health that Americans are facing. The book was sectioned by topics and despite the title of the book being Salt, Sugar, Fat, the actual order was read by sugar, fat, and then salt. The author of the book not only did extensive research on each of these three substances, but also travelled to several food companies to follow up on his research to attain direct information; making his research and facts in the book thorough. Salt, Sugar, Fat is not meant to shame the food industries, but rather to open the reader’s eyes to what they are putting into their bodies and how it is affecting their health.

        Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The book was both informational and intriguing with its many facts about the food industries. There were so many things that I learned from this book; such as the information about the substance of fat, the competition between different companies, how liquid sugar is more dangerous than the ordinary sugars, and how the company Cargill is the worldwide company that produces the sugars and salts used in almost all the foods we consume. However, the one thing that captivated my attention most was when the author mentioned the marketing strategies of Coca-Cola and Kellogg. This fascinated me because of my interest for business and because of the power that marketing can bring to its products. The mere idea of how food is sold as well as how the product is portrayed to society is absolutely inspiring and mischievous.

        The Salt, Sugar, Fat book will not impact me immensely due to the fact that I personally don’t like to consume loads of junk food. Instead, this book has made me more aware of what I am eating because I have realized that almost everything that is not in it’s pure form does contain some kind of sugar or salt. Not only am I more aware of what I am putting into my body, but rather how I take care of my body. Reading about how the American health is on a downhill slope has caused me to think about how I can maintain my healthy lifestyle with exercise. Along with taking care of my body, I have taken it upon myself to annoy my friends and family of how they eat with the little facts that I learned from the book. Overall this book was a great read and I suggest that more people read this book or become aware of how they are taking care of themselves.

Things To Be Grateful For.

Ten things that I’m most grateful for in my life:

1.) My immediate family

2.) My dog, Pepper Corn.

3.) Not having to go hungry every day and having drinkable water.

4.) Having a roof over my head.

5.) My health.

6.) Having the will to pursue education as well as a well-paying job to make that happen.

7.) The setbacks in life that have made me who I am today.

8.) The surprises that life brings on a daily basis.

9.) For science and innovation in our society today.

10.) For art and its ability to make life beautiful.

"Seven kids equals seven times the love."

Having a big family is not as common as it used to be. It was typical for slaves and many farm workers to have big families, usually 7 to 12 children, to maintain the workload of the family. Back in the 1970’s it was common for families to have 3-5 children, today most families only have up to 2 children. Big families have declined over the years based on the economy and society transformations. It’s costly to have a child in today’s society, let alone multiplying that expense by however many kids. It is difficult to have such a big family, but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible.

One of the biggest misconceptions (and personally my biggest pet peeve) to having a large family is that the children are wild and out of control, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Often times when I observe people in public, I tend to notice that the out-of-control, tantrum throwing child in the middle of a store/restaurant tends to always be either an only child or from a family with only two children. This is because children from big families are taught that when we go anywhere, people are watching. When a family of four goes into a restaurant, nobody really bothers them and they don’t cause any problems. However, when my family of nine enters a restaurant, there’s havoc. People act like they’ve never seen so many people all together. The moment we walked into a building we get stared at and pointed to, whispered, and the brave people actually make comments towards my family as though we are animals or family of unholy savages. This is the reason why my mom would constantly remind us to be on our best behavior, even if we were just going to a grocery store or restaurant. My mom learned and taught my brothers and sisters early on that our big family would always make a scene, but it was up to us to make it a good scene or a bad one. After receiving many speeches and reminders from mom, my siblings and I did our best to behave in public. Our behaviors never changed the fact that people would still look at my family; instead what changed was their perception.  Many big families prove that it is possible to both have a large family and still be well mannered.

Expenses that come with a big family are overbearing. There’s no way to not spend $150 or more on groceries per week when you’re feeding (what feels like) an army. The bills always costing extra because everybody just has to have their phones charged, there are more people showering and brushing teeth, not to mention the gas consuming “taxi service” to drive all the kids where they need to be. Holiday gifts are usually scarce and most likely not the most expensive/newest gadget on the market, everyone receives hand-me-downs, and going anywhere outside of the house is a big, costly event. Constantly my siblings need to be reminded between what is a want and what is a need. Financially it is hard to raise a big family, but we always make it work and make the best out of what we have. Large families tend to appreciate the things we have.

 It truly is a struggle to have a large family, but the common characteristic of all big families is appreciation. We learn early on that we aren’t going to be able to get all that we want materialistically unless we actually work for it ourselves. My family does get judged a lot, but my mom’s favorite thing to say to anyone who even tries to put down big families has always been, “Seven kids just means seven times the love.” My mom says that this with a strong tone of fulfillment and reward in her voice and though we may not get all we want, my siblings and I know that we will never be alone because we have one another. 

Holiday Spirit.

            The first writer, Amel Saleh wrote exactly how I feel about the holiday season. Saleh first sentence states, “The holiday season is driven entirely by materialism.” which is a statement that I completely agree with. Holidays are a time for families to spend time with one another, to celebrate and appreciate the good fortune they have. As of lately, I’ve noticed that during this season people place more emphasis on showing off the presents they received, having the biggest turkey, competition between who has the more extravagant Christmas lights on the block; it’s gotten out of control. It seems as though the expectations of what the holidays should be has drastically changed from when I was a kid to the children now. I was taught that holidays were to be all about family and appreciation rather than who has the better possessions and belongings.

            Family was always the most important part of the holidays. Having a big family meant that the amount of presents each of my siblings and I got were exiguous.  My mother would always tell us, “Don’t expect much this Christmas, instead appreciate that you even got anything and that you are surrounded by people who love you.” She always said that after one of the younger kids had a crying fit over a toy she denied them of having, so her tone wasn’t exactly the most patient when she said this. However, when Christmas day arrived none of my siblings and I cared about the amount of presents we received. What was important to us was watching the cheesy Christmas shows with our parents, having teamed snowball fights (the teams were usually always Team Mom and Dad vs. all the kids), and then warming ourselves with a home cooked family dinner. The time spent with my family is what I remember and cherish most rather than what present I got and I believe that’s the way the holidays should be spent. 

Transitioning.

The transition from attending a university to a community college has been a drastic change. Attending a university felt like an unrealistic dream with all the parties, the hectic sleep schedule, and the easy-going classes; it was everything I imagined for college life. However, all dreams do come to an end and that university dream was eradicated after I finished my first year and moved to California. Applying for a community college was highly discouraging to me after having the university experience, but I did it anyway because I still wanted to continue my college education regardless of if it was a university or not.

                Oxnard College was difficult for me to get into. Being an “Out of State Resident” meant that the tuition was much more expensive than if I was a “California Resident”. There was a whole list of conditions that I had to meet to become a resident, including waiting a year (and a day) before I applied, paying California Taxes, and even providing the school proof of when I moved here (i.e. Plane ticket, bank account resident change). A whole year (and a day) went by until I came back to Oxnard College to apply, but the Admissions Office was being rather difficult. I jumped through all the hoops that the Admissions Office threw at me before I could finally call myself an “OC student”.  Following the excruciating process of becoming an “official resident” came my first semester, which happens to be this Fall 2014 semester.

                My first semester at Oxnard College has gone rather smoothly. My transition from university to community college, surprisingly, hasn’t been awful. In fact, I feel as though I enjoy attending a community college better than a university. At Oxnard College, I focus more on my schoolwork because I don’t have the college party life distractions that I did at the University of Dallas. I’ll admit that the workload and teachers at Oxnard College are far less demanding than at a university, which is good because my sleep schedule is much more manageable now, but bad because I’m one of those nerds that like to be kept busy with school work. Although I don’t plan on staying at Oxnard College, attending this college has definitely been a good decision that I’ve made; especially for my future.

                Doing well in my future, becoming successful, and proving everybody wrong is what keeps me motivated. Of course everybody wants to do well in life and live happily, but to me it means more than that. My family couldn’t financially support my decision to pursue a college education therefore making them pessimistic towards my dream. It is my drive to prove, not only to myself, but to my family that finishing school and being successful is something that I can do.

Reality Television.

                Television is a part of our everyday lives. According to the New York Daily News, “Americans spend 34 hours a week watching TV”. That’s about five hours of television a day for the average American making it one of America’s biggest past times.  There are a variety of genres of television that they may indulge in, one of the most popular genres being reality TV. From FOX’s “American Idol” to MTV’s “My Super Sweet 16” reality TV can be found on any channel.  Since reality television is a significant part of our everyday society, it is difficult to be biased towards it; most people either love reality tv or not.

                I am one of those people that do not and have not watched tv in years. However, for this blog entry I did watch an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”  and an episode of a show called “Amish Mafia” to better understand what is considered to be reality tv. What I saw was completely ridiculous, I couldn’t even stand to watch the whole episode of either show. These shows were the furthest thing from reality and I hardly found any entertainment in either of them. Both of these “reality” shows were completely scripted and it was quite unbelievable how overdramatic the people on the shows got over something that can be considered so small in real life. In fact, I actually got a bit angry and had a slight revulsion that these shows are as popular as they are. Instead of being productive, people are spending their time watching these people pretend to live their overly dramatic fake lives. If all “reality shows” are like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and this “Amish Mafia” show then I believe that it is harming our society. It’s not like these reality shows are setting a good example for anyone and I highly doubt people are gaining any knowledge from the shows that could benefit our society.

                I try to avoid television and I can honestly say that I don’t keep up with the Kardashians or any kind of reality show. My personal opinion about television is that it is a waste of time. Five hours a day on television is excessive; there is so much a person can do during that time besides sitting around watching this “reality” tv. There are many people that may find these shows entertaining and can’t go a day without watching it, which is fine.  However, I would rather go out and live life instead of watching people pretend to.

Citation:

HINCKLEY, DAVID. "Americans Spend 34 Hours a Week Watching TV, According to Nielsen Numbers." NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.

Change.

Change is a constant part in our society. Without change, people would not be able to create and develop not only themselves, but the world we live in. Whether it is our opinions, beliefs, or our perspective of how we view certain topics, we do change. The change that occurred with me came gradually. That change was my perspective on having my own children.
When I was little I had always wanted to have kids, I was an only child at age 4 until my first brother, Christopher was born. I was so excited; I would always look after him, want to feed him, carry him, and even want to change his diapers. Then my parents had another baby boy named Matthew, I was happy, I thought it would be like having two babies of my own to take care of. After Matthew, my parents had another baby boy, named Luke. There were problems with this brother. My mom and Luke were hospitalized after he was born; I was only eight so the doctors didn’t want to tell me exactly what was wrong with them. I may not have known what exactly was wrong, but I was old enough to know that there was some kind of problem with the pregnancy. Luke and my mom came home healthy after a few weeks and my mom let me take care of Luke more than my other two brothers. After Luke, I finally got a little sister, Emily and I was overjoyed. By this kid I was a professional at making bottles and changing diapers, I could even watch after the other kids too. My parents had another boy, Xavier. I was twelve years old; excited to have another brother, but I was also getting tired of watching and taking care of another baby. I thought that Xavier was the last sibling I was going to have, but it turns out my mom was going to have one more. She had another girl, which we named Bridget. I was fifteen years old and I felt like I was too old to be taking care of a baby.
Unfortunately for me, I was fifteen taking care of a new baby. My mom at this time was a single parent with three jobs so I was left to care for the kids and newborn. Having to bring the new baby with me to go grocery shopping was always embarrassing, especially in a small Texas town. People would constantly give me looks. Quite often people would tell me how beautiful what they thought was my daughter, but they would always say it with a hint of accusation or disappointment. After they walked away I made promises to myself to not have my own kids, I hated being judged like that. I did feel like a mother though; making dinner for the kids, making sure they did homework as I warmed bottles, it was tiring.
 I had always wanted kids when I was younger, but over the years of growing up I wanted none. My family and friends completely understand why I don’t want kids. I saw how my mom struggled with the pregnancies. I got firsthand experience with newborns, toddlers, preteens, and now teenagers. I don’t want to put myself through that experience when I begin to start my own life. I’m still young; I could always change my mind when I get married. However, I have my heart set on not having my own kids. No matter what happens though I already feel like I’ll always have to look out for my siblings like my own mother would.