Reflective Writes

Today, I started my blog at blogspote.com, by creating my account at this site, and linking it to the school's and health class's site. This blog will allow communication between class members and the teacher to accelerate the learning process.

9/6/07

What is juicing and why would you want to have juicing be part of a health lifestyle?
Juicing is the act of extracting the juice from fruits and vegetables for consumption. It is commonly known that fruits and vegetables contain many essential vitamins and nutrients. Juicing allows for the easy consumption of larger quantities of these fruit and vegetable nutrients. The common American dose not consume enough raw food, this unprocessed raw food is the most healthy for the body. The juice from fruits and vegetables is one of the most potent sources of nutrients. We want juicing in addition to a healthy balanced diet because it aids in living a healthy illness free life.


9/10/07

Our class filled out health surveys to asses certain aspects of our healthiness. After discussion, we viewed web video explaining the protocol which should be carried out when juicing certain fruits and vegetables ie to rains and peel or not. The class then viewed commercials for three different juices. The Breville Juice Fountain Elite that which we will be using in class turned out to be the best and most expensive of the ones we viewed.

9/12/07

Today Cuhon showed use how to set up and use a del.ici.ous account. He pointed out the many benefits of del.ici.ous over just bookmarking a page or continuously searching Google for the same information. With a del.ici.ous account not only can you benefit from the research of other people but also you can access all your information from any computer. Cohun also went over using a flicker account, showing us his own photos, along with how we must ask permission to use some of the photos on that site.

9/14/07

Poor Mr. Hayward was sent out of class for a photo he had posted on his blogger.com account. The photo itself did not seem inappropriate, at least it seems that a women in a bikini should be ok. A few people may have found it offensive, however that hardly justifies his removal. And in fact sending Hayward out of the room was more of a disturbance to the class than the photo itself.

10/1/07

Today Sarah was going to make her tropical sparkling juice, but because we had pomogranits rather than the mangoes she had wanted her project was put off until another day. We then went over some of the vitamin projects we had done. The first was B1, and the deficiency of which causes beriberi. None of us knew what that was so we looked it up as a class, and it seems that unless you have very very poor nutrition its very had to have a B1 deficiency. We talked about Vitamin H, and B6 among others with nothing as notable. Unfortunately Mr. Hayward is continuing to be harassed, this time for his use of the word retarded, for which he will have to right a 5 page essay.

10/3
We had technical difficulties with the food processor, in fact it was the blender blades which would not engage. We then had a discussion on healthcare, and government involvement. It seems that Mr. Cohun wants to be taken care of by the government from cradle to grave, and would sacrifice personal liberties for big government. I think it must be remembered that the more things the government does for us the fewer freedoms we have. A government big enough to give you all you want will take everything you have! We must trust ourselves and the free market to deliver the most effective and inexpensive health care.

10/5

Mr. Cohun was not present today and so we watched a video. It was a comedian talking about VIP, (vision, imitative, prospective) and empowering youth.

10/9
We were assigned our tobacco topic, mine was cigars. We were given the rest of the time to go to the computer lab and do research.


10/11
We talked about testicular cancer and who it affects, mainly young men and that its cause is not known. With the testing it was a short block.

10/15

Many of us were given detention for no having complete homework. Then we continued to talk about testicular cancer. It seems to effect a vary small amount of people, and of those 9,000 in the US only 360 die. Frankly getting up in the morning is more dangerous than that. But it is easy to screen for and if detected early can be treated

10/23

Black Jack was the name of the game today. In small groups we played 5 hands each as dealer. The cards we used had quick facts about smoking, if we lost a hand we had to write down the facts on the cards we held. After all the groups were down playing we gathered and each shared some of the facts we had written. We also talked about the cost of smoking, and how all that money all ads up.

10/25
We started our tobacco presentations, which were going to start some number of days ago. The presentations will cover the many aspects of tobacco addiction, including strategies to end addiction. Cohun also talked about our midterm which will consist of a game of Jeopardy.

10/29
Molly brought in her juicing project, the juice was quite good, and she told of the many health benefits of strawberry, orange and apple juice. We continued our tobacco projects, and came upon the topic of the regulation of tobacco commercials. It seems to me to be such a blatant attack on individual freedom and the free market. I understand that Mr. Cohun feels that government intervention is needed to protect children. But we mustn’t forget that government cannot legislate virtue. For if that were true then we should pass laws saying that all people must be nice, they must do good, that they must maintain their own healthy body and avoid eating unhealthy food, for we all can agree that these are good things. To that idea Mr. Cohun might say hooray. But I would hope that he would recognize that total government intervention to make us “better” people is a disastrous notion and would never work. If then total intervention and regulation can be agreed to be a bad idea how can it be said that partial intervention and regulation is good? Mr. Cohun might argue the case for moderation, that some regulation is necessary to protect the children…ect ect. I however would argue that even giving up a few freedoms for the common good is a bad idea, on both the grounds of practicality and principal. 1, As government intervention increases the people become less responsible themselves. They look to the government to solve problems, And feel less and less powerful themselves 2, We saw how well the prohibition on alcohol worked. Problems are not solved by government mandate, it is not the roll of the government to force the people to live life on way or another. 3, With increasing government intervention the costs and inefficiencies increase also. Increasing taxes and revenue mean that a large pie of money is cut in government leading to special interests and lobbyists whishing for their slice too. The list goes on and on, but if I argue against government regulation than what alternative do I offer? The free market! I would agree that it is in best interests of children not to use tobacco. However I say no law banning it is necessary. A vast majority of Americans would agree that tobacco is unhealthy, and an even grater majority that children should not use it, and would therefore steer children away from it. It is true that some individuals would indeed profit from children and teens using tobacco, however the free market would hold them accountable, if a company is doing something most people dislike, IE advertising specifically to children then the people would turn away from their product. In order to have positive public relations therefore the companies would learn to steer clear of that offence. Now even I see that that alone hardly brings perfection, and that tobacco would still be availed for minors. It then comes down to parents and the children themselves (god forbid they learn to make a decision and be responsible for the outcome). Today we are too used to relying on the government to keep things safe and dandy for us. I would argue that in a freer society, in which individuals had all the responsibility, they would learn to be more responsible, to be more careful about their decisions. Freedom does not always lead to the ideal sense of perfection, but it comes the closest. People naturally act in their best interest, and as long as they do not infringe on the rights of another they should be allowed to do whatever they want.

10/31
Mr. Cohun showed us information and pictures of the effects of smoking on the body, it is now abundantly clear as if it was not previously that smoking is indeed unhealthily, who knew? I personally don’t feel that it is the role of the public schools to tell the kids how to live and to pick “sins” such as tobacco and rail against them. Nothing which only effects the individual is necessary bad. It is up to the individual to make an educated decision but I fear the indoctrination which occurs at the public schools as to what’s good and bad. After that we had little time for what was meant to be the main activity of the day the jeopardy and so that was put off.

11/2
Today we posted responses about addiction into a forum, which speak for themselves. Mr. Cohun was not present and so we had a sub. We worked in the second computer lab and also had time to catch up on work that was not done.