All posts by Cale Donaldson

Uncategorized

Juice dieting: just another fad?

3 Comments

The poster session at the Macaulay building on Sunday was filled with a myriad of attention grabbing, colorful posters about topics that seemed either too simple or complex for an average college audience. There were posters that tried to incorporate too many details at the expense of captivating passersby. Others offered relatively little insight and simplified analysis of their data. Despite representing the latter type of poster, “Juice Diets,” a poster designed by Baruch College students caught my attention simply because of its topic.

Juice dieting has become a fairly popular, yet misunderstood trend in young people all across the country, especially in urban areas. It involves substituting all meals with a liquid meal of pressed fruits and vegetables. This diet is said to help cleanse the body as it eliminates toxins from the body. Seeing this topic on a poster interested me because I know that the diet, just like many other fads, instigates a subsequent false mentality that it is the sole decision necessary to lose weight. It simple: only drink juice and you will lose weight. Juice dieting is by no means a clear-cut method for weight loss; however, many people are not aware of that fact and therefore misinterpret its functionality.

The poster drew from a study the students conducted in which 133 college students were questioned about juice dieting and their opinions on its effectiveness. The results portrayed a mixed opinion, leaning slightly towards a belief that juice dieting was effective and trusted. However, the group’s analysis of the data was what sold the poster for me. They critiqued their own study, offering possible questions they could ask in response to the data they collected, and suggested that further research was necessary to acknowledge any adverse effects juice dieting might have on the body (juice cannot supply you with all the vitamins, nutrients, protein, etc. that you need). While the poster did not go into much depth on the “science” of juice dieting, it provided a good analysis of a new and potential solution for a topical issue.

12325208_769801276479184_97416069_n
Uncategorized

Must Read: “Environmental Implications of Plastic Debris in Marine Settings”

1 Comment

Group One is focused on the effect of plastic debris on the marine environment. The purpose of this general focus is to increase awareness of this issue and incite the public to combat the threat. Our “MUST-READ” article is “Environmental Implications of Plastic Debris in Marine Settings—Entanglement, Ingestion, Smothering, Hangers-On, Hitch-Hiking and Alien Invasions,” written by Murray R. Gregory (click title to read the article). His paper describes the various ways in which plastic debris can impact the marine environment and harm its organisms. We find that this paper provides a basic, yet vital understanding of the scope of effects that plastic debris can have on the environment. This knowledge is necessary in order to fully grasp the severity of this issue. Since there are a multitude of ways in which plastic debris are harmful, some more obvious than others, there may be an equal number of ways in which these dangers can be limited or prevented.

Aesthetic value and ingestion by marine organisms, for example, is the first topics related to plastic debris covered in this paper, and coincidentally are also two of the major components used in raising awareness of the public to marine pollution issues. Additional topics, which are less frequently known to the public, in this paper include smothering, unnatural and increased growth of flotsam, and the migration of invasive species.

The preventative measures offered in this paper are scant, despite there being an evident critique of beach clean-up procedures. Gregory seems to offer that other methods must be created or refined in order to better combat the threat of plastic debris. While beach clean-ups, international conferences, and an increasing amount of research has certainly provided an introduction into solving this issue, the sources of marine plastic debris must be handled more effectively. Most importantly, according to Gregory, is the “further development of biodegradable plastics with significantly reduced and tightly managed disintegration times.” This is not fully discussed however, and so, further research would need to be examined to better grasp how this technological development can occur. Data not disclosed in this paper, such as the density and specific disintegration times of different plastics, would help in this assessment.

This review paper solidifies the notion there need to be more attention devoted toward understanding the different impacts of plastic debris and preventative solutions, as opposed to a narrower view on their affects and a focus on post-contamination solutions.