Red Meat and Cancer

The article Baloney Science On The Perils Of Meat by David Becker talks about the newly found accusations against red meat. These accusations say that eating red meat can lead to a higher possibility of developing prostate cancer and advanced prostate cancer. However, the article also says that these newly found facts about red meat are meant to just reach headlines and grab attention rather than actually hold any actual importance. This is something that grabbed my attention. I mean, why even talk about it if it’s doing no good at all for the public. However, there is no stopping the media these days so the new facts must be disputed and this article by David Becker does just that. The article is basically just arguing the claim that red meat causes prostate cancer and its advanced form.

Within the article, Becker refers to a Dr. David Newman who believes that the statistics showing that red meat causes prostate cancer are so miniscule that he refers to them as laughable. The study that does support the idea that red meat causes cancer is so far-fetched that Dr. Newman says that these results will basically be thrown out the window eventually. As I read the article and looked through the supporting evidence, I too couldn’t believe that people were even making a big deal out of it. The percent increase within meat eaters and their likeliness to get prostate cancer compared to non-meat eaters is literally half a percent.

To me, this is just the media making a big deal out of nothing like they sometimes do and making more problems for the public to worry about. After I read the article, I came upon the conclusion that unless some sort of new evidence and statistics are brought to everyone’s attention then this should just be forgotten about.

An Unhealthy Diet

One product that has producers that are making questionable health claims with their ads is Kellogg’s Special K. With its new media campaign, Kellogg is starting to advertise that by eating their product a person can lose at least six pounds in just two weeks. In this ad, it is advertised that by taking a certain Kellogg’s Special K “challenge” it is easy to lose those six pounds. They give instructions for how to follow through with the “challenge”.

These instructions insist on eating two Special K meals a day in replace for two of your usual meals during the day and eat your usual third meal the way you always do. That’s it. They advertise that that is all you have to do to lose six pounds in two weeks. I have a hard time believing that that is all there is to it or else the U.S wouldn’t have a huge obesity problem. I imagine that maybe with a healthy constructed workout program that supplements the Special K diet it would be possible to lose those six pounds, but losing so much weight at such a fast pace can be unhealthy for the body.

If I were someone who was trying to lose weight, I would definitely not go about doing it the way Kellogg says a person should. The advertisement is just misleading to begin with and therefore, I just wouldn’t trust it. I would trust the basics if I were planning on losing weight. People aren’t stupid, and I believe that if someone is trying to lose weight then they know what foods are acceptable and unacceptable to put into their bodies. It isn’t hard. With a healthy workout program that someone sticks too and a healthy diet, anyone can lose weight; The Kellogg challenge is unnecessary.

My Self-Evaluation

As I watched my presentation on how to throw a football, I tried to evaluate myself as a non-bias observer. When I viewed my video I just wanted to be fair with what I thought of it to give myself a realistic self-review. So to do this I’ll critique my video by its content, visual aid, my delivery, and the general effectiveness of my “how to” speech.

First, with the content of my speech, I think I did a pretty good job. When it comes to throwing footballs, I broke down the steps in order from first to last and repeated my steps numerous times so to demonstrate the importance of each step. I talked about the steps and walked through them and then had an overview at the end of my speech in my conclusion. When it comes to my visual aid, I believe that it could have been better. As I watch, I felt that I was lackadaisical when I demonstrated the throwing portion with Ethan Hemer. Although, I wanted him to show what he had learned, I also believe I could have done a better job as I was working with him. I do, however, believe that I did a good job of delivering my speech. I had good eye contact with the audience at all times, I didn’t rush through steps, and as I watched, I felt that I was pretty enthusiastic about teaching how to throw a football.

As I look back on my “how to” speech and its overall effectiveness, I feel pretty good about it. Obviously, there were some things that I could have worked on to better my speech such as not being so formal with the audience or having a more structured speech, but I still think the way it came off was good. I involved the audience and thought that I kept their attention for my speech. I liked my speech and thought that it ended up being an above average presentation on how to throw a football.