Food #2

What is high-fructose corn syrup and why is it supposedly bad for you? 

It's syrup made from corn starch, made up of mostly glucose, that has been through an "enzymatic" process to turn the glucose into fructose. The fructose is then mixed with 100% glucose until it reaches desired sweetness. It's commonly used in processed foods to replace sugar. 

Corn Syrups have become more popular because they are cheaper to transport and easier to mix with products b/c it's a liquid.

As far as health concerns? The results are inconclusive, but some studies suggest that high-fructose corn syrup contributes to obesity as well as other diseases:

"In a 2007 study, rats were fed a diet high in fat and HFCS and kept them relatively sedentary for 16 weeks in an attempt to emulate the diet and lifestyle of many Americans. The rats were not forced to eat, but were able to eat as much as they wanted; they consumed a large amount of food, suggesting that fructose suppresses the sensation of fullness. Within four weeks, the rats showed early signs of fatty liver disease and type II diabetes."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

How evil are HMO's?

In class we've been discussing how HMO's and the health care system in the U.S. is flawed. We have also watched SICKO and interviewed people about their feelings on U.S. health care. While I agree that the system is majorly flawed and leaves out care to those who need it the most - the poor and impoverished, my own dealings with privately funded insurance companies have actually been quite enjoyable...eer at least not as terrible as Michael Moore seems to make it out.

I am covered by the health care company Signa, provided to me through my dad's company. I have coverage for anything that I need. They pay for dentist visits, eye examinations and 1 pair of eyeglasses a year, along with any sort of emergency or medical coverage necessary. Not only that but the co-pays are low and most of my prescriptions are payed for. I have been under Signa's care for most of my life, and as an accident prone little kid, had to take many trips to the emergency room, where I was treated well and (most of the time) quickly. I've found that I feel safe with Signa and there is never a second guess when going to the doctor's of "How much will this cost me? Can we afford this?" The only thing I regret about Signa is that my first pediatrician who I had seen for most of my life changed his policy a couple years ago and no longer accepted Signa patients, so I was transferred to another pediatrician who, I personally think is a bad doctor with no bedside manner and they wouldn't let me switch to someone else. While I was upset that I had a new doctor I didn't particularly like, I also have to take into consideration that my visits are being paid FOR me and sometimes you have to take the good with the bad....

My mom has Medicare, provided by the government. I'm not sure about all of their policies but so far she says that she likes Medicare and they provide good doctors, low co-pays and pays for all her prescriptions.

I agree with a lot of points that Michale Moore's documentray SICKO makes, and also with a lot of things that you have pointed out in class, but I also think that a lot of it is one-sided.

Chair Analysis - Poverty in Review

In class when we did the musical chair activity. I think it was to prove the point that in general, whether you're rich or poor, is based primarily on chance and not how hard you "try." The game of musical chairs focuses on the success of an individual without regard to any sort of strategy and is based purely on luck. I think in many ways this game can represent the United State's system of free trade and capitalism.

To start, the game and capitalism are similar, primarily on the fact that whether you "win" or "lose" is mostly chance based. I say mostly because some people DID seem to work harder to stay in the game, by pushing other people out of the way or trying to never be in between a chair by taking wide steps; but even with the extra effort it didn't seem to make much of an impact on who stayed in the game. This is the same way with the free trade market in the U.S. because usually those who are born to poorer, working class families tend to stay in their social "class." While those who are born to wealthy families stay wealthy, inheriting their parents fortunes along with the companies to continue the cycle of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.





Fight the power (:

Some questions about poverty

1 . How unequal is the "rich" versus "poor" ratio?

"The richest 1% of wealth holders had 125 times the wealth of the typical household in 1962; by 2004 they had 190 times as much or $14.8 million in wealth for the upper 1% compared to just $82,000 for the household in the middle fifth of wealth."

      - http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060823/

2. What is the difference between "wealth" and "income"?

"Wealth is the stuff that people own. The main items are your home, other real estate, any small business you own, liquid assets like savings accounts, CDs and money market funds, bonds, other securities, stocks, and the cash surrender value of any life insurance you have."

"Wealth provides another dimension of well-being. Two people who have the same income may not be as well off if one person has more wealth. "

    - http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03may/may03interviewswolff.html

3. How many children live below the poverty line?

"In 2006, the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold."

     - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States4. What well-fare programs are most used?

4. What percentage of people are to poor to afford food?

"Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year 2002, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members."

     - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

5. Is poverty in the U.S. decreasing or ind=creasing?

The increases in inequality are apparent when we consider the fact that the share of income going to the bottom 20% of the income distribution has fallen from 4% to 3.6% from 1967 to 2000 while the share of income going to the top 5% of the income distribution has increased from 17.5% to 21.9% over the same period."

     - http://mises.org/story/1229

Buissness of Being Born Reaction:

This documentary had very large impact on me. Before watching this film I had not only been ignorant to the pitfalls of medicalized birth, but i was actually an ADVOCATE for interventions. Previous to viewing, i believed that giving birth was a dangerous, painful, and almost insane process to put your body through, and while giving birth is a life-changing event, i had been taught to view it as something bad, something to be dreaded if and when the time came. Now I can see that what i had been taught before was mostly false and illogical accusations against mid-wives and home-births.
From the movie I learned that in the United States we have the second highest infant/mortality rates among modern countries. This, I also learned, is probably due to interventions, such as the use of a labor-inducing medication called Pitocin that is commonly over-used. This drug causes stronger, more frequent contractions, creating possible risk to the infant and more pain to the mother, usually causing the need for an epidural. Not only that, but records show that home-births are just as safe, if not safer than hospital births. With all this evidence to back up the points the movie makes, I no longer see any reason, unless absolutely unnecessary, to have uncomfortable, over-priced hospital births to line the pockets of evil HMOs.

Natural vs. Normal

For an AWOL birth to be considered "normal" it usually has to involve bright fluorescent lighting and men in white coats who don't know you and probably don't care that much about you. It also includes foreign, cold hospital instruments, heavy drugs and an uncomfortable setting. With visiting hours telling you when you can and can't see your loved ones, hospitals make the "norm" out to be something miserable. Laying in bed, barley conscious from being doped up, childbirth at a hospital is usually just a fuzzy, faint memory of discomfort and detachment from the baby.
With that as a standard American birth it's no wonder people who know about the benefits of a natural birth prefer it to the MO of a more typical hospital birth. Hearing all about natural childbirth on Friday made me see that they are a lot more comfortable and beneficial. Natural childbirth can be done at home, in a comfortable environment with people who are close to you and who you know you can trust. Without drugs to fog your memory, natural births leave the mother fully aware, making it a more personal and satisfying experience, even causing a closer connection to the baby.

Answers

1. What are the percentages of contraceptives used?
Sterility: 30%; No contraception: 22%; Pill: 17%; Condoms: 13%; Pregnant/Trying to get pregnant: 9%; Other contraception: 9%

2. How much does an abortion cost?
Anywhere from $200-$1,000, depending on procedure, age and clinic.

3. What percent of pregnancies end in abortion?
In 2002 it was estimated to be around 24%

4. What risks go with getting an abortion?
Heavy bleeding, infection, incomplete abortion, sepsis (total body infection), anesthetic complications (that could possibly lead to convulsions, heart attack, even death), damage to the cervix, uterine ling uterus or internal organs.

5. How much does an epidural cost?
Prices can range from $200-$1,500

6. What are the risks of an epidural?
Inadequate pain relief, rise in temperature, drop in blood pressure, postpartum back pain, spinal block, shivering, itching, retention of urine, feeling "detached" from the baby, catheter misplacement.

7. How high is the risk of death during birth to the mother?
In the U.S. women have about a 1-in-4,800 risk of dying in labor.

8. How many types of abortions are there?
There are 5 commonly used techniques for getting an abortion:
1. Manual vacuum aspiration
2. Suction curettage
3. Dilation and evacuation
4. Dilation and extraction
5. Miferpristone (abortion pill)

9. How many children are put up for adoption?
About 127,000 were adopted in the U.S. in 2000 and 2001. On September 30, 2003 there were 119,000 children waiting to be adopted.

10. Does giving birth become easier the more children you have?
This is more a matter of opinion, but many women have reported that second and third births become easier because the vagina has already been stretched.