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Spencer Fuller
Professor Lisa Packer
English 1010
March 24, 2014
The Good, the Bad, and the Yummy
Have you ever wondered what some of the worst additives to food are? What are some of
the things that are good for you? What is being discussed by health food councils? What are the
ingredients that are marketed as good for us but that in reality are bad? There have been many
studies and examples of the ingredients that are bad for us, some of which have years of research
to back them. I argue that there should be stricter guidelines on what is allowed in food items.
While enforcing rules on labeling food items correctly and no longer allowing misleading info
that an item is healthier than a comparative item when it really is not at all. Some of the things I
found were very shocking and eye opening.
There are major food ingredients that were discussed and that are interestingly enough
thought to be healthy when in reality they are bad. Some of the ingredients that are considered
bad are: seed and plant based oils, and artificial sweeteners. Some of the ones that are thought to
be good are: fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and non-gluten grains. Ones that fall under a shared
category of good and bad are salts and sugars.
Others are saying that processed foods are bad for us, and I dispute that yes, processed
foods are generally bad, but there are non-processed foods that are just as bad. Lets discuss the
shared classification: salt and sugar. In How junk food can end obesity by David Freedman
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(writes for The Atlantic Daily and is the healthy living guides director), he discusses how salt is
good and bad it's unhealthy in large amounts, raising blood pressure in many people; and yes, it
makes food more appealing. But salt is not obesogenic -- it has no calories, and doesn't
specifically increase the desire to consume high-calorie foods. It can just as easily be enlisted to
add to the appeal of vegetables. Lumping it in with fat and sugar as an addictive junk-food
ingredient is a confused proposition. I believe that these statements are the most accurate
description of the role salt can play in a good or a bad way. While sugars generally are bad, the
broad classification of Sugar can over look the good benefits. For example, there are naturally
occurring sugars in fruit which have many positive benefits for the body and are technically
sugar. Processed sugar is put on fruit as a preservative which basically negates the natural sugar
benefits. Understanding the good and the bad roles of salts and sugars can really help encourage
healthy eating habits.
The bad additives and ingredients are the most heavily debated topic. The two sides of
this argument are from the health departments and FDA who argue that there are many bad
additives and ingredients that need to be not as heavily used or stopped completely. While the
food industry companies are the ones who are arguing that there are not any bad additives, they
also claim that it isnt their fault people eat double the recommended servings. Some additives
might actually lead to addictions to the fast food items with bad ingredients. Once your body has
ingested them and become accustomed to the fast food its hard to stop to eating any fast food
that is fried in any oils.
The plant and seed based oils used in fast food are no longer a natural oil made by
processing the plant! Lets say the vegetable oil, it has vegetables in it right? Yes it was
originally a vegetable but it has been so altered with chemicals it is no longer any good for you.
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In an article published by a California State Health Department Excess consumption of
processed seed and vegetable oils may lead to systemic inflammation, cardiovascular disease and
even cancer. Often portrayed as health foods, seed- and vegetable oils like soybean and corn oil
are extremely unnatural for the human body as we didnt have access to them until very recently
in evolutionary history (Healthy snack). It just needs to be avoided as much as possible -- act as
if your life depends upon it -- wait it actually does!
The good ingredients are fruits, vegetables, and non-gluten grains. Is it not amazing that
all of the good things are not chemically altered? While fruits and vegitables used to be the key
part to any persons diet which has now-- become only a small portion in most peoples diets.
While it seems like common knowledge that we all should know, the younger generations are
sadly lacking education on proper nutrition and reading and apply food labels.
Labels can be horribly deceiving. For example (Freedman) went shopping in a healthy
food store Much of the food isn't all that different from what I can get in any other supermarket.
One thing that catches my eye today, sitting prominently on an impulse-buy rack near the
checkout counter, is Vegan Cheesy Salad Booster, from Living Intentions, whose package
emphasizes the fact that the food is enhanced with spirulina, chlorella, and sea vegetables. The
label also proudly lets me know that the contents are raw -- no processing! -- And that they don't
contain any genetically modified ingredients. What the stuff does contain, though, is more than
three times the fat content per ounce as the beef patty in a Big Mac (more than two-thirds of the
calories come from fat), and four times the sodium. I did not believe this was possible but to put
this theory to test I went to Whole Foods. I found a cereal called Gorilla Munch which claimed
to be healthier and more beneficial than Kix. Gorilla Munch has 120 calories compared to its
counterpart Kix who has 89 calories per serving. Also the Gorilla Munch has more sodium,
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double the fat as Kix. Yet Gorilla Munch is healthier and better than Kix. The best part is the
serving sizes the Gorilla Munch facts are for three quarters of a cup of cereal and Kixs
nutritional facts are given for a one cup serving. That means the Gorilla Munch is basically lying
about being healthier than Kix which it deemed as a processed food item I honestly could not
believe the facts and that it really is happening on everyday products.
All things considered, identifying the good and the bad ingredients will take diligence,
combined with stricter guidelines on whats allowed in food, while also changing the rules on
labeling only accurate information. This will hopefully lead to having a better understanding of
the bad additives, while also knowing that until change happens you can only trust the dietary
information and not the big banner on the box that says compare to and healthier than.









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Works Cited
Citations:
"Food." Raw Fruits Poster (Text Version / Accessible Version). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Freedman, David H. "How Junk Food Can End Obesity." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 19 June 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

"Healthy Snack Ideas." Healthy Snacks Ideas. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

"Top 7 Unhealthy Foods to Avoid Like The Plague." Authority Nutrition. N.p., n.d. Web. 24
Mar. 2014.

Katz, M.D. David. "Bunk About Junk Food." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com,
12 July 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.











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1. Describe your writing process for the argument essay. Look back at the process work you did
and trace your thinking about your topic and about your writing. The writing process I took
was very similar to how I was taught in high school. I utilized multiple thesis forming processes,
it took me about two weeks to come to the conclusion of what I wanted to fully write about and
what my opinion or viewpoint was going to be. Then I used the free write and a pros and cons
analysis to decide my major points of arguments and identified my naysayers really early on in
the paper. I changed my thesis statement and my key points a total of like twenty times. My
original paper rough draft was changed so much to the final draft.

2. Describe the rhetorical situation as you see it for your argument essay. (Rhetorical
Situation = ability to communicate and/or persuade effectively.) How did you utilize the
rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos) in your writing? I was trying to show and utilize
emotion to convey the fact that we really need everyone to be aware of the problem of
mislabeling, and bad ingredients in foods. I used references that most people could relate to and
tried making it so that I would convey my message of enforcing stricter rules on labeling and
food additives. I utilized logos when listing facts about the cereal and guidelines from the FDA,
while using those for logos they were also building my ethos along with the knowledge I gained
off of research. The kairos was evident due to the current problems plaguing the food industry of
misleading labels and use of bad additives.

3. Describe the revisions you made in your essay and discuss why you made those revisions.
Discuss your use of the They Say/I Say text. Did the templates help you? Did the guidelines
help you in your essay? The revisions I made were so many that its hard to pick just one. But,
generally the changes that were made I made to make the paper match the thesis or vice versa. I
made revisions to my argument points so many time if you were to see what my original ones
were you would say you completely changed your paper. I tried using as many of the templets as
possible I used the how to phrase your introductions, thesis statements, and introducing the
naysayers I also used the they say I say to help with setting up the conclusion and phrases to
conclude without saying conclusion.

4. What did you learn about research and about the writing process in these assignments? That
you should never finalize your thesis or argument points until you are certain and have a lot of
evidence to support your claims. I also learned that even though a source looks credible, do a
little source background check. I had one source that look good and seemed as a good as a source
you can find on Google. Then I got looking and all of the information was changed each time I
visited the source. I found out a little later that it was an open form site like Wikipedia and any
one can change the info. I immediately dropped that source. I also realized the free writes and
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having fun while drafting is what makes the paper more appealing and interesting and keeps the
readers attention.

5. Any other thoughts or comments? I like that we get to choose our topics that we wanted to
write about. One major thing I didnt like about the research essay was the fact that we had at
times two days to edit or papers or do parts and then post it online by Thursday but it might be
due to the online- lecture hybrid class. Another thing that I liked about the papers was the online
peer review it was done by someone we didnt know in another class and that fact that they
hadnt proof read or peer reviewed even the thesis statements. Overall its a great project and I
like the way its set up I just feel like having an extra week between the rough draft peer reviews
to a final peer review. Then turning in the final a couple days later would seem to accommodate
the writing a review and revision time a little better