It is Simple-Listen to Me

Hey you!  You, staring at the screen! Listen to me! Whatever I tell you to do it, do it without question! Phew, my name is Timmy Ahlstrom and I am freshman at Santa Clara University.  Of those who remain to listen to me preach, like I was saying, I am a freshman in a writing class here, and my assignment is to blog about food and health.  Of even those who remain, the writing class is titled “The Rhetoric of Recipes” in which we discuss several problems in our world today revolving around food, health, business, etc.  Following the problems, we analyze the solutions of the professionals have to offer for these solutions.  The purpose of this blog is criticize these experts’ solutions and to offer my final, simple, and realistic solution or solutions to our problems concerning our food, health, and businesses.  I will be attempting to come up with a reasonable solution that will take into consideration all of problems today.  I am not critiquing any of these arguments through any specific lens, rather through the voice of young philosophical man who wants his voice to be heard.

            Growing up, my dad always has told us to study business or engineering.  Being a true believer in my dad, I listened to him.  I am totally ok with this decision; however, a little part of me wants me to become a philosopher very bad.  My power of twisting arguments started as a child.  I come from a big family of four older brothers and one younger sister.  My four older brothers beat the snot of me everyday due to their size.  I adapted this power of twisting and debunking everything my older brothers said just to get my revenge.  I would correct their grammar, or make fun of something stupid they say.  My passion to counter-argue has evolved from getting revenge to keeping my mind thinking. So I will attempt to use my philosopher’s mind to come up with my solutions surrounding the problems brought up in class.

            Being in class for several weeks now, I have read multiple books, articles, etc. about problems regarding food, health, and business that play a role in our world today. Following the problems, we discussed solutions that coinsurers had to offer up to these problems like obesity, poverty, etc.  One of my biggest flaws is being timid, and not speaking in class.  I bottled all my emotions to these solutions the experts had offered up.  A lot of them are not realistic enough to have the average human being live out to.  As the weeks went on, I realized how much all of these problems are intertwined, creating chaos.  I never knew obesity was liked with poverty and vice versa, or the about effects of advertisements has on consumers.  So I will be taking this blog post-by-post, step-by-step; and I will analyze these solutions.  Hopefully, just hopefully, will I be able to create one simple-realistic solution that can solve our problems, and live better lives. 

            Before I dive into any of my first couple blogs, I would like to clarify that I agree with a lot of what these experts say.  A major portion of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation is him discussing how much McDonalds and other fast foods are awful for humans.  I totally agree with that.  In Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he mentions the importance of knowing where your food is coming from.  We cannot be ignorant about our food.  It leads us down a slippery slope of obesity, which is where we stand today.  I agree with that too.  However, I solely disagree with what they believe is the solution to our health today.  I just believe that my solution or solutions are more realistic to the every day human being.

Like I said earlier, I am a very timid person.  I am timid because I am a sweet, nice kid who never wants to hurt one’s feelings.  “Is it that simple?” will work as therapy for me in a way.  Now before you start reading any of the future blog posts, please remember that these are my opinions, and my beliefs, and that I respect other people’s opinions just like my own.  My views are never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.  So please respect my opinions as I would respect anyone else’s.  One other thing I want to mention is that I am no expert in these fields.  I am no Pollan.  I am no Schlosser.  I may exaggerate or say things that only experts would know are incorrect.  I am a simply a smart, logical college student who is trying to put pieces together slowly to solve our puzzle of chaos.  So please be bias in your thoughts and please feel free to comment on my posts about your criticisms, respectfully of course.