I felt that my summary of the entire article was something easy to do, especially since my article was short and straightforward. I fear this might not have been the case if the article was longer and had more complex wording. For the summary assignment, I struggled most with developing a clear cut thesis statement, especially since I was struggling a bit with determining what MY purpose was for writing about the NYT article. This makes me think of the learning objective “formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing,” because I am not able to formulate and state what my paper will be about from the beginning, sometimes it becomes clear in my conclusion and ending remarks.
Diet is a common topic that is discussed in the world today. With the fast-pace present in the life of today’s consumers, especially in an area like New York City, there has been a rise in processed foods because of its time efficiency. In other words, processed foods seem more appealing because they tend to be easily available for consumption. With this rise in processed foods, the topics of a people’s diets have also become more popular causing a correlation to be made between people’s diets and their overall health. The words obesity and cardiovascular diseases have become commonplace and, in part, they are attributed to the foods people are eating. Nicholas Bakalar has an article which addresses a topic going a step further than most- “Eating Processed Foods Tied to Shorter Life”. This article was published by Bakalar in The New York Times on February 12, 2019. Bakalar speaks of poor diets, especially those high in processed foods, and how they can lead to the highest risk of all: death. In order to reduce confusion on what processed foods might be, Bakalar gives a variety of examples, ranging from breakfast cereals to energy bars, instant noodles to chicken nuggets. In other words, he stated that they are foods “containing numerous ingredients and manufactured using industrial processes” (Bakalar, 2019). Bakalar’s article references a study made in France on over 44,000 people averaging at 58 years old, extending over a course of eight years. Over this time period, there were 602 reported deaths, which Balakar mentions were mostly from cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Bakalar then goes on to say that it is suggested that different aspects of processed foods can be considered contaminants and carcinogens- making it associated with the common causes of death in the study. The purpose of this study is not necessarily one of causation between processed foods and mortality; however, it does establish a correlation, that as processed food consumption increases by 10% risk of death increased by 14%. When looking at Bakalar’s article, it is not evident to see who his audience is, nor whether he is a scientist himself. The article deals with an extremely important topic, and one that is much more complex than the article seems to give off in its brevity. However, it can be imagined that Bakalar’s article is aimed more at the general public than towards learned individuals based on his common language and straightforwardness. Another aspect that hints at his possible general audience is the way he ends his article. Bakalar differentiates between whether death is caused by eating processed foods or if it is simply associated with it. Bakalar does not want to alarm anyone, instead it seems he intends to educate people of a possibility they need to look out for. He does not seem to be screaming out “never eat processed foods ever again” but he does want people to be aware that processed foods in excess are likely to be associated with an early death. It is brought to the attention of the public that this is an area which is being further researched- something to be considered but not yet to be alarmed about.
References
Bakalar, N. Feb. 12, 2019. Eating Processed Foods Tied to Shorter Life. New York Times[Internet]. [cited 2019 February 13]; Available from:
