Ted Talk Analysis: "What’s Wrong With Our Food System?” by Birke Baehr

    For my TED Talk analysis, I will be looking at “What’s Wrong With Our Food System?” by Birke Baehr. Baehr’s passion for this topic is very apparent, and equally impressive, considering the fact that he is only 11 years old. He effectively uses pathos, which is emotional persuasion, as his main rhetorical appeal. He starts out the presentation by talking about the way that marketing and advertisements for unhealthy foods are directed at children by their bright packaging. Seeing a kid talk about the way that it directly affects him and his siblings makes you stop and think about the effect it actually has. Birke uses humor about his age to get the crowd laughing. Seeing a young person so passionate about making a change is encouraging and refreshing for viewers to see. The effect the video seems to have is that if an 11 year-old cares so much and can make a change, then so can the audience. It leaves people feeling empowered and motivated to make better health-conscious decisions.  Instead of just addressing the issue, he shows ways that we can help make a difference, such as purchasing from local farmers markets and eating organic food. Baehr has a very innocent charm about him, and by telling stories about his life and family, he creates a connection between him and the audience. He also uses logos, the logical form of persuasion, as an appeal to the viewer. By displaying a practical/non-time consuming way to live a healthier lifestyle, it leaves little room for excuses for poor eating. He addresses the argument of healthy eating being too expensive, and says “It seems to me that we can either pay the farmer, or we can pay the hospital.” His point is very logical, and sheds a new light on healthy eating. As far as ethos, the use of credibility and authority, I would definitely not consider it to be one of his means of persuasion. Being the young age he is, he doesn’t have experience on his side. With that being said, it does not negatively affect his argument because of the fact that people are not expecting credibility from him. Using emotional and logical persuasion, he got his point across very clearly and left a positive effect on the audience.
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Review of Rhetorical Appeals

There are three rhetorical appeals. The first is Ethos, which relies on the credibility/authority of the author. You would do this in a fashion similar to this: “Because I have a PHD from Harvard University and am a doctor at the worlds most renowned nutritional center, you can trust me when I say that you just need to eat an apple a day to maintain your health.”

The next is Pathos. It makes its appeal by playing on emotion. For example, pathos would be saying “If you really loved and cared about helpless animals all over the world, you would donate 10 cents a day to fund our organization that helps save abandoned kittens.”

Logos uses logic to reason with the reader. An example of this would be: “If the grass is green,  then the sky must be blue.”

An advertisement using all three rhetorical appeals would look something like this:

ALL NEW!!! MUST HAVE!!!! Brand new, completely refurbished VHS player, originally from 1996! The greatest model of it’s year, with all new flashing lights! Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, just got his and states that “Buying this has been the best thing I have done this year!”. If you love your country and want to help bring our troops back, then you need to buy this! If you order within the next 3 days then we will throw in a complete collection of Mel Gibson tapes, including “Braveheart”, “Patriot” and “Pocahontas”!!! In case you need even more of a reason to buy this revolutionary product, a study was done last year that proves that watching 3 hours of TV a day on this VHS player will improve cognitive function, therefore it is an investment in your health! If you still have doubts about whether or not this is the right product for you, you clearly have not been emotionally, logically or authoritatively persuaded by this advertisement, and we want you to call us at (678) 999-8212 and tell us what reasons you have for not buying this! You do not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to own such a radical, life-changing inanimate object!!!!

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Review of Annotated Bibliography

    The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to gather all of your sources of information and evaluate them for your researched argument. Knowing the history of your research is vital to have a better direction and understanding of where you want to go with your argument. Also, having sources from different perspectives on the topic will help with making unbiased assessments. After creating my annotated bibliography, I had more knowledge about the subject and a clear understanding of the point I wanted to make. It also made me examine different aspects of it that I had not considered before, creating more substance for my final paper. Annotated bibliographies are a solid foundation to build up from and are useful for anyone doing research of any kind. Having everything in one place and summarized in your own words helps you to better absorb the information. The research for the bibliography does take a substantial amount of muddling through irrelevant information in order to find the appropriate information, but through the process of it, you learn a lot about all areas of the topic. I think by doing this, you could potentially broaden the range of what you initially intended, and maybe even morph it into something completely new. It is a way to get you to delve in to your subject matter, and can serve as an inspiration for your paper. By reading through so many sources, you get a better understanding of the different ways that the authors present their arguments, and see how they articulate their points. Some are very factual and straight to the point, maybe even difficult to read, and some tend to use their words as a tool to persuade people to their side. Examining the writing methods and how they are used to connect with different types of audience helps to make more conscious decisions of who you are trying to address. The research required for the annotated bibliography also serves as a way to look at the style presentation of peoples work and what effect it has on the overall portrayal of the point they are trying to get across. When it actually comes to writing the researched argument, you will have a reference of every source you have taken from, giving you a strong base for your paper.
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Review of Sources

In searching for the material for my argumentative paper, I came up with some information that I believe will be very valid in making the points.

The source that I believe best agrees with my argument is “Breaking the Vicious Cycle:Intestinal Health Through Diet.”. Even though the title implies that is all about intestinal health, it actually makes a link between a certain way of eating and the neurological system. It recommends a diet called “The Specific Carbohydrate Diet” which is essentially a meat, vegetable and fruit based diet. It describes the way that carbohydrates break down into glucose in your body, and the way the glucose affects your nervous system, potentially increasing the symptoms of autism. My doctor gave me this book because of some neurological symptoms I was exhibiting as a child, and it has showed me the importance of a healthy mind through a healthy diet.

The source that disagrees with my argument is called “Primary Care Approaches. Diet and Child Behavior Problems: Fact or Fiction?”. In this article, the author claims that diet does not affect children with ADHD and autism, and any changes in the child are due to placebo or change in parental discipline practices. They also state that parents are looking for “magic cures” for these diseases instead of focusing on the “successful treatment [through] educational, behavioral and parental interventions.”

My favorite source is “Autism and Diet: Is There a Connection?”. The author of this article, William L. Wilson, shows different scenarios of how diet can affect autism, as either a trigger, a secondary trigger, or even an overlapping brain disorder. He assumes an unbiased stance on the subject, taking into account research from both sides of the argument and current, indefinite studies. He also looks into a study showing that there could be a common pathological process between brain disorders, including ADHD, anxiety disorders and OCD. He proposes the idea of a disease called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome (CARB), claiming that our recent changes in modern diet could be triggering neurological symptoms, or in his words “Adding gas to a fire.”.

Overall, I am happy with my selection of sources, and if I end up changing any of them, it will be to narrow my argument in order to concentrate on a more specific aspect of the topic.

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For my paper, I have chosen to write about the way that carbohydrates affect the neurological system. This topic interests me because I was diagnosed with a nerve disorder when I was eleven years old. I was able to control it through natural supplements and a diet my doctor put me on, called “The Specific Carbohydrate Diet”. On this diet, I was restricted from eating any complex carbohydrates and some simple carbohydrates. Over the span of a year and a half of doing this, almost all of my symptoms went away. Eventually, I was able to get off of the diet and just monitor the amount of carbohydrates that I consumed. I would like to better educate myself for the reasoning behind all of this, so I can share my experience in this area with other people who are struggling. Many doctors will just prescribe medication to people who are desperate for answers. By being educated on this issue, people will see that there are alternative solutions and be able to decide for themselves what is right. Would it be beneficial for everyone with neurological issues to take this route, or does it vary from person to person? What about other disorders? I would like to find out how carbohydrates are directly linked to the neurological system, and what other kind of factors could play a part in it. If it really is the most direct link, then I am curious as to why it is not spoken about more for people with tourettes, autism and other disorders. Although not as convenient as taking a pill, could an entire lifestyle change help manage these conditions? If this approach is as beneficial as it seems to be, the pros outweigh the cons by a longshot. As a rule, we should be focusing on how to naturally restore our body's chemical balance, instead of instinctively turning to medication that drastically alters all the chemicals in our body, leaving side-effects that can be just as bad as the initial issue. Maybe if we had this mindset we would be able to change our unhealthy living habits, when we have armed ourselves with pertinent information that will ensure our success if we persevere. 

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Skills to be Learned

    I have a lot of skills that I wish to acquire through this class, the first being how to integrate and synthesize sources. Just within these past few classes I have seen the importance of doing so, and how it can lend a voice and add credibility to your argument, when done in the correct way. I would also like to learn how to properly outline and logically organize thoughts. This has never been my strong-suit in writing, which hinders me from being able to accurately convey and present my ideas in an understandable way. This is a very important foundation in writing a convincing paper, and something that would benefit me greatly in the future. The next thing I would like to improve is being able to write longer papers. Being able to write an informative paper that doesn’t feel dragged along is a difficult task. It is a skill that requires discernment in knowing how to include enough information that leaves your readers knowledgeable about the subject, but also keeps things to the point and minimizes unnecessary details that will induce confusion. Another skill that I would like to gain is knowing what to do when I get stuck. There have been many times that I have reached a place where ideas and thoughts stop flowing. I am left trying to force words out, which results in poor quality writing that disconnects the readers from what I am trying to express. Learning how to circumvent writer’s block would help me immensely. Lastly, I want to have a better understanding of how to read college level sources and how to collect the appropriate information from them, making sure that everything is relevant to my topic. I believe writing is a skill that must be learned. I hope that the classes and the resources that I will be using will help me to organize and glean the information to make my writing become a skill in which I can express my thoughts and opinions. It is important to me that I convey ideas well enough that others will be interested enough to read what I have to say.

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Response to "How to Live to be 100" TED Talk

I watched a few different TED Talks this week, but the one that stuck out to me the most was “How to Live to be 100” by Dan Buettner. In this video, he looks at areas of the world where life expectancy is the longest, and examines what kind of lifestyle they live and the kind of food they eat, compared to how we live here in the US. One of the main differences I saw is that the people have more health oriented eating habits. They eat smaller portion sizes and stop when full, while the American lifestyle is about instant gratification, which includes fast food and very little exercise. While I wasn’t surprised to hear that the majority of the people in these other areas consumed a mostly plant-based diet, I was intrigued to see that the common denominator in all of these places is their community mindedness. They prioritize relationships with the people around them and take time to enjoy each other’s company. In a few of the studies, the population mostly consisted of religious, church-going people that took a day out of each week to fellowship, worship and enjoy nature. It makes you wonder how much our every-day, stress filled lives deplete our health. I also found it interesting that most of the people do not exercise, at least not in the way that we think of it. Instead of trying to make time for working out, they incorporate it in everything they do, whether it be harvesting crops or cooking. They do not enable laziness by trying to make their lives more convenient. In all of these places, the people seem to value hard work, and most importantly, each other.

          After watching this, I had to question what we can do to have a less-stressful lifestyle in our current society. It seems as though the whole of American life is aimed at climbing the ladder to achieve a higher social status and more wealth, which according to Dan’s study, is not conducive to a long life. My goal is now to develop better relationships with family and friends, and pursue healthier physical, mental and spiritual health.

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