Potential Topics

I'm very interested in health & nutrition so that is what most of my topics focus on.
1.What is the 'paleo' diet & is it healthy?
This diet is often referred to as the caveman diet because it focuses on eating like our ancestors did way back in the day. It consists of foods that can be hunted & gathered. This diet is high in protein and doesn't allow processed food. Since dairy and grains are cut out I think it would be really interesting to figure out how people eat paleo but still get all the nutrients they need.
2. What makes your diet 'clean'?
Clean eating generally means no processed foods or refined grains (white flour & rice that have been stripped of nutrients). It means you avoid any ingredient that is long and you can't pronounce. I have always wanted to commit myself and try this but I'm not sure where to start. I need to make this more specific though because a clean diet is very broad. I could look into why ingredients you can't pronounce are bad for you and that is why you should eat clean.
3. The mental struggles of eating disorder recovery?
Recovering from an ED takes maybe only 3 months physically but it is a mental struggle for a lot longer. Once your body weight is healthy again you still want to restrict even though you know your are at a good weight. One of my closest friends is going through this right now and I can see the meal plan but not the mental battle she goes through. I think studying this topic would help me be of better support to her because I would understand the reasons why she can't eat. She knows she needs to but she can't and I find it would be helpful to know why she feels this way.
4. Is organic food actually better/more nutritious? Are there certain foods that are & some that it doesn't matter?
I bought organic cereal the other day, because it was on sale, and it got me thinking if it was actually any better for me than normal cereal. I have also heard that it is important to buy organic spinach but for other veggies it doesn't matter. I would be interested in figuring out which foods it matters for (if it matters for any) & why it only applies to some foods.
5. Healthy substitutions you can make while baking.
On a lot of health blogs I follow they post recipes that replace the unhealthy ingredients with healthier options. Like apple sauce can replace oil. I want to find out sort of the chemistry of why that works.I would also look into if it decreases the taste/quality of the product. I have made a few recipes using the substitutions and for the most part they work out nicely & I want to know why.

Justify Topic Choices - Traveling to Europe

I would love to travel around Europe. 

     You would think that taking 6 years of French means I love the language. I do enjoy it but I like learning about the culture much more. I have been in French club since freshman year and this year I am an officer. France always has lots of fun activities going on and I would love to visit during one of them. Since I like French food so much I would love to go to 'le diner en blanc'. Its where everyone wears white and meets in town with picnic foods and has a giant party. 

     I also watch a lot of YouTubers from the UK and it looks like an amazing place to visit. This is a vlog that has most of the youtubers I enjoy hanging out together in London. In a lot of videos they go to restaurants or cool locations that I would want to check out if I visited. They go to the restaurants Nandos & Wagamamas. I believe we have one or two of these in America but I'm not going to be in California any time soon (or London but a girl can dream). I really enjoy watching their vlogs because they are just normal people so if I go to the UK, I can do what they do. They are in London a lot but they also go to other cities around the UK that I would want to visit. When you read a cities tourist website you only see the best bits they are trying to sell. Through the vlogs you get to see all the little quirks of the city which is what makes it so appealing to visit. It gives the city a personality. 

     I think it would be cool to stay in London for like a summer and visit neighboring countries for little weekend getaways. I would visit France and Italy the most or for the most time because I love France & I'm Italian  I would probably book a ride on the Eurail because it would be quick transport to different countries. Once I'm in the country though I would walk, ride a bike, or take the metro to get where I want. This link takes you to a map of Europe and shows where the Eurail goes. I could pretty much reach any city I wanted in a reasonable about of time.  

PDF of the Eurail

      I can speak French but I don’t think I would like being somewhere that doesn't speak English for an extended period of time. I have found that outside of the UK the best way to avoid a language barrier is to stay at hotels and in big cities. I don't have much interest in the back countries so I think I'd be fine with that. 

     This picture shows the knowledge of English in Europe. The darker the green, the longer I would feel comfortable staying there.






     I would love to go when I’m younger without a family or major responsibilities but I won't have the money to do that for a while so that’s not going to happen. It would still be nice to visit when I’m older and have a more stable life. I think it would be fun to stay at least a night in each country in Europe. 

Users

     To me, I think one of the strongest aspects of this article is that the author interviewed a variety of people who used the neuro-enhancers for different purposes. Since she started with Alex, a student, it kept me interested because I could relate to his reasons for using. If he wasn't a Harvard student he wouldn't have had the same incentives to 'abuse' Aderall. By taking the drug he now had more hours in the day and therefore could have a well-rounded life. Even though his academics would've taken all of his time, by adding 4 hours to his day he could actually go out to a party. Nicholas used neuro-enhancers as one of many ways to try and push his body to maximum performance. He was eating a power bowl every day for breakfast that didn't need to taste good; it just needed to stay down. Unlike Alex, he didn't have a doctors prescription or recommendation to use it. He simple read articles online and decided he wanted to take Piracetam.
     The user that interested me most was Paul Phillips. My dad and his friends have poker parties two to three times a month so I am very familiar with the game. He said that Adderall "helped him resist the impulse to keep playing losing hands out of boredom." I can see this as being very useful in poker. Since the cards being dealt are completely random you are just as likely to get twenty bad hands in a row as every other hand being playable. I know that my dad has told me after a poker night that he was bored so he went all in or made a big play. The article provided an abundance of studies that supported the fact that neuro-enhancers do help people who don't show a need for the drug (Chatterjee and Farah). But, since Phillips met the criteria to be diagnosed with ADHD then the pills effect him how doctors want them to. Phillips clearly had the strategy down, but one of the most important things about playing poker is staying aware and on your feet. He couldn't stay focused for the 14 hour tournaments so he didn't start winning money until taking Adderall was part of his daily routine. One of the reasons my dad and his friends don't have to stay so focused is being they are playing the same people over and over again. They already know the habits of the people they are playing & that can help them decide how much to bet. Phillips on the other hand was playing mostly new people every tournament. Having better focus gives him an edge on his opponents. If he notices a certain tick someone has when they are bluffing that can change his game play, for the better, drastically. He had a doctors prescription so I don't see how it could be banned from poker tournaments. Yes, as we learned through this article, people can fake the need or take advantage of their prescription, but there is no way to fairly decide who can take it before a tournament and who can't.
      Phillips didn't suffer from any disadvantages of the neuro-enhancers other than Adderall left him a little "jittery" and Provigil has had a gradual loss of intensity. Because of the lack of negatives he experienced I would say this is an endorsement for neuro-enhancers.

Hello

I'm Katie and this is my blog for capstone.