Blogpost 4: Sunny Delight Orange Juice

Food companies use various health claims to appeal to the public eye. In many cases however, these product health claims can be very deceiving. Therefore, it is important for the public to seek the truth hiding behind the deceiving words.

A product I wish to analyze is “Sunny delight orange juice.” This drink is among the most popular kid drinks in American, with an estimated $450 million revenue annually. Its company Procter and gamble targets health-promoting mothers, suggesting that the sunny delight orange juice is a better option than a regular soft drink. The company proposes that the juice is a tangy citrus punch with 100% vitamin C. It does not take much for the mothers to believe this, because the drink appears to look like a typical orange juice at sight. However, Director Michael F. Jacobson, a CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) Executive Director thinks differently. He believes that the Sunny delight orange juice is a fake juice, designed to deceive the public. He claims that the juice is essentially sugar water with insignificant amounts of juice and vitamins added to it. Jacobson also writes that the juice is a little more than an orange soft drink, without the bubbles. In a fruit juice article “Just say no to Sunny-D,” Jillita Horton states that the actual real fruit juice in Sunny-D includes only 2 % or less of the ingredients and advises the public to watch out for the artificial juice.

The truth of the Sunny Delight orange juice is unfortunately, just as the experts stated. Seeing the Ingredients label at the back of the juice, it states that the juice consists of water, high fructose and syrup, artificial color (Yellow #5, #6) and preservatives (Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Sodium Benzoate). It specifically writes also, that there are 2% or less of the concentrated juice. Therefore, I concluded that the claims made by Sunny-D juice are very misleading and deceiving.

Knowing the real deal behind the fancy labels of the Sunny delight juice, I would not recommend this product to anyone seeking a healthy drink. I am certain that this artificial drink would not be of any help to those promoting a healthy diet. A healthier option would be to buy a juice that has a label that says 100% juice. I would recommend the Minute made frozen 100% orange juice. This frozen juice is not only cheaper than regular carton orange juice, but tastes better also. In a world where artificial products are called real food, it is important for the public to watch out for what they are eating.

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Blogpost 5: Analyzing "Dining out: more than just eating"

I have reviewed the article called “Dining out: more than just eating.” My instructor posted a link to this article in the class blog. The article, written by Jennifer Fischer, was originally posted in a Subaru website. It contained many visual aids to keep me focused and provided an overview of the history of eating out. The article also presented an interesting viewpoint on what it really means to dine out.

Dining out has been a long tradition in the course of world history. The historians state that the tradition of dining out began in 18^th century France, where it served a practical purpose of providing for the hungry travelers. However, after the French Industrial revolution, dining out became more of a display of one’s social status. The noble class made dining out a great public show. The restaurants were extremely luxurious to suit the nobles at the time; they had multicourse feasts and live performances that lasted for hours. Then, as time surpassed, the bourgeoisies (wealthy people who are not born noble) and the middle class started to imitate this practice. The imitation was largely due to the their belief in “egalitarianism,” the belief in human equality. Now, eating in restaurants was not just for the wealthy people, but also for anyone who could afford to do so.

The popularity of restaurants soon spread throughout the world. As a result, numerous cultural restaurants began to form in order to satisfy various tastes. Today, dining out has become more than just satisfying the basic human needs. People dine out to celebrate, to explore different tastes, to network, and to take a break from the real world. Dining out developed into a social event.

The outside source linked below advocates the statements made in the article. Like the article, it states that people eat to enjoy a good meal with their family, friend or a business associate. The source also suggests another positive aspect of eating out: eating the best food without having to worry about any other things. Lastly, they say that eating out is an experience.

I read this article, thinking that it would talk about the negative aspects of dining out to convince me to eat at home. However, I realized that I was wrong as I scrolled down the pages. I was surprised at the approach the writer took on the issue of dining out. It was odd reading about the positive aspects of eating out, because I was always told that eating out was an unhealthy practice. The article opened my eyes to a new perspective on the issue and I was able to conclude that eating out can be quite delightful. To put this into action, I arranged a time this weekend to eat out with some of my close friends.

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Demonstration Speech: Bubbletea

My informative speech was performed on Monday, the 26^th of October. My topic was “How to make a Bubble smoothie.” I chose this topic because I wanted to share a taste of Asian culture to the class and have fun making bubble smoothie in class.

The overall content of the substance of my speech was tolerable. The introduction was well presented with the use of power point slides, as I explained the history of bubble drink. The phrases following the bullet points were clear and concise and made it easy for the class to follow along. The organization, explaining the order of steps, was really vague. I did not clearly announce the order of steps and appeared to have one too many steps. My information content was useful because the class as able to experience some Asian culture and learn how make bubble smoothie at home. I was not able to sum up my speech with a conclusion because I exceeded the time limit. This was due to a lack of practice in my part. I did go over the demonstration several times at home, but I failed to consider time as a part of it. I could have shortened my presentation time by pre-making the bubbles.

The visual aids used in my speech were creative. My two visual aids were the power point and my personal demonstration. The two linked closely to one another as one explained the background and the other explained the process, respectively. They both contributed to the overall speech effectively. It was helpful to use the power point slides at the beginning of my speech because it grabbed the class’ attention before I proceeded to my actual demonstration.

I lacked many aspects in delivering my speech. I could not express enough enthusiasm towards my topic because I failed to look up to give eye contact to the class and did not speak loud and clear enough. I tried my best to look confident and professional, I was too nervous. Body language was shown mostly during my power point presentation. The pace of my speech was good, but the cooking took too long.

The overall effectiveness of my speech was decent. I had audience interaction at the end of my speech by offering the class to try the bubble smoothie. Although my demonstration may have been too long, I believe that the information I provided was sufficient enough for the purpose of the speech.

In my opinion, my strength was the visual part of the speech and my weakness was the delivering and the time part of the speech. To have a better presentation in the future, I need continuous practice.

Looking back at my topic now, I believe that I could have chosen an easier topic, but I do not regret my choice. Bubble drink is such a traditional Asian drink that I am really glad that I had a chance to share it with the class. I really hope that they learned something about Asian culture through my speech.

I still have many regrets for my demonstration and believe that I really could have done something to make it better, but it was a good experience. I will attempt to improve my weakness in my next speech through more practices. Practice makes perfect!