and promote a healthy lifestyle!
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Friday, May 4, 2007
Hello!!
Since this is the official last post for this bio blog, (yes, I can hear your desperate PLEAS for more to come), I shall, as a representative for ABCD, declare the three snacks/foods that we find most unhealthy!
(This is a VERY IMPORTANT annoncement ok! =))
Just a little note. Since the three foods I will be mentioning about has already been mentioned in one way or another in this blog, for this post, I will use real examples to illustrate and emphasise its unhealthiness. Moreover, the decision, ultimately, was made from our point of view. What we feel might be fatal to health may not, to you, be of as vast an importance as it is to us. In a nutshell, THIS DECISION IS SUBJECTIVE. haaha...here goes!
ONE) COKE!
IT'S SIZE MAY NOT BE IMPOSING, BUT THIS PETITE CAN OF COKE ACTUALLY CONTAINS 5-7 SPOONS OF SUGAR!! Seriously! I cannot get over this fact. I mean, it's like taking in 6-7 teaspoons of sugar, just in liquid form. WORST!!! COKE CONTAINS A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER TOXINS! I mean, come on! Look at this:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years...
CLEAN ENGINE? (AND WASH TOILET BOWL TOO) IS MY THROAT AN ENGINE ????
And here are my evidences!
REAL Evidence 1: Remeber aspartame? Well, it is said that coke removed all ostensible Nutrasweet and Equal labels from their diet products' cans, but are forced to include aspartame in the ingredients list. And guess what? about 78% of all complaints to the Food and Drug Administration are about adverse reactions to aspartame!
REAL Evidence 2: In a hospital in Zambia, half of the patients in the child clinic received the diagnosis "Fanta baby" in the journals. The disease is caused by malnutrition, since the children were raised on Coca-Cola.
(The government eventually banned Coca-cola from continuing their campaign, since they had a bad influence on the people)
REAL Evidence 3: In a study that the Food Department in Rio de Janeiro conducted in 1991, they found that children between 6 & 14 years consumed very large quantities of Coke. These children showed all the signs of malnutrition in the shape of vitamin deficiency, and the children from the poorest families also suffered protein deficiency.
good or bad? the choice is yours
[THE CHOICE IS SOOOOOO OBVIOUS!]
TWO) FRIES (in this case, Mac's)
WHEN A GUY WILLINGLY PUTS HIS HEATH ON THE LINE JUST TO SHOOT A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT FAST FOOD TO WAKE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE UP, YOU GOT TO KNOW SOMETHING IS EXTREMELY WRONG.
Think of fast-food, and you think of MacDonalds. Think of Mac's, and you think of either french fries or Big Mac (Well, most of the time thats the case, right?). However, few realise that fast-food = junk food and junk = trash. NOT THAT WE ARE EATING GARBAGE OF COURSE BUT WHAT IM REALLY SAYING IS THAT WE ARE KILLING OURSELVES BY EATING FAST FOOD.
So back to my point. Why french fries and not Big Mac? After all, it does have more calories (560 compared to 450 for a large packet of fries) and more fats (28 vs 22). However, if you comapre the portions, french fries are a smaller portion as comapared to big mac.
MOREOVER, the main thing that bugs us is really the fact that french fries are usually taken as an appetiser/ side dish/snack. And if your side dish is already so unhealthy, WHAT ABOUT YOUR MEAL THEN? (I dare not think about it). Moreover, as a snack, it becomes all the more worst, because it is not your main course for the day and yet the fat and/or calories intake is already so high!
And this is not only the reason why we chose fries over the burger, but also the answer to why we chose fries as one of our top 3 choices!
The best example: THE UBER-INTRGUING MOVE SUPER SIZE ME!
Example 1: (from documentary)
I remember there was one part in either this show or fast food nation where the main actor placed fries and all of mac's burgers into separate hars and left it there to rot. After 1 week, most of the burgers looked absolutely disgusting, but the freis looked normal!! Sicne the jars were supposed to act like the digestive process of the stomach, it was amazing howgood the french fries looked even after almsot 2 weeks! (as comapred to hte other burgers, of course!)
Example 2: (from super size me)
Before launching this experiment, Spurlock, age 32 in 2003, ate a vegan diet, was healthy and slim, and stood 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall with a body weight of 185.5 lb (84.1 kg). After thirty days, he gained 24.5 lb (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, and his Body Mass Index rose from 23.2 (within the 'healthy' range of 19-25) to 27 ('overweight'). He also experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and nearly had a catastrophic liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight he gained.
SEE?????
(this was a bit difficult to determine since they were all very unhealthy but..)
THREE) a very delicious plate of Hokkien Mee
Although i am aware that in the earlier post, it was said that hokkien mee had around 16grammes of fat per serving. However, if you calculate it base on one plate, then there would be 75 grammes of fat!!!! (which was also said in the earlier post!)
However, what I want to highlight is that the statistics in that post did not include the noodles (which means much more starch is involved!) as well as certain ingredients, notably pork (which means the exclusion of A LOT of oil and fat!) Furthermore, if you carefully think about it, hokkien mee is made up of many unhealthy things in fused together. Therefore, it is uber unhealthy!!
Also, note that we mentioned "a very delicious plate of..". This is because, in a typical delicious plate of hokkien mee, there will NEVER be the exclusion of the fried lard cubes thing!! AND THT FEW CUBES IS ENTIRELY FAT AND OIL!! (Good Hokkien mee uses a lot of lard and oil to fry too!)
There is also cockles used for the seafood aspect of it, and cockles is known to be one of the causes of hepatitis A!!!
Though thereis no notable/widespread effect of eating hokkien mee since it is a local delight, the main unhealthy factor is the large amounts of oil and lard used, and this will inevitably cause obesiety in many.
WHAT'S SO BAD?
More than half of American adults are overweight or obese. An additional 6 million are "super obese" – they weight about 100 pounds more than they should. No nation in history has gotten so fat, so fast. And obviously, obesity is the roots of many health prblems, from the risk of having heart diseases to the blockage of certain bloog vessels. Therefore, if we do not stop this intake of hokkin mee (and therefore continue eating lard), then obseity will continue to rise, as will the many heath problems that follow thereafter.
Yupp. So in essence, the three most unhealthy foods, as we have concluded from the foods we have studied,are:
Coke (this is definitely the MOST unhealthy)
Fries
Hokkien Mee
Kinda sad that a famous local delight is so unhealthy, ain't it?
That's besides the point. THE POINT IS - ABSTAIN FROM THESE FOODS! AS WELL AS ALL THE OTHER UNHEALTHY FOODS WE HAVE DISCUSSED ABOUT IN THIS BLOG ( AND POSSIBLY FUTURE FOODS WE WILL TALK ABOUT AS WELL!)
GOODBYE OFFICIAL POSTINGS! I WILL PROBABLY MISS YOU! <3
(references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me,
http://www.frot.co.nz/wheels/coca-cola.htm,
http://www.dietfacts.com,
http://www.boundless.org/2000/departments/campus_culture/a0000435.html)
Well, since cheryl did a "report" on a drink, I shall do one on a drink too. This drink that I'm about to introduce [i cant really use this word here since everyone knows it already, but nevermind] is Cola, otherwise known as soda.
Cola is a sweet carbonated drink, usually with caramel colouring and containing caffeine. The name Cola comes from kola nuts which were originally used in early soft drinks as the source of caffeine. They later stopped using kola nuts as it was found to be carcinogenic, which basically means cancer-causing. Thank goodness they removed it. However, does that make Cola a healthy drink?
Obviously, the answer would be a no. An average can of cola has 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, artificial food colors and sulphites. That is crazy. 10 teaspoons of sugar in just one small can of cola!
This is how i picture of can of cola now:
oh my, this is going to put me off cola for a long while. hahah.
So what is it that Cola do that makes it so unhealthy?
Most nutritionists advise that Coca-Cola and other soft drinks can be harmful if consumed excessively, particularly to young children whose soft drink consumption competes with, rather than complements, a balanced diet. Studies have shown that regular soft drink users have a lower intake of calcium, magnesium, ascorbic acid, riboflavin and vitamin A.
The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, due to the possibility of physical dependence. Giving caffeine products to small children is not recommended. When children drink pop or caffeine products they are consuming additional calories that do not contain important nutrients.
For example, if a small child drinks 2 cans of pop per day instead of milk, they are missing the opportunity to get almost 50% of the calcium (as mentioned earlier) that they need for proper bone growth during this important stage of their life. This may lead to a risk of developing osteoporoses later in life.
There is also some concern regarding the usage of high fructose corn syrup in the production of Coca-Cola. Since 1985 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup, instead of sugar glucose or fructose, to reduce costs. This has come under criticism because of concerns that the corn used to produce corn syrup may come from genetically altered plants. Some nutritionists also caution against consumption of high fructose corn syrup because of possible links to obesity and diabetes [which I have talked about the risk factors earlier].
Aren't all theses enough to show that Coke is extremely unhealthy? If you still aren't convinced, for any reasons, here's an article that will shock you for sure.
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY IF YOU DRINK A COKE RIGHT NOW?
In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
If you still aren't convinced about the harmful effects of drinking Coke, I would have nothing to say.
So, conclusion of the day:
COKE IS EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY [i can't emphasize it enough] UNHEALTHY! AVOID DRINKING AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!
Credits:
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Hello!
I'm kinda pissed cause my entire post got deleted but nevermind! I will just write it again!
Anyways. I realised that we have been investigating food in the solid form so today, I have decided to do another state of matter - liquid!
Basically, decided to do coffee because coffee is so prevalent in today's society. Haha.Imagine this:
In the wee hours of the night, the house is pitch dark. However, there is a stream of light coming from a table lamp in the room. Going closer, you find an individual sitting at a desk, his table piled with stacks and stacks of documents. Then, he picks up his cup of coffee and takes a sip, and then continues ploughing through his documents. Just then, you spot 3 other cups on the table, all empty, but with coffee stains on the sides...
Ok. So it's imagination and exaggeration but the idea is this: people are so so reliant on coffee!! And worst still, it's not just working adults but teenagers as well that rely on coffee! Trust me, there are schooling students that need at least one cup every morning or else they will be walking zombies for the rest of the day...Therefore, it's a serious societal problem!
But, can people really become addicted to coffee? Or is it just a psychological thing?
Actually, it really depends on your personal definition of "addiction". Most people don't consider coffee to be an addiction mainly because so many people drink it!
I don't really know how to explain this. Erm. In an exaggerated manner, you could then say that people are addicted to meat because the majority of the world's population consume meat at least a few times a week! (If they have the means to, that is )
But you cannot really say that people are addicted to meat, can you? So in the same stream of thought, one cannot really say people are addicted to coffee because of its immense popularity!
Moreover, coffee is not associated with the typical symptons/behaviour that would occur when one takes hard drugs or smokes. If coffee, however, were addicted, then these symptons would occur - need for more and more coffee, anti-social behavior, severe difficulty stopping consumption.
On the other hand, if one day, a daily drinker decides to cut it out of his/her diet entirely, then he/she may develop headaches, fatigue or drowsiness.
So like I said earlier, it depends on your definition of addiction. However, if you ask me, it's more of reliance and the body's adaptation. Because if you are so reliant on coffee, then your body would naturally get used to the idea of having coffeee in your system. Therefore, if it is suddenly deprived of this liquid, it would definitely react to the sudden change.
So what's the solution to eliminating coffee?
The trick is really to GRADUALLY decrease your caffeine intake rather than eliminate coffee cold turkey. And if you should get a headache due to caffeine withdrawal, there is always anacin to cometo the rescue! Anacin, which is essentially pain killers. However, certain anacins (the ones that you should take for this coffee thing) contain both asprin (to relieve pain) and small amounts of caffeine. So yeah, bacially, based on my "evaluation", it is just gradually minimising your caffeine intake as well as suppressing any discomfort/pain you receive.
Now for the bad effects of coffee. I'm sure everyone knows that it stains your teeth and gives you really bad breath. But there are other bad effects:
1. Hypertension
Caffeine can raise blood pressure for a few minutes, and in some cases hours. However, this uaually only apllies to people who already have hypertension. If you do, a cup of coffee may temporarily raise blood pressure, thus increasing the risk of having a stoke!
2. Heart disease
Caffeine can cause irregular or fast heartbeat. Moreover, if you consume six or more cups daily, then the risk of having cardiac arrest is increased much more. And just to clarify things further, this study was conducted with NONsmokers, so for those who want to use "ai ya, these people msut be smokers lah" as an excus, sorry to burst your bubble! (iuts kinda funny how we always find excuses for ourselves? I'm guilty too, sometimes...)
3. Headaches
Although caffeine does increase the effectiveness of headache medicines (like anacin, excredin), these combined products can actually cause rebound headaches. This is actually affectionally known as the “take a pill feel better, then worse” cycle! Therefore, such over-the-counter medications shouldn’t be used for more than two days at a time.
4. PMS
Caffeine acts as a diuretic and should decrease discomfort and bloat. However, it can also cause a fall in blood sugar, which increases symptoms of PMS. There can be a three-fold increase in PMS if we drink more than three to four cups of coffee a day! So it's like one cup one fold?!
5. Bladder conditions
Caffeine speeds up the kidneys’ processing of fluid, as such. we have to go more frequently. It can also irritate the bladder, leading to certain forms of incontinence.
6. Sleep!
Caffeine stimulates the brain and also affects levels of melatonin, which promotes sleep. It takes four to seven hours to metabolize caffeine. Howeever, because of the fact that the older we are, the longer time we take to sleep, excess caffeine can thus cause unintentional insomnia.
7. Anxiety - high doses increase the chemicals in the brain that are associated with anxiety.
8. Heartburn
Coffee, even decaffeinated coffee, can increase stomach acid production and affect the closing of the valve between the stomach and esophagus, leading to reflux and heartburn. If you do have this problem, then its probably best to abstain from any types of coffee.
There are many other problems too, like miscarriage (which is actually one of the more serious and crucial bad effect of coffee).
However, if you've noticed, most of the bad effects apply only if you already have existing problems. Moreover, it is no secret that caffeine is still effective in perking people up. Still, there are many other better healtheir foods that we can take as an alternative to coffee if our main objective is jsut to perk oneself up. Apples, for example, have been proven to be more effective than coffee!! (Bet you didn't know that!)
So yes. ABSTAIN FROM COFFEE OK?
After repeated reccomendations by Mr. Johari, I went to queue up for the doughnuts at Raffles City. Oh my, stood in the queue for close to an hour! My legs nearly went jelly but its worth it man! The doughnuts are indeed heavenly! absolutely wonderful man! especially the one filled with chocolate! best choice for chocoholics like me! :D
So what does these lovely doughnuts contain?
Description: cake type, plain Quantity: 1 doughnut
Energy(calories) : 210
Carbs(grams) : 24
Protein(grams) : 3
Cholesterol(milligrams) : 20
Weight(grams) : 50
Fat(grams) : 12
Saturated Fat(grams) : 2.8
Description: yeast-leavend, glazed Quantity: 1 doughnut
Energy(calories) : 235
Carbs(grams) : 26
Protein(grams) : 4
Cholesterol(milligrams) : 21
Weight(grams) : 60
Fat(grams) : 13
Saturated Fat(grams) : 5.2
12 grams of fats for just one plain doughnut. Of course, people would prefer those with flavour like chocolate, which adds further on to the fat content. Fats is neccessary for our body, but once in excess, they kill.
Besides, toppings like icing sugar, colourful rice are high in sugar content which may lead to diabetes!
Doughnuts are unhealthy, but fine once in awhile. so we must learn to resist the temptation!
looks yummy right?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Hey
I was at a friend's house an hour ago and she offered us some Kueh Lapis, it was excellent as usual but guess what? It's quite unhealthy.
Kueh Lapis is actually alternate layers of butter, milk, sugar piled on top of each other. These are what makes it up exactly:
570cc or 30 egg yolks
525-600 g butter, whipped or melted
100 g flour, sifted
300 g granulated sugar
3 Tbs. sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbs. special layer cake extract or Ground Allspice
15 g powdered milk
1/2 tps. powdered vanilla extract
Please note the number of EGG YOLKS used, Amount of BUTTER used, Amount of SUGAR used.
EGG YOLKS are high in Cholestrol, and taken in excess can affect our health. With the increase in cholestrol, the risk of getting coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke also increases. When too much LDL (bad) cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain. Together with other substances, it can form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can narrow the arteries and make them less flexible. This condition is known as atherosclerosis. If a clot forms and blocks a narrowed artery, heart attack or stroke can result. Egg yolks can generally be eaten by children but should not be eaten by adults.
One tablespoon of BUTTER (14 grams) contains 100 calories, all from fat, 11 grams of fat, of which 7 grams are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams of cholestrol. In other words, butter consists mostly of saturated fat and is a significant source of dietary cholesterol. For these reasons, butter has been generally considered to be a contributor to health problems, especially heart disease.
Let's talk about SUGAR now. SUGAR can cause mainly obesity, and tooth decay. When the pH at the surface of a tooth drops below 5.5 due to the introduction of sugar onto the tooth's surface, de-mineralization proceeds faster than re-mineralization (a net loss of mineral structure occurs on the tooth's surface). This results in decay of the tooth.
With sugar, you also get a very large number of calories with a comparatively small volume of food, and thus can result in obesity. A tablespoon of sugar, for example, contains between 50 and 60 calories.
CONDENSED MILK also known as sweetened condensed milk, is actually cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added. Sugar is bad as can be seen from above.
To conclude from all these we can see that KUEH LAPIS IS REALLY UNHEALTHY! SO STAY AWAY FROM IT if possible if not eat sparingly unless you want to get a tooth decay, become obese, and suffer from heart diseases!
picture taken from http://www.bengawansolo.com.sg/mini_pics_kuehs/kueh_lapis.jpg, info from wikipediai know mac's is real unhealthy and all but after reading this artical, i found a reason to
forgive them. ok, more like an excuse for eating mac's and a reason not to feel guilty for eating it.
When the smoke cleared after mobs burned through South Central Los Angeles in April, hundreds of businesses, many of them black owned, had been destroyed. Yet not a single McDonald's restaurant had been torched. Within hours after the curfew was lifted, all South Central's Golden Arches were back up and running, feeding fire fighters, police and National Guard troops as well as burned-out citizens. The St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School, with 300 hungry students and no utilities, called for lunches and got them free -- with delivery to boot.
For Edward H. Rensi, president and ceo of McDonald's U.S.A., the explanation of what happened, or didn't happen, in South Central L.A. was simple: "Our businesses there are owned by African-American entrepreneurs who hired African-American managers who hired African-American employees who served everybody in the community, whether they be Korean, African American or Caucasian."
The $19-billion-a-year company has often been the target of those who disparage everything from its entry-level wage structure to the aesthetic blight of its cookie-cutter proliferation. But the Los Angeles experience was vindication of enlightened social policies begun more than three decades ago. The late Ray Kroc, a crusty but imaginative salesman who forged the chain in 1955, insisted that both franchise buyers and company executives get involved in community affairs. "If you are going to take money out of a community, give something back," Kroc enjoined. "It's only good business."
As a result, McDonald's stands out not only as one of the more socially responsible companies in America but also as one of the nation's few truly effective social engineers. Both its franchise operators, who own 83% of all McDonald's restaurants, and company officials sit on boards of local and national minority service organizations, allowing the company to claim that its total involvement in everything from the Urban League and the n.a.a.c.p. to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce may constitute the biggest volunteer program of any business in the nation.
Because their original prosperity came from hamburger stands in middle-class suburbs, McDonald's managers were at first reluctant to move into inner-city markets. But company executives say their first tentative steps in the '70s showed those fears to be unfounded. The policy practiced in the suburbs, which dictated that McDonald's stores reflect the communities in which they operate, was applied to the new urban markets. As a result, nearly 70% of McDonald's restaurant management and 25% of the company's executives are minorities and women, and so are about half its corporate department heads. This year McDonald's will nearly double its purchases from companies that are minority or female owned, from last year's $157 million to $300 million. Several of the biggest are owned and operated by former McDonald's managers or franchise holders.
The spawning ground for many of the new ideas and programs designed to integrate the franchises into neighborhoods in which they operate has been the company's moral and intellectual McCenter, Hamburger University, set in its own 80-acre nature preserve near Oak Brook, Ill. Since 1979 the company has held affirmative-action seminars for its executives and managers there, as well as in many of the company's 40 regional offices, on such topics as how to manage the changing work force and handle career development for women, blacks and Hispanics. Each year 3,000 employees complete affirmative-action training programs that last 1 1/2 to 3 days. Ideas originated at headquarters and by individual franchisees have led to programs such as McJobs, which takes on mentally and physically impaired employees, and McPride, which keeps students in school and rewards them for academic achievement while they work.
Through a program devised by its store owners, the company has helped establish 153 Ronald McDonald Houses, named for the chain's trademark clown, where families of seriously ill children can stay while the child is undergoing extensive medical treatment, such as chemotherapy or bone-marrow transplants. Each house serves an average of 15 families who pay from $5 to $15 a night, if they can afford it. The local projects are supported by local fund drives, and all the money collected goes directly to the houses; McDonald's pays all administrative costs of the program, which extends to Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Australia and New Zealand.
But McDonald's broadest impact has been through its basic job-training system. Its 8,800 U.S. restaurants (there are an additional 3,600 overseas from Beijing to Belgrade) train American youth of every ethnic hue. "Sending a kid to the Army used to be the standard way to teach kids values, discipline, respect for authority, to be a member of a team, get to work on time, brush your teeth, comb your hair, clean your fingernails," says Ed Rensi. "Now, somehow, McDonald's has become the new entry-level job-training institution in America. We find ourselves doing things in that role that we would never imagine we would do." Among them: paying kids to study, rewarding them for staying in school, hiring physically and mentally handicapped youngsters and adults and giving sensitivity training to co-workers. In a program called McMasters, older people, usually retirees, are hired to work alongside young crew members to give the workplace a sense of family and to set an example of caring, courtesy and responsibility.
In conjunction with the vocational-rehabilitation services of several states, nearly 7,000 disabled and handicapped people have been trained to function as full McDonald's employees by job coaches drawn from within the company. Before these less fortunate employees take their places, company trainers often put young able-bodied workers in blindfolds, gloves or dark glasses to demonstrate the kind of handicaps their new colleagues have to deal with in doing the same jobs.
At Pat Newbury's McDonald's restaurant in Renton, Wash., some young employees earn an hour's pay not for flipping burgers but for studying an hour before their work shift begins. In a Chicago-area restaurant, Hispanic teenagers are being tutored in English. In Tulsa, a McDonald's crew is studying algebra after work. At a Honolulu restaurant, student workers get an extra hour's pay to study for an hour after closing. In Colorado, Virginia and Massachusetts there are Stay in School programs offering bonus money for employees who receive good grades. Reading-improvement classes frequently take place at restaurants in Kansas and New Jersey.
Despite the initial skepticism of educators, McDonald's programs have managed to allay the fears of many that work and school could not mix. In February the National Association of Secondary School Principals passed a resolution commending the company for "exemplary and motivational efforts to support education, students and assistant principals."
Bob Charles, the owner of a McDonald's in Boulder, has seen some of his employed at-risk students begin to get A's after joining his McPride program, which limits them to a 14-hour workweek and pays bonuses for improvement and school attendance. Many of them have a very low level of self-esteem, says Charles. But once they come to work as part of a team and gain a sense of confidence, "you'd almost never believe the change in these kids."
Mark Brownstein's company owns 13 restaurants in Orange County, Calif., and hires elderly and handicapped workers aggressively. "They are people who need work, and we need people to work. You wonder why everybody makes a big deal about it," shrugs Brownstein. "Besides, the seniors and the special-ed kids in our stores create a sense of humanity." Owner Jonah Kaufman has 26 handicapped people, mainly with Down syndrome, on the payroll in his 12 Long Island stores. One of them, Joe King, trains new employees. Kaufman says the key to his success with the disabled is "to try not to treat them differently." McDonald's has used Braille and its own kind of sign language as aids for impaired employees. At McDonald's Oak Brook headquarters, staff workers are sought from specialized schools, such as Gallaudet University and the Rochester Institute for Technology, which has an educational center for the deaf.
Senior vice president Robert H. Beavers Jr., who gave up plans to become an electrical engineer 19 years ago to stay with McDonald's, says the company's socially minded business practices have made the company stronger: "Our energy level and our understanding of the market today are much better because of the cultural diversity we have." He points out that in the inner city, where he grew up, they say, "If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk."
In Los Angeles, they talked and they walked -- and they didn't burn. So Rensi and his team intend to keep on keeping on. After all, it's only good business.
ok this is for all the lazy pigs who can't be bother to read the whole article
1. After a fire, where many black owned businesses were burned down, not a single Mac's was burned, and soon after Mac's helped out with the fire by feeding all the fire fighter, police, national guards and providing 300 free lunches for a school.
2. Mac's has a policy of giving back to the community (for all the business the community has given it)
3. A socially responsible company, Mac;s works with minority groups and other organisations, making it the biggest volunteer progamme any business ever had.
4. Their policies make it poosible to operate sucessfully in inner cities (poor cities usually inhabited by minority groups)
5. They provide training programmes for employees.
6. McJobs, a programme that takes on mentally and physically impaired emplyees.
7. McPride, a programme which keeps students in school and reward them with academic achievements while they work.
8. Ronald McDonald Houses, housing families of seriously ill children, while the child is undergoing extensive medical treatment. Each house houses 15 families, charging $5 - $15 a night depending on whether they can afford it.
9. Employed 7,000 disabled/handicapped people (and trained them)
10. At certain Mac's (usually in poorer areas), young emplyees get paid for studying and are offered bonuses for improment.
11. National Association of Secondary School Principals passed a resolution commending the company for "exemplary and motivational efforts to support education, students and assistant principals."
12. Student employees are only allowed to work 14 hours a week and pid for improvement and school attendance.
14. Employers notce an increase in self esteem after employees go through the McPride programme.
ok, that's about all the main points
but read the article its much better.
abcD
Monday, April 16, 2007
Oh my goodness. I just found out some really scary facts while surfing on Google. Everyone knows that fast food is extremely unhealthy, right? Yet fast food restuarants like McDonalds, KFC and Burger King remain so ever-crowded. Why is this so?
Fast food restaurants market their products very well. The advertisements of the company is very attractive to all nowadays. Especially those with the digital effects, enhancing the appearance of the food, thus make people crave for it. Not to forget, the convenience of fast food make it an apt choice for people in a hurry. Some outlets even have drive-in counter for busy people to take-away and grab a quick bite.
Even children as young as 5 to 6 years old like fast food. Take McDonalds for example, the famous Happy Meal is appealing to many young children as it comes with their favourite cartoon character toy. More than often, it is the parents who bring their young children to have meals at these restaurants. Shouldn't it be them who is discouraging the adolescents from eating such unhealthy food?
Now is the time to let them know the real danger of fast food.
Eating frequent fast food meals causes teens and young adults to gain more weight and face an increased risk of developing insulin resistance according to the results of a study funded by the National Heart,Lung, and Blood Institute(NHLBI) and published in the January 1, 2005 issue of The Lancet.
For some, you may be wondering what is insulin? Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas. It is neccessary to move sugar from the blood into other body tissues where it is needed for energy. Insulin also helps the body to metabolize (process) carbohydrates, fats, and proteins from the diet.
After 15 years, those who ate at fast-food restaurants more than twice each week compared to less than once a week had gained an extra ten pounds and had a two-fold greater increase in insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease.
Diabetes is nothing to joke with. A person who is diabetic has little or no insulin because the immune system — which normally fights harmful bacteria or viruses — has attacked and destroyed the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
There are many complications associated with diabetes, both long and short term.
Short-term complications, such as low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and a high level of ketones in your urine (diabetic ketoacidosis), require immediate care. If left untreated, these conditions can cause seizures and loss of consciousness (coma).
Long-term complications — blindness, kidney failure and nerve and blood vessel damage, for example — develop gradually and may be disabling or even life-threatening.
Besides increasing the chances of getting diabetes, fast food leads to obesity as well.
According to the nutritionists at the Medical Research Council, fast foods not only contain many more calories than traditional foods but that they are also likely to undermine normal appetite control systems. A typical fast food meal has a very high energy density of around 1100 kJ per 100 grams - 65 percent higher than the average British diet and twice as high as recommended healthy diets.
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. Obesity occurs over time when you eat more calories than you use. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs for each person. Factors that might tip the balance include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods and not being physically active.
If you're obese, you're more likely to develop a number of potentially serious health problems. These may include high blood pressure, diabetes (as mentioned), abnormal blood fats, coronary artery disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, cancer, fatty liver disease and gallbladder disease.
To find out more about each health problems related to obesity, visit
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314/DSECTION=6It really freaked me out after i read all the possible complications. I swear I'm going to abstain from fast food for at least half a year!
Now we know the harmful effects of fast food, so please, avoid it
as much as possible! Also, exercise would help reduce the effects of obesity. SO START WOKRING OUT NOW!!
Credits: http://womenshealth.about.com/od/girlshealth101/a/fastfoodteenwei.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682611.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diabetes/DA99999
