Exercise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Exercise - Essay Example He says that what you consume is vital but what it emanates down to is how much you eat. Thus it is good to eat like the French do, they are the healthiest groups of people yet they have a number of the worst diets worldwide. And lastly, an individual is at an advantage consuming whole fresh foods instead of food products that have been processed. He wants his readers be aware that they should not just eat any food and should be aware that even some low-fat foods have been confirmed that they do not work. Therefore: one should be familiar with the ingredients in the food they consume; eat frequently plants; cook for yourself; pay extra for nutritious diets and eat less; and Eat like an omnivore and like the French. He also insists that people should keep off from supermarkets and eat real stuff that do not have health assertions (POLLAN, 2007). In his article, Pollen seems to answer the question on: whether are there more nutrients in foods that have been manufactured and are claiming to be nutritious than in natural foods?; And how sure are we that these studies on diets that claim certain foods to have nutrients have more benefits than harms to our health? His main idea is on nutritionism. He examines the effect nutritionism has on human beings. He does this through his explanation of how a political mix-up has made companies assert that their produce is healthy. This political mix-up is denoting to a situation where George McGovern contradicted himself on the matters concerning particular nutrient. He said publicly how the nutrient was unhealthy, and later he comes with an opposite opinion of his previous statements. Through this pollen paints an image that nutritionism is good for food companies and marketers but it is not good for human beings. He claims that human beings are contented to receive updates that they should consume more of one thing rather than another; we

Economic Crisis in the United States Research Paper

Economic Crisis in the United States - Research Paper Example widespread failure in regulatory oversight) (Barclift, 2011, p. 450). However, deeper analysis of the crisis shows that though the crisis is financial in nature, the culprit is not financial as many have explained but structural; it is caused by the faulty macroeconomic strategies of US – the reliance on bubble economy and dependency on international credits and imports. I. Understanding the Crisis Experts, policymakers and observers (BBC, 2007; Zaman, 2009, p. 64; Katkov, 2011, p. 898) perceive the crisis in contending ways, depending on which spectrum one aligns. But as the events unfold, everyone seems to agree that the crisis has started to manifest itself in the burst of the housing bubble in 2007 followed by the financial market crash. How did this happen? This question must have been asked with the shocking realization that this actually happens in the US – the seat of world power and the home of distinguished economists, financial analysts, and bankers. But afte r understanding the events, one would probably say that this kind of crisis would be most highly probable in the US. Why? The answer to this would come later. Going back to the first question, to answer this requires one to understand the mortgage lending in the US. One good simple explanation on this is to understand the effects of the changes made on the traditional model of mortgage lending to the sub-prime model as illustrated below. The differences between the two models rest on three important factors: First, the reliance on real assets for banks to lend; second, the guarantee on the capacity of borrowers to pay; and third, the transparency in the conditions of loans – i.e. that sub-prime loans are usually adjustable rate mortgages (ARM); toxic instruments, like the collateralized debt obligations (CDO) that the biggest investment banks of the world pump out (BBC, 2007, p. 1). In short, there are solid bases by which banks and borrowers conduct business, giving both par ties clear indicators by which to act. Unfortunately, these three important factors on which banks traditionally operate are disregarded in the new sub-prime model. Though it is true that selling on the mortgages to the bond markets has given banks additional leverage to fund more borrowings, however, it has resulted to fraudulent practices, which banks no longer have the incentive to check (BBC, 2007, p. 1) – i.e., falsifying credit histories or income of borrowers by mortgage brokers to qualify borrowers so that brokers can earn fees and commission (Zaman, 2009, p. 65). Truly, the sub-prime model has succeeded in raising the demand for housing, which caused the housing bubble, but in the end caused the financial crisis. Freeman (2002) explained that the housing bubble created a hyperinflationary spiral, fuelling speculative investments in real estate. Consequently, this sent prices, assessments, real estate and mortgage credit volume also spiraling upwards. Such was actuall y the objective of the City of London-Wall Street financier and Fannie Mae. On the contrary, the productive economy that would have given debtors the capacity to pay and that would have given resilience to the US economy was staggering downward. (pp. 12, 17) Expectantly, as BBC (2007) reported, sub-prime borrowers, which make-up 22% ($1.3 trillion) of the $6 trillion mortgage