The person I talked about had only a basic knowledge and understanding about packaged food and beverage labels. He noticed some of the differences in the old and new label. For example, the serving size in the new label is in bold with medium size letters and the calories is the most prominent information on the new label while the old label had bold letters for the calories and size serving however, the letters were much smaller. Also, he observed that the new label presents the information in a more clear way and highlights what he believes to be the most important information. Since all he wants to know about the packaging information is the calories because he wants to keep track of the calories and make sure he doesn’t exceed 2000 calories. Moreover, he believes ingredients are very important because he wants to know what he is consuming whether the product has natural or artificial ingredients. The conversation was very interesting and we both talked about what both of us considers to be the most important information in food labels and how this information can help us choose the healthies food and beverage products available.
Daily Archives: October 21, 2017
CP&R Prompt 1
One issue of concern to me is the vehicle recalls because it is very interesting to me to see so many recalls on many products ranging from toys, cribs, and vehicles. I believe it is extremely important for all the companies to have some sort of regulations and accurate tests done before they can sell their products to the consumers. However, sometimes their regulations and tests are not very precise as the later realize some of the products may cause possible harm to the consumers. In this case, I believe they should do everything they can to fix the issue right away. One agency that is relevant to learn something about the vehicle recall is the NHTSA because this agencies’ mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce vehicle-related crashes. Their website offers tools to learn more about recalls, file complaints and offers updated information about recalls. I believe this is some of the most important information to share with other consumers is the options and information available for consumers about the steps they need to take in order to have their vehicle issue resolved in a timely manner.
Early Life and Childhood: Prompt 1
Parents or soon to be parents become very vulnerable when it comes to ideas or information about having a newborn. Most new parents get thrown with all sorts of new information and opinions from others when really they should just be focusing on becoming new parents.
When it comes to buying products for your child, of course, you want to have the best thing for them. But really you do not need to have the most expensive, non-toxic, organic item out there. For instance, diapers. What is the true difference between Honest Diapers and Luvs Brand Diapers? Yeah, Honest diapers are “Super-Absorbent, Organic & Natural” but in comparison, Luvs Brand Diapers are “Ultra-Absorbent, Soft on Skin”. They are both great diapers but one is nearly half the cost of the other.
I researched on Target.com and found out that for a 40-pack of Honest Diapers-they are $13.99. But for a 48-pack of Luvs Diapers, it is nearly half that amount at $6.99. So yeah, you might feel better about putting your baby in the “Organic & Natural” brand, but really by putting your putting in the much cheaper brand makes no difference. And is a lot easier on your bank account as well in the long run.
So most of all, parents should not feel pressured to buy their baby the most expensive diaper out there. Buying any name brand is perfectly fine. Parents sometimes also feel like if they do not use the expensive name brand products they will be scrutinized for it, that is wrong. Parents should feel free to buy there baby anything they want whether it is name brand or not. Personally, my mother put my sister and I both in Luvs Brand diapers, and we sure did turn out okay.
Works Cited:
Early Life and Childhood: Prompt 1
Like many have already posted, parents and soon to be parents are very vulnerable consumers not only materialistically but also information wise.
Soon to be parents are bombarded with information and options. Cesarean or natural, no medication or epidural, home birth or hospital. Some of these options are considered to be poor parenting choices and many women are often shamed for making some of them. A new trend that has been coming to light through social media is the shaming of mothers that have C-sections rather than a natural birth. These mothers are told that they are weak, wanted to harm their child, and some are even told they never gave birth so they are not a mom. These are horrible things to say to anyone, especially new mothers.
Other things parents and soon to be parents are old include name brand items versus generic brand. Name brand Tylenol versus Kirkland brand, Huggies wipes versus Fred Meyer brand, an so on and so forth. Parents are constantly fed information claiming that not using expensive name brand items makes them less prepared or less likely to be good parents. This could not be more wrong.
If there was one thing I would want parents and soon to be parents to know is that most of their decisions on what type of wipes to buy or how to give birth are not shameful decisions. However, another thing I want parents to know is that vaccines ARE safe for a high majority of the population. It would be ignorant of me to say that every person will react the same to vaccines because we know that is not true however, most children and people have no adverse reactions. Lastly, I want parents to know that vaccines DO NOT cause autism. This pseudoscience has put millions at risk and even brought back eradicated diseases such as measles.
Early Life and Childhood
Prompt One:
Parents are very vulnerable consumers. They want the best for their children and worry about their future. Companies and organizations feed on these fears, selling them ideas/products which are unneeded, do not work as intended and/or are downright harmful.
I believe that what parents want and what they often get, are different things. We have little to no regulation for DTC internet advertisements and companies can manipulate the truth and misrepresent information with very little liability. Today we have access to so much information thanks to the internet but only a small fraction of this is tested, verified and/or scientific.
When I was initially working through this material, I thought about the harmful ideas parents are sold by companies or groups regarding health products (perhaps it’s because I recently did a project on vaccination.)
Vaccination is a highly controversial consumer health item in the US. Many parents are choosing to opt out of childhood vaccination due to anxieties about vaccine safety, even though childhood vaccinations have been proven safe for the large majority through extensive testing.
A newborn is supposed to receive a Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine 12 hours after birth. HBV is a contagious disease spread through blood and other bodily fluids. Infants are at high risk of infection and 90% of them who contract the initial disease will develop lifelong symptoms, often resulting in liver cancer and cirrhosis (CDC, 2016). The disease is preventable only with vaccination which is 95% effective in averting HBV (NCIRD, n.d.).
So, why would a parent, who wants the best for their child refuse this vaccine? Ideas such as “vaccines cause autism” or “they inject your children with toxic chemicals” are being ‘sold’ to parents based on misrepresented or false data. It’s clear that any parent worried about vaccinations is thinking about their child’s health and their goal is to protect them from possible harm. But they are getting their information from the wrong sources and making important health issues based on the unscientific information.
In this example, what the parent wants; protect their child from injury, and what they are getting: false information meant to instill fear, are very different.
Works Cited
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). The ABCs of Hepatitis. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/resources/professionals/pdfs/abctable.pd
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, and Prevention. The Pink Book-Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (pp. 149-174). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/hepb.pdf
Glossary Building 1
Food is the one thing that everyone consumes. Not everyone wears makeup and not everybody has a car, but everybody has to eat to survive. This means that everyone is also prone to becoming victims of consumer fraud or targeted ads regarding food or are even prone to just eating foods loaded with chemicals that are bad for our body.
Trans Fat: hydrogenated liquid fat. Besides sounding unhealthy, the food label can lie to us about how much of this is in a product. If there’s less than 0.5 grams of trans fat in a product, the companies can put that it has 0 grams on the label.
Saturated Fat: This type of fat has all of the hydrogen that it can hold as demonstrated with products like butter. It is unhealthy and can raise bad cholesterol levels.
GM Products: This involves inserting genes into an organism’s “master program.” Although this allows products to have a longer shelf life, it is a rather unregulated form of processing food and it does not allow consumers to know what exactly is in the product they are eating because of all the chemicals in them.
Consuming Health Matters 