Public Speaking

A Fresh look on Nutrition: Easier Ways to get Healthy

         
          To motivate my audience to get healthy, I knew a fresh approach had to be taken. However clever and inventive the food guide pyramid may be, the time has passed, and it's simply not making the same impact. A change was needed, and this change, I believe, can possibly re-motivate and fuel our fight against obesity once again. I look at it like re-organizing your bedroom. It's all the same stuff, but it looks a little different and it makes you feel a little better about yourself too. Well I believe that focusing on 2 new (or brought-back) skills for healthy eating is the necessary re-organization of the room of nutrition. Rhetorically, I worked really hard to connect with my audience--I tried my very best to not be the food police. I know how hard it is to eat healthy! It's my major and I'm still not that good at it! I chose skills that reflect this struggle. They are skills that help people make informed decisions rather than the "right" decisions.

          I felt that I effectively connected with my audience based on the food guide pyramid's almost laughable ineffectiveness.While I think the food guide pyramid is past its prime, it also think it started a movement of inventiveness and creativity that jump started the message of healthy eating decisions.  I have mixed feelings about bashing the food guide pyramid because many of my professors and idols in the nutrition world worked very hard on creating the most perfect dietary guidelines and food guide pyramid design. For the interested consumer of nutrition information, the food pyramid website is wonderfully interactive. To the new consumer, I believe my appeal is more appropriate. It was here that I had to make a decision: do I flatter the professionals in the field that I am going into, or do I sacrifice that to allow myself to be an amateur renegade nutritionist for the betterment of the American people? However obvious the answer may seem, its a hard decision I will be constantly making, even in the smaller context of this speech.

Read more...