This week we’re just getting up to speed and reading two VERY different perspectives on how we can think about the links between nutrition and health generally. You have a few short introductory assignments to complete before Wednesday (ideally on Monday), and we jump into our more or less regular routine starting on Wednesday.
There are a couple things to do just to make sure we’re all connected. Please do them ASAP, but make sure these are done BEFORE WEDNESDAY.
Take the Syllabus Quiz. The point is to confirm and highlight key aspects of the course to avoid confusion later. All quizzes are accessible through UNM Learn (there is a quizzes link on the left nav bar).
Just to make sure everyone is connected, and as an informal way of introducing ourselves, please post a brief introduction to who you are and some opinion about diet and health that you’ve changed your mind about—we all have many! These should be substantive but not long, ~150 words or so.
No groups for this week. Everyone will post a ‘standard’ reading reflection (as described on the reading reflections page), addressing the following: How much do you agree or disagree with the Taubes article? How much much do you think knowledge of nutrition contribute individual dietary choices? Feel free to draw personal experiences, whatever you’ve read about diet or nutrition, other courses, etc.
Remember that Fridays are always for WEEKLY reflections, so you’ll never write only about the Friday reading—you’ll always discuss it in context with the rest of the week.
How do Mundry and Taubes take very different approaches to thinking about nutrition? What are the assumptions of the authors in terms of how we create knowledge of nutrition? How much to you agree that we really don’t know what a healthy diet is? How much do you agree that there are real dangers in quantification? Whose perspective/article is more convincing?