Knowledge Issue: Why McDonald's French Fries Taste So Good

1. Describe/summarize the content of the article/video.

This article is an excerpt from Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation. The article first discusses the evolution of McDonald’s french fries from fresh cut food into a heavily processed food commodity and why they became so popular. It goes on to explain that the oil the fries are cooked in determines the taste, and how the oils McDonald’s has used in earlier years have been traded for flavors manufactured in factories and laboratories such as IFF. The article also explains that these flavors are created by manipulating volatile chemicals that stimulate the olfactory system. In fact, completely different tastes can work together to achieve one cohesive taste. The article then explains how the olfactory system works, and how memory, visual perception, and other psychological aspects affect how taste is perceived. Another important aspect of the article is that it explains the similarity between natural and artificial flavors – both are manmade.

2. List the different perspectives/sides presented in the article and briefly summarize their view (including your own).
An important argument the article makes is that natural and artificial flavors are not very different – both are manmade. According to a professor at Cornell University "[natural flavor] is a flavor that's been derived with an out-of-date technology." The article also explains how natural flavors are not always more healthy than artificial flavors. For example, “when almond flavor -- benzaldehyde -- is derived from natural sources… it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison.” This evidence seems sound, and I feel that the advertisement of natural flavor is not what it appears to be.

3. List the AOK/WOK involved.

An area of knowledge involved in this article is the natural sciences. The sensory perception (a way of knowing) of taste, which is a very important topic in this article, is highly affected by the way chemicals react with the body.

4. What issues or ideas are related to the Situation or PT?

An idea from this article that surprised me was the fact that completely different flavors can combine to make one cohesive flavor. For example, when the author went to tour IFF, he was asked to smell several different test strips that all had a distinct smell. When he smelled all of the strips together, he reported that he smelled a hamburger. The scent was so realistic that when he closed his eyes, he thought a hamburger could have been right in front of him, when in reality, it was only a strip of paper dipped in chemicals.

5. Summarize one of the knowledge problems brought up in the article/video

When the author had his eyes closed, he thought there was a hamburger in front of him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was just a test strip. In this example, his sensory perceptions of eyesight and smell were conflicting. This shows that we cannot rely on only one of our senses to give us an accurate picture of reality.

6. State a Knowledge Issue related to a knowledge problem.

To what extent do our different sensory perceptions (such as sight, taste, hearing, etc.) conflict with each other?

Fast Food Nation was adapted to film in 2006. Like Schlosser’s book, it examines the health risks and the environmental and social consequences involved in the fast food industry. Parts of the trailor, in a way, help depict Schlosser's experience at IFF as described in this article.

Knowledge Issue: The Placebo Effect and the Human Mind

Unpacking the Knowledge Issue:

1. Summarize the situation in your own words.

The article Placebos are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers are Desperate to Know Why. from Wired Magzine explains the growing strength of the placebo effect within medical research studies in recent years, and the pharmaceutical industry's frustration with their hinderance in clinical trials. The article attributes the increasing efficacy of the placebo effect to basic psychology and external factors such as the media and advertising.

2. What AOK and WOK are involved?

Some areas of knowledge involved in the situation include the natural sciences and psychology. While the natural sciences involve a drug's interaction with the body to treat a disease or condition, the subject of psychology pertains to the brain's response of merely taking a pill and how it affects the way someone feels. The ways of knowing that are associated with this situation are perception, reason, and emotion. When someone takes a pill, reason tells him that it contains certain ingredients that should help treat a disease or condition. Similarly, emotion and perception plays a role. As the picture to the side depicts, certain characteristics of a pill such as color or brand can alter one's opinion about the drug's actual efficacy. A person can also use sensual perception to tell wheter or not he or she feels better.

3. What issues or ideas are related to this situation?

An important idea related to this situation is a drug's efficacy at actually treating a condition versus the psychological effect of taking a pill that may make a person feel better.

4. What is the "Knowledge Problem"?

In this situation, the Knowledge Problem is that a person has no way of knowing whether or not a drug or pill is truly effective at treating a disease or condition. Your perception cannot tell you whether or not a drug is chemically effective. It can only tell you how you feel.

5. State the Knowledge Issue.

To what extent does reason and emotion affect one's knowledge and awareness of his or her actual health?