NO LATE WORK New York Times: For Health, More Nuts, Beans and Whole Grains

Overview: For this week's homework, you will read the article from the  New York Times: For Health, More Nutes, Beans and Whole Grains. Links to an external site.  If you run into a paywall, here is alink to the PDF Links to an external site.  of the same article. You will answer some questions, write a personal response, and come up with 2 discussion questions. Note - you should complete the Writing Discussion Questions Quiz before beginning this assignment.

Goal: Reading and writing are linked to college success. Students taking courses with courses with that totaled at least 40 pages of reading a week and 20 pages of writing in a semester, had greater gains on the Collegiate Learning Assessment.  In addition,  reading, writing responses, and engaging in discussions are themselves valuable college skills that can improve over time. The goal of this specific reading assignment is for students to learn more about diabetes prevention programs. 

Instructions:

1. Read the article New York Times: For Health, More Nutes, Beans and Whole Grains. Links to an external site.  If you run into a paywall, here is a link to the PDF Links to an external site.  of the same article.
2. As you read, prepare a response to submit that includes the following:
   • Questions: 
   • What is the source of the information in the article? Is it a peer reviewed article or not? What does that mean? (you'll have to look that up)
   • If you were going to summarize the findings, (TLDR) , what would you say in one sentence?
   • Who did they study, and how long did they follow the study subjects?
   • They tried to correlate diet and health, what were other factors that they considered and ''controlled for''? (controlling for a factor means that they considered what are called confounding factors- alternate explanations of a result. ie.  They compared smokers and non-smokers who ate beans vs. smokers and non-smokers who ate more meat)
   • Does this prove that plant based foods directly prevent Type 2 diabetes?
   • Why are the researchers so sure that all these studies support eating more plant based proteins? 
   • What are two different reasons that could be the underlying cause for the health effects of plant based foods?
   • What are reasons that could be the underlying problem with eating processed meats?
   • Which substitutions or dietary changes seem to make the most difference? 
   • What are small changes that they recommended? 
3. Personal Response: Write a 150-200 word personal response to this reading. You may respond in any way you choose, but your response must be rooted in the content provided in the article itself. Vague disconnected comments like "this was really interesting" or "I learned a lot" will earn no points. Instead, make specific references to what was interesting or what you learned. Some suggestions for your personal response include:
   • • What was new or particularly interesting?
     • What didn't you understand?
     • What follow-up questions would you ask the writer?
     • How did it connect to our coursework, other courses you've taken or experiences you've had?
     • What is one small change you could make to improve  your diet? (make sure it really is small and achievable!) 

4. Discussion Question: Write one question that could be used in our class discussion of this resource. Remember to

• • •  Base them on the material
    •  Target your audience 
    • Ask open ended questions 

Submit the question with this assignment and bring it to class so we can use it during our discussion.