When Food and Psychology Meet

Posted on 12/08/2015 by Michelle Lee

On December 7th, a panel of Food and Brand Lab experts came to the Becker-Rose Café and introduce us to their interesting works on behavioral psychology related to food. Some of their research areas include grocery shopping psychology, marketing nutrition, restaurant confidential. I found all of their findings to be highly intriguing. For example, they explained how when people go into a buffet, they usually get the food in the order they are presented. For example, when they see salad or vegetables and bread in the beginning of the buffet line, people will naturally get a lot of salad and bread. When they get to the end of the line, where they see proteins, they will no longer have a lot of room on their plates. Therefore, if people are always guided to the salad bar first when they are in the buffet, they will more likely eat more vegetables, less meat and have a healthier meal as a result.

I think the above concept can be also applied in Cornell dining halls. In our dining halls, the salad bar is usually separated from the lines for the entree. Because of the line for the entree is usually longer than that for the salad, I usually line up for the entree first in case the line gets any longer. As a result, I always filled my plates with more proteins than I needed. Sometimes, I do not even have room for salad or vegetables. Therefore, I believe if the dining halls can have all the food in one line, and have salad in the beginning of the line, it can help me and many other students to eat more healthily.

Another interesting finding that the Food and Brand Lab had was the effect of NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Sugary Drinks Portion Cap Rule. In the study, they had participants fill out surveys and participants were provided soda drinks when they were filling out the surveys. The experimental group received surveys with Mayor Bloomberg’s image printed on them and the control group had regular surveys. Turns out, the experimental groups drink more soda during the experiment than the control group who have no Bloomberg’s image on their surveys. It appeared that people’s reaction towards Mayor Bloomberg’s soda rule actually resulted in negative effect on their sugary-drink consumption. People are angry at Mayor Bloomberg’s restricting rule and thus their annoyance cause their rebellious feeling to drink more of the soda. I thought that study was absolutely thought-provoking. Rules are made to help people but if resentment are developed towards the rules, opposite results may occur. There was many controversies over whether Mayor Bloomberg’s soda rule is necessary. The study perhaps contribute to another reasons why it should indeed not be implemented.

Dope (Spoiler Alert)

Posted on 11/27/2015 by Michelle Lee

Last week, I joined the Rose House and headed to Cornell Cinema to watch the movie, Dope. Dope is about a wild adventure of the high-school senior Malcolm and his friends Jib and Diggy bond, whom he bonds with over ’90s hip-hop culture, their studies and playing music in their own punk band. Their adventure was resulted from his chance encounter with a drug dealer named Dom lands Malcolm and company at the dealer’s nightclub birthday party; when the scene turns violent, they flee — with the Ecstasy that Dom secretly hid in Malcolm’s backpack. At the end, Malcolm’s adventure made him unique and led to his acceptance to Harvard.

I thought the movie was quite intriguing. Thinking back about my own college application process, I thought it was very hard to come up with a way to distinguish myself from a pool of very talented students. Watching this movie makes me wonder if life can be a little bit less stressful when we do not worry too much over every little thing we do. Like Malcolm, he went on this very exhilarating journey (although it definitely was not fun for him), and he is able to grown and develop his character through his journey. I hope when I applied to colleges, I could have gone through the same thing, instead of sitting in front of my computer, scratching my head and stressed over what I should write about in my personal statement.

Dining at Cornell

Posted on 11/12/2015 by Michelle Lee

At the Becker-Rose Café on November 4th, associate director of West Campus dining, Paul Muscente, and Chef Daniel Czebiniak of Rose House shared with us how Cornell dining operates to provide the best dining service to students at Cornell. Cornell Dining is consistently ranked in the Princeton Review’s top ten for best campus food among all colleges and universities in the country. A few days prior to the Becker-Rose Cafe, Cornell was actually honored to be the best university dining in the state of New York and among the top 10 national-wide. I am grateful to have such pleasant dining service at the college I attend. I think it is superfluous that students enjoy their meals so that they can acquired all the nutrition they need for staying healthy and maintaining the brain power for productive studying.

It was very interesting to learn that Cornell obtains fresh ingredients from nearby farms as well as from our plantations. Cornell also strives for dining sustainability. This means the dining services look into ways to reduce potential food waste and also promoting food compost . From the cafe, I also learnt about the reusable coffee mug program, in which you buy a reusable coffee mug from Cornell Dining and you can purchase any coffee size using that mug at a price of a small-sized coffee. As a coffee lover, the program would not only allow me to save some bucks over the year, but it also helps me to be more environmentally friendly. With this initiative, I would no longer be wasting a coffee cup every time I buy a coffee. Last but not least, I found out that if If a student has food allergies or food intolerance, or require special meals, the Cornell dining service can make special arrangement for them. Cornell Dining cares so much about the students, the environment and the local community, no wonder why it is ranked one of the top dining services in the U.S.

Fragile Legacy

Posted on 11/02/2015 by Michelle Lee

In the Rose-Becker cafe held on October 28th, we got to meet with Professor Harvell and watch the documentary Fragile Legacy which looks into the beauty of the marine life and the threats that the ocean has been facing. Back in the 19th century, Leopold and Redolph Blaschka had created delicate glass models of marine life. Their models reflect the contemporary biodiversity in the ocean. The models accurately portray the color, size, and shape of different marine life and allow people to appreciate the beauty of the oceanic nature without being in the water. Unfortunately, the beauty of the ocean is not easy to maintain. The glass models may break easily; the oceanic ecosystem may be easily disrupted by pollution and human activities that result in accelerated global warming. Many researches have pointed out that the rapid shrinking of marine biodiversity was greatly contributed by climate change. In order to preserve the marine biodiversity, actions must be taken to control global warming. We discussed the environmental awareness in the Rose-Becker Cafe two weeks ago, and this perhaps also echoes why environmental awareness is indeed essential.

Besides the inspirational documentary, Professor Harvell also shared her experience of traveling around the world to study the marine biodiversity and document the living creatures underwater. She also showed pictures of some exquisite glass models of sea creatures like the jellyfish and coral reef, which really captivated me. I have always been told that the Cornell has an amazing oceanography course that everyone enjoys. After attending the Rose-Becker Cafe, I am even more interested in taking that class and learn about the beauty of the oceanic life.

Point and Shoot

Posted on 10/25/2015 by Michelle Lee

In the Dinner Conversation event on October 25th, the two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Marshall Curry, came to Rose House to have dinner with us and share his filmmaking experience. Although it was a short event, we got to learn many things about him. For example, we learnt about how he went from being a comparative religion major to being a documentary producer, director, cinematographer as well as an editor.

We also got some insights into the messages underlying his documentaries. I got very interested in his documentary Point and Shoot, so I went on to YouTube to look it up. Point and Shoot tells the story of Matthew VanDyke who set off on a self-described “crash course in manhood”. While on a his motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie. When revolution broke out in Libya, VanDyke joined his friend in the fight against Gaddafi. I think it was truly a great documentary because it showed how friendships can be formed in the most unlikely place and how life is what you make of it. However, what caught my attention when I found this documentary on Youtube was the comments the viewers left, both positive and negative. I believe a successful documentary needs to be thought provoking and that was what exactly this documentary was. It might have caused people to appreciate how Matthew joined the course of war just to help; other times, it caused people to think he was a “bored middle class brat joining the fight for islamism”. The thought provoking video led to all those stimulating comments, which lead the viewers to think even more. That, I think, is what made the documentary phenomenal.

International CO2 Cap?

Posted on 10/21/2015 by Michelle Lee

After attending the Rose-Becker Cafe–Environmental Panel on October 14th, I realized that there are many aspects of environmental awareness I am not aware of. In the event, Professors Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe discussed both domestic and international environmental issues. I was very surprised when I learned from the panel that there is still no global agreement on what the CO2 cap should be. Every year, there are always some kind of environmental conference, or summits attended by states representative to discuss environmental problems and potential solution. I was shocked to find out there was not an international agreement on capping carbon dioxide despite all these summits. Domestically, the U.S. has the Clean Air Act, but turns out it only poses some limits on the greenhouse gas(GHG) on certain facilities and there is no limit to the country’s carbon dioxide emission as a whole. Yet, the EPA has been putting effort into reducing GHG emission through increasing stringency of GHG emission through imposing different restriction on chemicals use in the transportation and industrial sectors. Around the world, the Kyoto Protocol commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The most recent negotiations were held in have different countries to agree on a post-Kyoto legal framework that would obligate all major polluters to pay for CO₂ emissions. However, China, India, and the United States have all signaled that they will not ratify any treaty that will commit them legally to reduce CO₂ emissions. It seems like there is a difficult balance between boosting domestic economy and committing to environmental protection. For example, as Prof. Li mentioned, in China, heavy industrial activities that emits high concentration of GHG are common because the states government want their states to have high gross domestic product and fortify their economy. Perhaps, the concern about facilitating the country’s own economy causes most country to be taken aback when it comes to committing themselves legally on CO2 emission reduction.

Back to Black

Posted on 10/12/2015 by Michelle Lee

I remember hearing the song, “Back to Black” a few years ago and all I thought about this song was that it had a good melody and Amy Winehouse had sung it perfectly with her exceptional vocal talent. However, I discovered there was much more behind Amy Winehouse’s songs after watching the Amy Documentary last Thursday. Amy Winehouse’s songs were all very successful and received high acclaims. Yet, these acclaims were built upon the expressions of the singer’s sad emotion. Amy Winehouse suffered serious depression due to her parents’ separation and her her dad’s negligence of her. Writing songs and singing to songs were the only ways besides drug and alcohol abuse to keep herself distracted from the depression that she suffered. It was very heartbreaking when I found out that Amy Winehouse never wanted or cared about any of the success because she felt apathetic towards everything due to her depression. She recognized her collapsed mental state too late; she asked for help too late and she received treatment too late. Therefore, she lost the battle to depression and went “back to black” and eventually died from poisoning.

This documentary did not only show me in-depth the emotion behind Amy Winehouse’s song, but it also raised my awareness towards depression. Sometimes, I have friends around me who always seem to stress out due to school. Most often, I think it is a phase that everyone goes through and just tell them that everything is going to be alright. However, through this documentary, I realize that I should not be selfish with stating my supports. People who are depressed may be hiding their emotions, and others may hardly notice they are depressed. We should always give our strongest support to others when they seem to be upset. We should do everything we can to make sure that everyone can stay mentally healthy and need not to suffer like Amy Winehouse did.

Thinking about where we are

Posted on 09/30/2015 by Michelle Lee

In last Wednesday’s Rose cafe, Professor Cheyfitz gave an amazing talk on the Native Americans’ history and standings in the current society. It was a very interesting talk and he a point which I found extremely thought-provoking. Professor Cheyfitz suggested that the American education tends to focus on the black-and-white history, nothing else. No Hispanic history, no Indian history. While the majority population of this country will become Hispanic in the near future, and while this land we are standing on originally belonged to the Native American people, there is not an emphasis on the learning and understanding the history and culture of the Hispanic and Native American people in this country. Particularly, Native American went through a lot of hardship and they are still experiencing a lot of adversity because the Europeans took their lands and oppressed them on their own lands. However, standing on this land stolen from them, many American are still apathetic towards the Native American culture and history because they are rarely exposed to such content in their education. Many of them are unaware that the Native American communities are still facing a lot of hardship. Whether through incorporate more materials on the history and culture of the Native American in the current education system, or through campaigns to fight for awareness and care for the Native American communities, something has to be done to expose people to the Native American’s history and culture more. Their lands and communities were the chronicle basis for American histories and that should be recognized.

Some Like it Hot!

Posted on 09/19/2015 by Michelle Lee

The Pepper party held at the Cornell’s Plantation featured the unique theme of learning all about peppers through exhibits, activities, crafts, music and much more. As a person with very low tolerance for spicy food, I seldom eat peppers and barely know anything about peppers. But after attending the Pepper party, I learnt a whole lot more about peppers, from the chemistry to the history behind it. I even tried my first pepper-flavored chocolate in the party, which tasted way better than I thought it would be. The mix of coconut, chocolate and pepper was surprisingly good.

In the party, there were various booths introducing the science behind the peppers. At the booths, I learnt that hotness of peppers was measured by the Scroville Heat Scale and the measurements were based on the concentration of the chemicals capsaicin in them. The higher the concentration of capsaicin, the hotter the pepper is since more capsaicin can bind with the receptor associated with heat and pain. Moreover, since I rarely eat peppers, I only knew two capsicum cultivars, which were bell peppers and chipotle. But I learnt a whole bunch of new capsicum annuum today, and some of them have really amusing names, such as lipstick and fish. Also, I used to think jalapeño was extremely spicy. Turns out, it was actually classified as mildly hot. I also learnt from the pepper party that peppers were not just spicy, some of them might pertain to fruity aroma or smoky aroma. Overall, I think it was a very interesting trip and definitely made pepper a little bit more appealing to me.

Rose Scholars Blog Fall 2015

Explore, challenge, connect

Author Archives: Michelle Lee