Quitting Smoking

-"Quitting Smoking Prolongs Life at Any Age"
-Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
-January 23, 2013
-http://www.latimes.com/health/la-sci-smoking-risks-20130124,0,1494622.story
Quitting smoking at any age could be helpful to any person's life expectancy. New research has been done, showing that by quitting at the age of sixty-four increases one's life by four years, and quitting at thirty-four can increase it by up to a decade. Fortunately, the percentage of smokers has decreased to about nineteen percent, but unfortunately, there are about forty five million smokers remaining in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that smoking related diseases have been the cause of less than half a million deaths each year. The elderly smokers need to be informed of this news as well as young ones, and it is never too late to quit smoking. However, some smokers believe that they cannot survive without smoking because they have been doing it for such a long time, that they think there is no way to replace their bad habit. If they stick to their plan of quitting and are serious about it, then surely they can do it.

Healthier School Meals

-"Alliance of Big City School Districts Aims for More Healthful Meals"
-Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
-January 17, 2013
-http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-food-20130117,0,1016267.story
Los Angeles Unified School District, along with five other school districts, have decided to spend less money to make their cafeteria meals healthier and the trays more eco-friendly. Since the amount of children suffering from obesity and diabetes is increasing, a couple of school districts have realized the issue and have decided to act upon it. They have substituted products on their menu to being healthier such as using whole grain products and serving fresh fruit instead of cupcakes for school celebrations. In fact, all New York District schools contain salad bars in their cafeterias. Serving healthier and more organic meals, along with using environmentally friendly trays, are more expensive, but each school district is slowly attempting to work their way up to reach their goals. Schools have cut down having flavored milk or sodas in their vending machines or cafeterias, or are getting rid of their polystyrene trays. A fun treat that schools have come up with is the idea of "ants on a log". This is a stick of celery covered in peanut butter, with raisins placed on them representing the ants.

Nature

As I sit on the porch of my front yard at around noon, I listen closely to the footsteps and small-talk of families as they stroll along. I hear the sound of the skateboard rushing on concrete towards me from behind, looking back to see it is my neighbor. I give him a smile as he continues to pass me and proceed with his daily ride on his skateboard. I take a glance at my pomegranate tree, and realize it is missing something: the bright green leaves it was rich with only a month ago. I look on the ground and notice the dead orange and brown leaves surrounding the tree. I noticed the temperature rising, but felt the slight breeze every time a car would speed by. The sounds of the motors running was not very soothing, but the chirping and singing of the birds made it somewhat bearable. What I heard next, was a car blasting Armenian music. I could not understand the purpose of doing that, but I realized he was not the only car blasting music. A few minutes later I realized there were other drivers blasting different types of music. Since I was sitting on the front porch right next to the door, I heard my family and heard my mother shouting my name. I could already smell the food, and could not wait to eat the delicious hot dogs she made for me.

America's Health is Improving

-"Believe It or Not, Report Says Fresh Fruit is #1 Snack in America"
-Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
-January 8, 2013
-http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-snacking-in-america-fresh-fruit-20130108,0,2606289.story
After most states of the United States claimed to be extremely unhealthy with most of their population being overweight, fruits have claimed to be the healthiest snacks. Along with them being the most popular snack, farmers are growing excessive amounts of fruits as well. Americans have eaten almost ten to twenty-five times more fruit than junk food such as chocolate and potato chips. There are a few reasons to why fresh fruits popularity has grown. One would be that it's a common snack between all age groups ranging from babies and senior citizens. It is also a snack that could be eaten any time of the day, including a sweet dessert. Recently, Americans have also been realizing that they must take extra care of themselves, and the only healthy snack they could think of are fruits. The final reason is because fruit is not a snack to fill ones stomach for too long of a time, therefore they eat fruits more often.

Independent Reading Project

Out of all the book choices from the list for our independent reading project, I read Me Talk Pretty One Day. After the presentations, the book that seemed most appealing was the one Andre read which is Into the Wild. This book seemed intriguing because it inspired me to really think about my life to find what is known as my "wild". Similar to the book I read, this book did not have aspects that would make it depressing and instead inspirational. The book I would probably be least likely to read is Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. The reason for this would be because even though this rapper may have had an interesting life, it is not a topic I am interested in. The other stories seemed to be depressing, which is why I chose a less depressing book, but this story was not very intriguing for me. Hearing about the story and his life did sound more intriguing than actually reading the book.