Reflections on Ales 204

Fig. 1. The Lookout (2008) Chris Gin, [digital image]. Retrieved April 12, 2012

from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_gin/3066290522/.

Spring is in the air and as the semester comes to an end, I am thankful to be parting ways with Ales 204. Though I have learned a lot from the class and I believe the inspirations and goals of the class are extremely valuable to my generation, I feel the course is still in an experimental stage and will be more valuable in a few years. That said, however, I will definitely update my Facebook page to one applicable to my practice and continue to use my LinkedIn profile after graduation as business tools that allow me to contact a vast audience of potential clients. I commented in agreement with Daniel Schwenk's points regarding the value of social media for both scholarly communication and business ventures. This class has certainly opened both of our eyes to the immense opportunity to further our careers using social media.

The highlights of the class for me were the Wikipedia article, the paper on science articles, and the personal post. Though I have used Wikipedia extensively for years, having the opportunity to contribute really helped me understand the importance of the general public to such a valuable and current source of information. I will continue to use the skills I gained in this class and my education to aid in keeping nutrition articles as scientifically correct and updated as possible.



For the science article, I chose to write about the Open Access Movement, something I have taken advantage of and benefitted from since the beginning of my university education though had never been aware of. This opportunity helped solidify in my mind the importance of the internet in scientific communication and made me extremely grateful to live in a generation in which such immense communication is attainable. Sydney Killoh also wrote on the Open Access Movement and it allowed her to realize the importance of her mother's career in the movement. I commented to aknowledge the value of the opportunity that Ales 204 has provided.


I found the free post a great opportunity to use the skills I learned in the class and put it towards something I'm passionate about: nutrition, of course. I was able to use Google Scholar, Wikipedia, and journal articles more effectively than I had in the past, and evaluate the information more critically. Josh Perryman's choice for his free post about how propaganda influences our decisions, is a constructive use of social media, I commented to commend him for his valuable post.


In the future, I think it would be valuable to start the semester with a topic relating to our fields and have all the lab assignments relate to it, building a blog with a better flow and giving our e-portfolio's a better overall objective. I feel it would not be a difficult task to have the Facebook page, free post, Wikipedia article, and science article based around a central idea. This would help the evolution of our online communication in a more directed, organized manner. I'm happy to see other students providing feedback for the course, such as Erin Amun, who pointed out the value of Pinterst in a field such as design. Although it communicates mainly through photos, it encourages a level of creativity that may be inaccessible with simple text. I commented to let her know I agree that Pintrest is a valuable social media tool, and also hope it can be incorporated into Ales204 in the future.


Overall, I have learned many things in this class and will continue to use the skills gained well into my professional practice as a dietitian. When commenting on others blogs it was obvious that many students have increased their ability to effectively communicate online. Jenn Wheeler's blog stood out in the vast improvement from her introductory post to her reflective post regarding her CSL placement. I commented on her final post to let her know how much her online communication skills have benefitted from the class and her CSL experience. I hope other students who take this course use their online communication skills in a positive manner to cultivate a more informed adult population with the ability to elect a representative government and make positive changes for our future.


Have a great summer,

Kandice

Nutritional Benefits of Beans

I was recently given the opportunity to organize nutrition month at St. Josephs Hospital here in Edmonton though a dietetic volunteer position. I was allowed to chose any topic I saw fit considering current dietary patterns and problems facing our population. After much thought, I decided to focus on beans. I made this decision because the typical western diet has far too much fat, sugar, and salt, and lacks fibre. A diet high in fat contributes to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation outlines dietary guidelines to reduce heart disease risk here, which encourages both vegetarian diets and high fibre choices. Too much salt can cause hypertension, a main determinate of heart disease. While a diet high in sugar is often blamed for the endemic of diabetes mellitus in North America; the Canadian Diabetes Association outlines the importance of soluble fibre consumption for diabetics here.

Beans are an ideal choice for someone looking to lower their risk of these far too common and often diet related disease. Beans are low in fat, salt free, and high in fibre. In addition, they are extremely inexpensive and produced right here in Canada (view a map of Canadian bean growing regions). For all of these reasons and more, Loblaw chief Galen Weston has referred to beans as "the food of the future" in this video from the Canadian Food Summit.

Fig. 1. Bean buckets (2008) Vilsesogen, [digital image]. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vilseskogen/2736507245/.

The most important reason one should include beans as part of a healthy diet is their high fibre content. Most Canadians don’t consume even close to the adequate intake of fibre recommended by Health Canada. When fibre is mentioned people instinctively think bowel regularity. Though this certainly is a benefit of insoluble fibre, the benefits of soluble fibre may have a more significant impact on the average Canadian’s health. Read what the Dietitians of Canada have to say about different kinds of fibre here. The fibre content of beans is mostly soluble, it dissolves in water and has been shown to lower blood cholesterol and regulate blood sugar. Lowering blood cholesterol can decrease chances of heart disease by preventing build-up of cholesterol in coronary arteries. The ability of soluble fibre to aid in blood sugar regulation is valuable for both diabetics and athletes. Beans are a low glycemic index choice, meaning they gradually release glucose into the blood and do not cause spikes in blood sugar levels. This also allows for long term energy for endurance activities and athletes.

Aside from the fibre, beans also contain plenty of iron, folate, and protein. They are virtually fat and sodium free, but be sure to drain and rinse canned beans as it will reduce the sodium content significantly. The protein found in beans is considered “incomplete” simple because it lacks 2 of the 9 essential amino acids. This is easily remedied by consuming beans with whole grains or nuts, which is how they have been traditionally consumed around the world historically. For example: black beans and corn(grain) in central America, soy beans and rice(grain) in Asia, and hummus made of garbanzo beans and tahini(sesame seed paste) in the middle east. This is known as protein complementing and it is possible to get all required protein from plant sources.

Here are a few meal ideas to get started:
-Try adding lentils to tomato sauce served over whole wheat pasta
-Add beans and barley or quinoa to soups to increase fibre and protein
-Include cooked black beans and nuts such as pecans or walnuts to a salad instead of meat
-Spread hummus on sandwiches instead of mayonnaise or other high
calorie spread
Print this cookbook from Pulse Canada that focuses on bean based meals and snacks!

To find out more about how and why to use beans to reduce your risk of disease:
Watch the documentary Forks Over Knives. View the trailer here
Check out the Pulse Canada website
Follow @Pulsecanada or @EatPlantBased on Twitter
Pick up Spilling the Beans cookbook by Julie Van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan
Visit my Classmate Yuhan Jiang's blog to find out why the animal protein in milk is being questions, replacing cow's milk with soy is yet another bean replacement!

Thanks for reading and eat beans!
Kandice

Wikipedia Contribution

I have been using Wikipedia as long as I can remember to provide information on a variety of topics from pharmacology to fashion. Almost any Google search will have a wikipedia article in the top few results, if not the top result. Wikipedia has entirely replaced the need for traditional encyclopedias in my mind. If the manual of style is followed and each contributor strives for good article status, the quality of Wikipedia articles exceed that of traditional encyclopedias by providing more current and constantly updated information. The fact that wikipedia is free and accessible to anyone with internet access makes the information that can be found and shared virtually infinite.

Fig. 1. Wikipedia- Veteran (2008) mikedesign, [digital image]. Retrieved March 22, 2012 from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeeperez/2453226990/.

As much as I have used Wikipedia on a weekly, if not daily basis, contributing has never crossed my mind. At first I was intimidated by the assignment to update a stub with the goal of good article status, but the task was less complicated and more enjoyable than I had initially expected. The list of stubs is really endless, and I wanted to contribute to something was sure I could provide and cite facts, so I began my search in the science stubs. After some in depth browsing I found a stub for 1-phosphofructokinase, the enzyme that catalyzes the rate determining step in glycolysis and playing an essential role in the regulation of blood glucose levels. I was familiar with this enzyme due to the extensive biochemistry required for the nutrition major and in knowing the importance of this enzyme I was shocked that it was only a stub.

After signing up and opening the edit page for the stub, I was intimidated by the wiki-code as it was completely foreign to me. After going over what was already present in the stub and making a few minor changes to ensure the entire article would provide factual information, I quickly got used to creating text links and took time to ensure all those I had provided led to the correct information. I mostly cited my biochemistry textbook as it provides plenty of the information I felt was necessary to strive towards a good article, but I also found a journal article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that I felt provided some information as to the clinical importance of 1-phosphofructokinase.

Overall, I enjoyed contributing to the world's biggest encyclopedia, though it was not without a few speed bumps. Half way through the creation of my article I found an existing article of the same enzyme, using different nomenclature. I continued to finish my stub, although I feel the stub list could be updated in order to have various chemical nomenclature link to one article, preventing the creation of multiple articles on the same topic.

This experience has shown me how simple and rewarding it can be to contribute to Wikipedia and that it really isn't as intimidating or complex as I had thought. In the future I plan to edit and contribute to nutritional topics, as it is a field full of of incorrect and misleading information. Since Wikipedia is so often used for information, I feel it is of critical importance that what can be found there is current and correct. I likely won't pursue edits in the biochemistry field though updating the 1-phosphofructokinase stub, found here, did aid in my understanding of the enzyme's importance. I will be more likely to research and update stub's of greater interest to me, such as the human-canine bond stub updated by my classmate Michelle Leung, whose blog can be found here.

Facebook page

This week in the lab for Ales 204 we were given the opportunity to create professional Facebook pages. I have been using Facebook for about 4 years to keep in touch with friends near and far though had never thought of creating a page. The layout and set up of the page was simple and strait-forward. I would recommend it to anyone looking to advertise their business and keep in touch with clients while gaining new ones.

One Facebook page I frequent is the Dalai Lama's page, full of insightful advice, check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama

We were instructed to fill the page with information that would be found on a resume: skills, education, work and volunteer experience. However we were also able to include personal interests which is often not included in a resume, and it makes the information much more personal than just chronology of employment. The addition of a photo makes the page enjoyable to look at while putting a face to the information given.

This page will help me in the future by allowing me to advertise skills and experience relevant to a work or volunteer positions I seek. It will also allow all my Facebook friends to stay current on my career goals and achievements. I plan to use the page to share with friends, and whoever may be interested, information I choose to share regarding nutrition. This page helps to connect my personal life with my business life, while allowing me to be in control of how much of each I choose to share.

My page can be found at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kandice-Mueller/336534619712695?sk=info

I recommend you also take a look one of my classmates blogs: Clara T is also in nutrition and I look forward to reading the information she will be posting!

http://ales204ct.blogspot.com/

Introduction

Hi there, thanks for visiting my site.
I'm Kandice Mueller, a second year nutrition student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. I have created this blog as an assignment for a communications class as required by my program.
The class aims to encourage students to increase their awareness and use of social media to communicate in their field of science.
Communication is a huge part of nutrition, as nutrition knowledge is extremely valuable not only for those in a clinical practice but for everyone interested in a healthy lifestyle for themselves and loved ones. Currently, communication is important for my education, allowing me to access information online and though the library journal database. The Internet is also valuable to help me stay current on popular topics being researched or discussed by the scientific community and the public. Social media also gives me the opportunity to share my knowledge and opinions about topics in nutrition with others, this blog being my first step in that direction. In the future, I will continue to use this blog and social media as a means of communication with a vast group of others with the shared interest of well being.
This blog, as the title states, is about beans. This fall I began a volunteer position with a dietitian at the St. Josephs auxiliary hospital who gave me the opportunity to organize nutrition month for the facility. After considering many ideas I decided the topic of nutrition month would be beans; I hope that by providing people with the the knowledge of the nutritional value of beans and the versatility and ease of preparation will lead to an increase in their consumption. Many people, especially the older generation, view beans as the poor mans meat and that if one can afford meat, beans are unnecessary. The modern shift towards plant based diets has shed some light on beans as a nutritional powerhouse, but the benefits of bean consumption remain mostly unknown.
My goal is to change the common perception of beans, and encourage increased consumption by sharing nutritional information, recipes, and my personal experiences with the magical fruit.