Hello!

My name is Bela Shah (pronounced Bayla) and I’m a sophomore studying biochemistry. Like many of you, I’m premed. I’m taking this class because I’m interested in the evolutionary aspect of medicine. I believe that it would make me have a greater understanding of all aspects of health and therefore be of great value to me as a doctor.

Three blogs that relate to this class are:

Bones Don’t Lie: http://bonesdontlie.wordpress.com/

The Mermaid’s Tale: http://ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/

The Animal Connection: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-animal-connection

A particular blog post that moved me was from The Mermaid’s Tale (http://ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2013/01/not-to-defend-fast-food-but-does-it.html). This post explores the claim that fast food causes asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema. It uses a variety of scientific studies to prove that this claim is tenuous at best. For example, the authors of the study that claims fast food causes asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema suggest that fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidants, which are supposedly protective against essentially everything. However, the bloggers point out that multiple large double blind studies have found that they aren’t, further proving the claim to be dubious. Overall the post was really interesting and intriguing on how what the majority of the population thinks (fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidants and protect against everything) is actually false.