TOW#6: "Does Boiling or Baking Vegetables Destroy Their Vitamins?" By Tara Parker-Pope

Vegetables' Nutrients Depends On How They Are Prepared?

This article discusses the nutrients lost or gained depending on how they are prepared. Vegetables are good for people either way, except when they are fried. Nonetheless, it depends on what vitamins people want to acquire. For example, microwaved vegetables actually hold 90% of their vitamin C, while steaming and boiling causes a 22% to 34% loss of vitamin C. This may shock many people because usually people believe that microwaved foods are bad for people. In this case, vegetables are healthier if they are cooked in a microwave!

Pope is an expert of health as it explicitly states in NYTIMES. This means that she is very familiar with nutrition and other health related issues. Not only that, but she also uses statistics and mentions the source, "The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry" to back up her statements. This makes her appeal to logos and ethos; she is an expert with this subject and she uses credible resources to prove her research.

The idea of health has become a big issue throughout America. Thus, more people are beginning to watch what they eat. When most people think of "healthy" food, they think of vegetables. However, many people do not know that the way people prepare vegetables actually effects what nutrients are and are not present. This idea makes this article extremely important and relevant to current issues in life today.

This article was an "Ask Well" article, which means that people ask questions about health that they are not sure about, and then NYTIME health experts respond to them with an article about their question. However, the health experts answer questions that they think is important to discuss for the benefit of everyone. This article was to clear up any misunderstandings towards people who are cautious about what they eat and how they eat it. 

Tara Parker-Pope accomplished her purpose. She wrote about something that was relative to current issues and important to many people. She is also credible, which makes people believe all the things that she says. She is credible by being a NYTIMES writer and the fact that she used credible sources to backup her ideas. Because of all these factors, she was able to accomplish her purpose, which was to inform people about the different nutrient values of vegetables depending on how it is prepared. 

 (NYTIMES, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/ask-well-does-boiling-or-baking-vegetables-destroy-their-vitamins/)