Module 3: Research & Writing Across the Curriculum Rough Draft

Since I am a pre-med student and a biology major, I was looking through the science related journals. While browsing through Health and Psychology, I came across an article about overeating and some factors that influence it. Many overeaters may not even be aware of these external and social factors that cause them to overeat. I read the article and thought it was very interesting and relevant because of how common obesity is in America. The United States has the highest rates of obesity in the developed world, where 32% of the adult population is obese. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that obesity will replace malnutrition and infectious disease as the largest cause of poor health. Therefore I feel this topic is very important and relevant. For my rough draft, I put together an outline of how I anticipate my essay to be constructed and organized.

I. Introduction 

A. Statistics about obesity and how it’s so common
B. Overeating common reason for obesity, important to find why people overeat
C. Possible reasons for overeating→ social or external influences

II. External factors influence overeating, however often inadvertent
A. This first article talks about how many times people are not aware of the external environmental factors that influence their food intake.
i. This could be a potential problem for dieting and reducing weight, because often people       

   inadvertently eat.

B. The article concludes that, “people tend not to acknowledge their own susceptibly to a number of environmental influences on their food intake.” This is consistent with the fact that “although people generally acknowledge that external elements (i.e. media, advertising) influence others. They deny the influence of these elements on their own behavior.”
C. Citation: Vartanian, Lenny R., C. Peter Herman, and Brian Wansink. "Are We Aware of the External Factors That Influence Our Food Intake?” Health Psychology 27 (2008): 533- 538.

III. Overeating more common when around others
A. The second article articulates that people usually overeat when they are with others because the social aspect serves as a “distraction, which impairs the ability to self- monitor.” 

B. Citation: Hetherington, Marion M., Annie S. Anderson, Geraldine N.M. Norton, and Lisa Newson. “Situational Effects on Meal Intake: A Comparison of Eating Alone and With Others.” Physiology and Behavior 88 (2006): 498-505.

IV. Overeating more common around others that one knows, but not around strangers
A. The last article serves as a further elaboration on the second article. It asserts that while people do overeat in the presence of friends, in the presence of strangers people usually try to “inhibit their food consumption or match the other’s intake.”
B. Furthermore this study sheds light on the issue of eating around those of the opposite gender. The study concludes that women feel more comfortable eating around women that are strangers as opposed to men that are strangers, quiet possibly to produce a positive impression with the opposite sex.
C. Citation: Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne, Denise Jarrin, Rocco Paluch, Numrah Irfan, and Patricia Pliner. “Effects of Social Influencing on Eating in Couples, Friends, and Strangers.” Appetite 49 (2007): 92-99.

V. Conclusion
A. A lot of overeating can be because of external or social influences that people are not even aware of
B. Around others, people often lose track of how much they are eating
C. Around strangers, people often match the amount of food eaten by the other person
D. People should be more aware of these inadvertent ways of gaining weight, may help them lose weight