By: Ashley Harris

Organic. Organic is defined by many as the healthiest option in the grocery store, but is it really as healthy as it may seem?

To start things off, you might be wondering what exactly organic is? Well, organic is when either produce, or certain ingredients, are farmed and produced without the use of unnecessary chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or any artificial chemicals.

Of course, when you read this, you might think “Huh, organic does seem healthier.” However, that isn’t always the case.

Organic is only supplemental in certain foods such as spinach, green peas, apples, peaches, and many more. The general rule is that if a fruit or vegetable has a thick layer of skin protecting it (such as avocados, bananas, and oranges) there is no need to spend the extra buck for organic.

However, vegetables such as leafy green are the most prone to absorb these toxic chemicals and get into your digestive tract. That is why leafy greens are especially important to buy organic.

This leads to my next point: Why is organic so much more expensive than conventional produce? On average, organic foods tend to cost over 50% more than their non-organic competitors. The reason for this is that farmers tend to have to use physical, mechanical, and biological controls instead of pesticides to assure a good harvest.

There are two main points to consider when deciding whether or not to buy organic. 1. Are you doing it for your health? Or 2. Are you doing it for the environment?

First, I will be addressing #1. If you indeed seek out organic options opposed to conventional produce simply for your health, then I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. According to research done by UCDavis health, organic foods and non-organic foods contain the exact same amount of nutrients and macros.

On the other hand, if you are motivated for the reason of #2 then I would absolutely reach for organic foods. According to Harvard, “Organic foods are clearly healthier for the planet, because they support an agricultural system that avoids synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and promotes a more biodiverse ecosystem, with attention to the health of waterways, soil, air, wildlife, farm workers, and the climate.”

So, if you are reaching out for organic foods simply for your health, don’t waste your money. However, if you are seeking out organic foods for the environment, then 100% keep seeking them out.

By: Ashley Harris

Matcha was originally discovered in the 8th century by a Buddhist monk named Myoan Eisai. However, matcha was not made popular until the 12 century. There is no specific place where matcha was first found, but it can be traced back all the way to the Tang Dynasty in China.

Contrary to popular belief, matcha’s original form is not powder. In fact, to make just 30 grams of matcha, it takes on average, 1 hour to produce.

You might be wondering how exactly matcha is created. Well, it’s actually pretty simple despite the amount of time it takes. According to TeaSource, “It is made from the highest grade of Gyokuro Japanese green tea. The finest shade-grown tea buds are plucked, the stems and veins are removed, and the leaves are carefully ground into a fine powder.”

While matcha can be drunk by itself, it is widely preferred in many different flavors and milks. Some popular milk choices involve, almond milk, oat milk, whole milk, and even goats milk. As well as this, there are many different flavors to choose from such as, brown sugar, toffee nut, raspberry, cinnamon, strawberry, and pretty much anything you can think of!

It is not only the sweet earthy flavor that draws people towards matcha, in fact, matcha has countless amounts of health properties such as: enrichment of antioxidants, possible protection of the liver, boosting in brain function, prevention of cancer, promotes heart health, and many more.

Matcha has been evolving since its first day of arrival in the 8th century. From only drinking it with water, to being able to order a venti matcha frappuccino at Starbucks, matcha has paved the way for many teas around the world.

So, now that you know more about matcha, are you willing to give it a try?

By: Jessica Garcia Saligan & Marleen Medina

#1 Wild Thing

The number one best ride at Valleyfair is the Wild Thing. The Wild Thing is the fattest and tallest roller coaster in the park. This ride begins slowly at first, and it will make its way up to 200+ feet, and it will give you a spectacular view of the whole park. As soon as you reach the top of the initial hill there will be a slight pause and before you know it you will be flying downhill going over 70 miles per hour. When the ride is about to end, you will enter a dark tunnel then go over one small hill and that’s when your picture will be taken. This ride is 2 minutes and 48 seconds long.

#2 Power Tower

The Power Tower is the 2nd best ride in Valleyfair. The ride is a vertical line, and it will make your stomach feel like it’s turning throughout the ride. The Power Tower is a fast ride. It goes up to 50mph and its height is around 276′ and its height restriction is 4’4. This ride isn’t like any other ride; it starts fast right as you launch it. This ride takes 45 seconds and you need to be 48’’ to ride.

#3 Renegade

The third best ride at Valleyfair will have to be Renegade. Renegade is a ride that is built with wood, and 2 riders per row. It matters because it helps the ride make a sharper turn. Renegade is about 97.5ft tall at its highest. Woden rides are louder than other rides. This ride takes 2 minutes and 24 seconds. To be able to build this wooden roller coaster, it cost $6,500,000.

#4 Steel Venom

The fourth best ride at Valleyfair is Steel Venom. Steel Venom is a ride that is a Usain Bolt and made out of metal. The ride is shaped like a snake. At the top of the “U” there’s a twist that is enough to feel like a full twist as you reverse backwards downhill. All the riders will be immediately launched forward and accelerate 70 miles an hour, in less than 4 seconds. Steel Venom is 185ft’ tall, and it’s a 1 minute ride.

#5 Corkscrew

The fifth best ride at Valleyfair is the Corkscrew. This ride is the first roller coaster to have a vertical loop and a double corkscrew with a 360 degrees loop, and it’s also the only ride at Valleyfair that has inversions. The Corkscrew’s height is 85’ with a top speed of 50mph. It’s a 1 minute and 30 second ride.

By: Abdihakim Mohamoud

A staple in many East African households, Somali food is incredibly diverse and enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. From a tender meat soup dish known as ‘suqaar’, to spicy coffees and teas known as ‘qaxwo’ and ‘shah’ there is an incredibly wide range of Somali cuisine. Often compared to the more popular Ethiopian food, Somali cuisine is often overshadowed by its more populous neighbor.

According to Thetakeout.com, the lead chef at a popular Somali restaurant in New York City referred to Somali cuisine as “The jewel out of East Africa that nobody has yet explored.” This statement puts in perspective how little the complex culinary traditions of Somalia is known globally.

Breakfast dishes can consist of ‘soor’ which is a cornmeal type dish, ‘canjeero” which is a famous, fermented, pancake-like dish, and ‘oodkac’ which is a sun dried meat typically served with canjeero.

Lunch is typically the largest meal of the day for Somalis, where dishes loaded with meat, veggies, and rice are served. The classic ‘baaris’ is a delicious seasoned rice cooked in rich meat broth, and is one of the most popular dishes. ‘Baasto’, which is a savory pasta dish, is also eaten during lunch, and traces its origins back to the days when Somalia was a colony of Italy. Both of these dishes are served with ‘hilib’, which is slow-cooked, tender goat meat.

Somali cuisine cannot be complete without mentioning the necessary addition to the food—the banana. The fruit is eaten with the savory dishes, creating an amazing combination of sweet and savory. Lime and a tangy hot sauce is also added to create a spectacular sour, savory, and sweet combination—resulting in a perfectly balanced dish. Somali cuisine is becoming more recognized globally, with many cookbooks and Somali restaurants coming to light in dozens of first world countries.

Here are some local restaurants that you could check out, to try some Somali cuisine:

For more information please visit:

• https://thetakeout.com/a-60-second-intro-to-somali-food-1835590472
• https://travelfoodatlas.com/canjeero-anjero-recipe

By: Ava Bleifuss

A cultural cuisine is how someone prepares food. There are specific ways to cook different foods. They are often related to other regions or cultures of the world. Countries have traditional foods that are usually made with some kind of meaning behind it. 

There is a lot of land in the United States. The food that is common in one state might not be so common in another state. There is a wide variety of cultural cuisines in the US, including lobster rolls, boudin, and barbecue. 

One of the most famous sandwiches in the US is the lobster roll. The lobster roll comes from the easternmost state in the US, Maine. Often times, inside of the lobster roll is meat from lobsters, mayonnaise, and chopped celery. All of these ingredients are then put into a bun. 

Another very common food is boudin, found in Louisiana. Boudin is a sausage that is normally made with pork, rice, and seasonings. Then this is stuffed into a natural pork casing. The amount of pork and rice can vary from place to place. It can also be made with shrimp or crawfish. It can also be shaped into boudin balls that are eaten with mustard. 

In Texas you can find many different barbecue restaurants, because it is known for its iconic barbecue. The Texas barbecue is said to have originated in the 19th century from immigrants who brought their traditions for cooking food. From central Texas, the traditional barbecue is smoked meat and brisket. Brisket is an essential part of the barbecue experience, and many take pride in it. There are many options for sides with this meal. Some of them are corn, mac n’ cheese, potato salad, and pickles. 

A popular food from Taiwan is called the xiao long bao. This food is also known as a soup dumpling, and originated in Shanghai, China. Over the years, the soup dumpling has become very well known in Taiwan, and most of the restaurants in Taipei offer this dish. The xiao long bao is made up of a thin flour dumpling that is filled with pork made in a meatball shape and includes a gelatin cube of broth. The dumplings are steamed in a bamboo basket and are cooked in a soup broth. This is why it is called a soup dumpling. Because it is soaked in a broth, and has the broth cube inside, the inside will have a lot of broth as well. People eat them by dipping them into a soy sauce, then putting them in a deep spoon and breaking it with a chopstick. After this you drink the soup from the spoon and eat the dumpling last. 

A very delicious treat from Australia are called lamingtons. They are named after Lord Lamington who was a governor of Queensland from 1896-1901, or his wife Lady Lamington. This tasty treat is made with a delicate piece of cake that is covered in chocolate and rolled into coconut. Normally, this is eaten during tea-time and is said to have become really popular in the 20th century. This is because of chocolate’s ability to preserve. The lamington tasted fresh for longer than any other known treat. Some even prefer it with some jam. 

Many people have studied Egyptians, but don’t know what they eat. Something that Egyptian families eat at home is called koshari (see image above). Sometimes it is spelled koshary or kushari. Koshari is a healthy vegetarian dish that has a little bit of Indian, Middle Eastern, and Italian cuisines mixed together. The main elements of it include rice, macaroni, garlic, chickpeas, and lentils, mixed together with a spicy tomato sauce. People can choose to add fried onions, and a little bit of garlic vinegar. This dish is considered Egypt’s national dish, and is very popular.

By: Toby Martin-Kohls

There are many globally recognized symbols, such as the peace sign or a heart. There are also many globally recognized brands such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Mcdonald’s.

The Golden Arches are a worldwide recognized symbol. In 2019, Mcdonald’s had 38,695 restaurants in 119+ countries.

They pride themselves on the consistency of their food. Fries at one location should, and will, taste exactly the same at a location 3000mi away.

However, one item stands out as an exception from this philosophy; there always seems to be a broken ice cream machine at Mcdonald’s. The issue has been so widespread it has become a joke and a meme of sorts.

Several mainstream fast food companies such as Wendy’s, Burger King, In-n-Out, and Chick-fil-a use ice cream machines from the same company McDonald’s uses, but only McDonald’s seems to be the ones that never work.

Mcdonald’s uses the model C602 machine made by a company named Taylor. McDonald’s and Taylor go way back and have been business partners since each was established. Even their headquarters are close to each other in the state of Illinois.

93% of McDonald’s restaurants are franchised. This means that they are owned and operated by independent local business owners. This means they are left to pay any repairs needed.

When you become a Mcdonald’s franchisee, you sign a contract with McDonald’s agreeing that you will abide by their rules and regulations and make sure the restaurant is standardized to the rest of the brand.

In 2003, McDonald’s put in their agreement that all franchisees would be required to use the C602 model from Taylor.

Ice cream is dairy, and it is needs to be stored correctly in order to be safe to consume. The machine has a bunch of pipes that run through it all day with ice cream. So once a day, a cleaning cycle must be completed.

The cleaning process takes about 4 hours and is usually the first reason you are given as to why the ice cream machines are not working. Because the process takes so long, it makes sense to run the cleaning cycle overnight.

The first employees coming in the next day would see one of two messages on the user interface. The heat cycle was complete and that the machine was ready to use or that the cycle failed. The machine does not tell you what the problem was, and only that it failed.

It is worth noting that the machine cannot be used until it runs a cleaning cycle. It is locked until it has been completed. So the employee tries to run the heat cycle again. This takes another four hours during operating hours of the store.

So, a franchisee must call a repair technician from Taylor if they want their machine fixed. Taylor is the only company authorized to repair or maintain these machines for Mcdonald’s. If they called anyone else to fix it, it would void their contract.

According to invoices from some Mcdonald’s franchisees, the repair technicians are quite expensive. One can expect to pay around $150 for the first half-hour of labor and travel and hundreds more dollars for each additional 15 minutes of extra labor.

This is the decision franchisees must make. They can deal with angry customers who want ice cream, or they can fork over tons of money to get their machine fixed that very well might break again soon.

According to an acquisition pitch from Taylor, they stated that 25% of their revenue comes from recurring parts and services business. Taylor can rely on machines breaking and having income from McDonald’s.

Taylor provides an instruction manual to the restaurants for the machine but provides a different use for exclusively Taylor technicians. The information needed to fix the machine effectively is only given to technicians.

Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson set out to create a product, the Kytch device, that would help restaurants diagnose problems easier from the intentionally tricky UI. They succeeded and was a hit, as many restaurants started using their product. McDonald’s then sent out a memo that “McDonald’s and Taylor have recently determined that the Kytch device creates a potential very serious safety risk for the crew or technician attempting to clean or repair the machine.” They strongly recommended that franchisees stop using the product and that they will void their warranty if they don’t.

McDonald’s is in contact with another approved company to solve the same issue Kytch solved. Their partner is Powerhouse Dynamics. Well, good thing it’s not Taylor. Well, just on the outside. Powerhouse Dynamics is owned by the same company that owns Taylor. Their device takes the place of Kytch and still gives the user frustrating interfaces so that they can make money off repair services.

Taylor has no incentive to improve their product because they hold a monopoly in the ice cream maker business and again, make 25% of their revenue of on repair services. McDonald’s is okay with this because the financial burden falls on the restaurant franchisees.

Kytch is currently suing McDonald’s for 900 million dollars. They are also suing for defamation.

If you want to see if the McDonald’s near you, or anywhere, has a broken ice cream machine, you can look at mcbroken.com.

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4

By: Yussuf Omar

What are they?

Seed oils (or vegetable oils) are highly processed oils derived from seeds. The most commonly used seed oils are: canola (rapeseed), soybean, and palm.

These oils are mainly extracted using hexane. This is due to the efficiency of this method since over 90% of the oil is retained and the substance’s solubilizing ability is kept intact.

The problem with this method is that hexane is poisonous to humans, but the horrors of what’s done to these oils doesn’t stop there. After the hexane extraction, most of the oil becomes rancid and stinks, so manufacturers then bleach and deodorize these oils so consumers don’t have to deal with the smell. Instead, you’re left to deal with the harms these rancid oils do to your body.

Oxidized and Rancid

Seeds oils are full of poly-unsaturated fatty acids, and due to their double bond, these fats are very unstable. The improper storage of these oils, by exposing them to heat and light early on, only makes things worse, consequently accelerating the oxidation process. Once these toxic oxidized oils are consumed, they lead to oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. Oxidative stress and inflammation then leads to an array of diseases.

Another consequence of the overheating of seed oils is the creation of trans fats, the accumulation of this fat is known to lead to heart disease and other illnesses. These oils also tend to accrue in cells in the form of linoleic acid. The storage of these oxidized lipids lead to cells being prone to oxidation and skin cancer.

Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio

Fatty acids are essential to the human body, and since we don’t naturally create them we’re required to get them from our food instead. The ratio between these two fats is ideally supposed to be 1:1, but due to overconsumption recently the ratio is on average 20:1 now.

Seed oils are high in Omega 6, which tends to usually cause a little inflammation, but since Omega 3’s are naturally anti-inflammatory the two are supposed to balance out. Because of the sheer abundance of Omega 6’s in seed oils, the inflammation easily wins out.

Healthy alternatives

After being bombarded with all the negatives regarding seed oils, you’re probably in search of a healthy alternative. The good news is that you don’t have to look far; the ideal alternatives are likely in your kitchen already.

Saturated fats and monounsaturated fats are your friend when it comes to cooking oils, these fats are much more stable and can withstand high temperatures without oxidation. Grass-fed butter, ghee, and tallow are all great animal based sources of these fats, while avocado, coconut, and olive oil are great plant based sources. You can find all of these oils with minimal processing, and each one will be exponentially better for your health.

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179509/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6196963/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26148920/