UT Informal Classes

Part of a blog entry on the Paleo diet written by our instructor Deirdre Earls:

[D]on’t forget that a mountain of evidence now makes clear that popular dietary practices like the so-called “Paleo” and Atkins diets can negatively impact long-term health and longevity. Heavy emphasis upon consumption of meat, especially red meat and processed red meat, may create quick weight loss. But it’s also known to contribute to risk of our biggest killer, heart disease. It’s also known to contribute to some of the most common forms of cancer including colon cancer. And now it’s being connected to long-term risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Whereas the “Paleo” diet implies it represents how humans ate for thousands of years, in fact the Paleo Diet, like the Atkins diet, was created by one person. That one person is attached to quite a product line. What they’re not attached to is a body of empirical research backing their claims. 

Some of the most reputable public health institutions in the world offer a very different viewpoint of how prehistoric humans ate. And how we can replicate those patterns today to optimize health, longevity, and associated expenses. The University of Michigan ranks #34 in the world for leading publishers of empirical research (which by definition removes subjective opinion and bias). Review of empirical research led their Integrative Medicine Department to publish this Healing Foods Pyramid. As a public health institution rather than an individual with a product line and a hungry ego, the emphasis is on long-term health for all humans regardless of blood type. Although not vegetarian, the obvious emphasis is on plants and plants found whole in nature. This makes sense given that prehistoric humans ate between 100-150 grams per day of fiber, none of which is found in meat. Try just one day of eating 100-150 grams of fiber and see how much meat you still want to chew.

Read her post in its entirety on her blog.

Deirdre’s next session of Let Food Be Your Medicine is taking place a week from tomorrow, on May 29th.

We have three photography classes coming up that still have space for enrollments.  If you’re wanting to expand your knowledge and boost your skills, check out the following classes!

Digital Photography: Beyond the Basics: Become an expert at camera controls to enhance creativity and expand your photographic vision through good composition, lighting and timing. http://goo.gl/1McPe

Photography: Composition and Light: Study camera and lighting settings that can best enhance your compositions. Learn about the uses of different lenses and the effects of light in detail. http://goo.gl/CZxLW

Digital SLR Photography: More experienced photographers can explore the meanings and relationships between such topics as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focal length and depth of field. Gain the confidence to set your camera to “manual” and shoot anything, in any light. http://goo.gl/vbeK1

Come dance your way into shape in our next ZUMBA® class!  Monica Vazquez will be back again starting June 13 with another session of this  exciting, exhilarating, and effective fitness system. Whether or not you can dance, you can get a great workout at this “exercise in disguise” class.

In their course evals, our students wrote:

Class was excellent.  It is fun and energizing after a long day at work.  I look forward to joining again!  It is a great way to learn how to dance, too.  :-)

Fantastic class.  I’m already signed up for May!

This was my first Zumba class.  It was great!  Monica is awesome!  Her fitness encouraged me!

The best review was, “Informal Classes with Zumba = 0.”  :-)

Sign up for Monica’s next class here!

Have you been thinking of going to England?  Joy Owen is an expert in traveling in northern England and will be teaching her course again on June 8.  Here are some of the comments about her February class.

IC: How was class overall?

Great!

Good information - pleasant presentation of N. England

Excellent.

Very good - helpful to have website.

Excellent, lots of info sites, books, videos

Joy was enthusiastic and helpful - good class.

Check out Joy’s next class to help you plan for your trip!

Carlos’s beginning-level digital photography class is one of our most popular classes, year-round.  Remarks on his reviews include, “Carlos is engaging and brilliant,” “enjoyed the class very much,” “Carlos loves photography and it shows,” and “Carlos has a great way of giving the class a lot of information without making it overwhelming.

Student Cleta Ernst wrote:

I learned so much from Carlos.  I would like to take more classes with him.

Cleta, it’s your lucky day!  Carlos has developed a new class for us, called iPhoneography.  The first session in June has already sold out, but there is another session available in August.  His next beginners class starts June 3, as well!

Charles di Piazza finished off our spring UT Speaker Series with his class Art and Architecture in Morocco. Want to hear what his students had to say?

IC: How was the class overall?

Quite fascinating!  Great class!

Interesting and educational.

We are always looking to improve our program, as well.  Here are some comments about IC in response to the question, “What do you like best about Informal Classes?”

Genuine interest (by fellow “students”) in subject area.

IC: Please provide any more comments or a testimonial:

Charles is awesome.

Mr. di Piazza has knowledge and explains his topic with great insight.

Our next UT Speaker Series will start on June 5.

Brian Loflin (of our fantabulous Nature Photography video) teaches several different photography classes for us - Composition and Light, Macro Photography, Publishing Your Photographs.  We asked him to take part in our instructor interview, and we thought we’d share a snippet:

IC: Can you tell us a little bit about your background with photography?

BL: I am a biologist by education. Early on I had the requirement to document my work through photography. That work included producing high magnification images and processing the materials in a traditional darkroom. As they say, it got in my blood. Later, I had many fortunate opportunities to travel around the world photographing people, places and products. Today I am back to the pursuit of natural sciences with my wife, Shirley, through writing, photographing and publishing books through Texas A&M University Press. I have recently completed my third in that series and two others. We also lead nature photography workshops in a variety of locations.

We also wanted to share some of the comments from his last Beyond the Basics class:

Great teacher.  The class was very informative -some topics over my head in the last couple classes, but I liked talking about Photoshop too.

Very insightful.  Learned basics, advanced techniques, and creative methods.  Brian brings professional and creative processes to the classroom.

Brian has more classes scheduled to start in June!  Check out his instructor page to find links to all of his upcoming courses.