Biology Lesson 140 Essay: Hunger and Satiety

How does your body “know” when you are hungry/not hungry? Describe the organs, chemicals, and mechanisms that affect feelings of hunger and satiety.

Your body knows whether or not you are hungry through a series of feedback mechanisms sent to your brain. First, Gastrin is produced by the stomach when it is stretched and full of food. This hormone travels around your body then back to the receptors in the stomach. It’s not very efficient, but it works. To feel hungry, the food needs to be digested. Then the gastrin stimulates other hormones to be released, which causes your food to be digested through numerous complicated steps. Excess energy is stored in the liver, muscles, and adipose fat of your body. Ghrelin is called the “hunger hormone” because it is released when the stomach is empty to make you feel hungry, but it stops being released when your stomach is stretched so that you feel full. Interestingly, Ghrelin has connections to learning skills and memorization, and scientists are researching how hunger levels affect learning ability.

There are three main hormones that signal to your brain that you are no longer hungry. These hormones are Insulin, Leptin, and Peptide YY– which all suppress your appetite after a meal, Peptide YY specifically counteracting Ghrelin. The pancreas releases insulin when you have high blood sugar, and Leptin is released by fat cells. Peptide YY is released by the small intestine after it has received nutrients from a meal, and this hormone specially counteracts Grehlin. In conclusion, the main point to remember is that hormones are what control your appetite, causing you to feel hungry or full.

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References:

Ron Paul Curriculum Biology

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/peptide-yy

Would the Typical Listener Notice the Discrepancies in The Song Of Roland? – English 2 Lesson 140 Essay

Write 500 words on this topic: “Do you think the typical listener to a recitation of this poem would have spotted the discrepancies?”

The Song Of Roland is a French epic poem written by an unknown author in the 1100s. It remained incredibly popular into the 13th century, due to its strong patriotism and unabashedly pro-Crusade message. It’s very loosely based on a true event called the Battle of Roncevaux Pass where Charlemagne’s rearguard was defeated in battle in the 700’s. Unlike how the poem portrays it, Charlemagne’s ventures in Spain where the story takes place was a failure. It has a very clear worldview, with Franks in the right, and the Muslims in the wrong. This is used to justify why the Franks would win a victory even though they were ridiculously outnumbered. When listening to a poem, the typical viewer would probably not have memorized the dates, numbers, and geography details to spot discrepancies made later in the poem.

A major discrepancy of this poem that ruins its premise is the unexplained and constantly changing number of troops on both sides of the battle. The poet must have been trying to make certain scenes seem more dramatically outnumbered and others seem like an easy fight without having to explain anything. At the beginning of the poem, there is a total of 120,000 Frank soldiers, and then 20,000 that were in the rearguard are killed. In the final battle at the end of the poem, there are suddenly a total of 335,000 Frank soldiers out of nowhere. At the beginning of the story, the Muslims have 20,000 troops, and the Franks worry that they will lose the battle. Then in another scene, there are 400,000 Muslim troops and only 20,000 Franks. One of Charlemagne’s knights says the battle will be easy. It’s very confusing to keep track of the changing numbers, so the listener of the poem would hardly be able to follow along if they do notice the error.

This poem is also full of errors regarding the Muslims themselves. Because of pro- Crusade movements and propaganda, the intended audience probably would not have known or cared about inaccuracies in the portrayal of Islamic theology. Firstly, the poet assumes that Islam is a polytheistic religion with three gods, one of the gods being Mohammad. In reality, Islam has one god, being monotheistic, and Mohammad is a prophet who founded the religion. The poet also inaccurately describes the Muslims as idol worshipers. Also, the Muslims repeatedly refer to themselves as “heathens”. It would have been more accurate if only the Franks referred to them as “heathens”. The author also tries to make the Muslim ruling system seem more familiar to the listener by portraying it just like the feudal system of the Franks.

The poet’s use of geography creates an illogical plot hole as well. In the first battle, the Muslims use 1,000 trumpets, and in a later battle 7,000, to warn the Franks of their oncoming attack. Charlemagne, who is farther off but still in the area, doesn’t hear anything. Later in the poem, the knight Roland sounds a single trumpet to call for help, and Charlemagne hears it at least 17 miles away. Listeners of this poem were probably not looking out for errors such as this, but regardless, it ruins the logic of the poem.

Based on the fact that this poem was extremely popular for centuries, I will conclude that that the listeners didn’t notice the discrepancies, or simply didn’t care because the patriotic message outweighed the poet’s mistakes. But the discrepancies are there, and undermine the integrity of this poem.

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