Warren, Rachel Meltzer. “The New Super Bowls.” Consumer Reports, October 2017, 42-47.

My topic for our research project is about the relationship between socio-economic status and conspicuous consumption in the U.S. I could not find many periodicals about my topic, so I used the October edition of Consumer Reports to find my article. The article I chose discusses the trendiness of “super bowls,” which is a new food craze consisting of whole grains, vegetables, and protein all packed into one dish. There’s a lot of publicity and hype surrounding this new food trend, and a lot of misconceptions have formed due to misleading advertising. Many restaurants and companies that sell frozen meals are capitalizing on this trend, but misleading the consumer with advertising and a high price tag that leads them to believe it is a healthier option than it is. This article takes 26 popular power bowls and researches their nutrition facts to determine whether or not they are as healthy as advertised, or if the business is just trying to capitalize off the consumer. Overall, the research showed that many bowls were not as healthy as advertised, and appeared to be a marketing ploy to attract wealthier consumers with the promise of a trendy and healthy meal.

This article’s research topic is about the healthiness of “super bowls.” The Research question is “How do the 26 most popular power bowls compare to each other based on the nutrition facts?” This article wanted to compare the nutrition facts to see if companies are really providing high quality meals for a justified price, or if they are targeting a specific segment of consumers who are interested in conspicuously consuming trendy foods that are marketed to be “healthy.” To answer this research question, the author of the article needed expert knowledge from nutritionists. They needed to ask nutritional experts about the standards for what each person should be consuming each day, in order to determine if each meal was actually healthy or not. The author also needed personal opinions on the taste of each bowl, as that is another category she wanted to research.

In order to collect the data on each super bowl, the author used shallow interviews with nutritional experts to gain a better understanding of the healthy portions of vegetables, grains, and proteins that each person needs on a daily basis. By gaining this knowledge, the author was able to determine from the nutrition facts of each power bowl if they were actually healthy or just a marketing ploy used to attract conspicuous consumers. The author also tested each bowl herself, so she used her own personal opinion and experience to report on the bowls. The data found is both quantitative and quantitative, because there is numeric data and nonnumeric data (like descriptions of taste) to formulate a conclusion. The article lists every power bowl tested, and lists its nutritional information, price, and description of taste.

Overall, I think this research is somewhat valid, but could have tested more power bowls across the market in order to get more accurate results. I think the method of analyzing the nutrition facts and cross-referencing that with an expert’s opinion as well as a personal opinion allowed for semi-accurate conclusions, but also a biased conclusion because taste was only evaluated by the author, not anyone else.