What to Eat

Being a tennis player, I am told what I should and should not eat. I am told to eat this because it will give me more energy before a match, or to drink this because it will help re-hydrate my body faster. I am told this to help me perform at my highest level. Before reading Everything’s an Argument, I never thought about how an argument on what to eat was being made towards me. I realized that arguments are made toward me on a daily basis not just by my trainers and coaches but also by television commercials and nutrition books. All of these arguments are presented to me in different methods, all of which have an impact on what I decide to eat.

Pathos, ethos, logos are the common ways that an argument is presented to me on what to eat. When my coach tells me a story about how she did not drink enough water and Gatorade before a match and ended up losing the match because she started to cramp, she is using pathos to make an argument toward me. Hearing her say that strikes something in me when she goes on about how she let her team down. I know right then, that I am going to drink and drink to make sure that it does not happen to me. When Dwayne Wade is shown on a commercial drinking Gatorade, he is making an argument toward me using ethos. He uses his position, one of the best basketball players in the world, to make me want to drink Gatorade. I believe that since it is good enough for him that it has to be good enough for me and who knows maybe it will make me better. Commercials of athletes and other stars are shown over and over again to make an argument to people. However, these stars and athletes are not experts in nutrition. They are just endorsing a product so people(like me) will want to buy it. The experts in nutrition are nutritionists and trainers. When the nutritionist comes to talk to us during the year, she uses both ethos and logos to make her argument. The nutritionist that talks to us has a fancy degree and studies what athletes should eat for a living. This makes her argument an ethos one. However, she also gives us a chart with facts and numbers of what the body needs and what is lost when you work out. This makes her argument not only ethos but also logos. She has credibility and the facts that make me believe every word she says. All of these arguments make an impact on the food I choose to eat daily, it is only now that I realize the nature of the arguments being made.