How do we know we are eating healthy?

Julia Berenson

In the year 2018, eating healthy and nutritious foods is something that people have become more aware of with their American diet, also known as the ‘Western Diet”. There are many different meal plans, diets and food groups that people stick to ensure that they are eating healthy. Is there a way to know how healthy we really are eating? Is the food industry really supplying us nutrient rich foods that enable us to properly intake the proper nutrition out bodies need?

When watching Michael Polin’s film, In Defense of Food, it was brought to my attention that the food industry could be deceiving when it comes to the term ‘healthy’. In one segment, a bottle of coke and Yoplait yogurt were compared. Both had the same amount of sugar, but one is portrayed as being a healthy food option.  Another thing that was brought to my attention was that foods with reduced fat on their labels are compensating for the low fat elsewhere, usually with an increase of sugar. An increase in fructose can be linked to kidney disease, type two diabetes, heart disease and obesity. In the film, I remember two ladies who were watching the demonstration of the coke and the yogurt in the audience. Their reaction showed that they were astonished about the sugar facts and that they have been giving that “healthy’ yogurt to their kids. It might ease a parent’s mind to know that they are giving their kids a “healthy” snack of yogurt, but in all actuality, it is overloaded with sugar.

One way we can limit our intake is to avoid the center aisles in grocery stores and stick to the perimeter, where produce is placed.  This strategy was presented towards the end of the film, but really resonated with me. Now that I picture a grocery store, mostly packaged and processed items are placed in those center aisles. The fresh produce, meats, and dairy are placed around the perimeter of the stores.

There were three food rules that were presented to us in the film. The first rule was to only eat foods that will eventually rot. This makes a lot of sense because foods that have a long shelf life are usually filled with chemicals and other unnecessary and unnatural ingredients to make them last longer. Twinkies come to mind when I think of this rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYIBNYmh2iA

Attached is a video of the breakdown of a Twinkie and all of the ingredients that are in them. At the beginning of this video, they talk about how the original Twinkie was made with flour, sugar, and eggs, as a basic sponge cake filled with cream. The problem with this product was that the shelf life was only a few days. To make this product last longer, they replaced all of these natural ingredients with substitutes that were unnatural and very unhealthy. Twinkies were not the only product that this strategy applied to. In the movie there was a segment on Wonder bread, and how they switched to white flour because it was more abundant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3puLEt5sr68

The summary of this YouTube video is that “food does not haveingredients, food is the ingredients.” If it comes in a box, it probably is not food.

 The second rule is to only eat foods that are cooked by humans. A lot of foods are factory produced on an assembly line by machines. Mass produced foods are usually not healthy or fresh. Their shelf life is a lot longer than natural foods would be. In 2018, it can be hard to find fresh foods that are not machine made. An alternative to buying foods that are factory produced is to grow your own foods. At my parents’ house, which I live at during the summer, we have a variety of fruits and veggies that are homegrown such as apples, pears, plums, strawberry’s zucchini, squash, chives, parsley, lettuce, spinach potatoes and tomatoes. We cook with these ingredients as much as we can because we know exactly where they came from and they are fresh. They were not sitting in the store for who knows how long. They were picked from the plant and used that day, or frozen to use later on. Being a broke college student living away for most of the year in a run down house with seven other people can be difficult to eat healthy. Not only is there any garden space, but not enough time to take care of the garden, and the risk for our vegetation being stolen is high in the Parkland area. Coming home in the summer is a real treat for me to eat fresh fruits and veggies from our garden. I notice a huge difference with store bought produce. The products from our garden have a more “earthy” flavor to them. The grocery store is convenient, but not as convenient as your backyard!

My parents also have four chickens (It used to be five but a raccoon broke into the coup and ate one. *moment of silence for Ms. Foul. RIP, your eggs will be missed). Two summers ago, my parents were feeling a little empty nested (so to speak) when my brothers and I all moved out of the house. They decoded to become chicken farmers and turned our old playhouse into a chicken coup. With hours of hard work and thoughtful design, we constructed a chicken coup completed with chicken wire for fencing and nesting boxes for the hens. These hens produced some of the best eggs I have ever tasted. Their yolks were vibrant and healthy looking. One of the positive experiences would to come out and collect the eggs that were still warm because they were just laid. Each hen would produce about one egg per day in the summer months. During the winter, not as many are produced. I can definitely taste the difference between the fresh eggs from our coup and the store bought dozen eggs.

There is something to be said about eating foods that come from your backyard and garden. I feel good about eating these foods because I know exactly where they came from. They aren’t packaged in colorful wrapping and sit on a shelf for weeks at a time. They are fresh.

The third and final rule is to avoid TV advertised foods. These foods are most likely not the healthiest and do not revel their entire nutritional value. The best way to eat healthy is to avoid all the fun, colorful foods that come in wrapping and eat natural foods that were not processed or made in a factor. The foods that are mass-produced most likely to not have the same nutritional value as foods that are grown in a garden.

In conclusion, the answer to my question of how do we know we are eating healthy is to grow and self produce as much food as possible. Also, avoiding foods that were not made or farmed by humans (such as machines) are the kinds of foods to avoid. By supplementing processed foods with fresh fruits and veggies, this can eliminate unhealthy ingredients and unnecessary fats and sugars that cause our bodies harm.

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