My eating manifesto: the balance of the nutrients and regular meals

       Based on my food journal, I find out a serious problem. I only eat the food I like, but I pay no attention to the nutrients I get from the food. I almost eating French fries every meal. Hamburgers, French fries, and cokes almost become a necessary part of my meals. However, having a meal like this is not good for my health because these foods only contain fat, calories, and proteins, but contain no vitamin and cellulose. So, in order to be healthy, I have to keep the balance of the nutrients   and form a healthy eating habit. The healthy eating recipe is my manifesto on what to eat. Also, eating three meals a day is important as well because eating three meals a day can provide me enough energy to do the daily works. So this is my manifesto on how to eat. But, you may curious about, why I think is it important to keep the balance of the nutrients? What is my healthy eating recipe? Why I have to emphasize eat three meals a day? How I can get benefits from eating three meals a day? I will answer all the questions in the follow paragraphs and I strongly believe that these answers help me to improve the quality of my meals and my life.

       First, in order to keep the balance of the nutrients, I have to explain what kind of nutrients is important to our body. In fact, there are seven nutrients we need every day. Minerals, fats, proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, water, and dietary fibers are the seven important nutrients for our health. These seven nutrients are the main sources that provide the energy to human bodies. According to the scientist’s research, 70% of the energy is from the carbohydrates, 10-15% of the energy is from the proteins, and the rest energy is from the fats. So the food that contains proteins, carbohydrates, and fats is necessary for our health. However, different from the proteins, carbohydrates and fats, the vitamins and water is not the energy providers. They are used in the metabolism in human bodies. As we all know, the metabolism happened every day. It helped the human body refresh itself. Another two important nutrients, minerals and fibers, are the indispensable materials to form our body systems and keep our body systems work. Without them, our body systems will not work and we will absolutely suffer from the diseases. So now we can see the importance of these seven nutrients.

       Building further on the seven important nutrients, where to find them? Well, the answer is obvious, from the daily food. Beef, fish, eggs, beans, and oils are the foods that contain lots of proteins and fats. Milk, rice, and noodles are the foods that contain the carbohydrates. Carrots, corns, cabbages, and most of the vegetables are the foods that full of vitamins and fibers. Some vegetables are full of minerals. For example, the carrots can provide lots of calcium while tea can provide the manganese. As for water, according to the doctors in Mayo Clinic, they said “drink eight-ounce glasses of water a day is the best” (par. 7). So now it is clear that what kind of food can provide the nutrients we need and we can start to establish our own eating recipes.

       According to the Harvard School of Public Health, they gave us a perfect idea. They described the healthy eating plate. The healthy eating plate is made up by four parts: Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy proteins. The whole grains mean the brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and whole-grain pasta. Healthy proteins are the representation of the fish, poultry, beans, and nuts. Also, the oil we used to cook has to be careful selected. It is better to choose olive or canola oil. Same as the oil, the water we drink every day should be the water that contains some minerals. If you think the water is not enough, then try some milk. But we can only drink 1-2 servings of milk every day because if we drink the milk too much, it is not good for our health either (The Nutrition Source, par. 1-3).

       Follow the advices given by the scientists, I make my own meal plan. For breakfast, I need to eat some whole-wheat bread, an apple, and a glass of milk; for lunch, I have to eat some fish, carrots, cabbages, some rice, some strawberries, and some water; for dinner, I have to eat tomatoes, cucumbers, some meat, a banana, and some pasta. I have tried this meal plan for one week and the effect is obvious. I felt that I am full of energy every day, my skin become more smoothly, and the quality of my sleep is improved. So I sincerely advise everyone to try the healthy meal schedule in order to receive the greatest benefit from the food we eat.

       Keeping the balance of the nutrients is absolutely an important part of the healthy eating habit. However, there is another important part of the healthy eating habit: eat three meals a day. Based on my research of our class’s food journals, I found that some of my classmates skip their breakfast every day. Most of them give me the reason like this: I want more time to sleep. It seems that skipping breakfast is not a huge problem because we can still receive the nutrients from the lunch and dinner. However, according to Mike Adams, the health researcher, he said “skipping breakfast may lead to weight gain as well as increase the risk of the heart disease in healthy people over time” (par. 5). So, based on his point of view, it is better not to skip breakfast because we have to both consider our weight and the healthiness of our heart.

       Building further on regular meals, there is another advantage to eating three meals a day: to provide enough energy for the brain and the body. As we all know, sugar is the main source that provides energy to the brains. Eating three meals a day can provide enough sugar for our brain. To be more specific, if you skip breakfast, then you will feel weak in the morning because no sugar provides energy to your brain and your body. The main function of the breakfast is to refill the body. Since our body has just gone for six or more hours without food and has already digested all the food we eat yesterday, so it is better to eat breakfast in the morning to recharge ourselves (Tucker, par. 2). Different from breakfast, the lunch is used to maintain the energy. Since the energy we get from the breakfast is all used in the morning, so we have to eat lunch and store some energy for we to use in the afternoon. So this makes the lunch become the most important meal in one day. As for the last meal of a day, dinner, do not eat too much sugar and fats. Too much sugar and fats will store in our bodies overnights and it will cause the weight gain very fast and the blood pressure rise as well.

       With the understanding of the importance of the regular meals, I believe that my mother showed a great example on obey the “three meals a day rule”. As a very successful business woman, my mom is very busy every day. Her working time started at 8am in the morning and ended at 6pm in the evening. But no matter how busy she is, she will always eat three meals every day. She gave me an explanation like this: in order to finish all the works quickly and efficiently, I need plenty of energy. And the quickest way to get the energy is to eat meals regularly. So eat three meals a day is the best choice. Not only it is great for health, but also it is the perfect way to recharge myself.

I will never forget my mother’s word because I believe what she says is always right. So I just follow her advice and try my best to eat three meals a day regularly. Now I can tell the benefit I received from my mother’s advice. I felt that every day I was full of energy and I never felt sick or tired when I was in the class. Moreover, I believe I finished all the homework more quickly and efficiently than I expected. I have to thanks to my mother for giving me such a nice advice so that now I have plenty of energy to solve all the difficulties bravely in my life.

In general, the best way to keep healthy and improve the quality of life is to keep the balance of the nutrients and eat three meals a day regularly. The balance of the nutrients can provide all the nutrients I need every day while the “three meals a day rule” provide me enough energy. All these two factors can influence my body health significantly. After I follow the healthy recipe and “three meals a day rule”, I felt myself full of power every day. Although now I am a college student and I have to attend three classes a day, I still feel that I am full of energy. So I believe my own eating manifesto is great to try and it obviously has some great effects. Here are some tips for healthy meals: make half of your plate veggies and fruits; add lean proteins; include whole grains; don’t forget the dairy; avoid extra fat; satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthy way (Nutrition Education Series, No. 7). Follow all the tips here and the advice I mentioned above, I believe everyone can also have a healthy life and green future.

The summary of this quarter's study

The most interesting thing I learned this quarter is that I learn how to interpret the food value and culture based on the advertisements and observations. In the past, when talking about food, the only thing come to my mind is eat food. But now, when talking about food, I will think about deeper meanings of the food. Maybe the nutrients of the food, the history and production of the food. Also, the research method I learned this quarter is useful as well. When writing an academic essay, especially the research essay, the data is a very important way to support the claim. So in my future research paper, I may pay some attention on the data of the analysis as well as my point of view.

interesting parts in others short essay 5

I read Ying's and Difei's short essay 5 today. Ying is mainly focus on talking about the positive and negative effect of the soft drink. The most interesting part I found is that the soft drink still have some positive effect. Based on my own perspective, I only think that the soft drink is harmful for out health. However, Based on Ying's research, she said that the caffeine contained in soft drink can quickly recharge ourselves and can help to build bones. From Difei's essay, he mainly talk about the yogurt. The most interesting part in his essay is that he said the yogurt can protect us from disease, especially colon cancer. In my mind, I just treated the yogurt as a kind of dessert and I never thought about the nutrients contained in yogurt. So after reading Difei's essay, I believe I learn more about yogurt.

Eating like a omnivore

In Pollan’s article, “Unhappy Meals”, Pollan’s opinion about the American contemporary food issue is that the American people’s eating habits is not healthy enough in recent years. More and more people just eat what they like to eat but they pay no attention on the healthiness or nutrients of the food. He gave out several advices to improve the American eating habits, and to be more specific, I want to mainly discuss two of them.

First, according to Pollan’s opinion, he said “Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, and contain high-fructose syrup” (page 16). These three parts ingredients are not harmful themselves, but if they are processed, they can be really harmful to us.

Second, Pollan said that “eat mostly plants, especially leaves” (page 16). As we all known, the plants absolutely contain less calories than meat. According to Pollan’s perspective, he believed that the vegetarian is healthier than carnivores. So he agreed with this conclusion: change the plants as the main dishes on our tables in order to become healthier.

However, another author, Dupuis, showed different opinions. Dupuis disagree with Pollan’s perspective. He said “Injustice is worth serious attention, but diet won’t do the trick” (page 43). Unlike Pollan, Dupuis’s main idea is that people should not consider much about the healthiness and nutrients of the food. Our eating habits should follow our heart, our taste. Consider much is a waste of time.

Nowadays, the eating habit of American people is become more and more unhealthy. Some people only eat meat while some people only eat vegetables. Based on my perspective, I believe that become omnivore is the best choice. People should eat both meat and vegetables every day so that they can receive enough vitamin and calories. Maybe this is the best way to become a healthy person. 

Eating tomatoes means eating health

       Since I keep recording my own eating journal last week, I found out some really interesting facts: I ate tomatoes almost every day. According to several people opinions, the vegetable is always the green color and with leaves. But in my mind, the tomato is also a kind of vegetables. However, different from other kinds of vegetables, the tomato is red, a little bit sweet, juicy, and contains lots of nutrients. The reason why I like to eat tomatoes is that first, I like sweet things, but I also care about my weight, which means I cannot eat so many sweet things. So the tomato becomes my best choice. Second, because the tomato is juicier than any other vegetable, so it become one of the most popular vegetables on my eating habits. I eat tomatoes every day because it is one of my favorite foods. Because the tomato is tasty and full of nutrients, I sincerely advise everyone to add the tomato in your eating recipe. However, there is still two questions exist. When we eat tomatoes, what kind of nutrients did we get? What are the nutrients used for? So I did the following research to find out the answers.

       Tomatoes are now eaten widely all over the word. Many people believe that eating tomatoes is great for their heart, among other organs. After doing several experiments, the scientists finally found out that the tomato contained so many carotene lycopene, which is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants that can defeat the cancer. In the same time, the lycopene is also been found to improve our skin’s ability to protect against harmful UV rays (Tomato dishes “may protect skin”). Besides the advantages of prevent from the cancer and improve the skin’s ability, the nutrients tomatoes contain also plays significant roles in human body. It contains large amount of vitamin C and beta-carotene; it also contains large amount of mineral manganese and vitamin E. (Tomatoes, par. 5). All these nutrients are really good for our health, especially our bone health. So in order to prevent from the cancer disease, we’d better eat tomatoes. For the women who care about the beautiful, they can also eat some tomatoes to improve their skin’s ability in a natural way and make themselves more beautiful.

       Building on the nutrients of tomatoes further, tomatoes also have some medical properties. As I said before, the lycopene contained in tomatoes is a great weapon to kill the cancer diseases. So in medical field, according to Rao and Balachandran’s perspective, tomato consumption has always been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer, head and neck cancers and might be strongly protective against neurodegenerative diseases (Nutritional Neuroscience 5). In fact, cooking tomatoes can release more lycopene from the tomato cells than the raw tomatoes. So it is better to eat cooking tomatoes rather than just eat raw tomatoes. A very special kind of tomatoes called jumbo tomato can effectively reduce the high blood pressure because it contained lots of potassium (Medicinal Applications of Tomatoes, par. 13). As we all know, the potassium can reduce the high blood pressure. So for the older people, especially the older people who have the high blood pressure, eating jumbo tomatoes is a great choice.

       In the United States, Florida and California are the top two fresh tomato producing states, together comprising over two-third of the total U.S fresh tomato acreage (Commodity Profile: Tomatoes, fresh market, par. 2). Nowadays, the demand of the tomato in United States increased heavily. More and more people recognized the importance of the tomato and became the “tomato eaters”, just like me. However, the ways people eat tomatoes are different. Some people prefer to eat raw tomatoes while others prefer to eat cooked tomatoes; some people would like to eat tomato sauces instead. But, whatever the way people choose to eat tomatoes, their main purpose is the same. People want to receive the nutrients contained in tomatoes to keep them healthy. The women would like to eat tomatoes because they want to keep their skins beautiful; the older people like to eat tomatoes because it can prevent them from high blood pressure and cancer diseases.

       With the help of the high technology, nowadays, tomato growers plant several different kinds of tomatoes. For example: beefsteak tomatoes, which is widely used in sandwiches; plum tomatoes, which is mainly used in tomato sauces; cherry tomatoes, which is smaller than other tomatoes; Campari tomatoes, which is low acidity and lack of mealiness. The cherry tomato is my favorite tomato because it is easy to deal with. All I have to do is clean them and then eat them. In our modern society, the tomato is an indispensable vegetable on our tables. It almost becomes a symbol of health. More and more people realize the nutrients that contained by tomatoes is really great for the health, so they would like to spend more money buying tomatoes. 

My own food journal

May 8^th, Tuesday, sunny

Get up at 9:30 am

10:00 am (breakfast time) ----- An apple and a bottle of skim milk (FAT FREE!!!), a piece of bread with some peanut better.

12:10 pm (lunch time) ----- Some tomatoes and cabbage, corns and an egg, little French fries and a piece of pizza, a cup of vanilla soy milk, and a small piece of brownie.

1:50pm ----- A cup of ice latte with three packages of no calories sugar.

5:00 pm (dinner time) ----- A piece of fish, an hamburger, some cucumbers and cabbage, a cup of water, an banana.

9:45 pm ----- Some chips and two cups of water.

May 9^th, Wednesday, cloudy

Get up at 9:50 am

10:20 am (breakfast time) ----- A cup of white chocolate mocha

2:10 pm (lunch time) ----- Two pieces of bread and a piece of cheese, some tomatoes and cucumbers, some chicken and a cup of coke

3:40 pm ----- An apple

5:30 pm (dinner time) ----- An egg, some cucumbers and carrots, French fries and some fried chicken, a cup of orange juice and a cupcake with a fresh strawberry and some peanuts.

10:00 pm ----- Some cookies and three cups of water

May 10^th, Thursday, sunny

Get up at 10:00 am

No breakfast that day.

12:10 pm (lunch time) ----- An hamburger, some French fries, some cabbages and tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, a cup of chocolate soy milk and an banana.

4:20 pm (dinner time) ----- A piece of bread and a piece of cheese with a cup of diet coke and some fresh watermelon cubes.

8:50 pm ----- chips and water

May 11^th, Friday, cloudy (REALLY COLD)

Get up at 11:00 am

12:00 pm ----- A cup of white chocolate mocha

2:00 pm (lunch time) ----- An piece of bread and a cup of hot water

EXPECTING ON THE BIG DINNER TONIGHT!!!

Strawberry: My Own Favorite Fruit

      Last Friday, when I finished my writing class, I felt really hungry. So I went to the dining hall in Centennial Halls to get something to eat. Fortunately, there were some strawberry cakes served in the dining hall that day, so I took one piece. I ate the strawberry cake happily and enjoyed the fresh strawberries on the top of the cake a lot. I am that kind of girl who loves to eat strawberries. Not only because the strawberry tastes sweet, but also because the strawberry contains so many nutrients. Now the only thing I know about strawberry is that it is full of nutrition. However, other important properties of the strawberry are still mysteries to me. So, in order to find out other important properties of the strawberry, I have to search and analyze the history and production of the strawberry.

       My high school history teacher once said that “knowing the history of one thing makes us better understand this thing”. It is true. So in order to better understand the property of the strawberry, we have to analyze the history of the strawberry at first. In the early history, the strawberry had not been seen as a kind of fruit. People only gave the name to the strawberry, but no one actually paid any attention to it (Dallow, par. 1-2). In Dallow’s book, he explained that Pliny (23-79 A.D) was the last known writer to mention the strawberry. “In the twenty-first book of [Pliny’s] Natural History, he listed ‘Fraga’, the fruit of the strawberry, as one of the natural products of Italy” (par. 5). However, time goes by, the strawberry became more and more popular all over the world. By the 1300’s, many French recognized the importance of the strawberry and began to plant a kind of strawberry, the wood strawberry. “In 1368, King Charles V had his gardener, Jean Dudoy, plant no less than 1200 strawberries in the royal gardens of the Louvre in Paris” (Darrow, chapter 3, PARA 7). Just like France, England was also an early admirer of the strawberry. The greatest contribution England people made to strawberry is that they changed the name of strawberry, from “Streowberige” and “Strea Berige” to “StrebereWyse” and “Strawberry”. Nowadays, the word “Strawberry” is widely accepted by the people all over the world and fruit strawberry becomes one of the most famous and delicious fruits on our tables.

       Same as the history, the production is another important way for us to analyze the strawberry. As a kind of plant, strawberry is a little bit different from other plants. It requires a fairly long-term commitment because it is normally harvested during the second, third, and fourth seasons after planting, while other plants are always harvested in their first season (Davis and Fellman). As for the management, the strawberry also requires more complex management than other plants. Davis and Fellman once described the difficulties of growing strawberries, “Growers must know the physiological needs of the crop, proper cultural practices, and identification and control of insects, diseases, weeds, and pests” (par. 6). Just because the strawberry will only be harvested in the second, third, and fourth season, so for the growers, they have to consider the cost of the strawberry and the money they will lose on the first season of the strawberry. All these factors should be considered in the production of the strawberry. So we can say that the production of strawberries is not only mainly focused on the soil condition, the brand of the prestige, or the sunshine time, but also focused on the original cost while planting strawberries. In the United States, California is the main state that produces strawberries. In the article “The U.S. Strawberry Industry”, written by Dlane Bertelsen, the author said “California produced nearly 80 percent of the U.S crop on less than half of the strawberry acreage due to higher output per acre than other States” (par. 1). So, if the people in Denver want to eat strawberries, they have to be transport from California to Denver.

       After finishing all this research, I do feel that I learned a lot in strawberry’s field. In the past, the only thing I knew is that the strawberry is full of nutrition; but now, I know something new. I know that the strawberry was first famous in France, then import to England, and finally, well-known all over the world. I also knew that the production of the strawberry is really complicated. The growers not only have to consider whether the environment is suitable for the strawberry to grow, they also have to determine whether the costs they spend are greater than or less than the benefits they receive from the strawberry. I also know that California is the biggest State that grows the strawberry in United States, so next time I decide to go on a tour, I will definitely choose California as my destination.  

With the understanding of the difficulties of the strawberry growers, I think I will cherish the strawberry I eat every day more because every strawberry contains the hard work of the strawberry growers. The strawberry is not only my favorite food, but also the greatest example for me to learn. In my studies and works, I must work very hard, just like the strawberry growers, so that I can receive the sweetest “strawberry” in the future.