2. I have not given, used, or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment.
Taste The Rainbow
“Taste the rainbow”. That is a popular phrase I am sure everyone has heard
from skittles commercials. Skittles is right! We need to eat the rainbow. However, we
need to do that by eating a wide assortment of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains,
rather than the highly processed and colorful candies. In other words, we need to eat
more whole foods.
Our bodies are very instinctive. Lets look at a chimpanzee for example. We take
him from the jungle and place him in the Denver Zoo. What do we feed him? We feed
him what he would find in his natural habitat. We would not feed him pop-tarts for
breakfast, lasagna for lunch, and a hamburger for supper. We too are like a
chimpanzee in a zoo, except we are eating bad sugars, processed grains, and little of
what nature says we are meant to be eating. In turn, we are not getting enough of the
things we need to stay healthy, and our bodies do not know what to do with it. So, they
end up storing the foreign foods as fat, and people start becoming sick. The high
sugars invite diabetes, the chemicals invite cancer, and many other illnesses come into
our lives .big or small. Then, once we are sick, we have nothing to fight back with. We
do not have a strong system to fight off the sickness and disease because we have not
fed it the right way. We become sluggish, lazy, overweight, and sick.
Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Whole grains
have healthy fats your body needs as well. All are key elements to a healthy diet. Fiber
is important for digestion. It helps to pass things through your system in a way that
allows the body to use what it has eaten. Vitamins and minerals have antioxidants.
Antioxidants attack the chemicals in the body and takes them away. Say bye bye
cancer! Whole grains have healthy fats that support brain health. Many processed
foods take these out of the food. Now, they are no longer “whole”. If you want a long
shelf life, you have to take some nutrients out in order to prevent the food from going
bad. This is better for shipping and storing foods in the grocery store. In other words,
this will save companies money. White rice is a great example. Rice starts out as a
whole grain. But, many people store this food for long periods of time, so they need it to
have a long shelf life. In order to do this, they process the rice by taking off the husk,
bran, and germ. These make up the outside of the rice. This results in loss of all of the
fiber, most of the B vitamins, iron, good fats, and many other of the things our bodies
need. What is left of the rice is mostly starch. Taking out the healthy parts now makes
it easy to keep for long periods of time. This is good when you look at money, but not
so good when you look at health.
Not only do they take away the good stuff, they add in harmful things as well.
These harmful things are preservatives. Preservatives help to keep the food from going
bad. However, our bodies see these things as chemicals, or something it does not want
to have. Preservatives are man made things that were never in our natural
environment. Again, we are eating the wrong things in this zoo. Whole foods do not
take away the good. They keep it there, and they add a lot less, or none of the things
3. we do not need. They are whole, they are complete, so they do not need things added
to them. By eating the things you need, you are keeping your body in a healthy state,
and keeping the sickness away.
Now that we have talked about eating more whole foods and less processed
foods, lets talk about how to start doing that. The first step in a better diet is the way
you spend your money on food. Eat out less and grocery shop more. When you eat
out, you cannot be sure what you are eating. If you order pulled pork, how did they
cook it? Did they slow cook it, did they bake it, did they cook it in oils or sugars? If they
cooked it with oil, what kind of oil did they use? You can always ask, but chances are,
you wont like the answers. Restaurants strive for taste, which doesn’t always allow for
health. So, majority of your food needs to be cooked from home. That way, you know
what oils were added and you can make sure that you are cooking for health as the
number one goal. Not only will eating at home save you the unwanted foods, it will save
you money as well. Eating out can get pricy. Grocery shopping costs less in the long
run.
We have set the rule to eating mostly at home, but this is only good if you are
shopping for the right foods. To make it easy on you, start each week by make a
shopping list, and only buy the things that are on your list. There is a lot of bad options
at the grocery store. As you check out, they have rows of chocolate, candies and other
highly processed foods. They look so good, but they are not good for you. If you have
the rule of only buying the things on your list, it will take away some of that urge for a
sugary treat. Plus, if you start the week with a fully stocked kitchen, there is no excuse
for eating out. When you are building your list, make sure that you spend most of your
time in the produce, fresh meats, poultry, and fish. The isles are packed with processed
foods. They mostly come in boxes, cans, and plastic bags. Look on the labeling for the
ingredients. The longer the list, the more processed it tends to be. There is no
ingredients list on an apple because it is as you see it, an apple. Another thing to pay
attention to are the first four ingredients. If sugar is one of them, try to not buy it. They
don’t always label sugar as sugar. Look for a word ending in -ose. It is a hidden way to
say sugar. Stick to the walls of the store where the fresh stuff is. It is more simple and
a healthier way to fuel your body. Lastly, meal prep. Plan out what you are going to
cook from your list. This way you don’t need to worry what you are going to eat and risk
a bad choice. You already have a healthy idea waiting for you.
We really need to start eating less of the processed foods, and more of the whole
foods. Too much processed food leads to health problems and a less active life. They
take away what our bodies need and we are not getting it from any other source.
Including more whole foods will include more things such as vitamins, minerals, good
fats, and fiber. All are key to a healthy, and more active life. We will start to feel better
and live better lives. We do not need to live in a zoo that feeds us the wrong foods. We
are in charge, and we need to start eating that colorful, healthful, whole foods rainbow.
