They say you are what you eat, but do you always know exactly what you’re eating, where it even comes from, or what goes into producing it? Many people walk into the supermarket and purchase their groceries without thinking about what they are buying. For example, when you buy tomatoes in the winter, where do they come from since they can’t grow in cold climates? Especially when people buy processed food, the steps and ingredient lists are much more complex than one may think. You’re buying almost fifty ingredients, additives, and dyes with one box of pop tarts, for instance. People also buy meats not knowing how much that steak or burger affected the environment we live in. If we were to provide better education on foods it may change people’s feelings about eating and eating habits for the better.
What better way to tackle this than in our schools? Children deserve to learn how their foods are grown and what is good to eat. Food is essential to life and we should know more about those essentials. Especially today when 1 out of 3 children are considered obese, we need to help our kids understand what is good for their body and how food affects the place we live. This will not only help people appreciate what they are consuming, but it will be very beneficial to individual communities and our environment.
Locally grown foods are probably one of the best options for healthy foods and community support, and would definitely become more preferred with better food education. Farmer’s markets are rising in popularity with multiplying locations (the amount has doubled in the last five years) and increasing consumer numbers. The benefits of locally grown food markets are numerous. A plethora of healthily grown foods usually harvested that very day. A building sense of community with growing support for local farmers. You can’t get every product all year-round, but you will always find something different and definitely delicious. The pros definitely outweigh the cons when shopping locally.
Most people think that nutrition is the most important factor when learning about food. Even more important is how much food we consume and the ways our environment is impacted. Americans eat twice the recommended amount of protein from mostly meat. The processes that put that meat into our freezers uses a lot of energy, burns fuels, and emits greenhouse gases into the air. If you were to eat one less burger a week, the impact on the environment would be the equivalent of reducing your driving by 320 miles. We should strive to have a healthy environment to provide food to eat, therefore we should educate on the effects of these processes to prevent food shortages in the future.
Teaching children the ways food gets from the ground or the pasture onto their plates will help their community, their environment, and themselves too. They can learn to appreciate the foods they eat, and really taste those foods. Encouraging kids to think about what they are eating in the moment will help them to become more aware of what they put into their bodies. It’s important to not just eat for more energy or the feeling of being full. Eating consciously will improve the health of the body and the mind, putting the importance back into eating meals.
There are many more advantages to teaching children where their food comes from and what is in that food. They will understand the importance of buying peppers from the man who actually grew the peppers himself. They will hopefully feel encouraged to eat better and create healthier generations to come. Our planet will survive if people start realizing the dangers that some food processes create, and providing that knowledge to our children is a great place to start.
What better way to tackle this than in our schools? Children deserve to learn how their foods are grown and what is good to eat. Food is essential to life and we should know more about those essentials. Especially today when 1 out of 3 children are considered obese, we need to help our kids understand what is good for their body and how food affects the place we live. This will not only help people appreciate what they are consuming, but it will be very beneficial to individual communities and our environment.
Locally grown foods are probably one of the best options for healthy foods and community support, and would definitely become more preferred with better food education. Farmer’s markets are rising in popularity with multiplying locations (the amount has doubled in the last five years) and increasing consumer numbers. The benefits of locally grown food markets are numerous. A plethora of healthily grown foods usually harvested that very day. A building sense of community with growing support for local farmers. You can’t get every product all year-round, but you will always find something different and definitely delicious. The pros definitely outweigh the cons when shopping locally.
Most people think that nutrition is the most important factor when learning about food. Even more important is how much food we consume and the ways our environment is impacted. Americans eat twice the recommended amount of protein from mostly meat. The processes that put that meat into our freezers uses a lot of energy, burns fuels, and emits greenhouse gases into the air. If you were to eat one less burger a week, the impact on the environment would be the equivalent of reducing your driving by 320 miles. We should strive to have a healthy environment to provide food to eat, therefore we should educate on the effects of these processes to prevent food shortages in the future.
Teaching children the ways food gets from the ground or the pasture onto their plates will help their community, their environment, and themselves too. They can learn to appreciate the foods they eat, and really taste those foods. Encouraging kids to think about what they are eating in the moment will help them to become more aware of what they put into their bodies. It’s important to not just eat for more energy or the feeling of being full. Eating consciously will improve the health of the body and the mind, putting the importance back into eating meals.
There are many more advantages to teaching children where their food comes from and what is in that food. They will understand the importance of buying peppers from the man who actually grew the peppers himself. They will hopefully feel encouraged to eat better and create healthier generations to come. Our planet will survive if people start realizing the dangers that some food processes create, and providing that knowledge to our children is a great place to start.