What Animal Would You Be?



Figure one

Imagine you were able to be an animal for just one day. Your FAVORITE animal no matter what it is! What animal would you want to be? A lion? An elephant? A gorilla? A Giraffe? Animals, such as the ones in Figure one, have strong and healthy bones, because they do not eat candy and chocolate all the time. They limit the unhealthy food they eat, because it is not good for them and will not help them grow up to be strong and healthy! To stay away from bad foods, and to keep them growing to be big, strong animals, they eat healthy foods like vegetables, fruits and meat! If you want to be strong and have muscles like your favorite animal, you need to eat your fruits and vegetables! Unhealthy foods are foods that have flavor added to them, and are processed at a factory (4). They copy natural food to get the same flavor, and look to them (1). Processed foods can be healthy for you in some ways, but not all are healthy and can hurt your body (3). 

Foods You Should Eat



If you want to have strong muscles like your favorite animal does, you need to eat the right types of food. Healthy foods would be vegetables, meat and fruit. They are foods that give you the right vitamins that you need everyday. Figure 2 shows a group of healthy foods that you should have in your weekly diet. They are important to have in your diet, because they will keep you healthy as well.

Vegetables: Some choices of vegetables would be broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, corn, tomatoes, and spinach!

Fruits: Some choices of fruits would be apples, bananas, oranges, blueberries, strawberries, pears and cherries!

Meats: Some choices of meats would be chicken, fish, beef, and turkey!

Figure 2

       Foods You Should Not Eat

Foods you should not eat all the time, but are okay to eat sometimes would be chocolate, candy bars, candy, ice cream, and fast food such as french fries, burgers, and deep fried chicken. These foods will make you less strong, and are not healthy to eat at all times! Your favorite animal only eats these foods one time a week seen in Figure 3, if they are going to eat them at all! If you eat a lot of these unhealthy foods, you can become very sick, and start to have problems with your body (5). Although most of the foods are bad, some can be good to eat. Some provide you with the right vitamins to keep you healthy (2). 

Figure 3

If you continue to eat healthy foods and only eat unhealthy foods once a week or less, you will be just as strong as your favorite animal! So, before thinking about eating bad foods, think about the elephant, gorilla, or lion, and think if they would eat it! 

References:

1) Academy of Nutritional and Dietetics. (2014). Surprise! This is Processed Too!. In It’s About Eating Right. Retrieved from http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6442471055 

2) Carocho, M., Barreiro, MF., Morales, P., Ferreira, ICFR. (2014). Adding Molecules to Food, Pros and Cons: A Review on Synthetic and Natural Food Additives. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND FOOD SAFETY, 13, 377-399.

3)Moubarac, J., Batal, M., Bortoletto Martins, A., Claro, R., Bertazzi Levy, R., Cannon, G., Monterio, C. (2014). Processed and Ultra-processed Food Products: Consumption Trends in Canada from 1983 to 2011. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice & Research, 75, 15-21. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3148/75.1.2014.15 

4)Polopolus, L. (1967). Synthetic, Substitutes, and Food Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 31(4), 12-17.

5)Rezai, G., Kit Teng, P., Mohamed, P., Shamsudin, M. N. (2014). Journal of food marketing. Structural Equation Modeling of Consumer Purchase Intention Toward Synthetic Functioning Foods, 20, 13-34. Doi: 10.1080/10454446.2014.921868