Eating For Health

Almost everyone knows that fruits and vegetables are good for you.   But many people have no idea how many fruits and vegetables you need each day.   Many of my students say it is important to eat healthy but then have trouble defining what that means.   One thing “eating healthy” means is that you eat fruits and vegetables every day.   And there is a minimum you should eat.   Do you know what that number is?   Easy to remember, “5 A Day”, every day.   Early on in teaching I told my students to eat 5 fruits and veggies a day.   Then one student ate 6 fruits and veggies and told me they had to cut back.   I was puzzled, and asked, “Why are you cutting back on fruits and vegetables?”   She told me because I taught them “5 A day” and 6 must be too much.   So now I very carefully say, “at least 5 A Day”, as eating more than 5 is good for your health. The next question is – how many fruits and how many vegetables?   Can it be 4 fr...

Ever eat a meal and in no time at all you are hungry again?   My students often ask why sometimes they eat a meal and shortly after they are hungry?   But sometimes they eat a meal and they are hungry hours later.   Why do some meals fill you up and keep you feeling full for hours, yet other meals or food seem to leave you with an empty stomach not long after you eat? One reason is that some foods are digested rapidly and some foods take much longer to digest.   Some foods seem to fill you up and leave you feeling satiated.   What is satiated?   The book I use to teach nutrition, defines “satiety” as “the feeling of fullness and satisfaction that occurs after a meal and during eating.   Satiation determines how much food is consumed during a meal.” The Satiety Index My daughter sent me an article on the Satiety Index that rates different foods as to how full they make you feel after a meal.      Susanna Holt, PhD from Australia, ...

In the health class I teach, it is a challenge to get parents to serve fruit and veggies to kids.   Then when they do, they say the kids won’t eat the fruits and veggies.   Some of my students work in day care centers and the center tries to serve healthy fresh fruit and vegetables only to have the kids turn up their noses.   So how can parents, day care centers and others who work with kids, get the kids to eat more fruits and veggies?   For good health kids should eat a minimum of 5 A DAY – five fruits and veggies a day.   Many eat none.   So here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control: 10 Ways to Help Kids Eat More Fruits and Veggies   1.     Keep a bowl of fresh fruits on the counter.   Keep cut up fruits and veggies in the fridge in small bags to easy snacks.                          ...