i am what i eat essay

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You Are What You Eat

• Categories: Dieting

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Published: Jan 30, 2024

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Table of contents

Body paragraph 1: physical health, body paragraph 2: mental health, body paragraph 3: emotional well-being, counter-argument and rebuttal, references:.

• Hu, F. B., et al. "White rice, brown rice, and risk of type 2 diabetes in US men and women." Archives of Internal Medicine , vol. 170, no. 11, 2010, pp. 961-969.
• Lassale, C., et al. "Association between a dietary quality index based on the food standards agency nutrient profiling system and cardiovascular disease risk among French adults." International Journal of Cardiology , vol. 203, 2016, pp. 698-703.

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You Are What You Eat: Essay Example

You are what you eat essay introduction.

• Healthy eating habits

We Are What We Eat Essay Conclusion

A person living a modern life should learn to eat healthy since whatever a person eats will determine their health condition in the long run. Eating healthy would lead to being in good condition, but eating junk food would lead to complications to one’s health.

The human body has a way of regulating some of the functions of the body in order to remain healthy, but the body would react to what it is fed on.

Certain types of foods are essential for the functioning of particular parts of the human body. The different types of foods that contain vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates are necessary in the human diet. Fats are also essential for the body’s functioning, and a lack of it in the diet might be very dangerous.

Healthy Eating Habits

Healthy eating habits include adopting a healthy diet in daily meals. This diet would ensure that one leads and maintains good general health. Modern lifestyle involves eating junk foods that are not necessarily healthy.

This might cause many diseases and conditions that would have otherwise been avoided if a healthy diet were adopted. The types of diseases that can be avoided using healthy foods include hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Healthy eating habits include the taking of appropriate amounts of both macronutrients and micronutrients (Fernandez & Calle, 2010).

Healthy living involves consuming the correct amounts of essential nutrients and drinking adequate amounts of water daily. It is not enough to take all the vital nutrients; having them in the right quantities is also crucial. Eating a limited amount of nutrients may lead to deficiency, while eating them in excess may also lead to serious conditions and diseases. Water is an important part of a diet since it makes up at least 60% of the human body.

Many people today are classified as overweight and obese. This condition occurs when a person feeds on excess fats and carbohydrates and fails to exercise to reduce these amounts in the body (Katz, 2003).

Since the body reacts to whatever it is fed on, it tends to store the excess carbohydrates and fats (lipids) in the adipose tissue below the skin. This forms a thick layer below the skin, which explains why people grow fat.

Overweight or obese individuals have a high Body Mass Index (BMI), which has been proven through research to affect the individual’s mobility and performance.

Obese individuals have trouble when moving or performing tasks due to the immense weight they carry whenever they work. Therefore, research suggests that a person should maintain a normal weight, which is achieved through eating healthy and exercising.

Although fats have negative effects when taken in excess, there is even greater danger when one adopts a no-fat diet. Many advertisements talk about the benefits of a no-fat diet (fad diet,) and multiple individuals seeking to either lose weight or maintain their physique follow them.

However, research does not advocate for this due to fats (lipids or fatty acids) having important functions in the body (Strychar, 2006).

Taking food without fats may turn fatal due to the body’s inability to perform some of the functions that are enabled by the presence of fats. Firstly, the body of the organism may lack the ability to absorb some essential vitamins such as vitamin K, D, E, and A.

These are the fat-soluble vitamins and need dietary fats to absorb properly. Lack of these vitamins in the body leads to various diseases and conditions, such as night blindness and rickets. The body’s immune system would also be deteriorated due to the lack of these vitamins.

Research has also confirmed that a no-fat diet might affect mental health and is a likely cause of depression (Maes, 1996). Research also suggests that low intake of essential fatty acids (caused by a no-fat diet) increases the chances of getting breast, colon, or prostate cancer. This is caused by the lack of omega-3s in the body.

No-fat diets also have a part to play in heart disease and cholesterol levels. This is because a diet without fat causes the good cholesterol (HDL) to reduce and the bad cholesterol to be accumulated in the liver (Mensink, Zock, Kester, & Katan, 2003). Heart disease develops when the good and the bad cholesterol go out of balance. Therefore, fats are essential to the human body.

A healthy diet also needs to have portions of fruits served to the individual. Fruits provide essential micronutrients such as vitamins. Vegetables also provide essential vitamins to the body. Lack of vitamins may put the individual at risk of suffering ischaemic heart disease, gastrointestinal cancer, stroke, and many other complications.

A modern person should adopt a diet that constitutes the right amount of proteins too. Proteins are important for the individual’s growth. They also make up many body structures, including hair, skin, and muscles.

Proteins also aid in the regeneration of dead cells in the body, which is why they play a vital role in a person’s survival. A modern individual should also ensure that the meal has minerals such as iodine, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Iodine has been made easily available in the iodized salt. These minerals are required in small amounts, but their functions are quite important.

It is important for every individual to adopt a healthy eating habit. The modern person faces various challenges due to the types of food that are available in the market nowadays. The cheapest, easily available foods are junk foods that are not usually healthy. They may contain excesses of certain nutrients and may cause the body to strain a lot while trying to eliminate them.

Fernandez, M., & Calle, M. (2010). Revisiting dietary cholesterol recommendations: Does the evidence support a limit of 300mg/d. Current Atherosclerosis Reports, 12(6), 377-383.

Katz, D. (2003). Pandemic obesity and the contagion of nutritional nonsense. Public Health Review, 31(1), 33-44.

Maes, M. (1996). Fatty acid composition in major depression: Decrease ὠ3 fractions in cholesteryl esters and increased C20:4ὠ6 ratio in cholesteryl esters and phospholipids. Journal of Affective Disorders, 38(1), 35-46.

Mensink, R., Zock, P., Kester, A., & Katan, M. (2003). Effects of dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates on the ratio of serum total to HDL cholesterol and on serum lipids and apolipoproteins: A meta-analysis of 60 controlled trials. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 77(5), 1146-1155.

Strychar, I. (2006). Diet management of weight loss. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 174(1), 56-63.

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The meaning and origin of the expression: You are what you eat

You are what you eat

• Food and drink

What's the meaning of the phrase 'You are what you eat'?

The proverbial saying 'You are what you eat' is the notion that to be fit and healthy you need to eat good food.

What's the origin of the phrase 'You are what you eat'?

'You are what you eat' has come to into the English language by quite a meandering route.

In 1826, the French lawyer Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante :

"Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es." [ Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are ].

In an essay titled Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism , 1863/4, Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach wrote:

"Der Mensch ist, was er ißt." [ Man is what he eats ]

Neither Brillat-Savarin or Feuerbach meant their quotations to be taken literally (that would be rather messy). They were stating that that the food one eats has a bearing on one's state of mind and health. Although they coined French and German variants of 'you are what you eat', the phrase didn't migrate into other languages and wasn't used in English until decades later.

'You are what you eat' emerged in English in the 1930s. That's when the American nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, who was a strong believer in the idea that food controls health, developed the Catabolic Diet. That view gained some adherents at the time and the earliest known printed example is from an advert for beef in a 1923 edition of the Bridgeport Telegraph , for 'United Meet [sic] Markets':

"Ninety per cent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat."

In 1942, the phrase entered into the public consciousness when Lindlahr published You Are What You Eat: how to win and keep health with diet . Lindlahr is likely to have also used the term in his radio talks in the 1930s to 50s (now lost unfortunately), which would also have reached a large US audience.

The phrase wasn't much used in the years after Lindlahr stopped his radio broadcasts in 1953 but got a new lease of life in the 1960s hippie era. The food of choice of the hippie champions of the 'you are what you eat' idea was macrobiotic whole-food and the phrase was adopted by them as a slogan for healthy eating.

The belief in the diet in some quarters was so strong that when Adelle Davis, a leading spokesperson for the organic food movement, contracted the cancer that later killed her, she attributed the illness to the junk food she had eaten at college.

Some commentators have suggested that the idea is from much earlier and that it has a religious rather than dietary basis. Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are changed into the body and blood of Jesus (Transubstantiation).

So, is the phrase catabolic or Catholic?

Transubstantiation certainly links food and the body, but there doesn't appear to be any documented link between the belief and the phrase. It's safe to assume the origin is more about supper than supplication.

There are several claimants to the coinage of 'you are what you eat' but there's no doubt that it was Victor Lindlahr who brought it to general public attention.

By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

The Kenyon Review

Winter 1999 • Vol. XXI No. 1 | Toggle Table of Contents

If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?

By Geeta Kothari

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Geeta Kothar i is a senior editor at The Kenyon Review . Her essay "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" is widely taught in universities and has been reprinted in several anthologies, including in Best American Essays. She is the editor of   ‘Did My Mama Like to Dance?’ and Other Stories about Mothers and Daughters , and the author of I Brake for Moose and Other Stories . Her most recent essay, “To the Man who Poisoned My Mother,” was named a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2022 . She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and at Carlow University.

To belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with.MICHAEL IGNATIEFF, Blood and Belonging I The first time my mother and I open a can of […]

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You Are What You Eat

Meanings of “you are what you eat”.

The phrase / proverb “ you are what you eat ” means our eating habits define our way of life. It also means that to be healthy and fit you need to take clean food.

Origin of “You Are What You Eat”

The phrase/proverb “you are what you eat” seems to have originated from the French language. It was first used in 1862 in Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s book, Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante. Where it is stated as; “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” The phrase/proverb emerged in the English language in the 1930s when Victor Lindlahr, a nutritionist, developed a catabolic diet. Since then, it has been used in almost the same sense but in different words.

Examples in Literature

Food in History by Reay Tannahill

If Brillat-Savarin had been alive today [1970’s], he might have thought twice before he said: “Tell me what you eat: I will tell you what you are.” Certainly, he would have qualified it, for no sane analyst of gastronomic history could be expected to deduce a Liverpool pop singer from yogurt and unpolished rice, or a Manhattan millionaire from black-eyed peas and chitterlings; to connect Scotch whisky with a Frenchman, or French bread with a Japanese. But these apparently wild deviations from the logic of the table—although they have more to do with contemporary social pressures than with food do reflect a new and more general attitude of flexibility in the prosperous countries of the world and among the richer classes in developing countries.”

Reay Tannahill explains Brillat-Savarin’s statement and its importance in the light of today’s food culture. Brillat’s philosophy states that our emotional, mental, and physical health is determined by what we eat but the situation seems opposite in the contemporary world. People, nowadays, prefer to maintain their worldly status more than food. Food choices among the rich and prosperous countries have become more flexible with more choices. It seems that food has also become a symbol of social status. The phrase/proverb has used as a metaphor for eating.

You Are What You Eat by Dr. Gillian Mckeith

Written by Dr. Gillian Mckeith, the book, You Are What You Eat, talks about healthy eating and its positive impacts on man’s physical and mental health. The writer addresses the problems of overweight or clinically obese people who are struggling with their weight, feeling that they have no energy. The world offers us a lot of food choices, and people mostly prefer junk food or processed food that causes many health problems. Therefore, Dr. Gillian Mckeith gives them much needed advice about diet plans and clean eating. The book contains several interactive topics, including recipes, Food Intelligence Quotient Test, Immune system and stress self-checks, and 7 Day Jumpstart plan. The phrase shows its meanings clearly when used as the title of the book.

From Book of Common Prayer by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer

“We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.”

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, in his prayer book, attempts to detail the true meanings of the phrase/proverb in the light of his spiritual learning. He says that we offer our bodies and souls to the service of Christ. It is through this service, we fill our souls with heavenly grace and benediction. Although the phrase/proverb is not used directly in the above-stated prayers, yet the meanings are quite clear from the text.

You Are What You Eat by Edward Kofi Louis

“You are what you eat! Meat as well, Heat of your love! Seat of wisdom, Beat of life, You are what you eat! Wheat, Great is your love; To stay healthy!”

The speaker reflects the literal meanings of the quote, saying that our eating justifies our mode of life. To him, a healthy body and sound soul enable us to enjoy the true taste of life. We can enjoy joyous feelings like love, happiness. Even wisdom works in a sound brain. Therefore, we need to be very particular about our eating. Otherwise, we won’t be able to walk on the normal course of life. The phrase/proverb has been beautifully transformed into an extended metaphor , another literary device.

Examples in Sentences

Example #1: “My doctors advised me to avoid eating junk and adopt healthy eating, after all, we are what we eat.”

Example #2: “ My friend and I attended a seminar called “you are what you eat”, which shed light on the benefits of a healthy diet.”

Example #3: “Tim’s dramatic body transformation surprised us; upon asking, he said, “you are what you eat.”

Example #4: “He does not know how to get rid of obesity. All he knows is to turn his head to the other side and does not take care of his health. Different people tried to make him understand that we are what we eat, but he has always turned a deaf ear to the advice.”

Example #5: “You are what you eat, so eat healthy food, do exercise regularly, and read good books.”

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Eating to Learn: Healthy Habits for Academic Success

By Emma, a Peer Tutor

I have found that in times of high stress and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of assignments or tasks that need to be done, the first activities that start to slip are the ones that are most needed and life-sustaining. As a Nutrition major, I have often been struck with the tragic irony of neglecting my own eating to study for my Nutrition (and other) classes, or not putting enough on my plate (food-wise) because there is too much on my plate (school-wise). Nutrition puns aside, I have seen and struggled with the importance of eating for effective learning this semester. Without the essential fuel and nutrients that food provides, I cannot expect to learn well. 

Before I begin my discussion of what has worked for me, I want to acknowledge that food is a tricky subject for lots of people. Having a healthy relationship with food, especially with the pressures of diet culture, is HARD. Furthermore, it can be difficult to obtain healthy foods and food insecurity is a major issue on college campuses across the country, including ours. I’ve included a list of resources at the end of this post that I hope could be helpful to anyone who is having a hard time with finding or eating food. I want to recognize that I am writing out of a place of privilege as someone whose financial circumstances allow for some discretionary food spending, and as someone who (for the most part) has a healthy relationship with eating and the often-related issue of body image. 

This year, I am living off campus, which has proven to be a challenge in terms of finding  sufficient time to buy, cook, and eat food. Healthy habits are often rather inconvenient for me. When assignments are building up, I do not want to devote valuable time to prepare and eat food. That being said, eating well is essential to my learning and thriving. I can always tell when I am not nourishing myself adequately because I don’t feel my best – from physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, feeling lightheaded/shaky, to mental symptoms like difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and not being able to think about anything but food. These pesky side effects interfere with my ability to study and remind me that I am a mere human who must take time to feed herself!  Thus, I have decided to devote a blog to discuss some of the ways that I try to eat to learn . I am by no means successful in this endeavor 100% (or even 75%) of the time, but these are my intentions. 

1. I pack my lunch at night and incorporate easy-to-pack, easy-to-eat foods.

The mornings are not a realistic time for me to pack my lunch, but in the evenings, I have sufficient time to make sure that I have everything I need. I emphasize foods that will keep well and aren’t very time-consuming to pack. 

Here are some of my favorite easy foods to pack as sides or snacks in my lunch:

• Carrots, cucumbers, and/or tomatoes with hummus 
• Nuts (my favorites are walnuts and pecans) 
• Sandwiches! I like turkey, or peanut butter and banana
• Fruit that I don’t have to slice or prepare, like apples, oranges, or kiwis 
• Treats! Cookies, muffins, etc. made by myself or a roommate – I’m fortunate enough to live with many talented bakers! 

In any given meal, I try to incorporate the major macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. These macronutrients are essential because they provide energy, structural support, and regulation within cells. Some examples of sources of carbohydrates include fruit, vegetables, grains, and cereals. Normally when we talk about “carbs”, we mean foods like pizza, pasta, bread, etc. These are great sources of carbohydrates, but this macronutrient is found in many other foods too! Fat is often labeled as a “bad” food to avoid, but our bodies actually need dietary sources of fat – especially polyunsaturated fats found in delicious foods like avocados, olive oil, fish, and nuts. Finally, some of my favorite ways to incorporate protein in my diet are beans, nuts, yogurt, chicken, and fish. 

2. I remind myself that I should always have time for a meal. 

Sometimes, I find myself developing a type of “martyr complex” in which I pride myself on being busier than anyone else. It feels good, in a sense, to not have time to eat because it feels like I am working harder and better than my friends and peers. This is false and harmful. I have to remind myself mental health and physical health are not only as important, but arguably more important than getting to the bottom of my to-do list, or throwing myself into as many activities as possible. It’s not worth it to achieve maximum productivity and do as much as possible at the expense of my health. In fact, the irony is that consistently choosing studying or anything else over eating, sleeping, and exercising always proves itself to be unsustainable. I get burnt out, tired, and sick which is counter-productive to my goal of being successful! 

3. On Sundays, I create a grocery list and a loose, flexible plan for what I will cook and eat during the week. 

If I walk into the grocery store with no list, I wander aimlessly through the aisles grabbing things that seem potentially feasible to cook. This never ends well. Making a list ensures that I am spending my time and money effectively. I also find it helpful to think about when I will cook. For example, it’s not realistic for me to cook dinner on an evening where I am working from 5-8pm, but Sunday afternoons after church, or Saturday evenings after hanging out with friends are a great time for me to meal-prep a few easy things to enjoy throughout the week. I try to cook most of my meals at home, but I’ve also found that it’s important for me to give myself grace and acknowledge that a couple meals per week will probably be purchased elsewhere. 

One example of a favorite meal of mine is beans and rice – a classic. It is filling and  makes a lot so that I can eat leftovers for the next couple of days. Beans are an excellent source of protein and they are relatively inexpensive! The cilantro and lime add some flavor and color and remind me of the cilantro-lime rice at Chipotle (so good).  I’ve attached a recipe that I use.

To conclude, I want to reiterate that I have learned how important it is to fuel my body the hard way. I’ve struggled with some health issues during the past few years that while minor, have been inconvenient and uncomfortable, namely stomach pain that has interfered with my ability to study and learn most effectively. In fact, I have very recently begun to seek treatment for chronic stomach pain that up until now I could not distinguish from the typical stomach discomfort I have had in the past from not eating enough. I continue to have a hard time putting health first, but I’m growing more confident in my ability to nourish myself (#adulting). This newfound priority is always reinforced when I manage to prepare a delicious meal that makes me feel full and well. 

This blog showcases the perspectives of UNC Chapel Hill community members learning and writing online. If you want to talk to a Writing and Learning Center coach about implementing strategies described in the blog, make an appointment with a writing coach , a peer tutor , or an academic coach today. Have an idea for a blog post about how you are learning and writing remotely? Contact us here .

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Culture essay

Culture, food, and you essay We all say this our health is what we eat, but sometimes we forget eating habits of people around us affect our eating habits as well. Our food choices are greatly affected by the influence of our parents and grandparents. It's because they are the first person in our life to teach us how to eat and make us familiar with food style when we are born. So it's very natural that we tend to eat lot similar like people around us when we grow up. Now I can relate with this because my eating choices are more like my parents then my own individual choices. I am Indian, my parents and grandparents grew up in India before moving to America, so their eating style are still very traditional. They still try to keep their cultural food alive in middle of their busy job schedule, and without even realizing all this has greatly influenced my choices. Even though I moved to America at very young age still I couldn't get the real taste of American food. But now I actually can say from the way I eat it has lot to do with cultural heritage. Second most thing definitely that has influenced my food habits is religion. If I say I was born vegetarian then it won't be wrong. Being a part of Brahmin Hindu culture family it is expected from us to stay vegetarian all our life. That is the reason people in India most of the time are used to eating lots of fruits, vegetables, lentils in their daily diet. May be because we don't have many options when we try stay vegetarian. My parents and grandparents also never encouraged me to start eating meat, otherwise I have seen some of my friends eating non-vegetarian food, but their parents are still vegetarian. But In my case even after moving here I never thought to include any kind of meat in my diet since there is lot more religion influence in my family when it comes to choose food.

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Women serve as guardians of traditional values in nearly every culture (Lessinger, 1995). This places an undue burden on women immigrants to perpetuate 'authen-tic' ethnic culture for their families (Hickey, 2008). The recent rapid influx of South Asian immigrants into the United States leads one to wonder how U.S. South Asian immigrant mothers negotiate the primarily gendered boundaries as-sociated with food and food preparation. This article provides insights into gen-dered perspectives about food choices and food traditions of U.S South Asian immigrants. The author draws upon 85 oral history interviews (54 male, 31 fe-male) to explore emergent themes including acculturation, children's food prefer-ences, and gendered socialization. For example: (1) [South Asian] Men demand a lot from their wives. Even the food has to be served at the table [to men first]. And if you don't have a right spoon, the husband can get mad and walk away. It's considered [the behavior ...

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To develop and test nutrition messages and supporting content with low-income mothers for use with theory-based interventions addressing fruit and vegetable consumption and child-feeding practices.Six formative and 6 evaluative focus groups explored message concepts and tested messages, respectively.Research facilities in Maryland, Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina, New York, Alabama, and Illinois.Ninety-five low-income mothers of 2- to 5-year-old children; over half from households participating in a federal nutrition assistance program.Preference for and comprehension of nutrition messages.Qualitative data analysis procedures to generate common themes from transcripts and observers' notes.Messages on role modeling, cooking and eating together, having patience when introducing new food items, and allowing children to serve themselves were well received. Mothers preferred messages that emphasized their role as a teacher and noted benefits such as their children becoming more independent and learning new skills. Mothers commonly doubted children's ability to accurately report when they are “full” and disliked messages encouraging mothers to allow children to “decide” whether and how much to eat.This study generated 7 audience-tested messages for incorporation into nutrition education interventions targeting low-income mothers of preschool-age children.

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Overweightness and obesity rates have increased dramatically over the past few decades and they represent a health epidemic in the United States (US). Unhealthy dietary habits are among the factors that can have adverse effects on weight status in young adulthood. The purpose of this explorative study was to use a qualitative research design to analyze the factors (barriers and enablers) that US college students perceived as influencing healthy eating behaviors. A group of Cornell University students (n = 35) participated in six semi-structured focus groups. A qualitative software, CAQDAS Nvivo11 Plus, was used to create codes that categorized the group discussions while using an Ecological Model. Common barriers to healthy eating were time constraints, unhealthy snacking, convenience high-calorie food, stress, high prices of healthy food, and easy access to junk food. Conversely, enablers to healthy behavior were improved food knowledge and education, meal planning, involvement in food preparation, and being physically active. Parental food behavior and friends' social pressure were considered to have both positive and negative influences on individual eating habits. The study highlighted the importance of consulting college students when developing healthy eating interventions across the campus (e.g., labeling healthy food options and information campaigns) and considering individual-level factors and socio-ecological aspects in the analysis.

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While food is an exceedingly rich area for environmental education, I caution environmental educators and researchers from moving too quickly into messaging about what people should eat, given the many complexities around food and identity. Eating, as an inherently identity-laden practice, is fraught with complicated meanings, dilemmas, and predicaments. Far too often in environmental discourse, we focus on the eating choices of individuals, but fail to acknowledge the extent to which eating is influenced by larger social and cultural contexts. This paper will explore some tensions between eating as an identity practice and eating as a sustainable practice through an exploration of a phenomenological autobiographic account and through literature on food, identity, race, and class. Résumé Alors que la nourriture est un domaine extrêmement riche pour l'éducation environnementale, je mets en garde les éducateurs et les chercheurs en environnement contre une méthode prescriptive trop hâtive quant à ce que les gens devraient manger, étant donné les nombreuses complexités liées à la nourriture et à l'identité. Manger, une pratique intrinsèquement identitaire, se mêle à des significations compliquées, des dilemmes et des affres. Dans le discours environnemental, on attire bien trop souvent l'attention sur les choix alimentaires des individus, mais on omet de reconnaître à quel point l'acte de manger est influencé par de plus vastes contextes sociaux et culturels. Le présent article se penchera sur certaines des tensions qui s'exercent entre la pratique identitaire et la pratique durable qu'est manger, en examinant un rapport phénoménologique autobiographique ainsi que la littérature sur la nourriture, l'identité, la race et la classe sociale.

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I am what I eat, rice.

This week’s lesson got our feet wet thinking about how food is produced, and naturally I wondered about the food I bought and ate. One food that especially stood out to me was rice, a staple of my diet since I was a child. I thought about where the rice I eat was coming from and how it got to my plate. The rice I buy today is imported from Taiwan. On it’s trip from Taiwan, many people had a hand in processing it and transporting it. Growing rice requires a lot of water. Many resources were used like oil for boats and trucks and electricity for the store. There also needed to be a system in place to accept payment for the goods, from the producers to the wholesalers and then the consumers. How do I fit into such a complex system of systems, and what can I do if I want to effect change? The global population is expected to increase from 7 billion people to 9 billion people by 2040, so it’s easy to feel small, like I’m a single grain of rice in a bowl full of rice.

15 thoughts on “ I am what I eat, rice. ”

The food system really is so complex. I know this post was for week 1 but since you are talking about rice it was so interesting for me to learn during week 3 that rice fields / paddy fields in China actually release a greenhouse gas, methane, into the atmosphere. In week 3 we also learned how much virtual water it takes to grow certain agriculture products and you mentioned how much water it takes to grow rice. With a quick Google search I learned it takes 207 liters of water to produce one bowl of rice. Crazy.

I like your analogy. I too feel like I am just a tiny grain of rice in this bowl we call the world. More than the resources and the energy it takes to produce or transport the food, I am learning every week that there are other somewhat hidden costs to the complex systems that you speak of. Trade agreements between countries, tariffs on products, the political agendas that drive some of these arrangements are also part of the system that gets you that rice you buy from Taiwan.

Rice is also a staple in my house, as my partner is Japanese, and this was part of his family’s culture growing up. Since this staple plays a large part in the culture and traditions of people’s diets, I do question if the effects of the ecological footprint will ever alter this dietary item in households. Like you said, how do I play a part in this system? On the other end of the spectrum, I was also surprised to learn how damaging this crop can be to other cultures and livelihoods; learning about Haiti and how damaging the U.S. rice subsidies have been to their small farmers, crippling their self-sufficiency in agriculture. It’s unfortunate that this direction under Bill Clinton was meant to benefit the U.S. farmers, leaving Haiti in a position with little choice but to consume the subsidies and devastate farming in a country where rice crops thrive, although he denies this was ever his intention.

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Guest Essay

José Andrés: Let People Eat

By José Andrés

Mr. Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen.

In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always.

The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity. They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war.

Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, John Chapman, Jacob Flickinger, Zomi Frankcom, James Henderson, James Kirby and Damian Sobol risked everything for the most fundamentally human activity: to share our food with others.

These are people I served alongside in Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, the Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, Gaza and Israel. They were far more than heroes.

Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need.

From Day 1, we have fed Israelis as well as Palestinians. Across Israel, we have served more than 1.75 million hot meals. We have fed families displaced by Hezbollah rockets in the north. We have fed grieving families from the south. We delivered meals to the hospitals where hostages were reunited with their families. We have called consistently, repeatedly and passionately for the release of all the hostages.

All the while, we have communicated extensively with Israeli military and civilian officials. At the same time, we have worked closely with community leaders in Gaza, as well as Arab nations in the region. There is no way to bring a ship full of food to Gaza without doing so.

That’s how we served more than 43 million meals in Gaza, preparing hot food in 68 community kitchens where Palestinians are feeding Palestinians.

We know Israelis. Israelis, in their heart of hearts, know that food is not a weapon of war.

Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli government needs to open more land routes for food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today. It needs to start the long journey to peace today.

In the worst conditions, after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up. You cannot save the hostages by bombing every building in Gaza. You cannot win this war by starving an entire population.

We welcome the government’s promise of an investigation into how and why members of our World Central Kitchen family were killed. That investigation needs to start at the top, not just the bottom.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said of the Israeli killings of our team, “It happens in war.” It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the Israel Defense Forces.

It was also the direct result of a policy that squeezed humanitarian aid to desperate levels. Our team was en route from a delivery of almost 400 tons of aid by sea — our second shipment, funded by the United Arab Emirates, supported by Cyprus and with clearance from the Israel Defense Forces.

The team members put their lives at risk precisely because this food aid is so rare and desperately needed. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative, half the population of Gaza — 1.1. million people — faces the imminent risk of famine. The team would not have made the journey if there were enough food, traveling by truck across land, to feed the people of Gaza.

The peoples of the Mediterranean and Middle East, regardless of ethnicity and religion, share a culture that values food as a powerful statement of humanity and hospitality — of our shared hope for a better tomorrow.

There’s a reason, at this special time of year, Christians make Easter eggs, Muslims eat an egg at iftar dinners and an egg sits on the Seder plate. This symbol of life and hope reborn in spring extends across religions and cultures.

I have been a stranger at Seder dinners. I have heard the ancient Passover stories about being a stranger in the land of Egypt, the commandment to remember — with a feast before you — that the children of Israel were once slaves.

It is not a sign of weakness to feed strangers; it is a sign of strength. The people of Israel need to remember, at this darkest hour, what strength truly looks like.

José Andrés is a chef and the founder of World Central Kitchen.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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'Panama Papers' trial starts. 27 people charged in the worldwide money laundering case

P ANAMA CITY (AP) — The trial of 27 people charged in connection with the worldwide “Panama Papers” money laundering started Monday in a Panamanian criminal court.

Those on trial include the owners of the Mossack-Fonseca law firm that was at the heart of the 2016 massive document leak.

The Panama Papers include a collection of 11 million secret financial documents that illustrate how some of the world's richest people hide their money.

The repercussions of the leaks have been far-ranging, prompting the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland and bringing scrutiny to the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.

The often-delayed trial opened Monday, with lawyers Juergen Mossack, Ramón Fonseca and other former representatives, lawyers or ex-employees of the firm facing money laundering charges.

Mossack was present in the courtroom, and said “I am not guilty of such acts.”

Lawyers for Fonseca said he was in a hospital in Panama.

The case centers on allegations the firm set up shell companies to acquire properties in Panama with money from a sprawling corruption scheme in Brazil known as the Car Wash , or Lava Jato in Portuguese.

Fonseca has said the firm, which closed in 2018, had no control over how its clients might use offshore vehicles created for them. Both Mossack and Fonseca have Panamanian citizenship, and Panama does not extradite its own citizens.

The two were acquitted on other charges in 2022.

The records were first leaked to the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, and were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which began publishing collaborative reports with news organizations in 2016.

U.S. federal prosecutors have alleged that Mossack Fonseca conspired to circumvent American laws to maintain the wealth of its clients and conceal tax dollars owed to the IRS. They alleged the scheme dates to 2000 and involved sham foundations and shell companies in Panama, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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I am a proud Hindu: Kangana rejects baseless beef eating rumours

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