Have you ever thought about the food you eat everyday?
Where does it come from?
Is is grown locally or is it
shipped from far away?
Is it fresh and natural or are there additives and preservative in it?
Do you try to eat a balanced diet? What does that mean?
It is time to think about what you are eating on a daily basis, try answering these questions and comment on each others responses. by Tuesday June 28th at midnight.
Hi again everyone,
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to us to know about foods we can eat, those that should be added to the diet,instead of what we shouldn't eat.I love food, I love to cook and you can see this.
Human beings depending on their society, get their food in different ways.While some people feed themselves through hunting and fishing, others go to the grocery store to buy food that has been processed in factories.So,we are this kind of people. North Americans consume foods come from all over the world but this privilege comes with a price such as transportation that uses a lot's energy which make pollution of our planet.
About additives, I think almost all of processed food contain these substances that change the food in some way.Additives change the food taste, preservatives make longer food life, while coloring change the way food looks.In my opinion, all these additives make America the most obesity country.
To have a healthy diet you must have a wide variety of different foods. A healthy diet is one that includes fruits, vegetables,fat-free or low-fat milk,fish,beans,eggs and low salt and sugar.Long time ago,I tried this diet and I lost 10 kilograms but it's important to keep this diet for a long time because you can become fat again.
The food, an integral part of human beings, is either grown locally or shipped from far away. In terms of food supply, all of the countries in the world are interdependent.On the one hand, they import some items that they do not produce, and on the other hand, they export many other surplus foods. Nowadays it is very difficult to find fresh foods as additives or preservativs are used to produce most of them.This is true in case of developed or industrial countries, especially North America and Europe. They often consume "CAN" foods as fresh foods are not easily available. If they are available, they will be so expensive to pay for. In spite of this, everyone in the universe needs to eat balanced diet to be healthy. I also try to eat it as I firmly belive in 'Sound mind in a sound body'.It will not be difficult to have balanced diet if we are really conscious about our well being. Even we do not have to spend a lot of money for balanced diet. It is our willingness and ability of choosing variety of foods that make difference.Thus, it can be said that it is our zeal that helps us to consume balanced diet in our daily life.
ReplyDeleteFood is a supportive resource to human life so think about it is the thing that everybody needs to do. Here are some of my thoughts about food. Food in Canada is both grown locally and shipped from far away because we all know that Canada has long winters so a lot of fruits and vegetables are shipped from everywhere around the world, from China to Mexico. Fruits and vegetables are absolutely fresh but their products such as apple juice or tomato sauce have additives and preservative in them. Most of additives and preservative are safe but some of them are not safe things to be added to food. Those unsafe things will cause great harm to our health but the government is doing a great job on banning them. About the balanced diet, I think what Madan said is totally true, if we really care about our health, we can have a balanced diet and if you don't know where to start, let do it based on Liliya's diet plan.
ReplyDeleteOn a daily basis, I paid close attention to what to eat and how to eat. In Chinese traditional medicine theory, diet should follow the seasons. Balance in diet means not only nutrition balance , but also season balance. I read signals sent by my body to decide what to eat and what to avoid. For example, when I feel my body is burning inside and I am craving for cold water, I will eat green pea, seaweed, banana and bitter melon, etc. to maintain the balance. Also, I heard of a saying that you are what you eat. Whenever buying food, I always read labels if there are any to find out where they come from and what ingredients they have. Mostly, I prefer local grown food than imported one, but for certain ethnic vegetables, I have no choice. Now, I even try to shop several times a week in order to have fresh food, especially for green vegetables.
ReplyDeleteHi Liliya,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that additives are so bad. For snacks and can food which contain a lot of additives are usually prohibited in my family. But you know kids, they love those stuff.
Recently I am concerned about my eating habits, so after watching Jamie Oliver’s lecture, I also realized that it is time to think about what I am eating on a daily basis more seriously. When I was in Korea, I had not eaten instant food such as bowl instant noodles and I rarely ate sweets and fried foods because I wanted to keep in shape, but after I come to Canada, my eating habits change. I am eating unhealthy foods every day. One such example in every lunch time, I am eating bowl instant noodles. Those unhealthy foods are manufactured in big companies or restaurants like fast-food restaurants and food factories. They are shipped from other countries and are making in local places, so finally, we are readily available from our local store and restaurants easily. It means we are exposed without protection to various harmful unhealthy foods. Beside, the instant foods have long expiration dates. They put extra ingredients and all sorts of additives in order to prevent their food go bad. Therefore, the foods are not fresh. I already know about that these kinds of food are going to kill me early. Nevertheless, I am eating them now. There are many reasons. First, I was always eating home-made food which my mother always prepared in Korea. For that reason, I don’t know ways of making home-made foods. Second, my daily schedule is too busy, so I don’t have enough time to cook and don’t even have time to eat. Because of this, I dine out quite often or I put some artificial seasoning in order to make food quickly. I also have considered eating a balanced diet. However, the balanced diet must contain a lot of substances in the correct proportions such as carbohydrate, vitamins, and mineral. It needs more work and time to make out a menu, so it’s impossible for me. In my opinion, every people are taking care of their health, but they are not sure of keeping their health. Also some people don’t have time to make healthy food like me. As Jamie Oliver said, government has to try to correct people’s bad eating habits and food industries or schools need much effort to offer healthy food to people. There is such a saying in Korea about food. “Bitter to the mouth, better for your health.” Why does the food change as poison? The reason is that people’s reckless desire to eat delicious food without concerning their health. People also should control our eating habits ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHi, Ruiling!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Follow my food choices, my health is changed to be healthy or not. As you said, I will try to eat green vegetables and check labels. I could get good information from your comment. I will keep your comment in mind! Thank you:)
Throughout the years in my country, we often consumed fresh meats and locally grown vegetables that we used them for cooking on daily basis. However, although our Middle Eastern food is known for its fresh ingredients and diverse flavours, it still consists of high proportions of fats and salt, which are the main causes of health diseases. Consequently, with the lack of healthy food awareness, numerous people there suffer from health diseases such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. On the other hand, here in Canada, in terms of food supplies, we find most of the fruits and vegetables are imported or shipped from places like California or Mexico due to the heavy winter season here that represent a big barrier to our local agriculture. In fact, these shipped ingredients from the United States or elsewhere are known for containing high amounts of additives and preservative in order to keep them fresh and natural for long periods of time. Here our responsibility should play a major role. As consumers, we are able to reduce our food dependence on other foreing suppliers by consuming more organic locally grown food which ultimately encourage the local agriculture here. Also, when it comes to our individual food diet, fruits and vegetables should be part of every meal since they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. By following this healthy balanced diet on regular basis, we can undoubtedly protect ourselves against certain types of cancer and other diseases in the future.
ReplyDeleteIn Calgary, most of foods are shipped from other places, so these foods are not fresh. Especially some Chinese vegetable, they use the airplane to transport these food, when these food arrive to the superstore, they are withered. Daily diet is very important to keep your body balance, and I try to eat well every day. For example, try to eat vegetable more than meat, avoid fries, also beans, milk, soya been milk, fish are also good for health. For me, i try to eat fruit, drink milk every day, honey mix water three times per week and cook congee every week; my mom said congee can clean stomach, and relax the bowels. If necessary, eat vitamin pills is needed. In a short, different kinds of food has own nutrition, so try to eat all of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruiling: ''Balance in diet means not only nutrition balance , but also season balance.'' I agree with you about this point. Nowadays, more and more people have lost sense with seasonal vegetables and fruits, purchasing food without considering the time.
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ReplyDeleteIn Calgary, it is very hard to get fresh fruits and vegetables so we are eating frozen fruits and vegetables. But it is normal to get fresh food in My back home country Nepal as the climate and fertilization of soil is good enough. We use to eat fresh vegetables and fruits from our gardens and farm. Here everything is different we need to buy food for almost 1 month and have to store it instead of getting foods daily from the local market. Most foods are imported here.
ReplyDeletewhere is Cesar? I am agree with u whatever u say? or even not say. I agree with you yanli but wonder also that you are eating so balanced diet then how come you became so thinly????
ReplyDeleteI am also agree with Amy's Essay...it seems that people have a competition for writing essay on food and any blog topic...good
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, food is just like people traveling from this country to other countries around the world. It is very common and people think normal, especially in Canada, we can see this phenomenon in most of stores, markets.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, during long distance shipping, without preservative, the vegetables and the fruits almost have no possibility to be ''fresh''. As a result, eating naturally for people is almost non-existent and eating healthily is getting far away from our desire.
As a mum and a nurse, I think I am supposed to know the concept of balanced diet and to eat food as it guides due to my duty that I had to do the health education to my patients and to be a good example of my son, then to educate him eating healthily. In Chinese concept of balanced diet, balanced diet means that the diet is constructed with a variety of foods those include cereals, vegetables and fruits, dairy products and bean products, animal meats including fish meats, eggs, and fat ( only 25g). It doesn’t mean you should eat all of them everyday, but eating with that way regularly. As we can see, the fat is the least we need, but most people take much more than we need. I do believe that it is hard to follow all the rules, but to be aware of the problem can help us to get better control of the diet.
Life is short and full of suffering and struggle. Eating healthily can reduce the suffering and struggles that are from diseases, so why not?
Hi Cathy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that we are getting our fruits and vegetables imported from some remote places. Furthermore, by using more transportation to ship that food, we are increasing our carbon footprint which ultimately will impact the environment negatively.
As I get older, I realized the importance of controlling my weight as well as the structure of my food. When I come to Canada, the situation of obesity gets hit between my eyes. We can see the overweighed people everywhere in Canada. I was shocked to see from the TV that one person whose weight about 0.5 tons was lifted by a crane from his bed because he can’t move anymore. I don’t want to be one of them because obesity is the cause of heart problem, cardio cerebral vascular disease and malignant tumor. As Jamie Oliver talked in his video “Teach every child about food”, obesity cost Americans 10 percent of the health care bill, 150 billion dollars a year. The disease of obesity comes from the mouth and the consciousness. I can’t stop eating chocolate and ice-creams in summer despite the fact that they are high fat and high calorie. It really takes a lot of courage to control the appropriate amount of favorite food when it comes to eating.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky that we are living in an abundant material era. We enjoy the food of the entire world. For example, fresh produce from USA and Canada, live Tilapia, manila clam, lobster, crab, shrimp, oyster and frozen sea food from China, Vietnam, USA, Philippine and Canada, corn-based junk food from USA, Canada and the EU countries. We also enjoy many canned products including preservative and additives to meet our modern busy city life style. At the same time, fast food is another good choice for working people. It means that our bodies have to absorb these unhealthy foods even though we knew they have bad consequence to our health.
How to eat healthily? Everyone knows that the answer is reasonable structure of food. Hereunder is the suggestive structure pyramid of our daily food. Eating rice and other grains about 400—500 grams, seasonal fruits and vegetables about 300—400 grams, milk and bean products about 200—300 grams, fish, eggs and meat with less salt about 180—200 grams, limiting drinking and doing regular exercise will help our health. Only if we have healthy body, we can enjoy the quality of our life.
Madan & Trinh, I agreed with your opinions. Balanced diet in our daily life is very important. Vegetable plays a significant value in our daily diet because its high fibre and low calorie. Unfortunately, vegetable in Calgary is usually more expensive than some meat products. Vegetable in winter time is imported from USA or other provinces. We should shop smartly by buying seasonal vegetable which is cheaper than speciality. At the same time, I suggest the government shoud put some subsidies on vegetable products so that the general public can afford to consume. Hopefully it will help control the incidence of obesity.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon everyone. Of course I have thought and I always think about the food I eat every day. In fact, it is and has been one of my biggest concerns. I can summarize it by quoting the author of In the eyes of Anahita, when he or his son ask “Why do humans have to pay for food”. But this is matter for another blog, I hope so! Well, regarding food habits and its provenance, I can say the following: I consider I, or should I say, my family have good eating habits. As long as it is possible, we try to cook our eating. At the same time, we try to keep a healthy nutritional balance, taking food from the different food groups every day. And, I must emphasize, as long as it is possible because, as you know, nowadays with the daily eagerness it is not so easy to dedicate time for these kinds of activities. Also because the food industry is always trying to keep us away from this activity by offering us all kind of tasty, “cheap” and easy, but anyways “junk” food, to take home. Moreover, we live in a country where most food is imported, so, most of the time, we depend on what it is imported. Fortunately, thanks to globalization, we can have practically everything during every season of the year. I must say also that, while the most aware I get about the food production, the most concerned I become. It’s amazing, or should I say, horrible that in most of the food nowadays we can find either preservatives or additives, and this is also due to globalization. What should we do in order to preserve better eating habits and to get rid of all those chemicals (preservatives, additives, pesticides, fertilizers) in our foods? I think our society has a lot to do with all our behaviors, included our eating habits. So, should we re-think and adjust (modify) our society?
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ReplyDeleteHello everybody, I agree with those of you who are expressing your concerns about carbon footprint generated by “food globalization”. And again, what should be done to this respect? Do we have to advocate for local instead of global behaviors and consumption? What would be the implications and the benefits of such a change? In fact, if we think well, nowadays every and each human activity is affecting (impacting) our planet and its sustainability, so what is the real problem, our activities per se, or the fact that human population have reached such a number that there is nothing we can do at this point except a population…!
ReplyDeleteI agree with La Rochefoucauld who said: "To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” To be honest, I have never thought about the food I eat everyday before because in my country food was healthy and my mother always cooked. However, now I am starting to think about it more often.
ReplyDeleteNowadays it is pretty hard to find good fresh food if you don't have your own garden. I am the person who hardly believes in the labels "Organic" because everything around us is only commercial and almost nobody of the food producers really cares about humans being healthy. Therefore, most of the food is not local but it is shipped.
A balanced diet in my opinion means to eat three to five times per day without mixing fruits and vegetables or bread with potatoes and rice. This way of eating is called "separate dining". Also, the fact that one food is good for one but it can be poisonous to others means that how healthy a food will be depends on the person individually.
Hi Liliya,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a healthy diet must have a wide variety of different food. Also, it is true if you are strict in your diet it will have good results but it must be not only temporary.
Hi Ruiling,
ReplyDeleteIt is true that you are what you eat.By the way, I am interested in Chinese traditional medicine theory because there are many evidence and facts this medicine works and helps people.
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ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I eat something without thinking too much seems to be eaten. Just like I only ate the food. My father used be chief so, he is usually cooking in my house and I enjoy it ate.
ReplyDeleteAfter Jamie Oliver’s lecture, I've been thinking a lot. What I have been eating and where food preservatives, how often I eat junk food, how sure I was eating a lot of sugar. In my opinion, many foods also by the trade exchange, has been exported in my country. Among them, the food preservatives to prevent spoilage of the sow or unconsciously, I have probably been eating it.
Of course, eating organic food is important, but I think more importantly, how to cook it. I mean a lot of nutrients in the cooking process so they would not be destroyed.
However, balanced diet is important to helps maintain a healthy body weight. In other words, that refers to the selection of foods with appropriate portion to provide adequate nutrients and energy for the growth of body tissues, strengthening the immune system and keeping healthy body weight. Even though I know that Balanced diet is beneficial to my health, I tend to neglect my health as an excuse to busy or tired. In the future, to maintain my health I will pay more attention.
Food is the essence substance to be on life. The notion of food has changed dramatically compared to the ancient world. The ancient world consumes a natural food but compared to our current world, we consume processed food. The basic thing to produce food is the agriculture. The concept of food in the past was formed from the ground in one process because the food was a mixture ingredient from the natural sources. However, presently, the concept of food is processed in many cycles by adding chemicals on it. At the final process, the food comes to us as a commodity that it can be bought from the supermarket natural or manufactured. Now, the globalization has invaded the world. Thus, the food that we consume is from everywhere especially the food that exists in big companies such as Superstore. I am always shopping from Superstore and I think most of the fresh foods are locally produced within Alberta, and most of the foreign foods are shipped from overseas in which they are additives and preservative. In my experience, I have never tried a balanced diet. It is certainly beneficial for our health because it helps to keep a healthy life, and reduce risks from ailments. Usually, I cook my food at home that I think is better than eating fat-food or in restaurant, and I am always trying to avoid some products contain additives and preservative substances that it might be harmful to our health.
ReplyDeleteHi Beshal;
ReplyDeleteI agree with you totally. From your presentation at the beginning of the term,you showed us your life's pictures in Nepal. I noticed that the agriculture is everywhere. I admire very much the way that people are living. I can imagine how the food is delicious there because of the natural compounds. I imagine, how it has all the necessary nutrients, and I believe how people there will get a healthy life. In Canada, things are different, not just agriculture is the basic pillar for its economy. There are a lot of other sectors are emerging rather than agriculture. For example, in Calgary is a leader in petroleum industry. Thus, it is valuable to get organic food.
Food is one of the necessaries of life, so people should pay attention what we eat every day; however, my reality is sometimes hard to focus well eating habit in daily base. When I am busy, I depend on frozen food or microwave food like pizza and pasta. They contain lots of sodium or fat and have fewer vegetables. This is not good habit; therefore, I should improve eating a balanced diet even I am busy.
ReplyDeleteOur food comes from different countries because our winter is long and consumers demand food from other countries that we also can have same food as immigrant people in Canada. For that reason, we can enjoy different fruits, vegetable or food, but it is not sustainable as environment.
Some fruits or vegetables are preserved to keep them fresh, such as apples or peppers. We can see their surfaces are so shinny. Producer put wax on them. Because of that, I try to peel the skin as much as I can.
Eating grown locally has many advantages, such as freshness, less preservative and better nutrition. There are farmers markets in Calgary during summer, so we can have fresh fruits or vegetables in local. Let’s visit them.
Hi Mariela,
ReplyDelete"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” I agree with you because in Bulgaria we really have healthy food and we can cook so delicious food.
Hi! Cathy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Balanced diet very important for our body.
Also, I believe that you educate your son to eat healthy food necause I could see that when you brought lunch pack, It was healthy food.
From then and now I check out the product labels to see where they come from. As is expected most of the fresh products like vegetables and fruits come from outside Canada. I've noticed that the United States is one the most providers of those kind of foods. When I said that is expected that most fresh products are imported, I meant that because of Canadian weather we cannot supply ourselves our demands of foods. Furthermore, we have to look for other reliable sources of these product. However, exporting fresh products has some disadvantages for ourselves and for the environment as fresh products has to been added some preservants in order to keep the product as fresher as possible. Lately, technology has sumerged in this topic in order to have more effective preservants without caring too much in the environment and people. to set an example, I can mention what we heard recently about the molecules of fish that had been added in tomatoes with the purpose to keep it fresh over the time. about the balanced diet, I guess it means that we should obey the Canadian Food guide in order to have our boddy balnced. well,in my case I have to recognize that I'm not good at that
ReplyDeleteHi Nozomi, i agree at you when you say that bring products from farm is fresher and healthier, but as you said we could not respond the country's necesissities, so we do not have choices.
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ReplyDeleteHi Ruiling,
ReplyDeleteI have to follow you because you pay attention what to eat and how to eat daily. Our culture is same with your country as diet following the season. Nowadays, our life is busy and we forget to follow the traditional things. We should think why our diet follows the seasons, and then we can back to right ways.