Health research paper

Healthful Lifestyles

Deciding on what to eat can be difficult. If you eat an unhealthy food, you will not have very much energy to make it through the day. I choose food by using the Dietary Guidelines. I have learned that the healthier you eat, the more energy you have. Eating cereal does not give you very much energy and you cannot remember things as well when you eat it. Oatmeal, however, helps your memory and gives you more energy. For example, a box of fruit loops would give you a little bit of energy. A bowl of fruit would give you lots of it.

In the world, there are areas called blue zones where people live healthier and longer than normal. In Costa Rica, people eat tortillas that are made with a special process that gives it more calcium. In Sardinia, people drink wine that is made with healthy ingredients. In Okinawa, people have plant based diets and eat tofu. In blue zones, retirement does not exist. People have to work hard to live healthy. They work and stay fit. Knowing about blue zones help me with my food choices because the healthier you eat, the longer you live. For instance, eating a plant based diet and exercising every day can add 8 years to your life! So I can live longer because I know what to eat to live healthy.

Free radicals are cells with missing electrons that try to break apart cells to replace their missing electrons, but end up making more free radicals. Free radicals are made by pollution, stress, smoke, etc. Free radicals can be stopped by antioxidants, which are in foods like acai berry, cherries, wheat grass, and pomegranate. They help fight free radicals by donating electrons to free radicals but don’t make themselves free radicals.

My Pyramid is a pyramid that shows how many servings of food you need from each food group every day. I do not eat the recommended amount of food from each group. Most people do not. I should eat more fruits because they are healthier than fats. I should eat fewer fats because they are unhealthy.

My family affects how I eat because I eat whatever they make. I do this because I don’t want to hurt their feelings by not eating their food.

My personal preferences affect what I eat because I am a very picky eater.

Meal planning is planning what foods you will eat in the future. It is healthy because you can use My Pyramid to plan healthful meals.

Being physically active is good for your health because it keeps you at a healthy weight and burns calories. Activities like baseball, soccer, swimming and other sports help you burn calories. Activities like YouTube, TV, eating unhealthy foods and video games do not help you burn calories. If you do too many of these activities and you don’t exercise, you end up gaining too much weight because you are eating more calories than you can burn.

Body image is how you think of your body. TV affects your body image because you may think what they are doing on TV is cool so you think you should do it.

I have learned that if you eat healthy foods and exercise daily, you will live a lot longer. Now that I know this, I want to eat healthy and exercise so I can live longer.