When I was at school, our teacher told the class 'You are what you eat.' My friends and I would laugh and call each other ‘hamburger’ and ‘biscuits’. Our teacher was trying to show us the importance of eating the right food to stay healthy.
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This was a few decades ago when there were big campaigns to make British people healthier. We decided to throw out our chip pan which we had used until then to make chips every day for dinner. We replaced our chips with boiled potatoes. We also started using semi-skimmed milk instead of whole milk in our cups of tea and bowls of cornflakes. At first I felt like I was eating my cornflakes in water and my potatoes had no taste at all. But after a while I started to prefer healthier food because I felt stronger and I didn’t get sick so often.
Japanese people are reputed to be the healthiest in the world because of the food they eat. The healthiest Japanese people eat rice and fish and vegetables every day. They drink green tea or water when they’re thirsty, and snack on dried fish, fruit or gingko nuts. The traditional Japanese diet is famous for helping you to live a longer and healthier life.
So we have proof that you become what you eat. Can you tell what your friends eat just by looking at them? When you know the effects of different types of food, you can use your knowledge well and eat what you want to become.
Food has an impact on our physical and emotional health. Have you ever heard any of the following advice?
Lettuce or milk can make you sleepy.
To stop feeling sleepy you should eat peanuts or dried fish.
To keep your teeth clean you should eat apples often.
Garlic helps you not to catch a cold.
Everyone has their own advice to give, which they have read about or have been told by older relatives. Some of these pieces of advice seem to contradict each other.
Eating chocolate makes you fat and gives you spots.
Chocolate contains the essential minerals iron and magnesium
What we need to figure out is what type of chocolate to eat to get the benefits and how much of it to eat. We can do this by reading the list of ingredients on the chocolate bar wrapper. Exactly how much real chocolate is in there? And how much of that do we need to eat to get the benefits of the minerals it contains?
Future restaurants might be named after the physical or emotional state they hope to create. Their menus will list the benefits of each dish and drink. Some restaurants have already started this concept, and list the nutritional content of their dishes on the menus.
Let’s take the restaurant Winners as an example. Their menu would list dishes specifically designed to help you win sports competitions. There would be 'Night-before Vegetable Lasagne', a pasta dish with extra layers of spinach pasta for slow-burning energy, rich tomato sauce full of vitamin C and soft, easy-to-digest vegetables. All this would be topped with a little fresh cheese – just enough to help you get a good night’s sleep, but not enough to give you nightmares!
Or you could choose the 'Go-faster Salad', which is a large bowl of mixed raw vegetables in a light salad dressing, giving you energy without making you gain weight. The vegetables are carefully chosen to include plenty of natural vitamins and minerals.
What kind of dishes do you think would be on the menu at the Clever Café (which sells food that’s good for your brain)?
So what’s going to happen to hamburgers and biscuits? Will the concept of eating food because it’s tasty go out of fashion? Of course not! Junk food is also changing. If ice cream is not good for children, can’t we give them fat-free, sugar-free tofu ice cream? Unhealthy food is going out of fashion, so brands are changing. We are told not to drink cola because of the sugar and caffeine content so cola companies are making sugar-free and caffeine-free drinks. We are told dried fruit is a healthier snack than biscuits, so some biscuit companies are making biscuits with added vitamins. Snacks might soon be changing their names to 'Skinglow' and 'Chocomineral'! So in the future you might be able to eat your way to your idea of perfection!
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Do you agree with the expression 'You are what you eat'? Why? Why not? Send us your opinions.
Rustam Kamberov writes: 'I agree that one should eat more fruit and vegetables, not drink chocolate and try to avoid visiting fast food restaurants. But the problem is in the quality of fruit and vegetables. I am from Kazakhstan. In our country we cultivate our own apples. And also here we have imported ones from China. I do not want to offend anybody but their apples are grown using pesticides. If you look at their apples you will not find "wormholes". Well, at the present time it is very difficult to find healthy food. And there is no one set of advice on how to eat well.'
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Bui Anh writes: 'I think we should not think too much about what we eat because it makes you lose your interest in eating. And as a result you will not feel happy, which is necessary to be healthier. Just think about our ancestors, they weren’t much aware of the nutrition in the food that they ate, but they still lived long and healthy lives. Life is short, so just enjoy yourself. It's obvious that eating an average amount and doing exercise regularly are much better.'
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Wai writes: 'I really agree that food is very important for health. In the past, I enjoyed drinking Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or any kind of soft drink very much and it gave me toothache so I tried to stop drinking it. Since then my teeth have been healthier. When I was young, I hated eating most kinds of vegetable because they tasted and smelled very bad. However, my parents and other elders persuaded or even forced me to try eating them. Gradually, I could have more kinds of vegetable and feel healthier, especially about excretion. And I also agree with and wonder about another statement, "What tastes good is not good for health."'
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Eric Ramirez Rodriguez writes: 'I do not agree with the expression "You are what you eat" because I do not know exactly what the right food is to be healthier. These kinds of campaigns are just fashion. Do not believe everything you hear.'
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L Zeng writes: 'My opinion is that being healthy is a complex thing and having a good lifestyle is of course a very important part of it. We are always told what we should do to be healthy, like stopping smoking, eating more fish and more fresh vegetables and fruits, doing more exercise, etc. But how does our society support it? None of the tobacco companies is closed, fish, fresh vegetables and fruits are much more expensive than meat and canned things. And a lot people have to work very long and hard to keep their work safe and afford their children's education – can they find time to do exercise? It seems that being healthy is really a luxury for just a few rich people. Do we have any alternative then? I worry about it a lot.'
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My Vu Xuan Quynh writes: 'I think there are some problems in this article that we have to examine. First, I agree Japanese food is good for your health because there is a lot of nutrition in fish and vegetables, but I don’t think raw fish is good for your stomach because there are some kinds of very dangerous worms. Second, I don't agree lettuce or milk can make you sleepy because I have read an article in a magazine in Vietnam and the doctor said “Lettuce is good for your health and milk contains a lot of calcium.” There are some studies that suggest that when you have a cup of milk every day it will make you strong and active. In conclusion we are much more than what we eat because though our health does depend on the nutrition in food, that won't effect you if you don't do exercises often and have a happy life with your relationships.'
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Vy writes: 'I think this article has its right and wrong opinions.
First, I agree that Japanese food is good for our health, because there is lots of fish and vegetables. But Japanese people eat fresh fish and raw fish, and while fresh fish is good I don't think raw fish is good at all for your health, because it causes some kind of worms that may be dangerous for your stomach and your brain ... And another thing is, not everyone could eat Japanese food easily. That is just my opinion – I don't mean that Japanese food is bad or not delicious, because I really like sushi myself.
Second, I think that eating chocolate doesn't make you fat or give you spots. I've read an article in a magazine here in Vietnam and the doctor said that chocolate is very good for your health, but it contains quite a lot of sugar and fat, that may make you fat, but if you know how to do exercise more often, you'll not get fat. And the spots on your face aren't a result of eating chocolate – they are just because you don't drink water more often, or you eat too much hot and spicy food like chilli or hot pepper.
In conclusion, I want to say that all of us should do exercises, eat healthy food and most of all, have a healthy life and enjoy it. I bet that if you eat lots and lots of good food but you always smoke or drink, you couldn't stay healthy. And don't forget to smile at least 20 minutes a day, and always be optimistic !!!!'
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Poliana Cardoso Lopes writes: 'I don't agree, because we are much more than what we eat. Our health is influenced by many things, for example genes, physical activities, emotions. To be a healthier person we have to eat healthy food, do exercises, be happy and sleep well.'
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Wikipedia: food
Foodreference.com
The food quiz: hundreds of facts about food
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