Eating unhealthy falls

under a variety of topics;

from anorexia to obesity,

the United States is now

ranked number 37th in

health care, and obesity is

one of the main reasons

(1). Eating unhealthy can

cut your life down in

multiple ways. If one

does not watch what they

eat, it can lead to serious

problem.

Unhealthy eating can

cause diabetes, heart prob-

lems, strokes, and more (2).

Not only can eating un-

healthy affect your lifespan,

but it can affect how you play

in sport tournaments, how

you act, and how well you do

in school (3). How you eat

can also play a big role in

relationships with family

members, attitudes, and your

personality (3). However,

nowadays, it seems to be that

there is a vitamin for every-

thing and every type of nutri-

ent or mineral. It is healthier

to eat the natural sources of

nutrients, rather than from

a tiny pill (2). Unhealthy

eating leads to more and

more complications. Most

of the consequences of

eating unhealthy are per-

manent, such as heart

diseases, diabetes, strokes–

life changing complica-

tions that one will have to

live with for the rest of

their lives, and they are

hard to treat and get help

for (2).

No matter what your favorite

food is, there is always a

healthier option that taste

very similar (4). It’s never to

late to break those unhealthy

habits so that you don’t have

health complications later on

in life.

Food’s grown straight out of the ground (such as raspberries, above), are the best for your body.

Volume 1, Issue 1

HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY EATING

Nov. 24, 2009

Controlling Portions: Try using smaller sized dishes, bowls, and glasses (4). T

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UNHEALTHY HABBITS

Out of all of the many awful eating habits of Americans, there are a few that are the worst and could easily be corrected.

One is skipping breakfast (5). Eating breakfast is so impor-tant because it gives you en-ergy in the morning, and people that eat breakfast are statistically proven to have higher test scores, and they also have a better attitude (5). Also, if you eat breakfast, then you don’t over indulge in your next meal (5).

Another unhealthy habit is not drinking enough water (5). Drinking water helps to burn fat and calories, and you

are less hungry when you drink a healthy amount of water (5).

Lastly, one of the most un-healthy habits ever is not knowing anything about the foods you are putting in your mouth (5). The nutrient la-bels are on the package, and although most people do not even look at them, they would be surprised with what is in what they are eating: the number of calories, grams of sugar, grams of fat, etcetera (4).

These are easy habits to fix, and the littlest changes can make your body a whole lot healthier!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Unhealthy Eating & Habits 1

Eating Too Much 2

Eating Too Little 2

The Dangers of Fast Food 3

Food Substitutes 3

Citations 4

Resources 4

Fast Food: Get the kid’s menu– it’s the healthy serving size (10).

THINGS YOU CAN TRY FOR HEALTHIER EATING:

“Two-thirds of U.S. adults age 20 or older are overweight. About 62% of women and around 71% of men. Nearly one-third of American adults are so overweight that they are consid-ered obese (6). ” This statistical excerpt from an article on weight simply describes what America has become. For both genders and all races, the major-

ity of Americans are overweight.

Restaurants, grocery stores, eve-rywhere you go everything seems to be five times bigger than what it was fifty years ago. The portion sizes aren’t the same size and people start to wonder: “Are restaurants the cause of obesity, or is it the peo-ple’s fault?”

People be-come over-weight de-pending on a matter of things. One of them is the number of calories they consume and burn (7). Another rea-son people overeat is because they do not get

enough sleep (7). Not enough sleep affects hormones that con-trol your appetite, causing you to overeat; this leads to weight gain (7). Another way people may overeat is because of stress they are under, or if they eat out of boredom (7).

However, one of the biggest reason’s people overeat is be-cause of portion control (6). Most people do not eat the healthy serving size of a meal, and at most restaurants they do not serve the healthy serving size (7). Next time you are at a restaurant that gives you a huge meal, eat a healthy portion of it, then box it up and take it home! With most restaurant meals, you can turn it into a days worth of meals instead of one meal(4).

Eating too much can lead to many life long complications, and it is better just to avoid it rather than hassle with it.

25 (9). Having an eating disor-der, or eating too little causes you to have weak bones, brittle skin, nutrient-less skin and bones, a lower body temperature

and a rapid heart beat (8). Your body also has to work twice as hard to try to keep itself healthy; but that only last for so long (8). This is not

healthy and there are major consequences to not eating. If you do not con-s u m e t h e

healthy amount of nutrients, the healthy amount of vitamins, the healthy amount of calories, and the healthy amount of minerals you will die (8). And it will be a slow, painful, weak death.

Eating too little food can cause serious problems and long life complications, as any unhealthy eating habit can. However, eat-ing too little is hard to over-come, and if it gets to a certain stage, it is almost impossi-ble to get back because your im-mune system is not used to eating so much food (8). Some statistics that have to do with eating too little or having eating disor-ders include: One in 200 American women suffer from anorexia, two to three in 100 American women suffer from bulimia, and 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and

EATING TOO LITTLE

EATING TOO MUCH

Although lettuce is better for you than other foods, it provides no nutrition, and zero calories. Because of this, many ano-rexic or bulimic people eat lettuce– plain.

Pasta dishes (from restaurants) such as the one above

are usually at least 4 times the normal serving.

“Believe it or not,

Americans eat 75

acres of pizza a

day.”

- Boyd Matson, TV

journalist (12)

Page 2 THE HEALTH JOURNAL

Water is one of the best things you can con-sume, but living off of it will cause serious and life threatening sicknesses because it provides no nutrients, and has zero calories.

FAST FOOD FACTS:

- McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain (10)

- You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a

Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac (10)

- Most nutritionists rec-ommend not eating fast food more than once a month (10)

- Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar(10)

- One in every three chil-dren born in the year 2000 will develop diabe-tes in their lifetime be-cause of the affect fast food has nowadays on the world (10)

Sure, they offer “healthy” options by having salads on the menu, however, as much as we all love fast food it can be a serious prob-lem if a person has an addiction with it. Fast food has a bigger impact then one would think. People who ate one fast food meal per a week weighed 1.4 more pounds compared to abstainers (10). Conse-quences to eating too much of this unhealthy food includes: heart prob-lems, including heart at-tacks and heart diseases; it also includes the increased chances of you becoming overweight or obese, which, like mentioned before, can lead to many extreme problems (11). However, although many Americans eat a lot of fast food, 50% of Americans

did say that they would like to start seeing nutrition labels some-where on the menu; they would like to be well aware of what they are eating and what is in it (10). This could help the fast food in-dustry, as well as your nutrition.

SUBSITUTING FOR THE BETTER the exact same, why settle with the unhealthy brand?

For fast food, instead of eating French fries, eating tater tots would be a much healthier choice.

At the vending machine, instead of eating Twix candy bar, eating a Kit Kat bar would be better for you because there are less calories, fat, and sugar in the Kit Kat bar, and it is just as delicious (4)! Other candies that are better for you include: Willy Wonka Nerds, Jolly Ranchers, Smarties, Candy Canes, most non-chocolate foods. Unhealthier individ-ual candy options include: M&M’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter cups,

and Hershey’s Kisses (4).

This book proves that there is always a healthier choice that you could go for, and it is very helpful when guiding you in the healthier direction. Nowadays everything is “supersized,” and most of people do not know what is in the food that they are eating. Eating unhealthy can lead to so many complications. Being overweight can cause you to be in the hospital 19% longer

than the average healthy person (4), overweight people are also 20% more likely to have asthma, these are just a few compli-cations. So, why eat so unhealthy, when

books like this prove there are better options for yourself?

No matter what you love to eat, there is always a healthier option (4). In the book, Eat This, Not That! written by David Zinc-zenko, there are a ton of substi-tutes and better options to eat rather than eating the extreme unhealthy. Zinczenko writes in his book “eat the rainbow” and that vegetables and fruits (food grown from the ground) are the best foods for you (4). He also lists many healthier options to substitute for the foods we love, but know are unhealthy.

An example using ice cream: instead of eating the delicious Ben & Jerry’s All Natural Peanut Butter Cup, eat the just-as-delicious Edy’s Dreyer’s Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (4). It taste the exact same and there is a 220 calorie difference in a serving (1/2 cup), a 20 gram fat difference, and an 11 gram sugar difference (4). If they taste

FAST FOOD DANGERS

This very fascinating book, Eat This Not That, provides tons of similar substitutes for food, so that you can settle with what you like to eat, but in a healthier way.

1,170 calories are in a Big Mac Meal (including drink and fries). This is more than half of the average persons healthy consumption of calories per a day(10).

“The journey of a

thousand pounds

begins with a single

burger.”

- Chris O'Brien (12)

Page 3 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

Works Cited: INFORMATION CITATIONS:

- bNet. Health Consequences of Too Much Fast Food. 2005. 18 November 2009 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0815/is_3_30/ai_n13246425/>. (11)

- Fir, Alex. Risk of Eating Unhealthy. 2009. 17 November 2009 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Risk-of-Eating-Unhealthy&id=133755>. (2)

- Grumman, Rachel. Why we eat too much, and how to get control . 18 September 2009. 17 November 2009 <http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/18/why.overeat.eat.much/index.html>. (7)

- Mama's Health. Anorexia. 2009. 18 November 2009 <http://www.mamashealth.com/anorexia.asp>. (8)

- Photius Coutsoukis. The World Health Organization's Ranking. 2007. 17 November 2009 <http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html>. (1)

- Scott, Jennifer. How Prevalant is being Overweight in America? . 2009. 17 November 2009 <http://weightloss.about.com/od/obesityhealth/f/americastats.htm>. (6)

- South Carolina Department of Mental Health. Eating Disorder Statistics . 2006. 18 November 2009 <http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm> >. (9)

- Tuitasi, Debbie. Unhealthy Eating Katie Fuszner. 19 November 2009. (3)

- Various Authors. Fast Food Quotes. 17 November 2009 <http://www.foodreference.com/html/qfastfood.html>. (12)

- VivaVegie Website. Fast Food Facts from Super-Size Me. 2006. 18 November 2009 <http://www.vivavegie.org/101book/text/nolink/social/supersizeme.htm>. (10)

- Ygoy. Top 7 Unhealthy Eating Habits to Avoid. 29 May 2009. 17 November 2009 <http://obesity.ygoy.com/2009/05/29/top-7-unhealthy-eating-habits-to-avoid/>. (5)

- Zinczenko, David. Eat This, Not That! New York, NY: Rodale Inc. , 2008. (4)

PICTURE CITATIONS:

-“Spaghetti.” 2006. Online Image. www.crowncombo.com. November 17, 2009. <http://www.crowncombo.com/articles/2007/007_noodles/spaghetti2.jpg>

-“Big Mac.” September 4 2009. Online Image. www.fakehustle.file.wordpress. November 17, 2009. <http://fakehustle.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/big-mac-extra-value-meal.jpg>

-“Eat This, Not That!” March 2009. Online Image. www.fit2fatradio.com. November 17, 2009. <http://www.fat2fitradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/eat_this_not_that.jpg>

-“Lettuce Head.” Online Image. www.rorywalsh.ear.ie. November 17, 2009. <http://rorywalsh.ear.ie/RoryFolder/lettuceHead.jpgv>

-“Fiji Water.” Online Image. www.nina.wklass.de. November 18,2009. <http://www.nina.wklass.de/get_the_fiji_backpacker_feeling/get_ready_for_fiji/what_to_shop_on_fiji/images_whattoshoponfiji/Fiji%20bottle.jpg>

-“Raspberries.” Online Image. www.raspberries.us. November 18, 2009 <http://www.raspberries.us/three-raspberries-636.jpg>

Resources: 1. Young Women’s Health Website - www.youngwomenshealth.org (recommended:

http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/healthyeating.html)

Young Men’s Health Website - http://www.youngmenshealthsite.org(recommended for healthy eating: http://www.youngmenshealthsite.org/healthyeating.html)

These websites are run by the same company, and set up in the same format; one is just directed towards men, the other, women.

2. School: Debbie Tuitasi, Upper School Nurse & Director of Health Services at MICDS

3. Local: Ellen Stein, Nutritionist, 845 N. New Ballas Court, St. Louis, MO, 63141, (314)-569-0302

4. National: Weight Watchers (need to visit a local meeting center for this national resource), 10326 MANCHESTER RD SAINT LOUIS, MO 63122, Contact Leader: Kathleen M., for information on visiting go to the web: sitehttp://www.weightwatchers.com/util/mtf/location_results.aspx?pg=0&s=ZIP&z=63131