Nowadays, people pay more attention on
their health. As a result, people talk more about healthy eating than before.
There are so many healthy foods available in the supermarket. However, many
people just pay attention to the descriptions on the package of meat. They care
about the location where the meat is produced, and the quality of the meat. Sometimes
they ignore the existence of fruits and vegetables, which are also very
important to people’s health.
Fruits and vegetables have so many
nutrients that meat could not provide. People eat meat everyday. By eating
meat, people could get the energy they need, which can make them become
stronger. In Chinese people’s minds, meat is very important to people’s growth.
You can always hear Chinese parents asking their kids to eat more meat during
meals. In their eyes, the more meat their kids eat, the better they will grow.
Indeed, meat could provide enough energy to people’s bodies. However, only
energy comes from meat is not enough for the normal and healthy function of
people’ lives. At this moment, eating some fruits and vegetables is very
important. In Steffen’s article, “Eat Your Fruit and Vegetables,” the author
wrote, “Fruit and vegetables are rich in many health-promoting nutrients and
food compounds, including antioxidants such as vitamin C and folate, potassium,
phytochemicals, dietary fibre.” From this viewpoint, we know the nutrients that
fruits and vegetables have. Unlike meat that mainly provides energy, fruits and
vegetables offer their unique nutrients to people’s healthy.
Although the amount of nutrients that
fruits and vegetables have is not as much as that of energy, we still could not
ignore their importance. I still remember a story between my mom and me. It is
the first time that I was reminded the importance of these nutrients coming
from fruits and vegetables. When I was young, I did not like to eat oranges. I
felt eating it bothered a lot because the juice of the orange would spill
out. Every time when I finished eating
an orange, I had to have my hands washed. I thought it cost me a lot of
personal time. In order to persuade me to eat some oranges, my mom told me a
story. In the past, watermen always infected a strange disease when they were
sailing on the sea. The strange disease was called scurvy. In a long period of
time, people could not find the right way to cure it. One day, people finally found
that eating oranges could efficiently protect people from infecting scurvy. So
when they were sailing on the sea, they took so many oranges with them. This
story really shocked me at that time, so I began to eat oranges and would like
to buy everything that is made by orange. I am not sure which one is the reason
that I like to eat oranges now, the result of having heard that fearful story
or I really enjoy the taste of oranges. But I always think it is just a story
made by my mom until I have read Hirshmann’s article, “Adult Scurvy”, the writer
wrote, “Vitamin C occurs primarily in fruits and vegetables, and scurvy
develops from inadequate consumption of these sources.” In this idea, I know
that scurvy is mainly caused by the lack of Vitamin C. Fruits and vegetables
contain large amount of Vitamin C. If people could eat some fruits and
vegetables, they can better defend themselves from being scurvy patients. I
suddenly find that the story from my mom is not just a story. This scientific
research also supports that story. Thanks to my mom so that I can eat so many
oranges in these years. Maybe the orange I have eaten these years already have
protected me from infecting so many diseases.
However, people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables, especially for
vegetables. If people go to restaurants, they might see that dishes made by
meat are more than dishes made by vegetables. People eat too many meat
everyday. To many people, they could live without vegetables, but they could
not live without meat. As the result of eating too many meat, the number of fat
people becomes larger and larger. New styles of diseases caused by eating too
much meat exist quickly in these years. Fatty liver is a disease that is caused
by eating disorderly; the number of fatty liver patient grows very quickly in
recent years. In the article “Causes and Metabolic Consequences of Fatty
Liver”, the authors wrote, “In human studies, individuals with fatty live have
higher intake of calories as well as saturated fat and cholesterol compared
with healthy controls. They also have lower intake of polyunsaturated fat,
fiber and antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C and E (99-101)”(Stefan,
Kantartzis, and Häring 943). From this point, the reason for fatty liver can be
regarded as having eaten too many meat and less vegetables and fruits. The
growing number of fatty liver patient is a reflection of people’s eating
habits. In order to prevent from diseases such as fatty liver, people begin to
recognize the importance of eating vegetables. In a Chinese family, when their
children are about 10 years old. Some parents began to worry about their
children’s weight, and the variety of food. As the result, they even force
their children to eat less meat and more vegetables. Sometimes when I sit on a
bus, I can hear people talk about their worries about their children. Then
discuss and try to come up with an idea to make their children eat more
vegetables instead of meat.
Luckily, people eat more fruits than
vegetables. I always think that only myself would like to eat more fruits than
vegetables, but in Edwards and Hartwell’s article, “Fruit More Popular than
Vegetables and Recognized Better by Children,” they wrote, “Fruit is more
popular than vegetables and recognition of fruit is better, among children aged
eight to 11 years, a study has found.” From this study I know most children
have the same choices as me, fruits are more popular than vegetables. The
reason might be the taste of fruit is more diverse. There are so many fruits
all over the world; every fruit has its own tastes. Children could find the
taste they like among so many fruits. But vegetables are totally different
because they are sometimes cooked in the same way, and there are not big
differences between the tastes of different vegetables. Besides that, one can
easily see the advertisement that links the healthy and fruits together in the
supermarket. This efficiently increases people’s interest to buy some fruit
back home. The developing transportation also leads people to buy more fruits.
Because of the faster and cheaper transportation, one can buy fruits from all
over the world in the supermarket. Some people just want to try a new variety
of fruit, so they buy some fruits home. Other than that, fruits could be considered
as snacks for people to eat. Fruits are often put on the desk in the parlor.
When people watch TV, they sometimes need some snacks to eat. In this occasion,
people can eat fruits. However, the lack of these characteristics makes
vegetables not as popular as fruits.
In fact, there are so many benefits of eating
fruits and vegetables. One amazing benefit is that eating fruit and vegetables
could defend cancer. In the article “Fruit and Vegetables and Cancer Risk”, Key
wrote, “Persons with low fruit and vegetable intake experience about twice the
risk of cancer compared to those with a high intake, even after control for
potentially confounding factors’ (Block et al, 1992)”(6). In this search, we
know that people eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower risk to get infected
cancer than people who eat less fruits and vegetables. The importance of eating
fruits and vegetables is really far more exceed our imagination. For most
people, they might have never imagined eating them could make contribution to
preventing cancer. In other words, people’s ignorance of eating fruits and
vegetables increases their possibility to infect cancer.
Having done so much research, I find
that it is really important to eat fruits and vegetables. By eating them,
people can better defend disease such as scurvy, fatty liver, and cancer. Even
though people may not make themselves that worse, eating more fruits and
vegetables still can keep their food balance, make their weight in a normal
period and lead them living in a healthy mood.
Once I was eating only meat without any
vegetables. Fortunately, I keep the habit of eating fruits everyday. Maybe this
is the reason why my body is not so bad now. But from now on, I decide to
change my eating habits. I will make myself eat more vegetables every day. Even
though the taste of vegetables is not attractive, but the benefits of eating
vegetables really shock me. I want to make myself healthy by eating more
vegetables. I will make some vegetable salad in every lunch. I will put some
vegetables in every hamburger that I am going to eat. I will still act as usual
to some fruits everyday. Besides, I will also eat meat in the future in order
to have the appropriate amount of energy everyday that could provide me with
enough energy to face different challenges. Controlling myself to eat suitable
amount of meat, vegetables and fruit is the right way to keep healthy.
Eating fruits and vegetables is really
important to keep the food balance, and have special effects to defend
diseases. The result of eating only meat is that people will probably become so
fat and even have fatty liver. Therefore, forming a habit of eating vegetables
and fruits is important to people’s health and should be adopted by more
people.
Works Cited
Steffen,
Lyn M. "Eat Your Fruit and Vegetables." The Lancet 367.9507 (2006):
278-9. Print.
Hirschmann,
J. V., and G. J. Raugi. "Adult Scurvy." Journal of the American
Academy of Dermatology 41.6 (1999): 895-910. Print.
Stefan,
Norbert, Konstantinos Kantartzis, and Hans-Ulrich Häring. "Causes and
Metabolic Consequences of Fatty Liver." Endocrine reviews 29.7 (2008):
939-60. Print.
J S A
Edwards, and H H Hartwell. "Fruit More Popular than Vegetables and
Recognised Better by Children." Community Practitioner 75.12 (2002): 482.
Print.
Key,
T. J. "Fruit and Vegetables and Cancer Risk." British Journal of
Cancer 104.1 (2011): 6-11. Print.
