Eating more fruits and vegetables

        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.