Reflection on Nutrition

In class on Tuesday, we had a guest speaker, Ben, come in to talk about Nutrition. He talked about what we all already know: that our nutrition is important because it is what gives us energy to do things everyday, such as homework, going to class, or even pulling an all-nighter to cram for a test. However, what Ben discussed was how it specifically affects college students, a.k.a. us. He discussed that eating healthy right now as a college student is critical to how we will eat in the future, as we continue to stray away from being dependent on our parents, to living on our own. This statement made a great point because up until now, our parents have always controlled what we eat from what they bought at the grocery store and what they made at home. Since we are living on our own now, we get to decide what foods we are going to eat. Now most of us are on the meal plan, so our choices may be limited to what the dining halls prepare, but we still have to choose from a variety of foods. This is where Ben talked about establishing the “Healthy Plate,” where we portion size our meals with protein, whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. What I learned from this is that more than half of each meal should consist of fruit and vegetables, because they are what give you most vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy and work at full capacity. The other half of whole grains and protein are also important for your body's sugar levels and amino acids for muscle building. Establishing the “Healthy Plate” at every meal can be challenging due to what is available to us and/or what we can afford to buy, but every goal takes baby-steps. Therefore, as Ben discussed, we should establish small goals daily or weekly to get us towards our long term goal of eating healthy and having a balanced diet.

The reason why I am reflecting on this topic is because I truly have an interest in nutrition because it affects my major,and also because I am a Type 1 Diabetic. Being a Type 1 Diabetic, I always have to watch what I eat for every meal. For instance, eating too much whole grains/ carbohydrates or sugars will greatly affect my blood glucose levels throughout the day. In result, I try to limit my intake of carbohydrates and sugars, and increase my intake of protein and vegetables. Over the past four years since I have been diagnosed, eating healthy everyday in this manner has been challenging since most of my childhood I didn't have to worry about it as much., but luckily I have been successful about turning my diet around. With this huge adjustment in my life, I have really seen a positive outcome in my diet, my energy levels throughout the day, as well as control over my disease. Therefore, I believe nutrition is important to discuss in public health because many people do not fully understand the meaning of a healthy balanced meal and increasing nutrition awareness will help fix that problem and possibly reduce health risks in future populations. I also believe its important because it can help reduce the obese population percentage if people knew more about eating healthy in any type situation that they are faced with. The question is who will rise up to the challenge to raise awareness and what is the best way to raise nutrition awareness that will make people active towards the healthy movement?