Eating Fresh for a Week

We all eat things that we know are bad for us but eat them anyway. This is because In-N-Out is always around the corner, Taco Bell is down the street, and Chipotle simply exists; but what would happen if we all just ate a little healthier? I recently gave myself a one-week challenge consisting of only eating unprocessed foods by making most of my meals myself.

I started my week-long adventure on Tuesday instead of Monday, because Monday was a holiday and parents wanted to go out to eat. I thought that one day couldn’t hurt as long as it wasn’t in the middle of the week; however, I didn’t realize that once you lose the motivation to eat a little healthier, it is very hard to get it back. In order to get the motivation back, I read excerpts from books that talk about eating healthily and naturally.

One of these books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen, focuses on where our food comes from. The author explains step-by-step how the food we put in our mouths to give us nutrients every day got there. There is also a YouTube video of him explaining his book in greater detail with real-life examples. He explains how we must understand more about the food chain and where our food comes from in order to eat better. In the video, he explained how we evolved to like sugar. Sugar was not always as accessible to us as it is now, which is why we don’t ever feel like we’ve had enough.   His lecture gave me a better understanding of what I should eat and why we eat the way we do.

I woke up on Tuesday morning not having any idea what to eat. In my usual routine, I skip breakfast, eat something from school, then either have a real meal or frozen, processed meals that I shove in the microwave. However, that Tuesday, I woke up and made some real oatmeal — the first step. Instead of using sugar like I normally would for oatmeal, I used cinnamon to make the oatmeal a little sweet.

The first half of the week was challenging for me. I only ate meals that I made myself or my mother made to prevent me from eating anything processed, a routine which took a lot of time out of my days. My three-minute microwavable meals turned into 40-minute home-cooked meals. I didn’t know it would take that much time every day. On the third day, my friend texted me asking if I wanted to go to Subway: the fast food chain sometimes known for bread made out of shoe soles. I had to decline.

The rest of the week after the fourth day was pretty simple after that. I had more energy because I was eating fresh foods to make more meals for myself. I slept better and I also was in a better mood throughout the day. My entire week was overall just simply better. I didn’t know processed foods took so much not only out of a person physical health but also their mental until I spoke with Kym Jarnot, our registered nurse here at Clark.

One question keeps popping into my head after feeling these health benefits first-hand from eating fresh foods: “Why do we keep eating these processed foods even though they do not fill us and they are not good for us?” This is because processed foods are almost like a drug.

“Processed foods are not healthy for us and when you take out all the good stuff that is supposed to be in them [and replace them] with the stuff they put in it to make them yummy. It’s almost like, for some people’s brains, it becomes an addictive item,” Jarnot said. This is why we can get through spoonfuls of ice cream without getting completely full. The body is not saying that it is hungry, the brain is saying that it wants more.

Senior Paul Terzian is a fairly healthy eater; but, like all of us, he sometimes treats himself to fast food. When Terzian does treat himself to fast food, he feels a significant difference in how he feels both mentally and physically. “I feel happier and more awake when I eat healthier,” Terzian said. “When I eat fast food, I feel drowsy and lazy.”

If we know that fast food is not good for us and could lead us eating it constantly due to its addicting qualities, why feed our children it in the first place? The book Fast Food Nation explains that the fast food chains draw children in with their mascots. McDonald’s is known for having Ronald McDonald, while Jack In the Box is known for having Jack, the man with the abnormally large head. These fast food chains take advantage of naive and trusting kids in order to make life-long customers.

Senior Alina Sargsian’s favorite fast food mascot was Jack from Jack in the Box when she was a child. “There was something about his huge head that made him like a cartoon in my head which is why I think he was my favorite,” Sargsian said.

Sargsian’s favorite place to eat was Jack in the Box when she was a child and is now her go-to fast food chain. “I know Jack in the Box is probably not the best tasting fast food chain, but there’s something about the sign that draws me in,” Sargsian said. This is because the love for the mascot she had when she was a child brings her nostalgia when she passes by a Jack in the Box.

Even though there are sodium-filled processed foods in almost every aisle in the grocery store, there are some packaged lunches that are not as unhealthy as the other options. “You have to read the labels,” Jarnot said. “Some of the nutritionists will say that if the first five ingredients are not natural ingredients, that food is probably not going to be as nutritionally for you as something that grew out of the Earth.” Basically, if you can’t confidently pronounce the first five ingredients on the label, then you probably shouldn’t eat it.

This week of eating just fresh foods opened my eyes to how good I can feel throughout the day if I just don’t microwave everything I eat. However, keeping this up as a freshman in college is going to be difficult. Jarnot recommends all college freshmen take a cooking class to keep their health while stretching their dollars. It might seem like a lot of money when you first buy all of the ingredients, but the ingredients will last you meals and weeks worth of meals.