Tuesday, October 23, 2012

observation of the foreigner OR american food traditions



First of all I created a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/healthylifeeasily?ref=hl   dedicated to my blog and to healthy living in general. Actually in Russian “Facebook” – www.vkontakte.ru there is a bunch of really helpful pages about this issue. The administrators of these pages update data at least once per hour. The information they provide includes eating tips, advises about sport, diets, motivation. There are so many photo albums with the achievements of the group members. They motivate me greatly! So I decided to develop my page drawing on experience of these pages.

Actually, when I just came to America I was really frightened that I will gain weight because it happened to me 3 times before when I was an exchange student in 2007, 2008 and 2009. But this time I decided to follow a healthy eating diet and go in for sports. Thus I understood that the problem was not in the fact that in this very country (I am talking about USA) I always gain weight. The problem was my unhealthy eating. My obsession was cookies, mmmm… 
380 Calories per serving (85g), Total Fat 17g (26%), Total Carbohydrate 51g (18%), Sugars 35g. Just terrible!


Okay. As a foreigner I can observe some problems with food intake traditions that are common to all Americans.

First of all, the size of meals that are served in restaurants is just incredibly huge. When I just came it was impossible for me to eat a whole meal! (But I am starting getting used to it… ooops!) So you overeat all the time thus stretching the stomach. The normal portion of food that is good for our stomach is 200g.

Secondly, you are eating on the run. You are not dedicating special time for eating. Having healthy snacks between meals is good for metabolic. But eating fast, unhealthy and not tasty meals on the dashboard is not beneficial at all! Try to pay attention to what you are eating and enjoy every piece of your meal!

Thirdly, you are eating to much unhealthy snacks, semis and sweets. However, there are so many opportunities in your country to choose healthy food. In Russia we don’t have regulations that are devoted to organic / non-organic food. Nowadays Russian manufacturers are trying to reduce production costs by using the cheapest alternatives. Thus, the quality of products is decreasing.  Per contra, in USA people are really concerned about organic food and the regulations of making such type of products are really strict. It means that you have a great chance to choose healthy and truly tasty products. So why don’t you do that? Why do you drink coke instead of organic juice? Why do you eat frozen food instead of choosing fresh products from local farms?

I feel that America is the country of opportunities. You have a real right to select. Why then don’t you choose a healthy lifestyle to make your life better?     


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