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Nina Medjibe
Ms. Jennings
English 111-119
12 May 2014
The Importance of Eating Healthy And Organic Foods.
Throughout the day, people eat different kinds of meal (breakfast, lunch, snacks, and
dinner) to have energy to work and to develop physically and intellectually. But, what are the
healthy foods they should eat? Healthy foods that people should eat have to contain all the
nutrients necessary for their health. Those nutrients are proteins (that are found in meat, fish,
milk, mushroom, and eggs), lipids (oil, butter, fats), vitamins (fresh and dry fruits, vegetables,
juices), calcium (milk, cheese, dairy products), iron and water, which are very important for a
human being. Since the 1990s many debates have taken place based on this topic in USA, and
the author of each article used in the paper gave his/her own opinion. Nowadays, there is much
information about the health value of foods that people receive everyday from the commercials,
in the newspapers, on the foods labels, and in the grocery stores that are sometimes not
scientifically verified. But Shari Portnoy, who wrote Organic, Natural, and Health, says, if
people are concerned about their health, and what they use to fuel their body, they need to be
careful about what they eat (25). A nutritionist also has confirmed in an article The Health
Benefits of Eating Healthy written by Allison Ricket, that some foods are good for the human
body and others are not. Everyone should eat healthy foods from the young age to the old age.
Healthy foods will enable them to stay healthy, grow physically and intellectually strong.
According to Michael Teague in his article Nutrition, he explains that even at fast food
restaurants (McDonald, KFC, Wendys, Subway), people can make a good choice of the food
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they would like to eat. He continues by encouraging people to drink water instead of soda.
Avoiding sugar in every day food will help decrease the number of obesity cases in US.
Furthermore, in his article, he encourages people to consume organic foods because they are
safer than other modified foods. However, he admits that organic food is a little bit more
expensive than modified foods. But what is an organic food? According to Teagues research,
organic foods are the products that are generally grown without synthetic pesticide or fertilizers
or routine use of antibiotics or growth hormones (121). In addition, other nutritionists are in
agreement that organic food is good for the human body because eating organic food will help
minimize numerous health problems. Furthermore in her article, Portnoy explains to the readers
how they can recognize an organic food in the grocery by its label, and then she shows how
organic food is processed and regulated by USDA. She says that an organic product has a five-
digit number beginning with a 9. For example, organic bananas can be labeled 94011 (27).
Nevertheless, Teague and Ricket confirm that they cannot ignore that the organic food costs
more than modified foods. For this reason Ricket and Trish suggest that people can plant their
own organic garden. That way, they can minimize the high price of these products and save
money (14 and 40). On the other hand, Crystal Smith et al., authors of article Are Organic
Foods Safer or Healthier than Conventional Alternatives? present the result of the analysis and
experiment that they conduct on organic food and conventional alternatives. They say that they
did not find major evidence to confirm that organic products are more nutritious than
conventional alternatives (353).
In the USA and around the world, experience shows that people who eat healthy food,
respect their intake of calories, and combine diet with the work out are in better shape, healthier,
and stronger than those who do not. Everyone can control what he/she is eating every day. The
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bottom line is that people have more choices to eat healthy and to care about what food they
choose to eat by making smart choices. Eating more organic food may lead to some bad choices.
For instance, sometimes People think that organic foods are lower in calories; they can eat more
organic cookies or cakes.
But Portnoy presents results of a research conducted by the Yale University Rudd Center
for policy and obesity that cookies are made with sugar and butter two high calorie foods-
Organic or not, they contribute to the increasing of the obesity rate (27). She also mentions that
organic food is a farming production system, not a healthy eating system. This means, each
person has the responsibility of what he/she wants to eat by making a smart choice of food. It is
important to eat more fruits and vegetables because they provide the most important nutrients
that the body needs. Also consuming meat, fish, eggs, milk is important because they the human
to build muscles, but people should consume in moderate quantity. People should also reduce
their calorie intake to minimize the weight gain and the risk of certain diseases such as diabetes,
risk of cardio-vascular, and cancer (Teague122-123). Exercise is also a major factor in the
health system; it helps the human body to burn fats and calories that it does not need, and it helps
the body to function normally. It is important that a human being Exercise at least three times a
week (30-40minusts) each time.
In short, seeking to understand the problem of why organic food and the modified foods
are different from one another will always be a source of discussion. The consensus of the
authors mentioned in this paper is: eating organic food is beneficial for human health, modified
foods have some negative effects on the people health, and finally people should make good
choices when it comes to what to use to fuel the body. For these reasons, people should know
that it is important to be conscious consumers when shopping for food, and consume only the
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normal amount of calories every day because an excess of some foods such as sodas, candies,
and ice cream can harm human body. Despite some scientist studies, organic food continues to
be the most recommended food by nutritionists but is a bit more expensive. Planting an organic
garden can help defray costs and also go a long way towards sustaining the environment, and
each person with access to the fresh and local produce it provides.


















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Works Cited

Crystal, Smith-Spangler et al. Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier than Conventional
Alternatives? Annals of Internal Medicine: 4sept. 2012. 348-59. Academic search.
Web. 23Apr. 2014.
Portnoy, Shari. Organic, Natural, and Health: What does it all mean? American Fitness:
May/June 2013. 25-30. Academic search. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Hildebrant, Trish. Your Health: Healthy Aging, The secret are simpler than you think. Green
Living with Earth in Mind. 40-1.Academic search. Web. 23 Apr.2014.
Teague, Michael. Nutrition. Your Health Today: Choices in a changing Society. 4
th
edition
New York: McGraw Hill, 2013.97-125. Print.