Reflection Paper On Food

Food is essential in everyone’s daily life. Keeping an eye on my personal eating diets is very helpful to live a healthy life. The food diary is recorded once a week, with information of the food I eat during the day and my initial observations. My experience is very enlightening. There are evident changes of my eating and living habits, which leads me to comprehend the interactions between student life and the backstory of food better.

I believe that I could be regarded as a healthy eater before I came to Canada. Thanks to my parents, under their cares and supervisions, I always ate sufficiently: three meals per day, with adequate amounts of fruits and snacks. Yet, this usual “healthy diet” has become hard to maintain since I move to Toronto.

That is because I am accustomed to what I am eating right now. And to try something new can be dangerous sometimes because other than judging the food quality by its look, I do not know what else should be considered when buying the new food. It is basically impossible for me to know how the farmers grow the food. Labels and advertisements always mislead me as well. I was surprised to learn that the apple juice with labels “made in Canada” was in fact originally from China. At least the main ingredients – apples were made in China. I feel like being tricked by the labels and advertisements. Thus written in my food diary, I always struggle with the issue of whether to continue to eat the meat and the bread which has passed their best before days or not. I have no idea if the food has been kept in the storage for a long time before being put on the labels and served on the

But food itself should not be blamed for creating problems. The food production is in fact the real main cause. Frozen dinner is designed to the sake of conveniences. However, the growing processes of the food need careful inspections. The use of large amount of pesticides and fertilizers is destroying the land and the water. What about organic frozen dinners? Though organic food is grown in more green and sustainable ways, not to mention the other facts, the waste gas produced by transportation has eliminated most of the environmental benefits. Most importantly, both of inorganic and organic frozen dinners have two common problems on packages and storages. The plastic trays are often thrown by us without many cares, but then these trays actually remain in landfills for decades or even centuries. The fridges which have been used to keep these frozen dinners in supermarkets have released chemicals which have brought direct effect to the greenhouse.

In fact, I really enjoy cooking. I can be at least confident about what I am ingesting when I cook with “visible” ingredients. Having healthy food is extremely important in living a healthy lifestyle. However, as a student, there are so many different aspects affecting my habits and decisions. Therefore, plan well in advance and manage time wisely become very crucial for me to live a healthy life. Keeping a food diary helps me to find