Fish contain many essential nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA.  Many people think eating fish is very healthy.  But, would you ever drink a glass of ocean water?  Probably not since it is polluted and unsanitary.  Eating fish is the same as drinking ocean water and worse.  Fish are so dirty and contaminated that they are the most polluted food that we eat!

The reason is because fish filter dirty ocean water in and out of their gills and bodies countless times throughout their lives.  The contaminants in the ocean water are trapped in the fish and build up over time.  The longer the fish lives, the more contaminated it becomes.  Fish that are grown in farms are even dirtier!  Unfortunately, nearly all fish and shellfish contain at least some mercury.  Mercury is poisonous to the brain.  Other chemicals that accumulate in fish include PCB’s, chemicals that can cause cancer.  These fish pollutants can stay in your body for decades creating higher risk of diseases such as cancer and heart attacks.  So, do you still want to eat fish?

AHG

Yes, chicken ruins a good salad.  The reason chicken ruins a good salad is because despite what you might think, chicken protein is not healthy. Most people think that we need to eat a lot of protein and that it can only come from meat.  Guess what?  Non-animal products like vegetables, greens, beans, nuts and seeds also have protein, and this protein is healthier.  This protein is healthier because the non-animal protein lets people live longer with less disease.  When eating animal products it decreases the longevity of a person.  In addition, the average person only needs approximately 0.75 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.  If the person works out heavily, he or she would need an average of approximately 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.  The problem is that most people eat about 50% more than they need and this is not healthy.

Some feel that they need more protein because they are athletes or very active.  There are famous athletes who are vegetarian and even vegan.  Vegetarians don’t eat meat while vegans avoid all animal products.  One such famous athlete is Robert Parish, a basketball player for the Boston Celtics who played with Larry Bird.  He was one of the best players in the NBA.  Another athlete, a famous tennis player and vegetarian, is Billie Jean King.  She won 16 doubles titles and 12 grand slams.  A third athlete, also a tennis player and a vegetarian, is Martina Navratilova.  She won 31 doubles titles and 18 grand slams. The point is that these people don’t need to eat meat to be strong and athletic.  Non-animal proteins in moderation can keep you strong and healthy.  So, pass on the chicken when you order your salad!

CRG

If you want to eat healthy, you will probably do some research online.  Two phrases that you will probably find are “Glycemic Index” and “ORAC Scale”.  Here’s what they mean.

The glycemic index measures how much and how quickly sugar enters the blood after eating a particular food. When an apple is eaten, it goes into the stomach to be digested.  Some of the nutrients are removed and go into the blood. The rest of the apple goes to the small intestine and there, more nutrients are removed and go into the blood. Finally, the large intestine takes the rest of the nutrients and transfers them to the blood. The rest of the apple waste finally leaves the body from the other end. Now, the blood has nutrients and the body is healthy. Some sugar goes into the blood but it happens slowly from the stomach all the way to the large intestine.  If you drink a sugary soda, the body doesn’t have to digest anything.  Lots of sugar goes into the blood quickly and the blood will have too much sugar. The pancreas is an organ in our body that controls how much sugar is in our blood.  It puts insulin in the blood to tell the other parts of the body that there is too much sugar in our blood and to remove the sugar and store it. The body removes the sugar and stores it as fat.  The problem is that if our pancreas keeps having to make insulin, this can be bad for our body and cause some diseases.  This whole process is what the glycemic index measures.  It measures how fast sugar enters our blood and how high the sugar level goes after eating different foods.

Healthy Foods from Plants

The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale measures something different.  What this measures is how much antioxidant is in different foods. Oxidants are bad for our body.  Antioxidants help our body get rid of oxidants.  For example, in our cells, we have something called mitochondria.  Mitochondria help us make energy from sugar that comes from the foods that we eat.  The mitochondria mix sugar and oxygen and releases carbon dioxide, energy, water, and oxidants. Oxidants roam around in our cells and cause a lot of damage.  Antioxidants can catch the oxidants and help our body eliminate them.  This prevents damage to our cells and our bodies.  We get antioxidants from healthy foods.  Foods that are high in antioxidants do not come from animals.  They include fruits, berries, greens, vegetables, spices, nuts, beans, seeds and other foods that come from plants.  Unhealthy foods that come from animals such as meat, milk and cheese, don’t have much antioxidants.  The ORAC scale measures how much antioxidant is in each food.  When looking for healthy foods, look for foods that have high ORAC scores and low glycemic index scores.

GPG

One important point about being healthy is how much nutrients are in the foods that we eat.  Dr. Fuhrman has written some very good books about this and calls people who eat foods with a lot of nutrients “nutritarians”.  Most people talk about how many calories they eat.  Nutrients are more important than calories.  If you like math, Dr. Fuhrman created an equation (Health=Nutrients/Calories) that explains this.  It shows that the more nutrients you eat compared to calories, the healthier you will be.  If you want to be healthy, eat a lot of nutrients.  Foods with a lot of nutrients include greens (part of GreenYoots :)), vegetables, fruits (especially berries), beans, nuts and seeds.

The foods with low nutrients are processed foods and foods made from animals.  The foods made from animals are mainly meat and dairy.  Dairy includes things like milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream.  Processed foods are foods that were not made by nature.  Processed foods can also be foods that were made by nature but then ruined by people.  If we keep eating processed foods and foods from animals, we will have too many calories and not enough nutrients.  The extra calories are stored as fat.  This will make us gain weight and become unhealthy.  This is why there are more overweight and unhealthy people now than there used to be.  If you want to be healthy eat lots of fruits, vegetables, greens, beans, nuts and seeds and avoid processed foods and foods from animals.  Live a long and healthy life.

CRG

Just about everybody I know eats meat and they think it’s good for them.  They all say they want to be healthy.  They all say they want to make our environment better.  What they don’t know is that we waste 30-100 pounds of grain trying to fatten up chickens, cows and pigs so that the people who sell them can make more money because they weigh more.  Did you know that livestock consume six times more than the dinosaurs ever did?  We’re wasting all that food just to fatten up these animals when we could just use that food to feed the more than one billion people that are starving.  To make all this grain, we need more farms.  To make more farms, we need more land.  If we want more land, we need to cut down forests.  Why should we ruin our forests so we can grow a lot of grain to feed to these animals when we could just grow much less and eat it ourselves?  This is better for our forests and better for all the people who don’t have enough food.

The brown area is where all the trees used to be. These trees were cut down by people.

Meat is also bad for our bodies because of the protein and fat that are in it.  In America, we eat so much meat that the adult human population weighs over 315 million tons.  The average person throughout the world weighs about 135 pounds but the average person in the United States is about 180 pounds.  A lot of this extra weight is caused by eating too much meat.  Having extra weight is unhealthy and can make us more likely to get all kinds of diseases like heart attacks and cancer.  As you can see, eating animals is bad for our bodies.  Eating animals is bad for the people who are starving all over the world.  Eating animals is bad for our forests and the environment.  So, if you want to be healthy and help feed starving people and take care of the environment, try not to eat meat.

CRG

Welcome everyone to GreenYoots.com. This website is going to teach kids what you need to know about being healthy and taking care of the environment at the same time.

We are the GreenYoots. We try to live a healthy life that includes eating healthy to take care of ourselves, the environment, and the animals that we share the environment with. We call ourselves the GreenYoots because we care about the environment and our health. We also happen to be yoots who want to share our thoughts and ideas with other yoots who care about their health and the environment 🙂 (for a better explanation of yoots click here)

GPG / AHG / HLG / CRG