Healthy Eating For Students

This blog post from Wasabimon has a great guide on how to eat healthy while being a busy college student. We like this blog because it has good recipes and helpful tips. Enjoy!

Mental health and Nutriton .

Did you know that that the food you eat has a lot to do with your brain ? Well it does , most of everything you eat affects your neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals released by your nerves that transmit important messages from one cell to another. They affect your mood ,the way you think and even the way you sleep. For example, there has recently been a lot of buzz about the health benefits of dark chocolate. Not only can foods help or harm your brain and your mental health, but certain kinds of vitamins too. Nowadays people don't read the back of things to see what is in them. In order to start feeding America healthier we need to teach each other to read labels to know what is the in food that may not only affect your body but your mental health as well. Stay with Youth Radio Eats as we explore this topic more soon.
- Rashawn Moore .

Making healthy food cheaper , but not catching peoples eye !

The Yale behavioral economists Dean Karlan created an experiment were he tested the value of healthy food vs. non - healthy food. While testing the research he discovered that typical mothers go for the cheaper foods which is junk food, with the money left over from buying the cheaper foods the researchers noticed that the mothers spent the rest of the cash on more junk food. By that happening, the researchers lowered the prices on the healthier food and raised the prices on the junk food. The mothers bought the cheaper food again, which was the healthier food.
Most mothers in all cases will buy the cheaper food only because they get more bang for their buck which means they get their money’s worth. Karlan says a "sin tax" — charging more for unhealthful foods would not change families' diets or approach to nutrition overnight. But it could serve as a first step in raising awareness of “bad habits." The thought is by doing this it will make people think twice about what to buy when going grocery shopping and this is another way to make people choose healthier foods rather than junk food.
Buying cheaper foods may be helpful to your wallet but is it helpful to your kids? I think not, the processed food that they put on the shelf nowadays are filled with all sorts of bad things like M.S.G also known as monosodium glutamate and high fructose corn syrup which are things that are bad for your health and could possibly harm you really bad. I think that in order for people to start purchasing good healthy foods, we need to come up with a solution like Karlan came up with, raising the prices on the bad foods for grocery shoppers to buy healthy food. I also think there is no changing peoples mind on getting cheaper food because of the economy now and that’s the way most people are, but if we take one step at a time I think we would be able to progress.
By Rashawn Moore

Child Nutrition

President Harry S. Truman signed the Lunch Act in 1946 which states "no nation is any healthier than its children or more prosperous than its farmers". Because of his actions, school lunches have been a big part of feeding and keeping children healthy. President Obama has pledged to end childhood hunger by investing $1 billion a year; and now the Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization. Along with this plan, Michelle Obama has had her eye on childhood obesity, stating that a healthy nutrition is the way to go, and in February 2010 launched the “Let’s Move” campaign. I feel that school lunches are very important especially if they're providing a healthy source of nutrition for young people. So having said that, students should be provided with healthy and good food in order to focus better in school; without a healthy meal kids won’t be able to perform as well academically. The goal for ending childhood hunger is 2015 and with the right dedication and motivation I think it will be achieved. Another program that benefits from the Lunch Act is the Women, Infant, and Children program also known as WIC. By providing healthy food for women and children who can’t afford it, helps with eliminating obesity and many other health problems among youth. This health battle is a big thing and I feel like everyone should be involved to set things straight so we can have healthier communities. For more information on how you can help support healthy food access for kids and youth, please contact the Alameda County Food Bank or your local food bank. Produced by Rynesha Snowden

Public Social Services: Emergency Food Stamps

{AB 1914} Emergency Food Stamps are basically a way for people waiting for unemployment or people on unemployment to receive their food stamps quicker. I think this is a great idea because people without jobs have a disadvantage by not having any source of income at all.So they really don't have the time to take out of their day to wait in long lines to apply for stamps.Living in a state of emergency you're going to be rushing around looking for jobs or a way to pay rent the last thing you want to have to worry about is how you're going to feed your kids. The only question I have is why they wait until you're on unemployment to give you emergency food stamps.Why can't you get them faster when you have a job but you are still not providing enough money for you and your kids? (Mike Davis- Los Angeles was the author of this bill)... post by Angel Butler

FOOD STAMPS .

For me , food stamps are a way to feed Americans in need and have no job to pay for food . I'm completely for food stamps , there's nothing wrong with them , you get free food not limiting what kinds of food you get . So even though you get food stamps you can feed you and your family HEALTHY food . Now-a-days more than 700,000 people in America are using food stamps . Here is a link to an article written by Ruben Navarrette Jr. saying how he's opposing to food stamps . Posted by Rashawn Moore .