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Healthy Eating
"A few months ago, you wouldn't have caught me filling up my grocery cart
with fruits and veggies. But I've made the switch to veganism..."
By Karime Blanco
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 With expensive industry leading stores like Whole Foods popping up, promoting microbiotic breakfast drinks and protein-packed pasta, it's hard not to notice the trendy new wave in diets: health food. Youth Radio's Karime Blanco is a high school junior who recently made a lifestyle change when she gave up animal products (including cheese and milk) to become vegan. Karime says a few of her friends have followed the hullaballoo and decided to eat healthy too - but not necessarily because they want to improve their health. (November 16 on NPR's Morning Edition)
I love beets. And tomatoes. And most of all, eggplant. I eat it like it's
McDonalds - on the daily.
A few months ago, you wouldn't have caught me filling up my grocery cart
with fruits and veggies. But I've made the switch to veganism - sounds like
a disease, but it really means that I don't eat any animal products. I made
my decision for purely political reasons.
My 18-year-old brother Carlos used to act like a beast of a kid, eating a whole combination pizza in one
sitting. But now that he wants to be a singer, he has a different lifestyle
- he eats balanced meals, salads, and even tries my vegan food.
CARLOS (on tape)
In the singing industry you have to be fit, you don't really see any
fat guys except for Ruben Studdard... To be famous is to be fit.
REINA (on tape)
I measure half a cup of water...
KARIME
Like my brother, 23-year-old Reina Gonzales feels the pressure to be thin.
But there are other reasons she switched from drinking a liter of soda per
day in her teens...to her current routine, of eating fruits and vegetables
and taking 40 minutes every morning to make herself a healthy oatmeal
breakfast.
REINA (on tape)
My whole family has diabetes or something like that. When I was growing up I would
have all that sugar and I started noticing that I would wake up in the
middle of the night and my arm would be all tingly, and I stopped drinking
the soda and it went away. And I think I had pre-diabetes.
KARIME
Reina tries to counter her family's history of food-related health problems
by cutting down on processed meals...unlike a lot of teenagers, who do more
eating at Mickey D's than they do at home. My friend Emily wants to save
money, and the drastic change in her eating habits was motivated by her
budgeting.
EMILY (on tape)
Cause the way I do it is I buy bulk, I cook it, and I live off it for the
whole week... But now that I'm doing it, my body feels a lot better, I
feel healthier, and I have more energy.
KARIME
So while some of my friends have ended up liking healthy food, experts say,
in general, a combination of over-consumption and body dissatisfaction is
what drives most teenagers, not some sweeping shift toward healthier
eating.
JOANNE IKEDA (on tape)
No. I think the diets of adolescents haven't been getting better.
KARIME
Joanne Ikeda is a nutrition counselor at UC Berkeley. She says overeating
and dieting both are problems. Ikeda says teens who are motivated to change
the way they look, might think they're making healthy food choices, when
they're not.
JOANNE IKEDA (on tape)
Instead of adequately nourishing their bodies, they're cutting down on the
amount of food in terms of caloric intake. Low calorie diets don't provide adequate
nourishments.
KARIME
I find, while my friends claim they've changed their diets for health
reasons, I often hear them complaining about their weight. "Healthy" is the
thing to be these days. Teen magazines offer ideas for a "green meal of the
day" - only, those ideas are on the page before the chisel-waisted girls and
their secret makeup tips. Sometimes, it's hard to know whether we switch to
healthy eating to reach a more energized, balanced self...or just to look
like America's Next Top Model.
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