The following originally aired on KCBS.

By: Tierra Walls

Does your job affect what you eat? Because mine has.

In high school, I played three sports for five months straight every year. I made sure that I packed a sandwich, fruit, and water for after school.

As senior year arrived, I started to change. I wasn’t into sports as I was before. I needed to save money for college – so I got a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, joining the 21 percent of all food beverage workers were between the ages of 16 and 19.

At KFC we got one free meal, every 5 hours that we worked. -- I worked 45 hours a week. My plan was to make money, not consume more calories. Yet I still ended up eating two crispy wings dipped in BBQ sauce and potato wedges every shift.

I recently got a job at a healthy foods organization instead. Now, I prepare healthy meals for others, which gives me an opportunity to make healthier choices for myself. I’ve been cooking more and trying to watch what I eat.

Now that my work environment has changed, I always prefer eating a home cooked meal instead of to eating fast food.

Michelle Obama recently announced the latest move in her campaign against childhood obesity, the opening or expansion of approximately 1500 new Wal-Mart and other major retailers in areas without easy access to fresh produce.  Over 24 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in such areas.  Studies have continuously shown the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet of children, and a link between lack of healthy foods and levels of obesity and diet-related diseases.  Read more...

Did you know that if a 3 year-old eats too much processed food, it can affect their IQ by the age of 8? Me neither; you learn something new everyday. Researchers say that a toddler whose diet is made up of foods that are high in fat and high in sugar and are processed, may be more likely to have a below-average IQ five years later.

In the face of a national epidemic of childhood obesity, a collection of federal agencies has been working for two years now to come up with a set of voluntary guidelines that would restrict what foods can be marketed to kids. Food companies and marketing groups rejected a set of proposed guidelines last year, and the government has repeatedly postponed releasing new ones

Youth Radio EATS presents this video in their "What's This Food?" series:

Check out their blog for more food adventures.

Currently, most downed cattle are sent to slaughter for human food even in their tortured condition. It's crazy how even sick and suffering animals can be sold off to the slaughter or leather houses. In the industry's defense, there is no profit in simply euthanizing a suffering animal -- if that animal can be dragged into the slaughterhouse, money can be made. USDA regulations contain loopholes that allow most cattle that arrive downed at slaughterhouses to be sent to the kill room.

WARNING: Very graphic images of cruelty.

So let us say I’m watching a commercial and it’s this really big juicy burger that comes on the screen. Man it looks so good it even makes me want to lick my T.V. screen. So I run to the store that advertises that burger and I get me not one, not two, but three of them. You know why? They’re not as big as it seems. The camera really does add 10 pounds… to everything. I eat three of them and I’m still NOT FULL. But one of those tiny things are like $3.99, and they were not even good. Read more...

Beside the environmental benefits of reducing reliance on fossil-fuel-guzzling transportation, eating locally produced food is often healthier. It's clear we need more youth leaders who understand where our food comes from and how their actions can impact human and environmental health. But how to start?

The Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that comes up for reauthorization in Congress every five years. It governs the school meal programs, which feed more than 31 million children every school day.

Right now, Congress leaves school lunch programs with only $1 per meal to pay for food. Schools do their best to stretch that dollar, but it's simply not enough to provide kids with the food they need to stay healthy and to perform well in the classroom.

When people think of Los Angeles, the first thing that comes to mind is either the beautiful weather or the Hollywood scene. But what most people don't think about is the food scene here. Since L.A. is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, there's equally tasty pots of food to be eaten. Problem is, in certain places in L.A., usually low-income neighborhoods, it's really hard to find quick food that's isn't fast food.