Healthy Eating Around the World
By Kelsey Holmes, Greenheart Club Intern
Maintaining a well-balanced diet is an essential part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Cultures across the globe have different ways of approaching meal time. Research has shown that varying ingredients, lifestyle, and culture can affect people’s diets. Here is a great link that highlights 10 Healthy Eating Habits from around the world.
Due to variances in soil and environment, some studies even suggest that getting all the benefits of a diet from halfway around the world may be as easy as walking to your kitchen. Simply making sure that you are eating foods from different regions can help you create healthier meals for yourself.
While diet is important, it’s equally vital to make sure that you are staying active. “The only overlapping feature in most of these healthy countries around the world is that they all walk way more than the average American,” says Harley Pasternak in his book “The 5 Factor World Diet.”
Greenheart Travel Language Exchange Participant, Alyssa Giesler, spent her time abroad in Italy, and talks about her experience with a Mediterranean diet in her blog. She highlights the cultural difference between American views on food versus Italian ones, stating, “The difference in mentality between Americans and Mediterranean cultures is that the latter look at food/drink as source of energy as well as pleasure.”
A great way to make sure that you are staying active and healthy yourself, while promoting health and wellness for others is through volunteering! Find issues you’re passionate about, and go make a difference – either on a local or global scale. Check out these organizations that focus on health and wellness:
- Action for Healthy Kids,
- No Kid Hungry (Cooking Matters program)
- Feeding American (or finding your local food pantry)
We love Alyssa’s suggestions about keeping a healthy balance between body and mind. What are some ways that you make sure to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle? Comment below – buon appetito!