Why Eating Fruits Is Important

Running head: CONSUMING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Consuming the Proper Amounts of Fruits and Vegetables in a Day
Marcus Capizzano
University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
CHLH 304
Monday Discussion 12:00 P.M.
Jeffrey Trask

Introduction
“Nutrition is the science that deals with foods and the way our body uses them”(McKim 1997). When thinking about proper nutrition and the way we live our life’s, many believe that going to the gym or not eating fast food is enough to stay healthy. Although doing both is very important, overall the best thing you can do to stay healthy is having the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals your body needs in a given day. When given this assignment many thoughts ran through my mind about what exactly I would like to change about my life. I never thought about how healthy I really was until this class because we had to reflect on our daily lifestyles to choose something we wanted to change. I figured that I go to the gym every day, I get a reasonable amount of sleep, I do not smoke and I do not eat fast food. That sounds good enough for me. However, since being away at school I have realized that I do not eat the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a given day with my active lifestyle. According to a daily needs calculator found at nutritiondata.self.com I need to consumer a larger percent of vitamins then most people. Although taking a multi vitamin seems reasonable but when looking at what vitamins I needed, I would have to be ingesting about five to six pills a day and it would run me somewhere around one hundred dollars for a month’s worth of these vitamins. I decided not to go with the pills and instead stick with the essential fruits and vegetables and besides, I love eating so it fits perfectly. Now that I had my health behavior change picked out it was time for me to put it into action. I went to the nearest grocery store and bought all different kinds of fruits and vegetable without really knowing what vitamins they contained or did not contain. I believe this is a problem for many people who decide what to eat during meals or snacks, lack of knowledge. When I arrived back at my apartment feeling accomplished, I went on the internet and started researching for this paper and came across many things I did not know. While surfing the net I came across a website called stumblerz.com and according to them, “ ..the World Health Organization, or the WHO, has recommended that every person should consume a minimum of five portions of fresh vegetables, excluding potatoes, on a daily basis.” After reading this I realized I was going to have to do a lot more shopping from then on out. Once I was off the internet and had more knowledge on why everybody should eat the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a given day I realized I should spread the word about this to my friends and others. In this paper, I will be going over what I think is the most important aspects about eating healthy and having a healthy lifestyle specifically for a college student of my stature. I will be further explaining what exactly defines fruits and vegetables and what type of nutrition is given off by your everyday common fruits and vegetables that you find in a house hold. Also, there are many obstacles that can get in the way of sticking with a health behavior change and I will be focusing in on one specific obstacle that has gotten in my way or could get in anyone’s way and lastly, I am going to be explaining throughout the entire paper why it is important to change a health behavior because changing something when you have the proper knowledge makes it much easier. For my health behavior change I am striving to eat the proper amount of fruits and vegetables that I need in a given day, every day. I chose this because everything else about the way I live is healthy except for this aspect. Now that I have mapped out everything I will further broaden your knowledge on why eating fruits and vegetables is one of the most important aspects of living a healthy life.
Background
What describes a health behavior change? In many aspects a health behavior change is something that an individual does or does not do that is essential to healthy living. Some examples include smoking, binge drinking, not getting enough sleep, ex. When thinking of all the health behaviors that can be changed, ideally most would try to change the ones that harm your body. However, this paper is going to be explaining why fruits and vegetables are a very important aspect of everyday life. Most importantly, eating the necessary amounts of fruits and vegetables your body needs in a given day. According to the United States department of agriculture in 2010, “on average an adult should be consuming three cups of vegetables a day and two cups of fruits a day”. As stated above, that is the minimum amounts an individual should be consuming per day. With this amount of fruits and vegetables, the human body gets its essential vitamins and minerals. This health behavior change has not always been something most thought about, in a power point presentation by Susan Farner, a professor at the University of Illinois, during the health promotion phase years 1975-current day, that is when people starting becoming self conscious about what exactly they are putting in their bodies. During this phase people are now focusing on preventing disease and healthy living. In this case applying it to eating properly and consuming the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a given day. Before this phase however, individuals were more concerned about what happens when sickness arrives. This is what is called secondary prevention since then though; times have changed to primary prevention. It is a mystery why people did not look at what they were and were not consuming before 1975 however, with more recent technologies, doctors, scientists, and the majority of the general population know most health benefits for the body.
What exactly does eating the proper amount of fruits and vegetables mean to an individual? Some believe that everybody should be consuming the same amounts of fruits and vegetables in a given day or that by simply taking a multi vitamin the need for fruits and vegetables go away. However, there are many things people do not know about fruits and vegetables except that they are needed in a diet and that they are healthy for you. There has also been research done by USA TODAY in 2010 that shows “many people still believe that fruits and vegetables are not needed to be health”. Eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a given day for an individual is just as a determinant to health than anything else. “Here are just a few health benefits of eating vegetables, Less chance of weight gain, better teeth and bone structure, a 41% lower risk of heart disease, 22% reduced risk of certain cancers, improved memory and brain functioning, macular degeneration and glaucoma protection, and stronger immune system – less colds, flu and infections(Common Health Sense,2010)”. Eating fruits and vegetables are an essential need in a diet and life, according to Andres.R and others, “Over the last 100 years, the life expectancy of people living in the United States has increased substantially, from 47 years at the beginning of the 20th Century to over 70 years by the end of this century. Unfortunately, this increase in life expectancy has been accompanied by an increase in the incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases including cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes. For many people, these diseases begin to develop during adulthood, causing pain, suffering, and a dramatic decrease in quality of life during the later years. Some of the factors leading to chronic disease are not entirely within your control, e.g., genetic susceptibilities; however, your diet and lifestyle choices are the most critical determining factor in whether or not you will develop certain chronic diseases.” It is also true that certain individuals have differently daily needs for fruits and vegetable consumption as well as fats, proteins and carbohydrates. The rule of thumb is that the more active an individual is, the more the person needs in their diet. An Olympic sprinter is going to need more nutrients in their diet then a middle aged man who sits in front of a computer everyday due to the fact of energy and nutrient expenditure. This need for different amounts of nutrients in an individual can also be seen in different populations subcategorized by age group. Specifically talking about men, men on average ages 17-35 should consume the following nutrition per day “6-11 servings of complex carbohydrates, 2-3 servings each of fruits and vegetables, 1-2 servings each of dairy products proteins like meat, tofu, or beans, and sparing use of added fats and sugars”, this is according to the United States department of agriculture in 2010. These are the bare minimums for men however. The rates shown above go for women and children also. According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in 2010, “Although everyone is encouraged to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day, men should actually be shooting for nine!” That number might sound outrageous but for men, it is not. It is proven by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation that “Men have approximately 1 1/2 times the death rate of total cardiovascular diseases as women, they have approximately 1 1/2 times the death rate of total cancers as women, 2 times the death rate of lung cancer as women, 1 1/2 times the death rate of colorectal cancer as women, more than two-thirds of men are overweight or obese, and among Americans overall, at least 58 million have some form of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, and 8.2 million Americans alive today have a history of cancer.” This is why men are recommended to eat more fruits and vegetables daily than women. Although women do need other nutrients later on in life such as iron and calcium during the menopause portion of their life, it is recommended to consume the proper amounts regardless of situation in life. Now eating the proper amounts as stated above seems like a grueling task. Nine full serving of fruits and vegetables in a day can seem to overwhelm people. There are many things can deter an individual from changing the way they eat and incorporation more fruits and vegetables in their diets. Each can be justified as harder than the other. However, the process in which you decide and carry out your change is the change that will be discussed. When deciding on whether or not a health behavior change is what is needed to make your health status better can be a tough decision. Things such as what needs to be changed and priority can get in the way. One of the most difficult things to do while deciding a health behavior change is not just picking one or going through with it but the whole process itself. The stages of change can be very difficult because not many people know exactly what they are getting into. The first step in the stages of a change is the pre-contemplation of the stage. During the pre-contemplation stage, people are not considering a change. People in this stage are often described as “in denial” due to claims that their behavior is not a problem. If somebody is in this stage, they may feel as if they really do not have control of the situation. In some cases, people in this stage do not understand that their behavior is damaging or are under informed about the consequences of their actions. For this example it could be an individual stating that they do get the proper amount of nutrition in a day or claiming that it is impossible to do. However, with a little encouragement and understanding, the pre-contemplation stage can be easily avoided. The next step in the stages of a change is the contemplation stage, during this stage people become more aware of the possible benefits of making the change but the costs tend to stand out even more. Because of this uncertainty, this stage of change can last months or even years, many might view change as a process of giving something up rather than a means of gaining emotional or physical benefits. For this stage, it would be realizing that eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables is very beneficial for themselves, although it is hard to realize when you are at fault and are wrong once this stage is surpassed it’s onto yet another stage of change. The step following the contemplation stage is known as the preparation stage, which like it name states prepares an individual to make the change. This however, is done in gradual steps for example in the situation of eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a day, it would be to slowly eat more and more of each a day but starting of slowly. Following the preparation stage is the action stage. In this stage this is where an individual takes command of the situation and goes through with the health behavior change. Although this action is usually where people fail, it is a very vital part of the change because this is when the individual starts their change. The reason for failure during this stage could be because during the contemplation stage, the action was not thought out very well, or that the individual making the change just wasn’t ready yet. Eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a day can be very hard to start off and once the individual does start it’s onto the maintenance phase. The maintenance phase is by far one of the longest process’ in this six step change process. In this stage an individual must maintain eating nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day for at least five months before it becomes a habit. In this stage an individual find out the actual health benefits of the change. Finally, the last stage in this process is the relapse stage. During this stage, an individual can go through a phase of disappointment or failure. This then can turn into the health behavior change completely ending and the individual going back to their old ways. This could happen in eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables if an individual goes on vacation and does not have the proper resources to continue their change. When they get back to their normal environment they usually reflect and get disappointed and decide to quit. The stages of change for a health behavior are what changing a health behavior is all about and everybody goes through it. There is the pre-contemplation stage where an individual ignores their bad health behaviors, contemplation stage where they realize their faults, preparation stage where they get ready to make the change they want to, the action stage where the health behavior change starts off gradually, following that is the maintenance stage where the health behavior change is carried out for longer than five months, and finally the relapse stage, although this stage isn’t inevitable for everybody making a health behavior change, or a change at all, it is still a part of the stages of change that is seen often. Changing a health behavior can be hard for anyone because of all the steps involved, specifically looking at the demographic of college students and the lifestyle they live. When looking at a college student’s lifestyle, many think of staying up late cramming for test or going out to party on the weekends. A typical college lifestyle involves both among other things. The last thing on a college students mind is proper nutrition. That is why the term “freshman 15”has been coined. This is due to the fact that most students have a hard time reading or have the ignorance of not looking at the nutrition label of the food they are consuming. One of the leading problems is the food labels are sneaky and put “fat-free” or “sugar-free” however, “When looking at a label for Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce, you 'll see that it is fat free, but does that mean it 's healthy? Look more closely and you 'll notice its high sugar content—a whopping 21 grams per serving”(Allison,2010 pg.1) in an article on food nutrition labels. Many people are being deceived by food companies. That is why eating fruits and vegetables can be very beneficial for a college student. They do not have to worry about misleading advertisements and they are low in fat and are an essential part of any diet. Another key thing that leads college students to bad eating habits is the money aspect of eating fruits and vegetables. There are constantly commercials on TV about college students always asking their parents for money however, “it seems like fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than other grocery store items, but they really aren 't. Buy the fruits and vegetables that are on sale. Seasonal items usually cost less. Even if they do cost a little more than a bag of chips, ditch out on the junk food because fruits and vegetables are much more nutrient-dense “as said by Coupon serpa in an article about the top six things college students should know. It seems that the average lifestyle of a college student is very unhealthy because most people would rather choose a bag of potatoe chips over a celery stalk. The average diet of a college student does not involve many nutrients. It is always skeptical on why college students find it hard to consume the proper amounts of nutrition from fruits and vegetables in a given day, however, “Irregular class schedules, part-time jobs, and variable homework loads can disrupt normal eating patterns among college students, leading to unhealthy habits that may be hard to break(“Diets of College Students” pg2)”. Although the “freshman 15” is usually attained, this lack of nutrition as stated above can also lead to weight loss in college students, the proper amounts of nutrition from fruits and vegetables is important to keep your body and mind at a state of homeostasis. In an article written by Chris Howitt, he says that “the reason it’s so hard to stay in shape, lose weight, or do anything “fitness oriented” during college is because there simply isn’t enough time”. College students do not have enough time to be going to the gym if they are constantly studying, going to club events and so on. That is why the seditary lifestyle of many college students is aided by this decrease in consumption of fruits and vegetables. That is where the “freshman 15”comes from. Not only though does keeping your body in check important throughout college by eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables but also your brain. “What we do know is that if you consume fruit effectively, your brains can recall information faster and more easily. This is very useful information for people who are preparing for an exam.”(Fruit Pages, 2010 pg3). This information is useful to any college student. Later in the article it also talks about food that block your brain from its maximum performance. These foods include “White flour and refined white sugar”, basically everything a college student consumes when they are around food because it is the cheap, easy and affordable way in their minds. It has also been shown through studies of college students that due to the lack in consumption of fruits and vegetables in college students, “Growth retardation and sexual development can be affected by a zinc deficiency; even a minor deficiency can stunt growth, impair appetite, alter taste, negatively affect immune system, and lessen the ability to metabolize Vitamin A”(Tate, 2008). All of this can be avoided by the simple consumption of the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables. Overall, college student’s diets are changed when they actually come to school. Due to the fact that most are living on their own and away from parents who told them what to eat and when, their diets “go down the chute”. Higher amounts of fats, sugars, sodium and carbohydrates and lack of vitamins, nutrients and fiber from fruits and vegetables lead to the association with college life. “The freshman 15”, is a result of this lifestyle change and it can be avoided if students put down the fried potatoes and pick up a carrot or apple. These essential vitamins and minerals that are consumed through fruits and vegetables not only help in the process of keeping fat cultivation in the body but it also keeps the mind sharp.
Methodology
When thinking about my lifestyle specifically the health related aspect of it, one thing came to mind when dealing with change. The way I was eating was healthy in the sense of not eating junk food but I was lacking the proper nutrition from fruits and vegetables. Once I realized this I decided that my health behavior change for this course was going to be to eat the proper amount of fruits and vegetables in a day that my body needed. I knew this was not going to be easy for me because being a college student, its stressful enough concentrating on school work but now I had to concentrate on eating too. Before I began my health behavior change I did research on exactly what my body needed in a day, nutrition wise. Once I found out the proper amounts of each which turned out to be approximately four fruits and vegetables a day I made a game plan for myself. I started out by getting a calendar so I can keep track of the amounts I was eating. Every time I eat a serving of fruits or vegetables I put a slash in the box for that day and by the end of the day I should have eight per box. I went on with this process for two weeks straight and after that, I started realizing how difficult this really was for me. I was forcing myself to eat eight fruits and vegetables a day and I was no enjoying it. I also was spending more money on things because I needed to buy fruits and vegetables constantly. After two and a half weeks I decided I needed to change some aspect of my health behavior change because it was taking its toll on me. I decided that instead of eating eight combined fruits and vegetables I would instead eat a fruit or vegetable as snacks throughout the day and at least one at every meal. I calculated how this would turn out and I was no eating six fruits and vegetables a day instead of eight. After a week of doing this I felt myself less stressed about what I was eating and more concentrated on my school work and what jobs were at hand. Currently I am still on my changed plan and going strong with it. I do not see myself not doing this forever because of the benefits I have gotten from it. Changing this health behavior has changed a part of my life and its made life a bit easier for me. When looking back at the process from start to finish I realized that I have gone through the steps of change theory we learned in class. Starting at pre-contemplation in which I did think I had a problem with my health behaviors, all the way to the action/maintenance phase in which I have been continuing eating fruits and vegetables every day. However, I do still have awhile to go in the action/maintenance phase since it is defined as continuing with the change for up to a year. There is one last step on the steps of change theory however, I do not think I will relapsing and going back to not eating enough fruits and vegetables because of the great success I am having with it.

Results
Daily fruit intake (Table 1) Day | Week1 | Week2 | Week3 | Week4 | Week5 | Week6 | Week7 | Mon. | X- | X | X | X | X | X | X | Tues. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Weds. | X | X | X | X | X- | X | X | Thurs. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Fri. | X | X- | X | X- | X | X | X- | Sat. | X | X | X | X | X- | X- | X- | Sun. | X | X | X | X | X | X- | X |
Note: X represents when total intake is met, X- is when daily intake was not met.
Daily vegetable intake (Table 2) Day | Week1 | Week2 | Week3 | Week4 | Week5 | Week6 | Week7 | Mon. | O | O | O- | O | O | O | O | Tues. | O | O- | O | O | O | O | O | Weds. | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | Thurs. | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | Fri. | O- | O- | O | O | O | O- | O- | Sat. | O | O | O- | O- | O | O- | O | Sun. | O | O | O- | O | O- | O- | O- |
Note: O represents when total intake is met, O- is when daily intake was not met.
Eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a day can be very difficult. Judging from tables one and two, I was not able to maintain my goal every day of the week. However, I believe that overall I did an excellent job of staying on top of my health behavior change and I have seen improvements in my life because of it. By intaking more fruits and vegetables, I have noticed a change in not only my body but my mind also. My body is changing and I can notice a difference, vascularity and water detention is lower than when I started this health behavior change. Although I did not go get any of this tested before hand by a professional, the changes are too noticeable not to agree with me. Another thing I have noticed is that I am able to concentrate more in class and I am more focused when doing daily activities. Tables one and two helped me significantly through this process because I was able to record my daily intake without worrying about if I had succeeded or not. One this I did notice by making these tables is that on the weekends I wasn’t really intaking the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables. I think this is due to the fact that on the weekends I am rarely ever eating meals at the same time. I wake up late on weekends and go out until early in the morning. Overall I the results I have seen by changing this health behavior are amazing, not only do I look better, but I also feel better.
Discussion
When thinking about a health behavior change that I wanted to change it was hard for me to decide. I thought I was an overall healthy person but looking into greater detail I realized something was missing. The reason why I chose to eat more fruits and vegetable for my health behavior change was because I hardly ever did it. I would eat healthy, cut back on fast food and sugars but one thing I was missing was consuming the proper nutrition from fruits and vegetable so I decided to change that aspect of my lifestyle. Once I started my change as first it seemed as if everything was going perfectly. Every day I would record exactly what fruits and vegetables I was eating and for my body type I would need to consume a total of eight fruits and vegetables in a day. After roughly three weeks I realized that eating this many fruits and vegetables were very hard so I decided to change my health behavior change to eating a fruit and vegetable every meal of the day. In doing this, I wouldn’t have to worry about eating constantly and it turns out that when I did that I was consuming the same number of fruits and vegetables I was before just with less stress. This was one a couple barriers I hit while going through with my health behavior change. Another barrier I ran into was the cost and accessibility of getting these fruits and vegetables. I would go once a week and spend all my money on fresh fruits and vegetables and it was getting tiring. Three weeks into the change, I learned in class that frozen vegetables actually have more vitamins and they are cheaper so I switched to those instead. It has been seven weeks since our change has started and although there were barriers I had to get through, I am glad I was able to. This was something major I found out about college students in the research section of my background, college students eat poorly because they do not know how to shop and they have very little money on average. Also as research showed in the background section people who ate the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables felt more energetic, lost weight and had less stress. Since I have been on this health behavior change I have noticed only benefits to my life. Usually I would wake up every morning tired and dreading going to class, because I felt like this I hardly went to class therefore my grades began to slip. Now that I am consuming more vitamins from fruits and vegetables, I awake in the mornings alert, and ready to go to class. Although I still have missed some classes this semester, my grades have significantly increased and so has my attendance. When I did go to class before I realized my health behavior change, I would not have the attention span to stay awake or not text for five minutes. Now that this has changed, I am able to concentrate more in class without interruptions which is helping me in the long run. However, after calculating everything, I also realized that on the weekends I was not consuming the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables, this could have been due to the fact that I was waking up very late on the weekends. I made up for this by eating more during the weekdays and cutting down on how much I worried about eating properly, this is another problem college students face because they spend most of their weekends going out and less time concerned about anything else. Although my health behavior change seems like something that could easily be done, there are certain steps in which anybody who is going through with a change experiences that are difficult. The Stages of Change is the theory in which I related my health behavior change to because I went through each step of this theory to get to where I am today. First I went through the pre-contemplation stage where I didn’t realize that I had anything I needed to change, following that was the contemplation stage where I realized that I needed to consume for fruits and vegetables. After the contemplation stage was the preparation stage where I made my game plan to exactly how I want to change this and what I was going to do to keep this change going. I made a spread sheet and made sure that I ate a fruit or vegetable every meal and every snack for the day. The action stage I just fell into because I already knew what I was going to do so one day I just started and starting off wasn’t the hard part. The hardest part was the maintenance stage in which I had to make sure that I was still eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables every day. This is the stage in which I knew I was going to have to ease off a little bit and find a better alternative then attacking this problem head on. Although there is one last stage to this theory I did not experience it. The last stage is the relapse stage where I would go back to my normal habits of not eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a day. Overall, I would say the experiences I have had with this health behavior change was positive. I researched a lot on this topic and because of this I am more aware of the side effects of not eating properly and I know that this will carry through with me for the rest of my life. I have noticed no negative changes in my life except for me spending a little more money than I would usually do but the positive changes outweigh the negative by far. My body has undergone a change in which I have noticed I have more energy to go to the gym to workout, my muscle recovery time has shortened, and I have lost a noticeable amount of body fat. Not only did this help me physically but mentally as well. I am now able to go to a two hour lecture and sit through the whole thing without dozing off too much, I turn all my school work in on time now because I am on top of things, and overall, I am a happier person. I know I will be preaching to all my friends and family about considering doing exactly what I did because of the positive effects it had on me. Some people that I have talked to have already started to decrease the frequency of their health behavior change however, I believe I will be doing this for the rest of my life because it really has helped me this semester. It’s amazing what eating the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables can do to the mind, body and spirit.
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