Growing up, I remember always being disappointed when vegetables were put on my plate, but I never asked myself why. In high school I was excited because we were allowed to go off campus for lunch, which meant I had one meal a day with “freedom.” There were plenty of fast-food options within walking distance and once my friends and I started to drive, the possibilities were endless.
As a freshman in college I continued this eating out trend. But once I moved off campus, I began to cook often. While I was eating healthier than I had since living at home, it wasn’t until I graduated and began teaching health in a Brooklyn, New York high school that I started to learn the answer to the question, Why is nutrition important?
The health teacher before me left materials in the classroom, including a yellow DVD titled “King Corn.” Out of desperation for an in-class activity one day, I played the DVD, which discussed corn in America. I learned that everything, and I mean almost everything is made with corn. This led me to watch a second documentary about food, “Food, Inc.”
After watching “Food, Inc.” I decided I was done eating meat. I thought this would last one week, but it turned in to six years of being a vegetarian. My family was skeptical, and my friends were skeptical, but I stuck with it. My main motivator was that I wanted to practice what I was preaching to my students.
Fast forward six years, I came home one day and my mom was watching a documentary about food. I asked, “What are you watching?” She replied, “A new documentary, ‘What the Health,’ I’m going to become a vegan.” I looked at her with a blank stare, sat down and we started it over. We were both surprised to learn how food has cured chronic disease in so many.
After reading more books (two of my favorites are “How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease” by Michael Gregor and “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?” by Mark Hyman), I decided to embody a plant-based lifestyle. But really, the biggest thing I’ve learned is to pay attention to how food makes me feel. It’s not about losing weight or the new fad diet.
