"We are What we EAT, Choosing Fruits & Vegetables for Health!"

Summary of Project: During this project I believe I was able to educate the student body on the importance of eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. I created two posters which conveyed the message of why healthy eating habits and proper nutrition are necessary for the best short and long term health outcomes. The first poster was titled "We are What We Eat" displayed on it was a Healing Foods Pyramid I downloaded from the University of Michigan Integrative Medicine website. The pyramid showed healthy foods and how many servings of fruits and vegetables we should be eating on a daily/weekly basis. Below the pyramid, I had facts about how much sugar and processed food children are eating along with statistics on how unhealthy children are in America. My ending statement on the poster was "Foods Make a Health Difference at the Cellular Level ~ GOOD & BAD! Try to EAT 9-13 servings of fruits and vegetables EACH and EVERYDAY!" My sources were the International Journal of Obesity, Journal of the American Medical Association, Bogalusa Heart Study, and Carol Simontacchi, MS, CCN, author of “The Crazy Makers.” My second poster was titled "Teenagers Need to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables!" centered around five key points. Eat early, eat often, eat balanced, eat lean, and eat bright. My five key points came from the Center of Disease Controls, More Matters website. Below the five key points I used a color wheel I found online. The color wheel was divided into three sections. Each section suggested numerous fruits and vegetables from different color groups. For example, the blue/purple section listed blueberries, dried plums, grapes, blackberries, beets, and eggplant. The red/orange section suggested watermelon, guava, papaya, oranges, peaches, tomatoes, carrots and squash. The yellow/green section listed kiwifruit, bananas, grapefruit, corn, kale, asparagus, and broccoli. I hung up ten of each of the posters around the school in various locations where food was being bought and sold. Every school day there are three lunch periods for the 1,200 students at Crystal Lake Central High School. It is hard to measure how many of the student body actually viewed the posters. My hope is that the posters encouraged and influenced the students to make smarter decisions and consume more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. I believe these brightly colored posters filled with easy to read information was crucial in fulfilling my objectives of educating teenagers on the importance of making healthier choices and eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables each and every day.