"That's what happens when you only eat orange food"

When it comes to the statement “ You are what you eat”. I’ve always thought of it as health wise. I have heard that said so many times throughout my life and I have never really stopped to think about its meaning in depth.

            I guess I always just figured it meant that if I ate too much I would become overweight, or if I ate junk food I would become weak and unhealthy, and that by eating healthy food and the right amount I would be the way I was supposed to be. 

            I remember when I was younger around five or six, I liked to eat a lot of orange things, like carrots, oranges, macaroni and cheese, goldfish crackers, and so on, and I saw a girl that was literally orange, I looked at my babysitter and whispered “oh my goodness, that girl is orange, why is she orange?” and she look at me and said “that’s what happens when you only eat orange food”.  From then on I tried to add more color variety to my food. Now looking back on it, it must have just been a bad fake tan or something, but at the time it had quite a drastic effect on my eating habits.

            I feel like at this point in my life I eat almost as healthy as I can. Often I would rather eat healthier, I would like to always eat organic and only eat the meat of animals that were treated right (well as right as an animal can be to be raised to eat), or eggs that are free range. At this point in my life as a college student I just don’t have the money.  I really wish I could afford to buy certain types of food, but right now it’s just not really an option.  When you look at it at the store it doesn’t seem that much different but when you look at your receipts from a couple months it really adds up fast. I hope in the future to have my own garden and grow my own vegetables, and maybe raise a couple chickens, just for eggs and such, and hopefully eventually ill be able to afford to buy the certain types of food I would like to be eating.  I think that is probably an issue for a lot of people.  I can feel it to when I eat unhealthy; I feel it in my energy level and just my overall experience of each day.

Wood, Rebecca T. The new whole foods encyclopedia : a comprehensive resource for healthy eating / Rebecca Wood ; illustrations by Peggy Markel. 2ndnd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 2010. Print.

Park, Milton. Consuming symbolic goods : identity and commitment, values and economics. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.