Dietary Decisions
STORY BY KHLOE CRAWSHAW » Students in Eudora high school make dietary decisions every day. Going vegan, vegetarian, or cutting gluten out of your diet can be tough, but often there are a few students who think that it is worth it. Some change their diets out of health concerns, like Sophomore Cambry Fox, who doesn’t eat gluten because of an allergy.
“I have been diagnosed with my allergy for 10 years,” Fox said, “A lot of people go on gluten-free diets to be more healthy, but most gluten-free foods have more fats and sugars in them to give them more flavor like the regular versions of the food. As long as you eat fruit, vegetables, and meats, you are good,” said Fox.
Fox’s life has changed a lot since she cut gluten out of her diet. She has to pay closer attention to food products, eating more home-cooked meals and not eating other foods that she once really liked to eat.
“It can be annoying when you watch everyone else eat something you can’t, but being sick isn’t worth it,” said Fox.
Even though some people don’t follow the lifestyle of vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free, they can see why one would choose to make the change.
“Becoming vegetarian or vegan could be a choice to help [you] become more healthy and possibly lose weight,” said Delaney Huff, Soph. “I’ve considered going vegan or vegetarian multiple times. I’ve seen really great results,” said Huff. “I personally think I just like eating meat too much,”
Huff can see how others might decide to make a change to improve their health and has even tackled the task of cutting out a part of her diet.
“I have gone dairy free a few times for my own health, and I’ve seen that cutting back on dairy has helped my skin and my stomach,” said Huff
Caven Denham, Soph., tried to go vegetarian several years ago. It only lasted about four or five months, however. The most difficult part was trying to stay away from eating meat while the rest of his family ate the standard American diet.
“My family wasn’t vegetarian, so it ended up being really hard to keep it up,” Denham said.
There are many benefits to go vegetarian like weight control, heart health, and over all trying to be a healthier individual. But there are also some things that may keep you from cutting out meat.
According to Fearless Eating.com, while going vegetarian has its positives, there are a few hurdles that could get in the way of going vegetarian, like not getting the right amount of healthy fats in a person’s diet. While some fats are unhealthy, in animal products and meat, there are healthy fats that are necessary for a healthy diet, and when a person doesn’t get enough of those healthy fats, they get fatigued. And when a person is fatigued, they often look for energy, leading to the sugar problem.
Sugar is always within arms reach for americans, and when the long-term sugar consumption catches up to someone, it can lead to things like type II diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Most vegetarians fall victim to the sugar problem, but it is avoidable.
Some vegetarians can get more healthy fats by replacing skim milk with whole milk, low fat yogurt with full fat yogurt, and can eat more eggs to stop the lull that comes with eating low fat foods.
In the end, it is up to the person what they think is best for their diet and their health, and what they are completely comfortable with when it comes to taking on the task of making a big dietary change.
“It’s really a personal choice that could either go bad or good depending on the person,” said Huff.
