The Quest for A Healthy Diet

There are many reasons to eat a balanced diet and to live a healthy lifestyle.

At HBA, students and faculty have a choice to eat in the cafeteria, bring homemade food, or leave the campus to buy food if they are able to.

While not everyone can boast of eating well every meal, they would agree that keeping to a healthy diet would be good for them. However, many obstacles prevent them from actually doing so. Convenience is often a factor. It is often easier to grab what is right in front of them. “Eating healthy is expensive but eating junk food, for example McDonald’s dollar menu, is cheap and easy,” says Student Services Secretary Michele Oda, “It is difficult to eat healthy. You can’t tell yourself you can’t have anything; you just need to remember to eat in moderation.”

“You can’t tell yourself you can’t have anything; you just need to remember to eat in moderation.”

Student Services Secretary Michele Oda

Counselor Jennifer Marshall says she tries to avoid eating processed foods and focuses on eating vegetables and protein. “When I stopped eating processed food, I felt like my body responded well to real food,” says Marshall.

Many students have little control over what they eat because they don’t buy their own food and usually eat whatever their parents make at home. Senior Taylor White, however, is an exception. As she is the only vegan in her family, she plans out her own meals, which are full of her favorite raw foods like salads and fruit. “Eating healthy is very important, whether it’s with veganism or just cutting down on meat or dairy, and eating more raw whole foods,” says White.

As adults, faculty members usually have more of a choice when it comes to what they eat. However, the freedom to choose what they want to eat doesn’t necessarily make eating healthy foods easier. They still have to face the temptation of eating tasty food—often food that is high in salt or sugar, or both—over healthy food. “I try to be as conscious of what I eat as much as possible,” says English teacher Lauren Takao. She points out that ‘healthy’ means different things to different people. “I just try to eat in a sustainable manner that enables me to keep up with all of the physical activity I do. I found [that] eating more whole foods versus processed ones gives me more energy, so I’ll always opt for a whole food choice over a packaged one,” she explains.

On its website, the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition—made up of athletes, chefs, physicians, fitness professionals, and educators who are appointed by the U.S. President—states that “good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.”

For senior Alexia Sommers, good health is not the only reason to eat a healthy diet. She says, “I keep myself healthy because God gave me this life and body.”