By Ji Ahn, River Ridge High School intern
Being skinny doesn’t necessarily mean being healthy. There are many cases out there where teens have a high metabolism and just never get fat. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re all healthy.
Many teens are healthy in different body sizes since that’s just how we are. However, don’t use that as an excuse to not eat healthy food or exercise. After all, America is known to have the most obese people since we are living in a country where there are fattening restaurants and junk foods all around us. In order to change this, there are choices that people, especially teens, can make in order to take care of their health.
During my own time, I had the honor to interview a River Ridge High School health instructor, Mr. Hornbeck. During the interview, I asked what are the benefits of eating healthy food. He replied saying, “The benefits of eating healthy food are: you feel better, don’t get tired, don’t get sick easily, nor do you get overweight.” I totally agreed with him on that because who doesn’t want to feel better? Who doesn’t want to avoid being tired or getting sick easily? Aren’t these the benefits that teens should want?
I also wondered about the reasons why we, as teens, should invest some time in preparing good meals for ourselves. He replied saying, “It’s fun, it’s less expensive, and it’s good practice.” Instead of wasting money on unhealthy foods, teens should spend their money on healthy foods that they can enjoy and feel good about. That way, they can take care of their bodies and not get sick.
My interview continued by asking about why most teens prefer junk food rather than healthy food. He replied saying, “Junk food is cheap and its main 3 ingredients are sugar, fat, and salt which teens crave.” This is totally true since I myself like junk food a lot, however, from experience, I saw that another main reason why teens love junk food is because it’s addictive and also very tasty unlike the healthy foods (vegetables, fruits, etc).
So, I then asked how can you make teens eat healthy food without making them feel grossed out? He replied saying, “Healthy food isn’t gross. It’s just doesn’t taste like sugar, fat, nor salt. Also, if you consistently eat healthy food, sugar, fat, and salt would start to taste gross.”
Being healthy doesn’t just require eating well, but also exercising. I spoke to Mrs. Brose, a River Ridge PE teacher about the physical sides of how teens can stay or get healthy. She replied saying, “There are many ways such as: exercising, taking PE in school, joining sports, taking health class in school, and going to the gym as an extra.”
However, she said that the most important way for teens to stay active is, “to play outside, rather than staying at home all the time.” This is not hard since playing outside is no work at all. It’s where teens can enjoy without having any complaints. Another reason why it’s a great way to stay active is because not only can teens have fun, but also get exercise. Teens can enjoy the nature.
Going back to the interview, another question that I asked is, “Exercising is part of being healthy, but how can we get teens to start exercising when most of the teens don’t?” She replied saying, “Have fitness campaigns where teens can have a great time, find ways to make fitness cool, and many more.”
One thing that Mrs. Brose said during the interview left a huge impact on me which is, “Knowledge is power!” What she means by that is that teens shouldn’t hate being active, exercising, or eating healthy.
We have the knowledge that if we want to be healthy, we have to be active and eat healthy. That being said, eating healthy and staying healthy is not a bad thing that we make it out to be. After all, who wouldn’t want to be or stay healthy?
