Since the time I've completed my last survey, I've had a delightful
conversation with an aspiring vegan. We don't match on every single
detail of our diets, but we find common ground and have the same morals
regarding animals. I think it's important to have respectful discussions
with people about beliefs. A few months ago at my high school, I
didn't feel safe sharing my paleolithic knowledge with anyone. College has vastly
changed that for me. I view college as a weeding system; the weeds don't
make it into college. Sometimes college is hard on the grass too, and individual blades are ripped away from academic growth. Everyone in my Writing 121 class has their own passions. I have many interests, but I decided to go with my passion as well.
I completed my second survey in class, so that's why it's only four questions long. I felt like the title was somewhat deceitful. It's called, "How paleo are you?" If I took a survey called that, I'd expect some results. I would give my responders their results right here, except the surveys are anonymous. I don't know any of your names unfortunately. Even more people responded to the second one, thank you all. A total of seven people took my survey. I'm grateful for not getting over 100 responders. If I did, all of my hard work would be hidden from me. This blog was set up in a graph format, so there aren't any comments.
The first question asked: What do you normally eat in a week? Seven people reported eating fruit, five ate bread, six drank milk, four ate cheese, two ate beans, three ate lettuce, five ate cereal, one ate fish, six ate meat, two ate nuts, and two ate other.
The second question is:What food do you avoid the most? Three people avoid candy, three avoid soy, two avoid peanuts, three avoid shellfish, and one person avoids wheat. It struck me as odd that nobody avoids dairy most, since it's by far the most common food allergy. Roughly two thirds of adults are sensitive to it on a varying degree. A gluten intolerance is usually much more severe when present, so it makes sense why avoidance would be more prevalent.
The next question posed the opposite question: Which food do you eat the most of? Four people chose meat, three chose vegetables, three chose fruit, two chose grains, and two chose fast food. One person chose other, which is fish. Something seems fishy about that answer...
The last question asked: From what you know, rate yourself on how healthy you think you eat.
1 being unhealthy as possible, 10 being as healthy as possible. One person ranked themselves as a three, one person as a four, and another as a six. Two people ranked themselves as a five, and same with seven.
Judging from individual responses, people seemed to have a pretty accurate grasp on their health. The only person who eats fish rated their eating habits as a 6. From the looks of it, they are much healthier than the others despite not eating completely paleo. The two who regularly eat fast food rated their diet's as a 5. They are more generous with themselves than the person who eats meat most often. That person rated themselves as a 3. I wonder if they feel healthy, and society makes them believe they are not. Or they could just be eating unhealthy meat. Nobody came super close to following the paleo diet. However, many avoided a few common allergens, junk food, and candy. I think they are headed on a right path.
Is it true that fish is the best for you, as far as meats go? I have also heard that you want to avoid red meats as well. Does the paleo diet reflect any of this or am I miss informed? Personally I try to cut down on the amount of meat intake and replace it with organic veggies.
ReplyDeleteI've also never look at the college experience like that, but as you put it, I would have to fully agree with you. High school is a very close minded place, but as people get old they become more aware of their mortality and therefore more conscious about their health.
I agree that red meat made in America is not good. Some places in the world hunt meat from the wild where the animals have lived long, healthy, and resistant lives. When animals are fed by humans they become weak and powerless. I personally wouldn't eat meat for several reasons, but to each their own. Some modern people use meat as the huge staple of their diets. They usually have short life spans. I think it depends on where people lived during the paleolithic era. In more tropical climates, larger quantities of fruit would be eaten. Maybe even as the main staple. In desert regions, plenty of cacti and meat was probably eaten. In arctic regions I'm sure the staple was seafood. It would be difficult for them to have a diet based around vegetables. I'm guessing on grasslands, vegetables would have been the staple. I think the modern person would benefit from a diet composed of at least half vegetables. I'm happy you agree with me about that, and thank you for the comment! :)
ReplyDelete