It is very important to have a good daily diet. We forget that our body needs protein, minerals, and vitamins to be healthy and to reduce the risk of illness. Our busy lifestyle makes it very difficult to have a balanced diet. After a hard day of work or school, we come home and open the refrigerator and what we see is that we forgot to go to the grocery store. There is no food! Or at least there is only a piece of bread and maybe food from last night’s dinner, so we go to the cupboard and yummy! What we see is a few cans of food that we bought maybe three or four weeks ago. We grab a can of soup, we put it in the microwave and after minutes, the soup is ready to eat. It is easier to do that than to spend 30 minutes to make soup from natural ingredients. Fresh food is more nutritious than canned food.

       Fresh food has a lot of nutrients that are important to our body. These nutrients help our body system to work correctly, and also help to prevent sickness. For example, fruits like oranges, guavas, mangos, pineapples, and strawberries have vitamin C. Vitamin C helps to prevent flu. According to an article, “Vitamin C” from Oregon State University, vitamin C is indispensable for the synthesis of collagen. Humans need to have vitamin C in their diet (2). Beans, dried fruits, raisins, wheat, and broccoli have minerals. According to an article from Blurtit, “What has minerals in it that you use everyday?” to be healthy we need minerals. Iron transports oxygen from our lungs to the rest of our body (1). Meat, milk, eggs, and fish have protein. According to an article, “The importance of protein in our diet” from Abscofitness, our body needs protein for our muscles, internal organs, hair, and skin (1).

       Some people prefer to eat fresh food. People who want to lose weight use a diet that involves fresh fruits and vegetables, but sometimes it depends on the person’s metabolism to lose weight. According to Cindy Thomas from Weight Loss Suite 101, eating healthy fresh food not only helps to lose weight it also helps to maintain weight (1). In Mexico City, some people eat three full homemade meals per day. Mexico City has a big variety of farmers markets, where people can buy different kinds of fresh food like vegetables, fruits, and meat. People can buy more fresh food for less money, especially when the family is big, and sometimes there is food left for the next day.

       Canned food has high portions of preservatives and sodium. According to an article, “Shake your salt habit” from American Heart Association, people who consume a lot of sodium can get high blood pressure (1). According to an article from the American Heart Association, “What is high blood pressure?” high blood pressure is the force in the arteries when the heart beats and when the heart is at rest. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease or stroke (1). In addition, canned food does not taste the same as fresh food, because preservatives can change the flavor of the food. Some people are allergic when they eat canned food because canned food has many preservatives. According to an article, “Food allergies” from Food Reference, one out of three people say that they have a food allergy and for this reason, they change their eating habits (1).

       Canned food is not as healthy as fresh food, but it is more convenient. We can buy different kinds of canned food like fruits, vegetables, or soups. Also, we can buy food from other countries. One of the stores that offer this service is Trader Joe’s. This store sells products from other countries. We can buy a can of hot soup from Thailand or if we are in the mood for Mexican food, we can try the burritos in the frozen section. Canned food is more practical to carry and does not take a lot of space to store. Moreover, canned food, because of its long shelf life, is very useful in events for charity and donations. According to Katherine Zeratsky a nutritionist from Mayo Clinic, we can store tomatoes and fruit juice for up to 18 months, vegetables and meat for two to five years (1). There are some people who choose to eat canned food, do that because it is cheap, they do not want to cook, or they do not have enough time to cook.

       It is very important to maintain a healthy, well balanced diet. For this reason, we need to eat well. Sometimes a person’s lifestyle makes it difficult to have correct eating habits. Today we have a lot of options about food. We need to take care of our body and health seriously. Quality, quantity, and availability are important facts in someone’s eating habits. That is why we need to eat fresh food.