Nature and Public Health : The Importance of Food

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2. FOOD IN OUR HOUSES.

● Is food important in the fight of the coronavirus disease?

● How can food help protect our immune system?

A list of things we need to buy

•&nbsp;In this list we’re going to suggest some food that you should buy to keep y healthy. - Fruits and vegetables (you should only buy the number of fruits and vegetables necessary because they might overripe or mouldy in a few days.)

&nbsp;● How many times a week we should eat different foods?

It is recommended to follow what this food piramid shows. Eating fruit every day is necessary-  even better if you have oranges, lemons or any other citrus fruit twice a day!

•&nbsp;The covid 19 pandemic started in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The infections were related to the Wuhan South China Wholesale Seafood Market.

•&nbsp;The disease started because of human consumption of meat from a wild animal which hosted the virus. This animal was sold in a market in Wuhan, lacking any food safety rules. Another example of human infection from a virus living in an wild animal is AIDS. It started when humans consumed meat from gorillas  which hosted the virus that caused the disease.

3.- Tips to improve our health and protect nature when consuming food.

•&nbsp;In this section we’ll talk how to improve our health and protect nature when consuming food. •&nbsp;Also we’ll give you some examples of food that we should buy and finally a list of tips about what to do with the leftovers to take advantage of them.

● Here are some examples of&nbsp;foods that we should consume:

1. Beetroot Juice – Beets are the king of raising nitric oxide levels, which has been proved to be beneficial for breathing problems. Beets have a lot of nitrates, which the body converts to nitric oxide. 2. Nuts and Seeds – Almonds, cashews, walnuts, chia seed, flax seed, pumpkin seed, and sunflower seeds have a lot of arginine, a type of amino acid that assists in the production of nitric oxide. 3. Citrus Fruits – Or anything high in vitamin C. But of course oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit are all excellent sources of vitamin C.&nbsp;

A list of things we need to buy

- Dairy products, such as milk and yogurts.

 - Fish and meat (to get proteins in your healthy plate)

1.- NATURE AND THE ORIGIN OF THIS PANDEMIC.

Hi everyone. We are students from IES Galileo Galilei high school. We've created a book about alimentation, and eating habits. With the coronavirus, we need to improve our eating habits and our alimentation. This can help us to prevent and help us if we got sick. Also, we can help the planet.

On this section, we're going to talk about the nature and the origin of the pandemic, feeding tips to improve our health and protect the nature when consuming food. Also, we have included some recipes to take advange of the leftovers.

HOW HAS BIODIVERSITY  CHANGED NOW THAT WE ARE IN QUARANTINE?

Biodiversity has changed in many ways. First of all, pollution has decreased worldwide. Before the coronavirus pandemic, there were many cars polluting the air in our city. Industries have also stopped , a fact that has a positive impact in the air we breathe.

This is an image of how pollution in Madrid has decreased. Since hunting has been stopped, animals have been capable of reproducing in a larger scale. Water in rivers are cleaner and there are more wild plants.

- Some legumes like chickpeas and lentils.

- Bread (Tip: freeze it not to need to buy it everyday or try to bake it yourself!)

A day before we made atypical dish from Madrid, "Cocido", a stew made with chickpeas and beef. With the leftovers, we cooked some delicious croquettes!

The ingredients:

&nbsp;240g of meat (chicken and ham) &nbsp;70g&nbsp; of oil &nbsp;200g of flour &nbsp;150g of meat broth &nbsp;420g of milk &nbsp;salt &nbsp;2 or 3 eggs &nbsp;bread crumbs

1. Chop the meat in the mixer and reserve 2. Add the oil and flour in a pan and fry for 6 minutes 3. Add the milk, the broth and the salt 4. Mix everything for 15 minutes in the mixer 5. Remove the mass and let it cool&nbsp;for 8 hours 6. We&nbsp;shape the croquettes and pass them through egg and bread crumbs 7. Now we fry them and … ready to eat

Freezing food enables a safe way to keep all the benefits of fresh food from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten.&nbsp; Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and keep them in unheated buildings during the winter season.

1.- Nature and the origin of this pandemic.&nbsp;&nbsp; 2.- Food in our houses. 3.- Tips to improve our health and protect nature when consuming food.

It means the variety of life on Earth. It includes plants, animals, bacteria and fungi, Scientists consider than 10 million different species inhabit our planet.

Benefits of Biodiversity:

- Supplying services such as food, clear water, etc. - Regulating services such as disease, water quality, climate… - Cultural services ( recreational services, survival services,etc) - Supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling.

- Genetic Diversity - Species Diversity - Ecological Diversity

Here are some tips to freeze food correctly: Food must be protected by freezing bags or other materials such as film or opaque papers. When you go to the supermarket, try to add to your cart&nbsp;frozen products (such as vegetables, meat and poultry,etc) in the last place. When freezing cooked meals, it's always best to wait till they cool down. High temperature generates the proliferation of microorganisms, which may cause health problems. Put your food in special bags to refrigerate, remove all the air before sealing them We suggest you not to store large portions of food in them. Once the bag is closed, label with the name and freezing date.

This is the end of our book. We hope you liked our book, that you have learned a lot about biodiversity and healthy food and we hope that you and your family members are well and healthy. - Students of Galileo Galilei high school

★ Some tips when doing your shopping

▣ Vegetables ▣ Rice ▣Meat ▣Yogurts

● In this section we are going to tell you some things that will help you when going shopping for food:

1. Write a shopping list. That is going to help you and you will buy faster. 2. Look for the expiration date and buy the product that expires later. 3. Make sure&nbsp; you really need what you are going to buy. 4. Look at the ingredients in the product. If some of them are not good (like palm oil), don't buy it.

● We shouldn’t eat too many carbohydrates, foods with lots of sugar or soft drinks. It's better to replace them by fruit juices. ● It’s important to avoid eating ready-made foods or snacks like potato chips. They contain too many empty calories. ● Also, we can avoid fried foods and replace them by grilled foods. Consuming a big amount of these foods will make our body work slower, gain weight and have nutritonal deficiencies.

Measures to prevent the transmisión of the virus.

● The most important things we have to know and do in our country to prevent the transmisión of the virus are: 1º Staying at home as much as possible. 2º Keeping social distancing. 3º Washing our hands frequently. 4º Coughing with your elbow over your mouth. 5º Contacting any medical authorities when having symptoms ● The virus spreads easily and although it does not stay in the air, it can reach up to six meters and the symptoms are not visible until after 15 days' incubation. ● Bird flu or SARS Co-v and SARS Co-v 2 are other diseases caused by a coronavirus family virus. They started in 2003.

These are unprecedented times, the times of&nbsp;COVID-19 (the illness caused by the new coronavirus). Though we all want to protect ourselves against COVID-19, there is&nbsp;no current evidence of a "magical diet" to fight the disease.&nbsp;We can only be sure certain foods and a balanced diet will keep us strong!

How food can help protect our immune system?

Vitamin E is important in regulating and maintaining immune system function. Other foods with high amounts of vitamin E include avocados and dark leafy greens. Sunflower seeds contain this vitamin and are also incredibly high in selenium, which also helps our body.

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. 2. Grease a pan with butter and lightly sprinkle with flour. Reserve. 3. Put in a glass of sugar, the overripe orange and the eggs in the blender. Mix it. 4. Add butter and light cream and mix it for 5 minutos. 5. Now add flour, chemical yeast and salt and mix. 6. Put the mixture into the mold. Bake at 180ºC for approximately 30 minutes.

CONCLUSION

Nutrition is really important. If we have&nbsp;good eating habits, our health can be better.&nbsp; If we consume food respecting nature (for example, avoiding plastic coated trays) and if do not waste food, we can help the environment. This will also help decrease&nbsp;global warming and&nbsp;pollution.&nbsp; Keeping good eating habits not only benefits the planet-&nbsp;it&nbsp;benefits us too, as it helps&nbsp;avoiding diseases and having a stronger immune system. As citizens we have a responsability. Taking care of our heath means to protect our planet.

What to do with leftovers? (recipes, frozen food)

Preparation time: 5 min Over time: 30 min Total time: 35 min&nbsp;

For this cake we are going to use a overripe oranges. We usually don’t eat them, but we can use them to bake a sponge cake . These are the ingredients we need: &nbsp;• 1 overripe orange cut into quarters. &nbsp;• 3 eggs &nbsp;• 100g of butter at room temperature (and a little more to grease the mold) • 130 g of light cream or plain yogurt. &nbsp;• 250g of pastry flour (and a little more to sprinkle the mold) &nbsp;• 1 envelope of chemical yeast. &nbsp;• 1 pinch of salt.

"Our daily diet"

We conducted a small survey in our homes. It revealed that most families were concerned about our eating habits during the lockdown. Here are some examples: ─ Mario González: "In my house we eat a lot of citrus fruits like oranges and also a lot of nuts and vegetables to have a balanced diet and be healthy."

─ Faissal: "At home we  eat all kinds of food and a lot of nuts and vegetables."

─ Ángela: "We try to eat different foods at home. On Mondays we usually have lentil stew. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have meat and salad . On Thursdays we eat vegetables. On Fridays we usually eat pizza or hamburger and at the weekend, we usually have meat or fish and we always have dessert."

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