My fourth year in high school, while eating a sub in Subway, I looked down at my napkin and read what calories I am ingesting for the certain type of sub I’m eating. Everything I ever eaten here is below 500 calories. This is what brought healthy food choices to my attention. I turn my phone on, and google search, “Deaths from obesity.” I found the website World Health Organization, and a statistic caught my eye, “Around 3.4 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese” (who.int). I had no idea someones diet can kill so many people, and I knew things needed to be changed. I admit, watching what I ingest was not my first priority as a child. Whenever we stopped by a fast food restaurant, I was not thinking how much work it would take to burn all the calories off. Big Macs; Whoppers, Orange Chicken from Panda Express, you name it I ate it. Not just the main course was unhealthy, the drinks and the sides were just as bad. It all added up to more than 1000 calorie meals, which my body could not handle. An average person only needs 2000 calories daily, these meals through off your digestive system. Yet besides, most of the meals had little to no basic nutrients I needed on a daily basis. Veggies and other healthy choices were not important to me. The result of my crazy diet was laziness, overweightness, and depression. I never fully recovered from it, I still eat unhealthy sometimes. But as I age, my diet will be totally different. I believe kids all throughout schooling need to be taught about food. The subjects include making healthy consumption choices, food preparation, avoiding unsafe food providers, and direct changes in physicality and mentality. And the only way things like these can be solved is through early childhood influences. In order for someone to make healthy choices, one must understand the food pyramid. This food pyramid gives people the knowledge about what foods need to be eaten daily, and weekly(who.int). The most important foods that have the most nutrients we need to survive are at the bottom. The foods that we need to stay away from or eat less of are at the top. Sadly enough, the food at the top of the pyramid is what's cheap and most of the time extremely tasty. They may have some of the things we need, but mostly are filled with fats and sugars. An example of using the food pyramid is, “ My parents want to go out to eat, I had yogurt and cereal for breakfast, now for lunch I will make sure to choose veggies, and some sort of meat.” This meal may include small amounts of food from the upper portion of the pyramid, but not enough to mean anything. I have been looking into different healthy eating food programs, the USDA has a great guide. The guide gives both adults and children an easy way to memorize the recommended portions that need to be consumed. The USDA actually switched to this program because of how nicely it is displayed, through a dinner plate. The program itself is called MyPlate. The first message is, “ Eat a variety of foods.” The other is, “Eat less of some foods and more of others” (kidshealth.org). Michelle Obama has been backing this program, by using it to raise her children. Michelle has actually helped a lot with food quality in schools, but I will touch on that later. Another thing MyPlate helps with is portions. It gives children a better idea on how much actually needs to be consumed through a plates prospective rather than a pyramid. Kids who know what nutritional compounds they consume are a rare breed to me. Normally if kids or young adults are eating healthy, the adults are too. It all starts as a baby, the most crucial years of growth. “During these early years, children are learning what, when, and how much to eat based on the transmission of cultural and familial beliefs, attitudes, and practices surrounding food and eating”(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). If your dad goes to Mcdonalds everyday for dinner, chances are his kids are coming with. Not saying mcdonalds is a terrible choice, you just have to pick healthy things off of the menu. Alot of parents understand the value of teaching their kids healthy habits and proper portio