FOOD AS MEDICINE.
As this was just the second Saturday of Eco-Patrol, we had to get to know each other, of course, through the game. The Eco Patrol started with the game “thumb up”, where everyone said something about themselves, and other had to guess whether that claim was correct or not.
When we met each other better, we set off to discover the daily topic – FOOD AS MEDICINE. What is this food? During the 20th century the emergence the first artificial pesticides and fertilizers have generated a “conventional” food production. Nowadays, a new way of production called ‘ECO’ or organic food is developed. Pesticides, chemical fertilizers, genetically modified organisms are not used in the production of organic food, and are not treated by industrial processing or chemical food additives, or by radiation. Organic food has a higher nutritional value and a better taste, which gives to the food more energy. People should bring more organic, healthy foods, and avoid unhealthy foods with dangerous substances and chemicals. This would preserve their health, but also the environment.
Eco food is always seasonal food, but unfortunately not the other way round. Today, big stores in December look the same like in July, which makes it difficult to know which fruit is on those shelves for the season, and which is not. To reduce the intake of conventionally produced foods, which are intended for us all year round, it is important to know which fruits and vegetables mature at a certain time of year!
For this reason, “patrol kids” had to place fruits and vegetables at the time of their natural maturity, and then make and present posters with seasonal fruits and vegetables. We hope that through their creativity they learned what fruit they would take from the store shelves at certain times of the year.
In the second game, children had to guess which food looks like to which body organ, and it also protects it. In this game of chatting between similarities between foods and organs, the children pleasantly surprised us with their knowledge. Children have found out that the heart consists of 4 chambers – like tomatoes, carrots are good for sight, pear / eggplant / avocado have a cervical shape and preserve reproductive organs, olives have an ovary that cleans, etc. At the end all these intentions, representations of organ had to be placed on a sketch of a man in a place where they are naturally placed in the human body.
In this topic it was unavoidable to familiarize the children with the digestive system. We made an improvised digestive system, using balloons, cardboard and other recycled materials. We present the function of each organ in the digestive tract, and after that it became our main mascot.
To conclude, we were playing tensed hoses which, despite the hard work we did not manage to solve, but we were filled with positive energy for the rest of the day and maybe even more.
See you!
