Eating right makes you a better worker. Consuming fast-food hamburgers and french fries, pan dulce, and flour tortillas filled with beans fried in lard can make you less productive at work. The reason: poor nutrition leads to poor health, bringing on a lack of energy, reduced strength, less coordination and greater likelihood of getting sick or injured.
Limited funds can lead farmworkers to purchase low cost, high calorie, low nutrient foods packed with fat, sugar and starches. The result can be obesity and malnutrition at the same time. Both factors hurt farmworkers' ability to provide for their families. Obese workers are twice a likely as fit workers to miss work. Malnourished workers don't have the strength, energy and resistance to disease that well nourished workers have.
Latinos in California suffer disproportionately from poor health, which may be caused by low income, poor nutrition education and a lack of health insurance and medical care. They are more likely to get certain types of cancer and are 20 percent more likely to die from cancer than non-Latino whites. The prevalence of diabetes in Latinos is one and a half times that of whites. Healthy eating can help prevent cancer, type 2 diabetes and other ailments.
Healthful foods often have a slightly higher price tag. One way to stretch the food dollar and eat a healthful diet is by eliminating most of the foods you purchase that do not have lots of nutrients and, instead, spending your entire food budget on foods that contribute to good health. Cook at home rather than going to fast food restaurants. When shopping for food, stay on the perimeter of the market and avoid the expensive packaged foods that are typically found in the middle aisles. Fill your shopping basket with fresh fruits and vegetables in season, lean meat, low-fat dairy products and whole-grain breads or tortillas.
Eating these foods is better for the whole family. It will make you stronger, give you more energy, help ward off diseases and make you feel better.