My Dare to Challenge Experience through ShowMeHealth.

Hello everyone! We are a six-member team named ShowMeHealth. From the list of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, we chose the third one, “Health and Well-Being”. As students, we can understand the struggles of choosing healthy eating habits. In a society where fast food is the easiest choice, we have found a convenient way to help students improve their diet when they are outside. We focus on the center of Athens.

Sustainable Development Goals were all very interesting and intriguing to get involved with. However, we had to choose a path, a specific goal which really mirrors our interests and personalities. We discussed all of the goals. Education and Health were the two that made our decision difficult. After many thoughts and deep discussion, we thought that Good Health and Well-Being was our thing.

Not only do we connect with this goal, as we all are trying to be fit and maintain our wellness, but it is a huge society problem overall, so we could truly provide aid to some people, having the same hassles with us. Moreover, diabetes and other eating disorders are unfortunately very popular nowadays. Children, teenagers, young adults mostly have this kind of problems due to looking up to some idols, which appear everywhere, in television and all social media. Older people have similar problems because of age or lack of exercise or even improper eating habits. Thus, we wished we could work on a project that alternates that tendency to overeating or eating fast-food and not in a healthy way.

Ofcourse, a big question that occurs is: What is really healthy? Many people have the wrong assumption that healthy food is only salad and vegan-oriented dishes, but in reality it is a very complicated issue. A salad can be unhealthy if it is full of sauce, peanuts or bacon. On the other hand, a burger or a pizza can be good for oneself if the meat and other ingredients are pure and safely produced. So, it depends solely on the decision of the ingredients and the cooking process.

To be more specific, some of the foods people should choose when eating outside are the following:

• vegetables (especially ones that are dark green or orange)
• fruit
• whole grains (like barley, brown rice, oats, quinoa, and wild rice)
• lower-fat milk (skim, 1% or 2% milk) and milk alternatives like fortified soy beverages
• fish (like char, herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines, and trout)
• lean meat (skin removed and fat trimmed)
• meat alternatives (like beans, lentils, and tofu)

So, having in mind these issues, we found a fine solution, which you are able to read at my other team members’ medium accounts.

We are very satisfied about the final content and result of our project, as we learned how to work cooperatively. Our goal was to help a specific group of people improve their lifestyle and we hope we did. Stay tuned to see what’s next…

This project has been completed by the MenuMe team: Konstantina Nikolatou, Elisavet Papantoniou, Edlira Osmena, Aggeliki Karampela, Vaso Dima

Special thanks to ms. Betty Tsakarestou for the guidance throughout the semester.