Recount: Trip to France and Food!

About two weeks ago my French class had a trip to Brest, France. Throughout the entire week we stayed there, I was living with a host family, and I got to try out a lot of new foods. However, the day that stood out was the day I arrived. That day I had both lunch and dinner with my host family.

For lunch that day my host family had prepared a salad with cabbage, rasped carrot, tomatoes and goat cheese. While for dinner they prepared the french meal "canard d'orange", which means "Orange Duck", with baked potatoes. Canard d'orange is duck marinated in oranges. In my opinion this food was absolutely delicious, and thinking about it, it was healthy as well! I'm going to tell you why, however before we begin I created a list of key terms I will be using and their definitions:

• Manganese: helps create essential enzymes for building bones
• Dietary fiber: normalizes and maintains bowel health, lower cholesterol levels, helps control body sugar level and helps in achieving healthy weight.
• Potassium: relief from stroke, blood pressure, heart and kidney disorders, anxiety and stress, enchased muscle strength, metabolism, water balance, and nervous system.
• Vitamin B1: plays an important role in maintaining a healthy nervous system and improving the cardiovascular functioning of the body. 
• Phosphorus: vital part of growth process of bones and teeth.
• Magnesium: vital for containing a normal heart beat.
• Calcium: vital to build and maintains strong bones.
• Iron: plays and important role in the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells.
• Protein: used to build and repair tissues, and is also used to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals.
• Vitamin A: Reproduction and immune system health.
• Vitamin E: Protection against toxins such as air pollution.
• Vitamin C: Protects against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease and even skin wrinkling.
• Vitamin K: Plays a role in the bodys blood clotting system.
• Vitamin B8: Controls hypertension, helps deal with depression, improves cognitive functioning.
• Pantothenic acid: Reduces chances of getting conditions like asthma, hair loss, allergies, stress and anxiety, respiratory disorders and heart problems.
• Niacin: lowers cholesterol levels and controls them
• Thiamine: Vitamin B1
• Riboflavin: Vitamin B2
• Zinc: responsible for many functions in the body and helps stimulate the activity of a 100 different enzymes.
• Folate: plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair.

To begin with, we had the lunch salad. Here were their ingredients and what minerals, vitamins or nutrients they were rich in:

• Cabbage: manganese, dietary fiber, potassium vitamin B1, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, pantothenic acid, protein and niacin.
• Tomatoes: potassium, manganese, dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin E and phosphorus.
• Carrots: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B8, pantothenic acid, folate, potassium, iron, copper and manganese.
• Goat cheese: calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin K, phosphorus, niacin

Next up we had dinner. For dinner we had duck with baked potato. Duck meat is a good source of protein, phosphorus, riboflavin, iron, zinc, thiamine, folate and magnesium. However eating to much is not good as duck meat is relatively high in fat and cholesterol, especially if you eat the skin. Beside the duck we ate potatoes which contain vitamin C, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and fiber.

As you can see, apart from the duck being high in cholesterol and fat, the meals were very healthy. A light lunch, and more heavy dinner is how it should be. However, at the same time very healthy. I hope you enjoyed this recount of my trip to France and their food, and maybe try out one of these meals yourself!