Essay Sample: How Mexican Food Can Be Healthy and Unhealthy

Introduction

It is indisputable that Mexican food is delicious. However, the mention of Mexican food to many brings pictures of entrees prepared with lots of lard, salt, and oil. In a single meal, often loaded with sour cream and cheese, one can get a day's worth of sodium, saturated fat, and calories. Nevertheless, it is wrong to presumptuously judge that all Mexican foods are unhealthy and can cause a dietary disaster since there are also plenty of nutritious dishes. This paper aims to discuss how Mexican food can be healthy and unhealthy, as detailed below.

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How Mexican Food Can Be Healthy

The thought that it is impossible to have healthy Mexican food is a misconception. There are plenty of Mexican dishes from beans to vegetables, which have health benefits and are still tasty. Generally, traditional Mexican dishes with the original recipe are often healthy (Rennick). These dishes include chiles, rice, freshly grilled vegetables, fruit-flavored waters, varieties of beans and maize, slow-cooked meats, homemade tortillas, rice, and lastly, fresh herbs and spices. Besides, in the book "Decolonize Your Diet" by university professor Luz Calvo, he argues that the Mexican diet's unhealthy aspects came after Mexico's colonization in the 16th century.

Certain Mexican foods are highly nutritional; beans are among the most nutritious foods in all Mexican cuisines. Healthwise, beans provide vitamins B1 and B6, fiber, proteins, and an array of minerals. Although refried beans with lard are unhealthy, other cooking methods such as mashing cooked beans and seasoning them to your liking offer a healthier and tastier diet. Regarding meat, whether pork, beef, fish, or chicken, they all provide the necessary proteins for the body. The only key to avoiding unhealthy meat is avoiding fatty meat cuts. Otherwise, grilled meat is healthy and can go well with burritos or tacos (Zelman). The popular Mexican soup is also nutritious with few calories. Lastly, Mexican fruits, especially avocadoes, offer many health benefits, and despite them being high in fat, it is a natural fat that is beneficial to the body.

How Mexican Food Can Be Unhealthy

Like any other cuisine, Mexican dishes also have unhealthy diets that are disastrous to the body. Most modern Mexican cuisines are high in fats and calories; thus, frequently eating them might harm one's health (Turner). Examples of these unhealthy dishes include the Deluxe Burrito, a mixture of meat, rice, and beans loaded with sour cream and high-fat cheese, and ultimately rounded up with flour tortilla. The result is a 900-calorie meal, or more, which is injurious to one’s health. Other high-calorie dishes include taco salad, queso, taquito, chimichangas, quesadilla, and refried beans.

Further, making most Mexican dishes requires fresh produce and ingredients such as fiber-filled tortillas, cumin, protein-packed beans, and spices like garlic, chilies, cloves, and cinnamon. However, with recent technology in refrigeration and other storage methods, the ingredients used to make the dishes offer little nutritional benefits and are often with sodium, fats, and calories.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is a misconception that all Mexican dishes are unhealthy because it depends on the ingredients and how the food is prepared. Besides, certain Mexican dishes such as black beans and avocadoes are highly nutritious and beneficial to the body. However, it is true that most Mexican cuisines are high in sodium, fats, and calories, which can all cause adverse health effects. Therefore, Mexican foods can be both healthy and unhealthy, as detailed above.

Works Cited

Rennick, Lucy. If You Think Mexican Food Is Unhealthy, Think Again. 29 June 2017, www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2017/06/29/if-you-think-mexican-food-unhealthy-think-again.

Zelman, Kathleen M. “Best and Worst Mexican Dishes for Your Health.” WebMD, WebMD, 12 Sept. 2019, www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-mexican-food-health.

Turner, Adrienne. “How Healthy Is Mexican Food?” Ask Men, Ask Men, 1 Feb. 2016, www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_100/146_eating_well.html.

Calvo, Luz, and Esquibel Catriona Rueda. Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes for Health and Healing. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2015.