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Today is my first day back at classes after my return from jamaica.  It was a wonderful experience and although I got a poor view of their culture as a whole staying on a resort.  I wanted to share with my readers a few interesting things I noticed about Jamaicans pertaining to their eating and fitness habits.

1.  Among the islanders it was very rare to see an obese person.  Although the island has been americanized there is still an abundance of traditional foods.  I enjoyed a bunch of traditional foods like root vegetable soups, jerk chicken and pork, curried goat, spicy sea foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, and beef patties.  

2.  Jamaican Foods make up for lack of fat with spices.  All the traditional foods I ate were cooked with spices.  Our culture often tries to make food tastier by adding fat, we should follow after other cultures and use spices to flavor our foods.  They taste great and add big time flavor without the calories.

3.   There was fresh fruit growing everywhere.  After tipping a resort worker he showed me how to pick fresh mangos, plantains, and cut open a coconut to have some fresh coconut water.  

4.  There is a lot of seafood in their diet.  Most American diets are dreadfully deficient in Omega 3 fatty acids and should take after jamaicans eating more seafood.

5.  Portion sizes were reasonable and I noticed that even the fried food in Jamaica was a lot less salty.  

These were just a few things I noticed in my limited stay.  I enjoyed traditional Jamaican cuisine and wanted to remind everyone to eat more real food!   Stay tuned for an article on omega 3 and omega 6 ratio.