Have you ever wondered whether the foods we eat influence our Health?

Lately, most deaths are caused by diseases that are linked directly or indirectly to what we eat. Scientists have researched and found the onset of lifestyle chronic conditions have increased. More people are currently facing the crisis of being diagnosed with either hypertension (high blood pressure), Diabetes (mainly type 2), uncontrolled weight gain which results in obesity and even some cancers.

This is mostly because, over the years, the diets of the public have changed. Due to our fast paced and ever changing digitalised world, most people actually prefer to have a quick fix. By saying a quick fix, I mean, most people like to go in for fast-foods, instead of traditionally prepared ones. Also, the tradition of families cooking together, as well as, sitting and eating meals together over a roundtable is gradually becoming historical.

Most people prefer to have convenience foods, which constitute foods that are refined and are highly processed. Additionally, another unfortunate part is that most of the foods we eat currently are either too salty or too sweet. Most people like to sprinkle extra salt on their foods and also, others like to take in a lot of fizzy drinks, eat lots of sweets and snack on foods that are high in calories that are low in nutrients, therefore, are not considered healthy. Prolonged choice of such foods leads to unhealthy food consumption patterns which unconsciously affect our health.  

When we eat too much unhealthy food or consume foods that are highly caloric, what happens is that the excess of the proteins, fats and carbohydrates from the foods are stored as fat. The excess fat that the body does not need is then stored in parts of the body such as the mid-upper arm, the lower part of the belly and also the thighs and these reflect in weight gain. Uncontrolled weight gain can lead to obesity. When a person is classified as obese, it means that measures need to be put in place in order to lose weight, otherwise, other unhealthy conditions can easily set in.

To know your weight status, it is important for you to meet your health or nutrition professional, who will help check all the vital markers in your body and comment on your health status. Most of the time, what the professional does is to check your body weight using a standardised measuring scale, measure your height and by skilful calculation, determine your body mass index (BMI). The BMI category helps to determine whether you are underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. Following this, the professional can then conduct further tests, which include tests to measure and monitor your body fat in percentage and through this, determine whether the body fat category is healthy or not. If you are found to be healthy, then you can go on with your daily dietary behaviour. However, if you are detected as unhealthy in terms of your body fat, then you need to make changes to your diet periodically until your body fat becomes healthy again.

If you want to have a healthy body to remain fit and productive, then you need to find new ways of replacing less healthy foods with more healthier ones so that you can prevent yourself from acquiring lifestyle diseases.

Tips to enable you develop and sustain a healthy eating pattern

• Try learning about new food commodities – Learn to add more spice to your daily eating routine. Read about new foods and familiarise yourself with them through watching them in pictures and read more about their benefits and their characteristics or special chemical constituents that will help your body to grow and improve in functioning. If there is anything you are unsure of, then do well to ask for the necessary advice from your trusted nutrition professional.
• Explore by eating fruits and vegetables more frequently – When you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, this practice helps you to obtain the needed nutrients to help your body function well. Not only does your body get the nutrients that it requires, but also, it gets the needed substances that help the body to fight diseases and other forms of infections.Fruits and vegetables are of plant origin and have been constantly found to help the body in strengthening its ability to fight against several bacterial infections and even some of the constituents can even help the body fight some cancers. For example, carrots contain beta-carotene, which is made evident because of the orange colour. This beta-carotene in carrots has been found to help in boosting the immune system and also functions as an antioxidant. Also, spinach leaves are rich in dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.  Furthermore, spinach leaves contain adequate amounts of essential amino acids, which are protein components that cannot be ordinarily produced by the body but are very vital in ensuring that the body grows well.
• Learn a new affordable recipe and cook it – You need to make time to give yourself a special meal treat by learning a new recipe. This could be either online or from a cookbook. You need to pamper yourself and condition your mind to eat right, otherwise, in the future, you will end up spending your wealth in trying to manage a condition that you can easily prevent now. So why not go ahead and try learning to cook your favourite meal yourself now, so you can be in control of what you are eating daily, instead of going to buy one that is already prepared and you cannot be sure of the quality of ingredients that have been used in preparing it.

 

I hope these few tips will help you find new ways of eating right. I hope you will decide today to eat well so you can grow well and in doing this you will live long and maintain a healthy body.

#Pearlie