You are What You Eat

Introduction

A modern person living a modern life should learn to eat healthy since whatever a person eats would determine the his or her health condition in the long run. Eating healthy would lead to being in a healthy condition but eating unhealthy food or in an unhealthy manner would lead to complications to the human body.

The human body has a way of regulating some of the functions of the body in order to remain healthy but the body would react to what it is fed on.

Certain types of foods are essential for the functioning of particular parts of the human body and the different types of foods that contain the vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates are necessary in the human diet. Fats are also essential for the functioning of the body and a lack of it in the diet might be very dangerous.

Healthy eating habits

Healthy eating habits include the adoption of a healthy diet in the daily meals. This diet is one that would ensure that one leads and maintains an improved general health. Modern lifestyles involve the eating of many junk foods that are not necessarily healthy.

This might cause many diseases and conditions that would have otherwise been avoided if a healthy diet were adopted. The types of diseases that can be avoided using healthy foods include hypertension, cancer, heart disease and obesity. Healthy eating habits include the taking of appropriate amounts of both the macronutrients and the micronutrients (Fernandez & Calle, 2010).

Healthy living involves the consumption of the correct amounts of the essential nutrients and drinking adequate amounts of water daily. It is not enough to take all the essential nutrients but also to take the right quantities. Eating a limited amount of the nutrients may lead to some deficiency diseases while eating them in excess may also lead to some conditions and diseases. Water is an important part of a diet since it makes up at least 60% of the human body.

Many modern people have been recorded to be in the category of overweight and obese. This condition is arrived at when a person feeds on excess fats and carbohydrates and fails to do exercise to reduce these amounts in the body (Katz, 2003).

Since the body reacts to whatever it is fed on, it would tend to store the excess carbohydrates and fats (lipids) in the adipose tissue below the skin. This forms a thick layer below the skin and this explains why people grow fat.

Overweight or obese individuals have a high Body Mass Index (BMI), which has been proven – through research – to have effects on mobility and performance of the individual.

Obese individuals have trouble when moving or performing due to the immense weight they carry whenever they work. Therefore, research suggested that a person should maintain weight at the normal weight category and this is achieved through eating healthy and performing exercise.

Although fats have its negative effects when taken in excess, there is even greater danger when one adopts a no-fat diet. Many advertisements that are aired in the modern world are insisting on the taking of a no-fat diet (fad diet) and many individuals seeking to either lose weight or maintain their physique follow them to the latter.

However, research does not advocate for this and explain this by providing some of the important functions of fats (lipids or fatty acids) in the body (Strychar, 2006).

Taking of food without fats may turn fatal due to the body’s inability to perform some of the functions that are enabled by the presence of fats. Firstly, the body of the organism may lack the ability to absorb some of the essential vitamins such as vitamin K, D, E and A.

These are the fat-soluble vitamins and need dietary fats to use them. Lack of these vitamins in the body leads to various diseases and conditions such as night blindness and rickets. The body’s immune system would also be deteriorated due to lack of these vitamins.

It has also been confirmed through research that a no-fat diet might affect the mental health and likely cause depression (Maes, 1996). Research also suggests that low intake of essential fatty acids – which is caused by a no-fat diet – increase the chances of getting cancer of the breast, colon or the prostate. This is caused due to the lack of omega-3s in the body.

No-fat diets also have a part to play in heart disease and the cholesterol level. This is because a diet without fat causes the good cholesterol (HDL) to reduce and the bad cholesterol to be accumulated in the liver in order to be excreted (Mensink, Zock, Kester, & Katan, 2003). Heart disease develops when the good and the bad cholesterol go out of balance. Therefore, fats are essential to the human body.

A healthy diet also needs to have portions of fruits served to the individual. Fruits provide essential micronutrients such as vitamins. Vegetables also provide essential vitamins to the body and lack of the vitamins may put the individual at risks of suffering ischaemic heart disease, gastrointestinal cancer, stroke and many other complications.

A modern person should adopt a diet that constitutes the right amount of proteins too. Proteins are important for the growth of the individual and they make up many body structures of an individual. These structures include the hair, skin and muscles.

Proteins also aid in the regeneration of dead cells in the body and hence they play a vital role in the survival of the individual. A modern individual should also ensure that the meal has some of the minerals such as iodine, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. Iodine has been made easily available in the iodized salt. These minerals are required in small amounts but their functions are quite important.

Conclusion

It is important for every individual to adopt a healthy eating habit. The modern person faces various challenges due to the types of food that are available in the market nowadays. The cheapest and easily available foods are the junk foods that are not usually healthy. They may contain excesses of certain nutrients and may cause the body to strain a lot while trying to eliminate them.

References

Fernandez, M., & Calle, M. (2010). Revisiting dietary cholesterol recommendations: Does the evidence support a limit of 300mg/d. Current Atherosclerosis Reports, 12(6), 377-383.

Katz, D. (2003). Pandemic obesity and the contagion of nutritional nonsense. Public Health Review, 31(1), 33-44.

Maes, M. (1996). Fatty acid composition in major depression: Decrease ὠ3 fractions in cholesteryl esters and increased C20:4ὠ6 ratio in cholesteryl esters and phospholipids. Journal of Affective Disorders, 38(1), 35-46.

Mensink, R., Zock, P., Kester, A., & Katan, M. (2003). Effects of dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates on the ratio of serum total to HDL cholesterol and on serum lipids and apolipoproteins: A meta-analysis of 60 controlled trials. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 77(5), 1146-1155.

Strychar, I. (2006). Diet management of weight loss. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 174(1), 56-63.