Food and Diet
Without food you cannot live. But you eat more than you need. You crave for more than you can consume with safety. Besides, you are not comfortable with the right sort of food merely just to satisfy your taste without any regard to the consideration of health. As a result, you burden your system with food which may act as poison. The consequences are endless troubles. Therefore, what could be the ideal diet for you?
We know that food must contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates and minerals in proper quantity along with life-giving substances-vitamins A, B, C, D, and E etc. These ingredients must exist in due proportion to be called balancing. A person may take proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins and yet may not be healthy. All customary diets are not necessarily good. People have the tradition to be accustomed to particular forms of diet. Changes brought on by environments and circumstances have changed the dietary habits of man for the better and sometimes for the worse also.
Diets do evolve in due course, being influenced by many factors and complex interactions. Income, prices, individual preferences and beliefs, cultural traditions, as well as geographical, environmental, social and economic factors, all interact in a complex manner to shape dietary consumption patterns.
Optimal Diet
According to World Health Organization(WHO), an optimal diet includes: a balance between energy intake from food and energy expenditure from physical activity; energy from fats less than 30% of total intake, shifting fat consumption away from saturated fats; eliminating trans-fats; limiting intake of sugar and salt and increasing consumption of fruits, legumes, whole grains and nuts.
Unhealthy Diet
Diets high in sugars, saturated and trans-fats, low-fiber foods and high-sugar drinks contribute to various diseases and other health problems. Healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables are often unavailable or unaffordable among poor communities in both developed and developing countries. Increasing urbanization causes people to move away from producing and cooking their own food and turn to prepared foods that are often high in sugar, salt and fat.
Unhealthy foods basically junk foods are being marketed heavily especially among children. Dietary salt consumption is an important determinant of blood pressure levels and of overall cardiovascular risk and high blood pressure. Globally, poor communities are often most affected by unhealthy diets.
In many countries, fat and sugar have become the cheapest and easiest way to get calories, more accessible than fruit and vegetables and often even cheaper than traditional staples like grains, beans or lentils.
Balanced Diet
Balanced diet can be determined as the estimated daily calorie requirement for an individual. Important factors to consider are gender, weight (pounds or kilograms), height (inches or meters), level of activity, and age (years). If a change in weight is desired, consider using the desired weight instead of actual weight. Eating a balanced diet means that you choose foods in the right amounts from each of the food groups. Eating a balanced diet and exercising every day will help your body to stay healthy.
