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Is there any Role Of Food in Staying healthy?
Is there any role of Food in Staying healthy? Do you know the role of Food in our Health? How Food affects our Health? Or Does it even affect our Health or not?
Therefore, if you’re seeking the answers to these questions, stick with us for a moment.
Food plays a central and indispensable role in our lives. It fuels our bodies, nourishes our minds, and influences our overall well-being. In this article, we’ll delve into the critical role of food in staying healthy, exploring how our dietary choices impact our physical health, mental well-being, and longevity.
Factors that affect Health
Food and diet is one of the factors that affect health. A well-balanced diet rich in nutrients is the foundation of good health. Essential vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients from food support our immune system, reduce the risk of chronic diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers), and promote overall vitality. According to World Health Organization, WHO, other factors also affect health, which can be categorized into three categories.
The social and economic environment
Income, good income, and social status are linked to better health.
Low education levels are linked with poor health, stress, and lower self-confidence.
The physical environmentÂ
Physical Environments, like safe water and clean air, healthy workplaces, safe houses, communities, and roads, social support networks, support from families, friends, and communities are all linked to better health.
The person’s characteristics and behaviors
Genetics play an important role in a person’s health like lifespan, immunity against diseases, chances of other diseases, etc.
Personal behavior like keeping active, exercising, and balanced eating can aid in staying healthy. On the other hand, smoking, and drinking are detrimental to your health.
The access and use of available health services to diagnose and treatment of diseases are steps to staying healthy.
Gender also affects health because there are different diseases in men and women.
We’ve briefly and generally looked into some major determinants of health. And, we know that food is also one of the determinants of health.
We will specifically discuss The Effect of Food or Diet on Health.
The Effect of Food or Diet on Health
What is the function of Food in our bodies?
Food provides nutrients to our body cells and helps them to perform well. So, the body needs a specific amount of nutrients in order for our body cells and our body to function properly. And, to maintain a specific amount of nutrients, the body needs a specific and balanced food intake. So, any imbalance in diet or food intake can affect our health differently.
Healthy Eating:
Our body needs a specific amount of calories of energy to survive and perform different basic functions of the body.
Because we need calories, we have to eat food that provides us with the required quantity of calories or nutrients. Also the quality of the food is very, very important.
Balanced Diet:
Keeping the balance between our body’s need for nutrients/ calories and food intake is called a Balanced diet.
A balanced diet plays a positive role in our health.
Some important nutrients that are required for a healthy body are protein, fiber and calcium.
Protein gives energy and supports our mood and other cognitive functioning. High-quality proteins are necessary for our bodies. But, a high intake of proteins can be harmful and lead to kidney diseases.
While some fats are not good for health, there are good fats that protect our heart and brain. They’re also important for physical and emotional health.
Fiber helps to lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. It also helps in maintaining our weight and improving our skin.
Calcium is important for the health of bones and muscles. Its improper intake can also lead to anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. Calcium-rich foods should be included in your diet throughout your life to ensure the proper intake of calcium and prevent its deficiency.
Carbohydrates are one of the crucial sources of energy for our bodies. Quality and quantity of carbs are also important. Carbohydrates should be obtained from unrefined and complex carbs rather than refined ones. Maintaining the quality and quantity of carbohydrates can prevent the building up of weight, rapid increase or decrease in blood sugars, and fluctuations in mood and energy.
Some healthy Foods include:
- Fresh fruits
- Fresh Vegetables
- Whole-grains
- Nuts and Seeds
These are some foods that provide our body the good quality nutrients and calories of energy. Good quality food can also save our bodies from chronic and heart disease.
Some tips on how to eat and live Healthily?
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- Eating slowly at a low pace will prevent overeating and help to maintain body weight.
- Limit Snack Foods at home. It is almost impossible to avoid if you have something ready to eat. So, avoiding unhealthy snacks and keeping healthy options around you help to maintain a good quality of food and your health.
- Eat Eggs. Eggs are a healthier option for breakfast. They provide good quality proteins and many other essential nutrients.
- Improve protein intake. Protein is one of the body’s essential and most important nutrients. Good sources of proteins include:
- Dairy products
- Nuts
- Beans
- Eggs
- Meat
- Fish
 Drinking enough water regularly instead of other beverages can limit the intake of sugars and help you maintain your calorie intake.
Eat green vegetables and fresh fruits. Vegetables and fruits are a natural source of energy and other basic nutrients our body requires.
It’s important to eat fruits instead of drinking them. Fruits are loaded with water, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. While fruits contain many important nutrients, fruit juices are mostly made from concentrate and sugar, and sometimes these juices contain as much sugar as other sugary beverages.
Cook at home often. Rather than dining out, try to cook more at home. Because at home, you know what’s going into your food, and you can track your calorie intake.
Along with healthy eating, you need to be more active. Good exercise and nutrition go hand-in-hand. Exercise helps you to improve your mood, strengthen your bones and muscles, improve sleep, lose weight, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
Eat in small portions. Eating small portions of food gives you the ability to control the calories and food intake, which will help you to maintain the quality and quantity of the food.
Benefits of Eating Healthy:
Here, we will be discussing some benefits of eating healthy;
- By developing the habit of eating healthy, you may live longer.
- Keeps your skin and eyes healthy. Several healthy foods help to keep your skin and eyes healthy and functioning properly.
- Eating healthy also supports and strengthens the body’s muscles.
- Boosts immunity against different diseases and viruses attack.
- Strengthen the bones.
- It lowers the risks of Heart diseases and Diabetes.
- Supports healthy pregnancies and breastfeeding
- Helps the proper functioning of the digestive system.
- Helps to improve mood.
- Reduces the risks of some cancers.
- Some foods help to improve memory.
- Helps in getting better sleep.
- Helps to achieve a healthier weight and also maintain it.
- We can save the next generation from different diseases by eating and staying healthy.
Unhealthy Diet:
An imbalance between the intake of nutrients/ calories and the need of our body is called an unhealthy/ unbalanced diet.
Unbalanced Diet:
An unbalanced diet means an excess or deficiency of dietary parts, such as proteins, fat, carbohydrates, fibers, vitamins, and minerals. Undoubtedly, eating the wrong type of food is a potential cause of a dietary imbalance.
There can be two kinds of an unhealthy diet based on quantity:
OvereatingÂ
Excessive eating can lead to many health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and being overweight.
UnderEating
Similarly, eating less than your body needs also leads to major health problems. It reduces the number of nutrients our body needs and causes different problems.
What is an Unhealthy Diet:
Unhealthy diets or foods include:
- High Sugar Foods like cakes, sweets, pastries, chocolates, etc
- Saturated and trans-fats
- High Sugar Drinks
- Low fiber foods
- High consumption of salt
- Food with a larger amount of spices
- Foods with a large number of carbohydrates
- Fast Foods
- Processed Meat
- Alcoholic Drinks
Why People Consume Unhealthy Diet:
Let’s look at some reasons people need to eat unhealthy Food or Diet.
Unavailability and Unaffordability of Healthy Food:
Indeed, organic Veggies and Fruits are unavailable or unaffordable among poor communities in developed and developing countries.
Urbanization leading to low productivity of crops:
Increasing urbanization causes people to move away from producing and cooking their meals and switching to prepared foods, and these are often high in sugar, salt, and fat.
Massive Marketing of Unhealthy Foods:
Unhealthy and more fats and sugar products are heavily and massively being marketed, which causes more consumption of these products and also leads to more serious health problems.
Easy Accessibility of Unhealthy Foods:
Unhealthy foods like sugar-rich products, junk foods, fast food, and high fat foods are easily and affordably accessible to all communities. In contrast, healthy products like fruits and vegetables are either unavailable/ accessible or not affordable.
Diet Imbalance is also caused by inappropriate intake of calories:
Excessive eating is overeating. Eating less than what your body needs are, is called under-eating.
Overeating and Under-eating cause an imbalance in diet that is harmful to Health.
Social and Environmental Issues or Circumstances:
Teenagers tend to make bad nutritional choices due to different reasons. The influence of other friends, availability and easy accessibility of junk foods, and their addictive nature all cause bad nutrition.
Effects of an Unhealthy Diet:
An unhealthy and imbalanced diet or food affects health in a harmful manner. We will discuss some major effects of unbalanced food on health.
Effect of Excess intake of sugary foods/ Drinks:
Regular excess sugar intake can lead to repeated spikes in blood sugar levels. Excess intake of sugary foods can result in sicknesses like insulin resistance, overweight, obesity and diabetes.
Effects of high sodium foods:
Intake of a high amount of sodium can lead to water retention. Sodium can cause blood pressure changes and stress the heart and cardiovascular system.
Effect on respiratory system:
Eating fast foods and unhealthy foods can cause obesity and raise the risk of respiratory issues like asthma and shortness of breath. The few extra pounds on our body can pressure our heart and lungs, resulting in difficulty breathing when walking or climbing stairs.
Obesity:
Being overweight and obese are potent risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes and are major contributors to premature death. Obesity is caused due to unhealthy practices of food intake.
Different Diseases that are caused by Unhealthy eating:
Researchers believe that these problems are partly related to Diet.
Which includes type I Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.
How to Avoid Unhealthy Diet:
- Promote the consumption of natural foods like fresh vegetables and Fruits.
- Authorities should make pricing policies to make healthy foods available and affordable.
- Promote healthy diets in your schools, workplaces and communities.
- Support agricultural products to help increase productivity.
- Promote breastfeeding and good weaning practice.
Summary:
We have comprehensively looked at how health can be affected by food. We know that food has a very important role on our health. Healthy and balanced food intake helps maintain good health, while unhealthy practices of food intake can cause damage and can harm our health. So, we should promote healthy eating practices to make the world healthy. Undoubtedly, there is a crucial role of food in staying healthy.
