How does nutrition affect health?


 

How does nutrition affect health? 


There is a range of health issues, ranging from purely genetic to completely diet based, with diet influenced genetic disposition in the middle. There are 5 components of a healthy diet. These five components are adequacy, balance, calorie control, moderation, variety. Adequacy means the food provides nutrients your body needs. These nutrients include carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Balance means consuming foods from all food groups. The food groups include dairy, fruit, vegetables, protein foods, and grains. Calorie control means to only eat as much as you burn. It is better to eat slightly under burned calories than to eat more, as obesity leads to many chronic health conditions. However, too little is also a concern and may be indicative of an unhealthy food relationship and will also lead to chronic health conditions such as anemia or osteoporosis. Moderation means not eating too much of one food, for example only eating apples or only eating meat. Fruits, vegetables, proteins, dairy, and grains are all essential for proper nutrition, but overeating one group or one item in a group can cause the diet to be unbalanced  and causing the health benefits of that food to be negated. Variety means eating an assortment of foods in each food group. For example different protein options are chicken, fish, beef, pork, turkey, legumes, or eggs. Having different options in the food groups help prevent overconsumption of one, and allow the body to get nutrients from various sources.  

       

         What do we need to get out of our diet? Essential nutrients means they cannot be made in the body, and must be consumed. The 6 major nutrients are carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. Essential nutrients that contain carbon are organic. Water and minerals are the only non-organic essential nutrients. Vitamins and protein are unique in that they contain nitrogen. There is only one major source for minerals, the other essential nutrients do not contain a variety of minerals. Protein and some vitamins contain sulfur or vitamin B12, a source of cobalt.  Minerals do not contain hydrogen or oxygen while all the others do. Why does this all matter? Essential nutrients help with structure, energy, and regulation. The human body has several structures, for example the bone structure. Items like calcium and phosphorus assist with bone structure, so a diet lacking in these would lead to chronic diseases such as osteoporosis. Nutrients help with regulation of all body functions including healing, digestions, moving muscles, waste disposal, and growing new tissues. The macronutrients provide the body with energy. Carbohydrates and protein provide 4 calories (a unit of energy) per gram consumed. Fat provides 9 calories per gram consumed. Alcohol provides 7 calories per gram consumed. 

    

        So what next? There are 6 stages to change. These include precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, moving on. Precontemplation includes not seeing a need to change and not considering change. Contemplation is when a reason to change is seen, but no action is taken yet. Preparation is getting ready to enact the change. This includes goal setting and the initial steps. Action is committing time and energy to that change, and enacting the plan made in the preparation stage. Maintenance is striving to make the new change a habit, striving to make it permanent. This stage can be full of discouragements and setbacks, but it is important to continue through this stage. The final stage, moving on, occurs when the old habit is gone, and the new habit has fully replaced it. A new goal can then be made. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cardiovascular Health

What does the cardiovascular system entail? The lungs, heart, arteries, and veins. In an average lifetime the heart will beat about 3 billion times and 42 million gallons of blood. Cardiovascular disease is also the leading cause of death in the United States and other developed countries.  What causes cardiovascular disease? Fatty build-up in the artery wall is the main culprit, causing about 85% of cardiovascular disease. The fatty build-up can also cause strokes, the third leading cause of death.  The fatty-build up can be reversed with intense lifestyle changes. These changes may or may not be accompanied with the use of medication to lower cholesterol. Risk factors that can attribute to the fatty build-up include the use of tobacco (including smoking), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, physical inactivity (less than 30 accumulative minutes of moderate to intense activity a day. Moderate can be gardening or a brisk walk), obesity (BMI over 30), and diabetes. Physical inactivit
Read more

Maintaining Weight

 How Can We Maintain Our weight?      The amount of calories we burn in a day heavily impacts our weight. If we only burn 1,500 calories but eat 2,500 calories in a given day, that is an excess of 1,000 calories per day. 3,500 calories is 1 lb (2.2 lbs is 1 Kg). So over the next 3-4 days you would gain 1 lb. Over 1 year (365 days/ 4 days per lb) you would gain around 91 lbs.      So what is the best option? Moving more, trying to get at least 30 accumulative minutes of moderate to intense activity most days of the week, is the greatest predictor for maintaining weight loss. Moderate activity can be a brisk  walk, gardening, or taking the stairs. Accumulative means it doesn't have to be all at once, as long as each section lasts 10 min. So if you were to garden for 10 min, then take a brisk walk for 10 min, and then deep clean for another 10, your activity goal for the day will be met. Intense activity is things like a fast run, weight lifting, or swimming laps. Activities that grea
Read more

Benefit of Dirt

Image
           How can dirt be beneficial? Not only does it benefit your immune system, it also benefits your mental health.      Your immune system is like a catalog. When it faces something new, it studies it, destroys it, and remembers it. Dirt is filled with micro organisms. When you interact with the dirt, your immune system analyzes the micro organisms and adds it to its memory. This strengthens the immune system by allowing it to better recognize harmful organisms in the future and destroy them quickly. This lowers the risk of getting sick and if you do get sick, the symptoms are not as severe and last a shorter amount of time.      Dirt contain microbes, which help increase production of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that boosts mood. This can help ease symptoms of depression or sadness.     Common ways to interact with dirt: - Gardening      Outdoor gardening is a great way to get your hands in dirt. It is also very rewarding to grow beautiful flowers, veggies, fruits
Read more