HEALTH
ARE YOU EATING HEALTHY?- ADEWOYIN OLAWUNMI.M
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Eating healthy is living wealthy. A wise man said, “Health is Wealth”. Food is ordained of God as the main sustainer of the body. Just as good food stimulates good health, so also a poor diet brings about ill health. God is a perfect Physician who provides you with good food to make you strong and live long (Genesis 1:29). You don’t really need to have large sums of money to balance your diet. What you need is the knowledge of the constituent nutrients and calories in food, and of course a lot of wisdom. There are relevant classes of food such as carbohydrates, protein, fats and oils, vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
Carbohydrates are the principal dietary energy source. They provide an efficient and cheap source of energy. A minimum of 40% of the total calories in the diet should come from carbohydrates. Food sources include bread, cereals, starches like rice, potatoes, yam, etc.
Proteins are made up of amino acids, which are essential or non-essential. They must be sufficient in both quality and quantity, to provide for growth and maintenance of body tissues. The quality of the protein depends on its content of essential amino acids. In the various groupings you have:
High biologic valued proteins- These contain all the essential amino acids, and can be found in eggs and dairy products.
Moderate biologic valued proteins- These contain most of the essential amino acids but not all, and can be found in meat, poultry, fish and potatoes.
Fair biologic valued proteins supply energy- These contain only some of the essential amino acids such as cereals, bread, peanuts, etc.
Vitamins are essential organic dietary constituents necessary for life, health and growth. However, they do not supply energy. Every time you eat sweet potatoes, ugwu and tete (spinach) leaves, milk, liver or butter, you are getting a good supply of vitamin A, which help in enhancing your vision. On the other hand, whenever you eat citrus fruits, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes and ugwu leaves, you are supplying your body with a good dose of vitamin C, which helps in the formation and maintenance of bones, teeth and cartilage.
Peanuts (groundnuts) and cereals supply you with vitamin E and help to enhance your normal physiological and reproductive functions while vitamin K rich foods like cabbage, spinach and ugwu leavesare necessary for blood clotting.
Are you worried about your cholesterol level? Well, a diet rich in niacin (foods such as cereals, bread, yeast, meat, etc.) helps to lower serum cholesterol levels.
3 LIFE-CHANGING DIETS
The way you eat affects the condition of your health. By making a few changes in your diet, you can bring some diseases and unhealthy conditions under control.
Lower your blood pressure by the way you eat. There is a significant relationship between the amount of salt consumed and our blood pressure. Eating highly salted foods, especially snack foods, makes salt consumption excessively high. It has been estimated that many Americans eat about ten times more salt than is required for good health. The amount recommended is seven-eight teaspoons daily! A low sodium (low-salt) diet is an excellent way to help keep your blood pressure under control. Furthermore, reducing your intake of sugar and white flour foods also help in lowering your blood pressure. The ups and downs in blood glucose will moderate, and exaggerated fluctuations in personality characteristics (ranging from hyperactive to catatonic) will decrease.
People with inadequate intake of potassium often develop hypertension. The problem can be deferred by eating foods rich in potassium such as peanuts, dates, bananas, dried beans and dark green leafy vegetables. Meats are also a good source of potassium. Other measures that are effective in lowering blood pressure are exercising daily, lowering weight to normal and eliminating smoking.
A low fat diet can clear clogged arteries and help heal victims of heart attacks and strokes. Research from many sources concludes that arteriosclerosis can be reversed when the fat calories in the diet are lowered to 10% of the total calorie intake. That would mean giving up all fried foods, butter, milk, cheese, salad dressings, ice cream, hamburger, potato chips, pork, and “extra-crispy” fried chicken (which equals eighteen parts of butter in a half-chicken serving!) If you have never had a heart attack or stroke, you can reduce your chances of having one by reducing your fat intake to 25 to 30% of your total calories. Less fat than this would virtually guarantee your sound health.
Some digestive problems can be corrected with proper eating habits. It takes the stomach four hours to empty an average meal. That means that snacking between meals adds food to an already working stomach and increases the emptying time- sometimes to as much as nine hours. In addition, the fermentation that is created in the stomach can be detrimental to your mind, body and emotions. It is recommended that five hours be allowed to pass between the end of one meal and the next time you eat. Some people nibble and snack all day instead of eating proper meals. This can be very harmful to your body because it causes poor absorption of nutrients and reduces the amount of protein available for the body to use.
The way you eat definitely affects your health-either positively or negatively. If you want to stop feeling sick and tired, your diet will have to change. Our bodies have natural healing mechanisms that respond to proper nutrients. If you put the right foods in, you’ll get a healthy body in return.