Let’s start with the question,
What is the goal of your life?
This question might make you think of all the aspirations you have, like career, money, power, or something else. But, if I say, there is something more important and more precious than all these.
Yes, it’s your health, your true wealth.
How food and health are related?
You will only achieve your dream if you are physically, emotionally, mentally & socially fit. So, the most primitive goal of humans is to sustain this precious life, and keep this body healthy.
Unfortunately, today in this hustle & bustle of achieving more, in this highly competitive world, we just forget to think of our health and are least concerned about the food we eat.
Today the world is flooded with cases of obesity, atherosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes & much more.
It’s quite surprising that all the above-mentioned are lifestyle disorders that came into the picture just because of following an unhealthy lifestyle & eating unhealthy food, this shows how food and health are interlinked.
Sadly, we are living in a food environment that fails to support our health and food-related diseases are quite common. Another mistake people are making is that, they have started focusing on nutrients rather than food. It’s very good to be aware of the components of food but, this technique led to misunderstanding in the masses.
In recent years, a lot of attention has been focused on reducing carbohydrates & increasing protein in the diet, which led people to even reduce the consumption of fresh fruits. People also started to supplement their diets with whey protein, multivitamins and minerals. But there are certain studies to show that simply removing or boosting nutrients or turning them into supplements doesn’t seem to work, you have to be more precise about what you eat.
What made the shift in food consumption pattern globally?
The human body runs on food and the consumption of food starts from the day of conception itself. We can survive only 3 weeks without food & 3 days without water.
Why I am telling you all this?
This probably has a reason, the reason is that food is very crucial and we can’t find its alternatives, we need a continuous supply of food & water to sustain in this life.
Introduction to processed food industries
Severe shortages of food emerged after the Second World War, but technological advances somehow balanced this by producing inexpensive food. Women who had previously controlled most of the household chores now entered the workforce. This took a turn for the worse.
The processed food industry began to captivate the whole food environment and convenient fast food took the place of freshly prepared home-cooked meals. The condition kept deteriorating and our food turned out to be less healthy, with more salt, fat, and sugar.
What increased the incidents of obesity & diabetes?
During the second half of the 20th century, attention was focused on reducing the saturated fats & total fats in diet. But the processed food industries made their way to enter into the game. They started launching their products with the tag “less fat” or “zero fat” and found other ways to survive in the market by making processed food with significantly more sugar, increasing our sugar intake which fueled the epidemics of obesity & diabetes.
What are the implications of the shift in food consumption?
The shift in food consumption has severely affected the human body by altering the rate of metabolism, changing the physiological adaptations and decreasing the immunity. This is because the balance between food availability & energy expenditure has been disrupted which gave birth to lifestyle disorders like obesity and diabetes.
This is because, we are performing minimal physical activities and consuming energy-dense food which in turn is not being used & metabolized by the body, which is then getting stored in the body causing obesity.
How a healthy diet should look like?
Today there is a huge need to tell people how to make their diet healthy and it involves:
How to choose the food?
We should always opt for healthy alternatives in food the food which is fresh, minimally processed & organic.
How to shop for food?
Our plate should look colorful like a rainbow here I am not talking about artificial colors, I am talking about multiple vegetables, fruits, dairy products, cereals & pulses, whole grains, etc. They add value to our plate & our health along with this we should opt for fresh & organic foods.
How to prepare and cook food?
Cooking and preparing food is also very important as these processes somehow deteriorate food’s nutritional richness, if not done appropriately.
E.g. Mincing vegetables, and washing vegetables & fruits after feelings reduce the nutrients.
While cooking steaming, baking, boiling, frying, stir frying and grilling should be preferred over chips frying.
Today the population is biased at eating a diet full of delicacies. Generally high in meat, high in processed food & very few whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Ironically, we are choosing foods that trigger instant gratification but in the long term invite bad gut health. We all have heard of a balanced diet. A diet that includes all the foods that are essential in an ideal proportion. An ideal diet serves you with all the nutrients judicially according to your needs, neither in excess nor a deficit.
