I am creating this blog in order to really make the
changes in my dietary habits that will lead to me living a healthier, happier,
and more successful life. Over the next
6 blogs, I will explore all aspects of nutrition in order to create a diet plan
that will better meet dietary guidelines.
Nutrition and disease are closely connected. As a personal trainer, I see first-hand how
they are connected every day when I go into work. I can train a person every day and they will
be more physically fit. If he or she is
not watching their diet, then all the training in the world will not help with
the chronic diseases that are associated with their diet. Sizer and Whitney (2013), state that smoking
and excess drinking are the only lifestyle choices that influence health more
than diet. This is likely because an
improper diet leads to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure,
and many other chronic illnesses. It is estimated that of the 2.4 million deaths each year in the U.S., 75% are the result of avoidable nutritional factor diseases (Healthy Living, 2004). These are diseases that can be avoided all with good nutrition! These mortality rates do not need to exist, yet they do.
Consumption
of a healthy diet is critical for reducing chronic diseases such as obesity
(Rao, Afshin, Singh, & Mozaffarian, 2013).
Obesity leads to a variety of other chronic illnesses and the best way
to prevent obesity is to maintain a proper diet and healthy lifestyle. The
choice one makes regarding diet has a profound effect on your health not only
today, but in the future (Sizer & Whitney, 2014). It is very important to take care of the body
you have so that you not only feel good today, but continue to feel good in the
future. My favorite analogy when it comes to nutrition is this:
What if you finally
got the luxury car of your dreams? Would
you fill it up with generic oil? Would
you put the lowest grade gas in it? If
you got this amazing new car, you would likely do everything you could to keep
it running well and looking nice. Well,
our bodies our like luxury cars. Do you
want to put crap in your body? If you
feed your body well, then it will run great.
You will have a lot of energy, in addition to looking great as
well. Quality nutrition is so
important. Obesity is a killer and if
you want your body to last and feel good, then eating healthy and exercising is
not an optional thing, but a mandatory thing.
Sometimes I see
people who take their diet to such an extreme level that they end up becoming
malnourished. This often happens with
people who start to see success in their bodies as they lose weight from
changes in their diet. A friend of mine
was so successful in quickly losing weight that she thought that if she reduced
her calories even more, then maybe she would lose even more weight faster. She ended up being hospitalized for
malnourishment and had to seek counseling in order to better educate herself
regarding balance in her diet.
Healthy Living (2004). How do you want to die? Retrieved from https://healthy-living.org/html/what_a_choice_.html
Healthy Living (2004). Nutritional Disease. Image retrieved from https://healthy-living.org/html/what_a_choice_.html
Healthy Living (2004). It Needs Maintenance. Image retrieved from https://healthy-living.org/html/what_a_choice_.html
Rao, M., Afshin, A., Singh, G., Mozaffarian, D.
(2013). Do Healthier Foods and Diet Patterns Cost More than Less Healthy
Options. British Medical Journal. Retrieved from http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/12/e004277.full?sid=f40b344f-ef24-4a2d-9c09-59516f35fefc
Sizer, F. & Whitney, E.
(2013). Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (13th
ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
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