Eating a healthy, balanced diet seems a very daunting and never-ending battle of mental toughness. It’s so easy to give in to fast food and take away because it is convenient. However, we fail to realize how important sound eating and physical habits are until we develop health issues. Therefore, every July of the year we celebrate Nutrition Month to raise awareness on creating informed choices on the food we eat.
Here are 2 vital reasons why we need to have proper nutrition:
- It promotes healthy outcomes
When we eat a balanced diet, our body works effectively. Our body becomes less prone to disease, infection, fatigue, and low performance.
- Supports normal growth, development, and ageing
Good nutrition can boost immunity, fight pathogens, promote good cell turnover, keep weight in check, reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, bone loss, and cancer. Thereby, allowing us to age gracefully.
While there are plenty of tips on how to eat right, we do not hear often about problems that may affect our nutrition. Below are some eating difficulties we should address to get optimal nourishment from our meals.
- Food no longer tastes good.
Food tastes exceptionally good when ingredients are sourced fresh and in season as well as served hot. You do not necessarily need to buy expensive ingredients because with a dash of creativity what can be found in our backyard can make for a fantastic meal!
- Chewing difficulty
Saliva production is increased when we chew so that food can be swallowed without aggravating the esophagus. When food is not chewed properly because of tooth decay, gum disease, and the likes, large particles enter our digestive system causing bloating, constipation, food reactions, headaches and lowered energy levels.
- Poor digestion
Poor digestion can often times be a result of contaminated food, stress, medication, and chronic diseases like IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. The embarrassment it causes due to the digestive problems (diarrhea) one encounters on a regular basis can be traumatic and may cause a person to restrict their food intake.
- Eating alone
Eating for most cultures is a social experience. For us Filipinos it is what helps bring us together, but more than that some studies show that it affects how much we eat, what we eat, and our mood. Moreover, it has also been linked to depression, blocked blood supply to the heart, obesity and metabolic syndromes such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
- Difficulty cooking
Not being able to cook makes us susceptible to eating out and buying fast food or low-cost food that are high in calories, fat, salt, and sugar. Cooking often helps reduce the amount of processed food we consume.
Although eating healthy can really be a challenge since it demands a lot of effort, we hope that this month brings a renewed commitment for us to choose sound nutrition, bite by bite!
References:
https://www.biron.com/en/education-center/neat-little-guide/nutrition/
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/eating-well-as-you-age.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/06/is-it-true-that-eating-alone-is-bad-for-you
