Nutrition and Food

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The body requires over 40 different nutrients to maintain good health, and no one food supplies all of them. Time limits, low energy and a jadedness around the subject of nutrition, are the most common obstacles people cite for not adhering to a healthy diet. The established connection between good nutrition and disease prevention, suggests that making informed food choices, based on your body’s daily nutrition needs, can have life-long benefits.

The foods we choose to eat are influenced by factors other than nutrition:

  • Hunger and appetite (taste preference)
  • Health status, food allergies and addictions
  • Levels of activity, work schedules and routines
  • Affordability and availability
  • Knowledge of nutrition, health and food hygiene
  • Cooking skills and time allowance
  • Social, cultural and personal beliefs about food
  • Emotional states such as stress, anger and apathy

Nutrition and Food Choice

The food industry has shifted the focus from food being simply nutritious to something to satisfy the appetite (mind), rather than hunger (body). Commercially refined foods contain chemicals to intensify flavour, enhance visual appeal and extend shelf-life. Most food chemicals are indigestible, and end up being stored in fatty tissue to keep them from re-circulating throughout the body. Problems can occur when the chemical load accumulates and becomes a burden that undermines normal body functioning.

The liver and kidneys are the body’s filtering system and often the first organs to be affected by a chemical burden, which can disrupt the endocrine system and cause hormonal imbalances. The rise in obesity, infertility, metabolic syndrome and auto-immune disorders are increasingly being linked to the chemical body burden.¹

The term ‘obesogens’ was coined to describe the effects these chemicals have on metabolism. “Many in the medical and exercise physiology communities remain wedded to poor diet and lack of exercise as the sole causes of obesity. However, researchers are gathering convincing evidence of chemical “obesogens”—dietary, pharmaceutical, and industrial compounds that may alter metabolic processes and predispose some people to gain weight.”2

Common sense tells us that fresh, locally produced food, in as close to its natural state as possible, with the least amount of added chemicals, is best.

We all need to be a little more savvy about the foods we consume. Making some key dietary changes can make a big difference to your overall health. It is my job to help you identify those key changes. The more informed you are about nutrition, and the more you support your body’s functioning, the easier it becomes to opt for healthy food choices.

References:

(1) Tuffrey L. The mother who exposed the links between obesity and common chemicals. Online artice. Available at: https://theecologist.org/2012/jan/12/mother-who-exposed-links-between-obesity-and-common-chemicals (Accessed: 28 June 2020)

(2) Holtcamp W. Obesogens: an environmental link to obesity. Online article. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279464/ (Accessed 28 June 2020)

More serious reading here: http://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns/human-health-problems-rise