Healthy eating

Categories: Nutrition

Healthy eating is the practice of making choices about what or how much one eats with the intention of improving or maintaining good health. Typically this means following recommendations of "experts" regarding a nutritional diet. The recommendations may address:

  • total calorie consumption;
  • balance of major nutrients (e.g., proteins, fats, carbohydrates);
  • increased consumption of foods designated as beneficial;
  • decreased consumption of foods designated as detrimental;
  • increased consumption of specific vitamins or other micronutrients;
  • avoidance of certain food additives (dyes, preservatives, sweeteners);
  • avoidance of environmental food contaminants (e.g., mercury or aflatoxins)
  • methods of food preparation (e.g., raw versus cooked).

The "experts" may be academically certified, or may be self-apppointed. The evidence underlying their recommendations may be strong or weak by scientific standards. Our ideas of what counts as "healthy" have varied in different times and places, according to scientific advances in the field of nutrition, cultural fashions, religious proscriptions, or personal considerations.

Many governments and other organisations provide nutritional advice and launch schemes in order to promote healthy eating. Diets which lead to obesity (being severely overweight), diabetes, and other medical conditions, are a severe drain of resources for national health providers, and on businesses due to reduced productivity of staff.

A recent health campaign by the British government has attempted to impress the need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables using the slogan "5 a day". Adverts have given examples of what a portion of fruit or vegetables amounts to, and how 5 or more portions can be incorporated into one's diet.

Governments also put pressure on businesses to promote healthy food options, and regularly consider measures, such as banning the advertising of fast food, or taxing foods which are high in fat.

There is also near-unanimious agreement that hydrogenenated (aka trans fats) are not a particularly healthy form of calories, and that consuming some types of fish and seafood (a source of omega-3 fatty acids) before meat and poultry may contribute to an individual's health and longevity. Unfortunately, consumption of predatory fish at the top of the food chain (such as swordfish, mackerel, shark, and albacore tuna) increases ones exposure to mercury and PCBs, so the hazards may outweigh the health benefits as most fish contains trace amounts of pollution.

Eggs have long been a source of controversy -- suffice to say that egg yolks are richer in cholesterol than egg whites, and should be consumed in moderation, whereas egg whites contain little or no substances suspected of causing obesity or heart disease.

It should be noted that such research is often heavily funded by medical organizations, such as pharmaceutical companies. This research is done on the effects of various chemicals - foods and nonfoods - on the mammal physiology. The neutrality of each study should be thoughtfully assessed in context of who was funding the research, and what the immediate goals were.

Contents

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Map of general concepts

The digestive tract is a vacuum cleaner which brings into the body a liquified mixture of whatever foods were eaten at the last meal. A wise choice of which sorts of foods are mixed together in a snack or meal is therefore central to keeping to optimal physical health. The body gets all the building blocks it requires from this food-chemical mixture. Generally speaking, mixing meat or milk with other foods is a good way to ensure healthy absorption. These two foods are the stuff of the mammal body, itself, and the body therefore assimilates them readily.

Chlorophyll is known to be a central nutrient in all mammal diets. Deep dark leafy green vegetables such as spinach, collard greens, or mustard greens are excellent sources of this.

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Toxins

Almost all foods contain tiny amounts of toxins. Normally these toxins do not pose a great danger to a healthy individual. This may be because healthy humans either don't metabolise the toxins in the first place, or if they do, their immune systems can deal with the damage caused.

As long as a person has a varied diet there is little danger of overloading the body's defences with any one particular toxin. However, a person may not be aware that their diet is unvaried in certain respects.

For example, people on calorie restricted diets often choose to buy products advertised as "reduced calorie" or "no sugar added". These products contain artificial sweeteners instead of naturally sweet substances like sugars or syrrups. Just like ordinary foods and food additives, these artifical sweeteners are safe to consume in small quanities, because of their inherently low toxicity. Very often manufacturers publish the positive results of 'safety studies' where one product (for example a carbonated soft drink) containing the artificial sweetener was given daily to a group of people for a certein period of time, while a second group received the traditional version containing sugar or cane syrrup. Invariably the first group would exhibit fewer health problems than the second, and no statistically significant adverse side effects. In this respect the artificial sweetener can be said to be a healthier choice. As a result, the product receives official approval for sale to the public.

Over a period of time, many different products from different manufacturers are similarly approved for sale, each one relying on a study done in isolation, and each one suggesting the artifically sweetened product has fewer associated health problems than equivalent all-natural products.

What happens next is that dieters start buying reduced calorie soft drinks, biscuits, cakes, flavoured water, yoghurt, and so on. All of these contain combinations of the leading artificial sweeteners aspartame, acesulfame potassium or sucralose. In addition to these, the dieter may also spike several cups of tea or coffee a day with a tablet of the same. The dieter is thus exposed to cumulative doses of these toxins at much higher levels than those on which the safety studies were based.

The issue of sweetening is just one example. Other taste-enhancing additives (e.g. salt substitutes) or flavourants are also hidden in processed foods and drink, as are dyes and colourants.

Mandatory food labelling is one attempt to overcome the problem. This places the onus on the consumer to check the 'ingredients' of all foods before consumption. However, the average consumer has no training in organic chemistry and its nutritional effects. Neither is it practical for individuals to walk around with little score cards to record all the quantities of ingredients consumed each day.

The only practical advice is to consume as little processed foods and drink as possible. Pure water (preferably distilled) is the best drink available. Boil it before drinking if you suspect any living organisms to be present. Remember that wines (preferably red) and to a lesser extent, beer (preferably real ale) can be beneficial in small daily quantities (two units = 20ml of alcohol content). Eat fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked fresh meat or fish, egg whites, natural yoghurt, seeds and nuts (but not salted or roasted), and so on.

Some would assert that research into the toxicity of many varied artificial ingredients has been inconclusive. The usa's food and drug administration has very stringent requirements for the introduction of new food ingredients, and this includes rigorous testing on animals, where the animals are given exorbitant amounts of these chemicals - far more than humans ever would be likely to consume. Artificial ingredients are, one and all, things which are derived from natural foodstuffs. Unfortunately, in the past, the interests of intellectual property have prevented free and open publication of the sources from which various artificial additives are derived.

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See also

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External links