How foods influence your health?
The food we consume provide our body with necessary details about the materials for functioning properly. When you do not receive right information, there are chances for the metabolic processes to suffer and that declines our health status.
If food gives wrong instructions to the body or we consume too much food, we become overweight, risks of development of conditions and diseases like heart disease, diabetes or arthritis and undernourished.
In simple terms, our health is controlled by the food we eat. Nowadays, people are consuming foods that are rich in sodium or salt, free sugars, fats, and energy. They fail to eat sufficient vegetables, fruits and dietary fibres like whole grains. These factors remain responsible for imbalanced eating.
The healthy diet should have all types of foods. The foods are categorized as per their functions like:
Energy-rich foods: it consists of foods rich in fats and carbohydrate. It includes sugars, oilseeds and nuts, ghee, vegetable oils, millets, and whole grain cereals.
Bodybuilding foods: It consists of foods rich in proteins. It includes poultry, fish, milk products, milk, oilseeds and nuts,and pulses.
Protective foods: It consists of foods rich in minerals and vitamins. It includes flesh foods, milk products, milk, eggs, fruits, other vegetables,and green leafy vegetables.
Diet during various stages of life
Nutrition is necessary for everyone. The requirement of food varies for every individual be it an elderly person, lactating or pregnant women, growing child or infant. The diet differs from one individual to another. It differs due to factors like physical activity, gender, age, and nutritional necessity during various physiological phases of the body along with other factors. Height and body weight of children reflects the status of physical development and growth. In the same way, the heights and weight of adults show the steps that they take for good health.
Infant diet
If you have a kid or infant in your home, you need to ensure that you offer enough nutritious food for their developing years. It is important to exclusively breastfeed babies until they are six months of age. Exclusive breastfeeding helps the baby to receive enough nutrition and reduces chances of infections. It also helps the forcomplete development of the body. It is proved that breast milk is a wholesome and natural food for healthy development and growth of infants. During this stage, they could not a large portion of meals. It is best to avoid junk foods for infants.
Growing child’s diet
When children consume a balanced diet, it remains as a strong foundation for an active and healthy lifestyle. It further reduces the chances of long term health problems. Childhood is the critical and important time for development and growth of mind and body and also to fight against infections. It is necessary for the child to get a sufficient portion of vitamins, energy, proteins,and minerals through their daily food.
It is necessary to follow hygienic cooking methods. If not, it leads to diarrhea. Physical activities, playing outdoors and balanced diet helps the child to attain the right body composition. It reduces the chances of diet associated with chronic conditions in the future and also helps to prevent other kinds of vitamin deficiency.