The food we eat is supposed to make us grow and support our life, but unfortunately it can also contribute to poor health and eventually to premature death if it lacks nutrients or includes too much of the wrong elements.
Nutrients are needed by the cells of the body to grow and perform their functions. They must receive these nutrients through the food we eat.
The key nutrient groups that our bodies need include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamin, minerals, fibre and water. The body requires all these nutrients to be available for it to be healthy and the only way to achieve this is through a well balanced diet. This pyramid guides us in how much of each common food group our bodies need per day. It is not always easy to eat healthy foods, especially if we lead a busy life, but if we aim to make healthy choices, according to the food pyramid, when cooking at home as well as when eating out we can give ourselves the best chance of staying healthy.
Good nutrition improves the immune system which helps the body to fight infections and reduces the risk of a number of health conditions, including diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer.
Colorectal cancer or Bowel Cancer as it is commonly known is especially recognised this month and is linked to nutrition. It is caused by uncontrolled cell growth in the colon, rectum, or appendix and is often a result of not enough fibre in the diet over time.
Symptoms typically include rectal bleeding, anemia (low levels of iron in the blood), weight loss and changes in bowel habits. Eating a diet high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and eating less red meat has been shown to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Physical exercise can also reduce the risk of this and other diseases.
Although everyone is at risk of nutritional deficiencies if their diet is incomplete, cancer patients often suffer from malnutrition, both as a result of the cancer its self and also from side effects of treatments they may have such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
Cancer can cause an increase in energy use, which means more calories are needed to maintain a person’s current weight.
Cancer can also cause changes in the body’s ability to breakdown carbohydrates, protein and fat into the nutrients the body needs and this can lead to the loss of muscle and fat. People with cancer can also experience extreme psychological stress which may also cause a loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss.
It is essential to remember that excess is as dangerous as deficiency! Large portions, multiple servings, high fat, sugar and salt foods and no exercise can all cause us to be overweight and unhealthy.
A small amount of body fat is healthy but a large amount can contribute to the development of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and many other serious health problems. If your waist is more than 89cms (35 inches) for a woman or 100cms (40 inches) for a man, your risk of disease as a result of excess weight is increased and continues to increase with size.
It is also important to avoid excess alcohol consumption. ‘More than 1 standard drink per day can increase the risk of cancer and other diseases’.
The message to eat healthy food, drink less alcohol and exercise more regularly is a common one that we hear all the time and we often ignore. With our busy lives it is difficult to adhere to the ideal diet as we are often eating on the run or too tired to cook at the end of the day.
To increase your nutrition and decrease unhealthy habits, try out the following tips:
1. Cook a large volume of a healthy meal with lots of vegetables on the weekend and store small portions of it to eat on the busy days during the week
2. Take portions of a pre-prepared healthy meals to work for lunch instead of buying take-away
A quarter of cancers could be prevented by 2025 through diet and exercise, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in the cost of treatment, a report in the Medical Journal of Australia has found.
Contributing factors in the nation's poor health include an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the prevalence of overweight and obese adults, climbing rates of harmful alcohol consumption, and an unbalanced diet.
The Nutritional Scoring System is a food scoring system that allows you to see, at a glance, the nutritional value of the food you buy. Ranks foods on a scale of 1 to100; the higher the score, the more nutritious the food.
The system was developed by a team of leading nutrition, public health and medical experts as a way to help the consumer cut through the confusing nutrition labels and make decisions about food quickly and easily. No retailers or manufacturers were involved in developing the scoring system.
A complicated scientific algorithm is used to develop a nutritional score on each food. This formula takes into account more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors when determining an overall score. Nutrients with favorable effects on health tend to raise the score. These nutrients would include things like fiber, various vitamins and minerals, omega 3 fatty acids, bioflavonoids, carotenoids and iron, among others. Nutrients with unfavorable affects on health, like saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, sugar and cholesterol, can make the score decrease. In addition, things like protein or fat quality, the glycemic load of the food and calories are factored in. Thank goodness we don’t have to do the math! All we really need to know is this: the higher the score, the more nutritious the food is.
The system covers all kinds of foods — from apples to potato chips to fresh meats, and store brands to national brands. If a food doesn’t have a score, it is likely a new food or is in the process of being reformulated. Bakeries, food courts and deli items may not have the scoring system in place.
Using the scores, you can choose foods that are more nutritious at a glance. Just compare the product’s overall nutrition using the score the same way you would price compare. You no longer need to pickup each package and try to make sense of the nutrition label.
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