Eat Your way to Good Health
“Life will give you what you demand, not what you think you deserve.”
By Michael Oboh
It is often said that “life will give you what you demand, not what you think you deserve.” Likewise, your body may not give you good health simply because you think you deserve one. We have to demand good health from life through discipline in our habits, namely, by eating healthy food, improving our physical activity, and maintaining a healthy mindset.
As our faces differ, so does our metabolic rates, i.e., the level of energy expenditure. Several factors can affect a person’s metabolic rate and health. A person who is usually inactive would have no use of the same amount of energy required by a physically active person.
Furthermore, someone can be addicted to a high-fat and carbohydrate diet for years and remain healthy (with a healthy weight). This may be different from someone else since the normal functioning of human tissues and organs, the metabolism of food particles, and the capture of energy vary in individuals based primarily on but not limited to genetics, age, gender, body weight, and level of physical activity. For instance, the kidney’s functional and structural components start declining from ~45 years of age; hence, it’s important to maintain one’s kidney’s health at that age and even below. The kidneys can work in excess when a person is diabetic to clear-out excess glucose from the body.
A high caloric diet should be reduced to circumvent obesity-which has been associated with oxidative stress, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Besides, if you are finding it difficult to lose weight despite being on a low-fat diet, it could be due to carbohydrate addiction which stimulates the release of insulin to lower blood glucose levels, and insulin prevents the breakdown of fats, leading to weight gain.
For your next meal, one should focus more on the health-promotion, disease-prevention, and understanding the therapeutic effects of the food rather than how appetizing, savory or spicy the food is. Prioritizing the nutrients yield from meals according to your body’s nutrient requirements should be worked on rather than how palatable and spicy the food is. The human body simply consumes, absorbs, and uses nutrients from foods for growth and to maintain good health, thus, your meal can either prevent a disease or nourish one.
Conclusively, to maintain good health, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, optimizing the intake of healthy and therapeutic foods, reducing the intake of ultra-processed foods and staying hydrated given that water provides an aqueous environment for enzymes to work in optimum condition, thereby enhances the absorption and availability of nutrients in the human body.