The Importance of Being Nuts About Health. I'm Nuts, Are You?

Health

It’s a screaming, daunting, word that appears nearly everywhere in women’s magazines, newspaper articles and self-help books causing many to regret eating that KFC they had for lunch and quickly skip a couple of pages. It is also all over the internet, with numerous websites offering outrageous claims and programmes expensive enough to make your head whizz.

• Health is defined as a state of complete mental, physical and emotional being without the presence of disease. However, health also involves understanding what one eats and how one exercises and this shouldn’t be a daunting task, especially if it means you are leading a much healthier lifestyle by the end of it.

Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle

Chronic diseases are taking over, with various cancers; both type 1 and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus; cardiovascular heart disease and coronary vascular disease, obesity and metabolic syndrome on the increase in both developed and developing countries.

Many of these diseases are already epidemics, with diabetes in particular being in the lead, with over 230 million people currently affected by the disease and if that isn’t scary enough, every ten seconds, a person dies of diabetes-related causes. There is also a strong link between these diseases and the rise in morbidity and mortality as a result of eating a poor diet lacking in essential nutrients and a lack of physical exercise.

• What is interesting to note, is that despite all the information about healthy eating being available, people still continue to eat poor diets. South Africa is a notable case, as a middle- income country with enough food to sustain its people and to export to foreign countries yet with millions of people living in poverty, there are more obese, undernourished people than underweight, undernourished people. It is possible for obese or overweight people to be undernourished, for example, they may be eating a diet rich in starch, protein and fat, but they may also be lacking in sufficient amounts of essential vitamins and minerals.

Nutrition and Exercise

Nutrition and exercise both form the basis of good health and are words which make many people cringe and immediately hide their packets of chips and pull in their stomachs. There is great emphasis on food and eating a varied diet which includes starch and wholegrain breads; legumes and pulses such as baked beans and lentils; fruits; vegetables; nuts and seeds; lean animal protein such as chicken, fish and game; eggs and low fat dairy products.

• Nutrition is the science of food and its interaction with the human body to promote and maintain health.

In South Africa, the government has advised that South Africans eat according to the Food Based Dietary Guidelines. There are eleven guidelines and these are based on the consumption of locally available foods.

The Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) include:
1. Enjoy a variety of foods
2. Be active
3. Make starchy foods the basis of most meals
4. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables every day
5. Eat dry beans, peas, lentils and soy regularly
6. Chicken, fish, milk, meat or eggs can be eaten daily
7. Eat fats sparingly
8. Use salt sparingly
9. Drink lots of clean, safe water
10. If you drink alcohol, drink sensibly
11. Use foods and drinks containing sugar sparingly and not in between meals

In order to promote and maintain health, one doesn’t only need to consider nutrition, but also exercise (I can visualize many groans here). We need to exercise for several reasons; the main reason being to avoid any chronic diseases. The benefits of exercise include cardiovascular fitness, increased bone density which helps against osteoporosis; helps develop and strengthen muscles and joints; increases the amount of energy your body has so you are able to perform more activities in one day; you are better able to deal with stress and it helps beat insomnia. Exercising daily also helps to maintain our body weight.

• There are various types of exercise to do, the best being cardiovascular exercise such as running, walking, playing squash, soccer, swimming and aerobics. This type of exercise should be done on low intensity for 45mins, 3-5 times per week. The longer and more intense the exercise, the greater the benefit! It is also critical that if either one hasn’t exercised before or one hasn’t exercised for a very long period of time, one must see a health professional for a medical check-up.

Finally as first week of the New Year passes, for many of us, that New Year’s resolution to eat healthily and hit the gym every day is becoming more and more motivating and achievable. Improving one’s health often means a complete lifestyle change and all one needs is a little knowlege and motivation. And if the frightening statistics aren’t enough, there is also always this website (which will soon have many articles on different aspects of nutrition and health) and a fellow “HealthNut’s” inspiration and encouragement!