There is so much information everywhere about eating the right way, eating the right foods, mindless eating, dieting, more dieting and more dieting. It probably seems ridiculous that I'm writing about dietary imbalance; but I am.
I am one of those people who strongly believes that lifestyle can impact our health – good and bad. Eating is a major part of lifestyle. The simple fact that we receive our nutrition, our energy if you will, from food , makes eating most relevant and rather basic.
Add to this the fact that as we get older it becomes more difficult for many of us to absorb the nutrients we are eating, our metabolism changes and impacts the end results of our eating, and many of us are on medications that may or may not mix well with what we are eating.
Eating impacts our health and one of the smartest things we can do to prevent disease and illness, is to eat foods that work with our body; foods that are in balance with who we are and what we do.
The problem is the American diet is off kilter. We eat more animal products and by products, more convenient foods and restaurant meals, more salt and more sugar. By the same token we eat less beans and legumes and fresh fruits and vegetables and fibers. Not only that we made huge increases in the portion size of what we eat so that two-thirds of our calories come from fat, sugar and alcohol and the other 33 percent are supposed to meet our nutritional needs.
Our diets weren't always like this. For example, in 1910 the average adult consumed about 70 pounds of refined sugar a year. Today we consume about 150 pounds and our children about 275 pounds of sugar. That's a lot of sugar! No wonder we have obesity problems and prediabetes is being diagnosed with younger and younger kids.
The problem, of course, is that American eating is hazardous to our heart health. We know that and the message keeps coming down to us. So why, then, do so many of us make poor food choices?
I'm convinced that it's our way of life that causes us to make lousy nutritional choices. First, our lives are more stressful now than ever. Technology and all the gadgetry that goes with it. We eat on the go, we eat in the car, we eat at our desk, and sometimes we don't eat at all, especially breakfast.
Fewer families sit around the table for family meals. As a result the amount of junk food has risen and junk food and snack food don't have the nutritional values we need to keep us going and keep us healthy. In fact, our diet is linked to many chronic illnesses. People who are stressed eat more and make poor choices. People who exercise and know how to manage their stress are less responsive to depression and anxiety and colds and flu.
Now is the perfect time to make changes in your lifestyle particularly if you have any concern about your heart health.
In my next post, I'll describe what makes a healthy heart diet.
To your success at healthy aging,
Ruthan Brodsky
PS As long as your in a reforming mood, check out this report and change your home environment.
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