Health lifestyle, nutrition and diets are continuously popular
topics. Every month new theories and pro-health strategies appear and along
with them, of course, countless products and services to aid them. Smoking is
becoming less popular by the year, thanks to legal regulations on tobacco
marketing and years of educating consumers on how harmful their habit really
is. Another substance, just as addictive and often abused by many is
potentially even more harmful. It is more common and you often don’t even know
you’re consuming it. We’re genetically programmed to crave it and our brain
responds to it as to cocaine – sugar. It is not only what makes candy, sweet
and desserts so desirable. It is also added to countless other products and
foods, to “improve” the taste and to make the product itself more addictive and
thus more profitable.
Average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, which is
three times what is actually needed. That translates to roughly 35 kilograms a
year. It all translates to 5-billion-dollar industry, unwilling to educate the
customer on how important an ingredient sugar is in their offering. Just as
smoking cigarettes contributes vastly to increasing risk of lung cancer,
abusing sugar leads to obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and cancer. There are
some foods that should never be part of a regular nutrition like sugar drinks
which are by design unhealthy and don’t bother to pretend otherwise.
What may be more deceiving is that sugar is added to all sorts of
foods and that by judging the ingredients label you can’t really tell whether
it is good for you or not. Key information is not the overall sugar content but
rather how much sugar is added to other ingredients intentionally. The products
to look out for in the regard are: ketchups and sauces, fruit juices, low fat
yogurts, sports drinks and granola are all heavily “improved” by sugar. With
the exception of ketchups and sauces the rest of the items mentioned could all
aspire to be even considered healthy and appeal to a person trying to stay fit
and healthy.
Big brands will guide you to health and well-being as long as it
fits with their business model. If this is not the case, it will be up to you
to consider what you put in your shopping cart and later on into yourself.
Luckily there are countless foods and ideas how to combine them to add up to an
interesting, tasty and healthy diet.
Questions:
1) Do you have
any rules you apply to your daily nutrition? Why not/what are those?
2) Do you
believe that a temporary diet can have a prolonged positive effect on your
overall well-being?
3) Are there any
particular products which you know are unhealthy or unnecessary, but it is
difficult for you to quit them?
Sources:
Comments
It seems to me that a proper diet has a positive effect on our well-being and behavior. The more fast food, the more depressed we are and have less energy to live on.
Of course, drinking Coca Cola Zero is hard once in a while, Coca Cola with sugar tastes better. Well, I love sweets, once in a while I can't resist buying some more sweetness.
I always Wake up when I drink warm water with lemon to make my body work better.
2) Do you believe that a temporary diet can have a prolonged positive effect on your overall well-being?
Temporary diet helps to cleanse the body, especially if it is after the holidays and immediately felt ease.
3) Are there any particular products which you know are unhealthy or unnecessary, but it is difficult for you to quit them?
For 7 years already, I haven't added sugar to tea, but it is very difficult for me to drink coffee without sugar. It is also difficult to refuse coca cola and chips.
I think that body-cleaning diets have to be really restricted to achieve its aim, can you recommend any?
7 years is a long time, that's great, good for you :)
Yes, I believe that a temporary diet can have a long-lasting positive effect on our overall health, because our body always has the ability to improve itself again.
Many sweets, pets, and high fat foods can endanger our health, but it's very difficult for us to stop eating them.
No, I think that temporary diet can’t have a prolonged positive effect. For prolonged positive effect diet should be permanent. Keeping body in good condition it’s a hard work and several burgers can destroy all results of your diet.
I eat some products that are unhealthy/unnecessary, but it’s not hard to stop eat them, I just like them but if I have to stop eating them I will make it easily.
Generally I don't drink coffee or tea, I drink only water. My general rule is to eat as simply as possible.
Plain youghurt, and so on. Instead of buying a lot of stuff I spend more money for more expensive food
and eat less but much more healthy
I prepare food seperatly.
2) Do you believe that a temporary diet can have a prolonged positive effect on your overall well-being?
Yes. I think short fasting is very stimulating.
3) Are there any particular products which you know are unhealthy or unnecessary,
but it is difficult for you to quit them?
Chips, fries, very rarely coke, They are very unnecessary, but sometimes they make my day.