Could you imagine waking up tomorrow and while reading or watching the news, you found the following headings?: “A cure to end a third of the global cases of cancer has been found”. Or maybe this one: “The forecast of the exponential increase in new diabetes cases will be stopped by 2016”. Or how about: “We can decrease to up to a 50% the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases in children born during this year”. All these would be exciting news, an accomplished dream for humanity.
Well, far from being a dream, all these news, nowadays, are realities. We now know how to attain them. The solution will not be found in a hospital or a pharmacy. It is much closer than you might think: as close as the distance found between you and your kitchen.
We are certain there is a direct relationship between daily habits and some diseases.
When talking about daily habits, nutrition is the key together with physical activity. In fact, this relationship can be proven with the common diseases that are nowadays the main cause of death in the adult population within the Western countries such as cardiovascular diseases (stroke, ictus, angina…), as well as some others ranked in the “top 10” like cancer and diabetes, just to name a couple of examples, the association becomes clear.
A characteristic common to all these conditions, even those that might look as sudden as a heart attack, is that they are all chronic diseases. They might not have displayed any outer signs when they first developed, nor days before the first outburst, but they are indeed a result of a long process where everything that we put on our plate plays a pretty decisive role.
Thus, the solution is not to just take a pill or wait for some blood tests to come around and say we are fine. What we need to do is determine what it is that we will be eating in our next meal and what we will be putting on our dining tables, planning today´s and tomorrow’s meals. We must do this every single day.
There is no point waiting for big scientific findings, or waiting for a super food that will end all conditions and ailments and at the same time will help you to lose weight. That is utopia. Choosing what to have for dinner tonight is not. Fortunately, we have a great variety of foods at our reach and we can use them in as many different ways as globalization enables us to. This great variety of foods to choose from is however mixed with an incredibly large amount of edible products that are also at our reach. We must learn to make the correct decisions. The key is to inform oneself and choose wisely.
In terms of information, we have so much that it is difficult to know anything anymore. What typically confuses us is that the food industry provides information to the population that is above all, beneficial to them. You can be sure at this point that the key goal of the food industry is not to feed the population with nutrient rich foods, but to sell as much as they can.
What can we eat then? Unfortunately, the answer would go beyond the extension of a humble article, but I can sum the most important things up in the following suggestions:
May the 28th is National Nutrition day, but every day throughout the year is a good day to make the right decisions in regards of your health. What to eat or not to eat.
All these proposals are valid and general, but can be personalised to all the individuals and their circumstances. If you ever need help regarding your health, ask a qualified professional.
Doctor , Master in Dietetics and Nutrition
HC Marbella Hospital Internacional
March 28, 2019
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