The main changes in dietary habits of the past decades tend to influence especially the female body, a body protected by nature of energy deficiency and starvation, but under the risk of being destroyed by abundance. The most serious error consist of giving up plant foods in favor of animal foods. The number of overweight people is in constant growth.
Obesity and other related endocrinometabolic disorders tend to reach alarming levels. The lack of exercise, excessive consumption of refined sweets and high fat foods and high content of preservatives, flavor enhancers and additives in food constitute the essential determinants of eating disorders.
To all these conditions are added the modern methods of contraception that require the daily intake of a certain amount of estrogen and that contribute to weight gain and increased cellulite. Important quantities of hormones exist in our food, hormone used for the rapid growth of animals or plants, for doubling productivity and increasing farm profitability, all at the expence of the product quality and our health.
The main food for the human body are the carbohydrates (carbs), lipids (fats), proteins (amino acids), vitamins, minerals and water. They are irreplaceable. "We are what we eat". And I would add that it is just as important how we eat. Some indications of food hygiene:
- Do not eat withered fruits and vegetables. Their vitamin content is reduced and, more importantly, dangerous toxins develop inside them. The same is true for rancid fruits or any other rancid food.
- Do not keep fresh fruits and vegetables in the water longer than it is required in order to wash them. Vitamin C dissolves very quickly in water and you will lose a large part of it.
- Do not eat potatoes with areas bluish in color. They have accumulated substances harmful to your health.
- Never use the same fry oil for two or more times. Once hot, oil can be used whenever needed, but if it cooled you must not reheat it. It can develop toxic compounds that may favor the occurrence of cancers.
- Do not use aluminum pans or pans of other metals that have a damaged enamel coating. During the heating and cooking of the food toxic compounds are released through these cracks that pass in the food.
- Do not eat a deformed can. Any small deformation of the can causes damage to the inner coating of the metal box so that small toxic metal particles move inside the content.
- Avoid smoked food. Smoke contains potentially carcinogenic substances that accumulate in smoked products. Modern methods of "smoking" are more harmful; they consist in the use of special additives with the smell and taste of smoked food. Avoid them! Smoking was until recently a method of meat and meat products preservation for longer periods of time. At that time there were no refrigerators or freezer boxes. Likewise, jams, pickles... all came out of the desire to preserve food during the long, cold winters.
Have you ever wondered why there are no potatoe pickles? Because this vegetable resists all winter and does not require sophisticated methods of conservation. Or apple jam - very rare, only out of the desire for variety. Apples normally do not require preservation, they successfully withstand the long periods of winter, provided they are kept cold but not freezing.
Today is handy to preserve food by freezing. Or even easier to buy them in this form. Thus food retains most of the nutritious properties, does not require the addition of additives, preservatives, sweeteners, are healthy and fresh.
- Do not eat undercooked meat. Steaks cooked rare are an extremely easy way of being infected with some commonly transmitted parasites (tapeworm, trichinosis etc). If fully cooked (boiled, roasted, baked), then the risk of infection is minimal.
There are many types of more or less complicated diets. Whatever type of diet you choose you must remember one thing, namely that a balanced and varied diet associated with a regular lifestyle and sustained physical activity is an important secret in keeping your health and vital energy. Aggressive slimming diets are necessary and useful for short periods of time (2-3 weeks) and should not be applied too often. Twice a year is the most times you can diet in terms of body health. What should be a priority is learning and applying the rules of healthy eating over long periods, in order to avoid abuse of any kind.
The specialists' opinion is that the most important rule of healthy eating is respecting the three meals of the day, the last being no later than 19:00. Breakfast is of paramount importance in the body's metabolic economy, preventing unwanted fat deposits.