When it comes to keeping the human body, nutrition is the most essential part of everyone’s life. If people do not have full control, it will affect the way they will be in the future. Any change to someone’s diet will change their body in the long run, whether it be positive or negative. It is quite apparent, especially in America, that the common person’s nutrition has gone down hill. Since the 1980s, the rate of obesity has inflated double the amount for adults and triple for children (“Obesity” p. 1). Shockingly, America spends more on fast food than on college education, computers, software and cars combined.
In fact, in 2005, Americans spent one hundred thirty four billion dollars on fast food alone. In the ‘70s, America only spent six billion (Schlosser p. 10). I am not one to blame McDonalds for the drastic rise of poor nutrition. There are obviously other reasons why. I mainly blame the misinformation and myths that the general public has been told. The reason why that people are more unhealthy now than in the past is because of lack of knowledge and research about what to eat in our everyday diet. There are many types of myths that revolve around the varying amount of food groups.
In general, the information that is given in the media or that is known as common knowledge, is not necessarily true, even when it comes to junk food and the often considered nonessential supplements. For instance, many people believe that color dyes are noxious for us and can cause brain damage. There is no evidence of the chemicals of doing so. However, as a precaution, several companies are using natural dyes as replacements. A rumor that has been floating around for a long time is that high fructose corn-syrup is worse than sugar.
This may be confusing for me to include, but just because a food is reduced fat, it just means that they add in sugar to replace the fat that was there in the first place. Sugar is worse than fat. Technically, they’re both not unhealthy. People just cannot eat them in excess. It would take less amount of sugar to take too much compared to ingesting an excess of dairy, proteins, fruits or vegetables. Anything is unhealthy in excess. Even though fat and sugar are treated exactly the same, there are good fats and good sugars. Good fats are in food likes .
Fat is seen just as insalubrious as sugar, but we should keep the good fat. Fat fills up the body more than sugar. Speaking of sugar, it is not a good thing to abandon . First of all, it is virtually everywhere: candy, peanut butter, jelly, bread, energy drinks, salad dressings, crackers, yogurt, spaghetti sauce, mixed vegetables, just about everything. The good sugar that should be consumed should be naturally in our fruits and vegetables. The unhealthy sugars are usually referred to as added sugars. There are ways of telling if a sugar is added by reading the ingredients.
The types of added sugar are as follows: sucrose, maltose, fructose, evaporated cane juice, malt syrup, raw sugar, molasses, malt sugar, dextrose, maple syrup, lactose, crystalline fructose, invert sugar, corn syrup, corn sweetener, cane sugar, cane crystal, brown sugar, agave nectar, fruit juice concentrates, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, and honey (“How to spot…” p. 5). One useful way of telling for sure without memorizing all those names is looking for the suffix “-ose” and the phrase “syrup. ” It is recommended that women should eat less than twenty grams or six teaspoons of added sugar a day.
As for men, they should ingest less than thirty six grams or also can be measured as nine teaspoons of added sugar. For the average woman, the total amount of sugars that they should consume is forty eight grams or twelve teaspoons a day. For men, the total amount of sugar that they should eat a day is seventy two grams or eighteen teaspoons. Even though there are not any myths that mainly focus on dairy, there are a few that roam around here and there. In reference to the American food pyramid (other countries have their own), people are supposed to consume three cups of dairy products a day (Brown).
The information again is never given to a specific height, weight or age. For some reason, we are told that if we consume full-fat dairy products make us have a higher risk of heart disease and/or obesity. It mostly has to do with the products that have more calories. In fact, the main benefits of dairy products come from the fatty components in the first place. There is no research that supports the idea of low-fat dairy products keeps people at less of a risk. They have actually proven the opposite. It actually lowers the chance of becoming obese.
In fact, a full-fat dairy diet actually lowers the chance of heart disease up to sixty nine percent (“20 Mainstream Nutrition… ”). One of the most underrated nutritional essentials, the proteins, tend to have many misconceptions. According to the food pyramid, we are suppose to ingest two to three servings a day. A high protein intake revs up the metabolism. Simultaneously, it diminishes the appetite and changes several hormones into the person taking a massive amount of protein into losing weight. The way it changes our hunger is by increasing satiety hormones: GLP-1, peptide YY, and cholecystokinin (“How Protein Can…” p 1).
Satiety hormones are simply appetite-reducing hormones. At the same time, it reduces the amount of appetite-increasing hormone ghrelin. Without any debate, fruits and vegetables are the most important foods to eat in our diets. Commonly, we are told to have more servings of food like bread than the other groups. At first they may seem to be not that controversial, but they are. It is mostly confused with amount of said food. Servings are different for everyone of the food groups. For instance, we are supposedly supposed to eat ten to twelve servings of grain a day. With fruits, people are suppose to eat four to five servings a day.
Taking in consideration of the MyPyramid plan, the amount of grain translates to ten ounces and for fruit: two and a half cups. To paraphrase, the MyPyramid plan is a nutritional strategy for those who are looking to have a more well-conditioned body. Do not confuse servings with the actual amount of food. Due to this confusion, people tend to consume more. There are myths that people believe about grain products. For one thing, the most common rumor that floats around in the media is that a gluten-free diet will help people lose weight. Nevertheless, the evidence is simultaneously for and against this statement.
Scientific studies have shown that people who eat whole grains either lose weight or gain weight (Webb p. 6). It depends on the person alone. Their weight loss or gain was compared to people on low whole-grain or gluten diet. The weight loss effects that people tell others have to do consuming fewer calories overall due to the low-gluten diet restrictions on other types of food overall. Some people believe it is better to abandon gluten completely. Within itself is not a negative way to diet. It is mostly associated with the one percent of the population who have a severe gluten intolerance.
There is not an accurate statistic and it could range from six to eight percentage. Research has been done and scientists have shown that gluten free diets have some benefits. Studies have shown that it helps people with irritable bowel syndrome, schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy by diminishing their indications of their conditions. (Gunnars p. 1). Although, it’s perfectly fine to eat naturally gluten-free products such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and meats. When it comes to gluten-free products like junk foods do not have more benefits than the ones that have gluten in them.
To summarize, it is fine or someone to have gluten in their diet and it is okay not to. They both have their benefits and they have their disadvantages, especially with those who have a celiac disease. One common part of nutrition that is overlooked and very important has to be exercised. There is no misconception when it comes to the critics and scientists that determine the amount that children to young adults should exercise. Although, there is a myth that floats around claiming that less food and more exercise helps people lose weight. What people do not realize is that they need to eat food to burn calories.
In order for someone to improve their nutritional value, research must be done to realize what types of food are wholesome, insalubrious, hazardous, or essential it is. Good nutrition is one of the most important keys to have a long and/or healthy life. It changes our future little by little whether we steadily improve it or make it worse. It is quite apparent, especially in America, that there needs to be more awareness about the misinformation about nutrition. It may take decades for the public to be aware of how to take care of our own bodies.
