Add or Subtract Nutrients to Increase or Decrease your Risk of Diseases

Balance your Nutrient to Stay in Optimal Health

Knowing What to Eat & What Not to Eat Does the Trick

We are what we eat! The effect of the cruelest of things that happen to an individual slowly starts to wear away as you start adding salt and spice to your diet! Eating might be a part of mankind needed for survival and sustenance but there’s more to it! Some treat food even as a symbol of love when they run out of words to express their care and warmth to others. For others its an opportunity to explore the world and be happy. Every country, different states in a country, and different cities in every state have a cuisine of their own. This makes our world filled with an innumerable number of cuisines, dishes and ingredients. Not even a food connoisseur would be aware of everything. Life is a balance of the different things that happen around us such as good and bad, happy and sad and so on. Likewise, eating too is an art. Eating too much or too less of certain foods raises the risk of dying of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. How we eat, what we eat and how much we eat influences our disease risk.
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Too Much or Too Little?
​Overconsumption of salt, sugar or fat can raise your risk for a variety of diseases while eating healthy foods lowers your risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases as well. We all know that fruits and vegetables are healthy, chips and burgers are unhealthy then what’s all the fuss about eating healthy food all the time? The trick lies in portion control, choosing the right nutrients and pairing them with your choice of foods. Basically, any healthy eating plan strictly adheres to eating more of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free/low-fat dairy products, moderate portions of eggs, nuts, lean meats, beans and poultry and above all, minimizing the intake of saturated and trans fats, sodium and added sugars. While this exists as a general thumb rule there is also a need to understand how the various dietary components affect the risk of dying from various diseases.

To find an answer to this question the researchers picked out 10 different foods and nutrients analyzing their relationship to diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. It was found that almost 50% of all deaths linked to cardiometabolic diseases (heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes) was associated with haphazard eating habits despite controlling factors for age, sex and ethnicity. A total of more than 7,00,000 deaths happened in adults due to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Almost 3,00,000 (45%) deaths were linked to decreased consumption of certain foods and nutrients needed for healthy living along with overconsumption of certain other foods that are branded as ‘unhealthy.

The risk of cardiometabolic diseases due to increase/decrease in certain nutrients consumption were as follows:

• 8.5% was due to insufficient consumption of nuts & seeds
• 7.8% was due to insufficient consumption of omega-3 fats
• 7.6% was due to insufficient consumption of vegetables
• 7.5% was due to insufficient consumption of fruits
• 5.9% was due to insufficient consumption of whole grains
• 2.3% was due to insufficient consumption of polyunsaturated fats
• 9.5% was due to increased consumption of sodium
• 8.2% was due to increased consumption of processed meat
• 7.4% was due to increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
• 0.4% was due to increased consumption of processed red meat
  
  

This study is a perfect example of how one’s eating habits can positively or negatively impact their health status in life. Though we need to look from other angles too apart from eating healthy food to prevent heart disease better dietary modifications has its own sets of benefits that go with it. Multiple factors such as genetics and physical activity too play important role besides dietary changes in affecting cardiometabolic health. So, its always recommended that you speak with your physician before you go about making the necessary dietary changes. Once you get a green signal, you can always get in touch with registered dietitian nutritionists at www.firsteatright.com who can always guide you in your endeavor to good health.

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