A lot of us eat regularly and very often have a normal body weight but are we really eating healthy? A lot of us don’t care about a balanced diet that provides the right amount of nutrition. Even if you are not over eating or starving yourself, what you eat makes a big difference to how your overall health is. An average adult consumes anywhere between 2000-2600 calories a day and even if you are taking the right amount of calories, where you get those calories from matters quite a bit. The source is just as bit as important as the amount of calories you consume. If you’ve been ignoring what you’ve been eating and have just been consuming whatever you want, then I’m here to tell you how that can affect your quality of life and what that can do to your body.
First, let me explain to you what empty calories mean. An empty calorie is a calorie that you consume that provides very little nutrients or no nutrients at all. Well a calorie you consumed must give you energy right? Yes empty calories do give you energy but they have no nutritional effect. It doesn’t provide you with any essential minerals or vitamins or anything of much nutritional value. You need these nutrients to keep your body functioning as it’s supposed to.
Most empty calories come from processed foods that have a lot of fat and sugar added to them. Even though these foods are readily available and convenient they aren’t beneficial to your body. Also most of these foods are the root causes for diabetes, stroke, heart disease and many different forms of cancer. Frequent and high consumption of these empty calories can also lead to weight gain as these foods usually pack more calories than most other foods and these excess calories get stored in the body as fat. Packaged beers, spirits, wines and such alcoholic drinks also have a high amount of empty calories in them.
So what is this nutrition thing I’m talking about you ask? Well your body needs various nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, carbohydrates, fat and water. For example the mineral iodine is required for biosynthesis of Thyroxine which is a type of thyroid hormone, iodine is found in the salt we consume. The function of Thyroxine is to stimulate the consumption of oxygen and thus the metabolism of all cells and tissues in the body. If the levels of Thyroxine aren’t right in your body it slowly leads to an inflammation of the thyroid and also is known to cause fatigue.
Imagine a constant need to just rest, that would suck right? So that’s what can happen to your body when you either consume too much or too little salt. That is just one small example for what can happen to your body if it has an imbalance of nutrients. If you aren’t consuming the right amount of nutrients then it could lead to various different complications.
Well I know we are all here to have a good time but that doesn’t offset the fact that as long as we are here we need able minds and bodies to enjoy the time we have left on this earth. Eating whatever you want and justifying it by saying that you are here to have a good time is just gonna make you end up having a not so good time. This is why nutrition is such an important facet of eating and you shouldn’t just ignore it.
So how am I supposed to have these foods that are nutritious you ask? By having a balanced diet off-course. What is that you ask? Well a balanced diet is when you are consuming various different foods in the right amounts to provide your body with the right amount of nutrients it needs. By consuming good amounts of veggies, fruits, grains, dairy and various different oils one can get the right amount of nutrition one needs. We advise you to also cut down on the unnecessary junk food that is high in fats and sugars. That means cut down on those cakes, soda, alcohol, cookies, donuts.
You know what I mean. I’m not telling you to entirely avoid these empty calories but cut them to close to 20% of your daily calorie intake. Having that one extra doughnut isn’t always wrong but don’t make it a habitual thing. Most of these processed foods also leave you always wanting more but eating leafy green vegetables and good proteins on the other hand keeps you more content and full for longer. So next time when you eat do remember what you read here.