People these days are mainly concentrating on how to get money. They only focus on
how to live a happy life. Regardless the level of education people have, even some of the
highly educated people, they think that they can get the happy life through money. Is that
right? However, money doesn't buy everything. Money doesn't buy happiness. How can we
enjoy our lives? Without a good health there is no happiness in life, and money doesn't buy
health. Therefore, a happy life is connected with health not with money. Accordingly, health
is the most important thing in life but unfortunately a lot of people are not paying that much
of attention for their health. How dangerous is that for them? "As I see it, every day you do
one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself" (Adelle Davis, 1904-1974).
They don't know how to take care of their health. People don't know what can affect their
health negatively. They don't know the difference between the healthy and junk food, don't
know the healthy eating habits, and don't know how stresses and alcohol affecting their lives.
Do you know what healthy food and junk food are? If you know, too many people
don't know that. They even don't know what benefits they could get from eating healthy food
and what they are protecting themselves from by avoiding junk food. We are not going to
enjoy our lives without eating healthy food and have a healthy lifestyle. We need to know
that healthy food is the food that nutrients our bodies. Healthy food usually is the food that is
fresh and didn't lose its nutrient components by adding some chemicals to make it valid for a
long time of period. Fresh vegetables and fruit are the best examples to describe the healthy
food. Nowadays we can find fresh food everywhere. According to Naveen (2011) people
consider functional food, which is processed without any chemical addition, as a healthy food
also. Healthy food contains the vitamins, the proteins, the carbohydrates, and the fats that are
essential for the body. Conversely, junk food is the waste food that affects the body's health.
It doesn't have any nutrients that could nourish our bodies. However, as we see most of the
recent generation don't care about that and depend on eating junk food. According to Naveen
(2011) the artificial flavors and colors that have been added to the junk food make people
more attracted to these foods. Junk food usually is the food that has high amount of calories,
sugar, salt, and saturated fat. In the article "Difference between Healthy Food and Junk Food"
Naveen (2011) shows the differences between healthy food and junk food in different ways;
first, healthy food is rich in nutrients but junk food has low or no nutrients at all. Second,
healthy food protects people from cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, and obesity, but junk food
is one of the causes that cause these diseases. Third, people prefer to eat the food that is
available and ready to eat which is the fast (junk) food, but they are lazy to prepare the
healthy food. The last difference in Naveen article is that the healthy food is completely
natural but the junk food is completely artificial.
Having the food and eating is enough for people. They don't pay attention to the
eating habits. They don't follow the healthy eating habits and keep doing the unhealthy eating
habits. There are some healthy eating habits that people should care about and do them to
promote their health. According to the International Food Information Council Foundation
(1994) there are some healthy eating habits that every person should follow to keep the health
always good. The first habit is eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods, which means you should
not depend on one kind of food but should make variation between fruit, vegetables, meat,
dairy products, fish, bread, poultry, and other protein. Then, maintain a healthy weight,
obesity becomes a contemporary problem for both sexes and all ages which leads to many
diseases. The next healthy eating habit is eat moderate portion and eat regular meals, which
means eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with a reasonable portions, eat until you satisfy your
hanger don't exceed the feeling of fullness. After that, reduce, don't eliminate certain foods
and balance your food choices over time, when you want to eat food that high in fat or sugar
you don't have to deprive yourself from that but you need to reduce the amount and always
eat something nutrient with it as a balance. The last healthy eating habit in the International
Food Information Council Foundation list is know your diet pitfalls and make changes
gradually, from time to time you should write your diet for three days in a paper and then see
what is wrong with your diet so you can make changes gradually. Conversely, there are many
unhealthy habits that unfortunately a lot of people do them. Real Life 101 Inc. (2011) listed
the most important unhealthy habits that affect the health. The first one is skipping breakfast;
breakfast is the most important meal of the day because by breakfast the body metabolism
starts and the body will get energy. Then, not eating or skipping meals in order to lose
weight, body get the energy from the calories of the food so without eating the metabolism of
the body will be affected. After that is binging, that means eating more than what the body
needs. Eating late at night and eating when you are thirsty also consider as an unhealthy
eating habits. The last one is distracted eating, such as eating in front of the TV, you will
concentrate only on the TV and you will end up by eating more than what you need.
Not only the food could affect the health, but also stress and alcohol have an impact
on health. When you get angry or are anxious you are putting yourself under stress so
consequently you are endangering your health. In the web site of Gentle Stress Relief (2010),
they mentions the side effects of stress on the body's health such as; digestion and elimination
are less, immune system activity is less, heart rate and blood pressure increase (Heart disease
and stress are very connected), muscle tension increases, and hormonal system shifts
(Increased adrenaline). Similarly, alcohol has a lot of problem that could affect health. It is
obvious that excessive drinking of alcohol cause brain damage, different type of cancers, and
even death. The reason of mentioning stress with alcohol together as factors that affect the
health is that being under stress could lead to be alcoholic. For this reason, you should deal
with your stress as fast as you can by using different way such as relaxing, consulting, or
facing the problem. By treating your stress you are protecting yourself from drinking; thus,
you are protecting your health from being affected by any reason.
In conclusion, people need to be more aware about what they are eating and drinking
and what they are doing to promote their health and improve it. Nowadays, there are no
problems about understanding what the healthy and unhealthy food are or what the healthy
and unhealthy eating habits are, because the governments in almost all the countries associate
with the heath organizations to produce advertisements and brochures to increase the
awareness of people toward their health. By this, people are starting to look to what can
benefit their health and avoid what can affect their health.
References
Naveen. (2011, August 6). Difference between healthy food and junk
food. Difference Between, Retrieved from
http://www.differencebetween.com/difference -between-healthyfood-and-vs-junk-food
International Food Information Council Foundation. (1994). 10 Tips to
Healthy Eating. Retrieved from
http://www.realtime.net/anr/10eattip.html
Real Life 101, Inc. (2011, July 22). 6 Unhealthy Eating Habits you
Need to Break. Retrieved from:
http://reallife101blogs.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/6 -unhealthye a t i n g - h a b i t s - yo u - n e e d - t o - b r e a k /
Gentle Stress Relief. (2010, June 14). How does stress affect health ?.
Retrieved from http://www.gentle -stress-relief.com/how-doesstress-affect-health.html