What Are You Really Eating?

Douglas Arthur Falkner J.r.
Tau Kappa Epsilon

Due to the fact that I have to get knee surgery in early December, I currently can’t do any cardio at the gym. So in order to maintain good health and not become overweight, I had to change up my lifestyle. I have been eating a lot healthier these days, and I think I’m going to remain doing so for many reasons.

Eating healthy reduces your chances of high blood pressure; it will lower the levels of bad cholesterol, slow the rate at which you digest food, strengthen your immune system, and balance your blood sugar levels. There are many other reasons as to why you should begin to eat healthier. Something many people our age don’t realize is that what we do to our bodies now may prevent or lead to health issues in our future.

One great way to avoid eating unhealthy is of course, staying away from fast food. The impact to our health from fast food is quite staggering when it is consumed on a regular basis. Unfortunately, an ever-growing number of households are doing exactly that, as fewer and fewer families rely on someone doing any conventional cooking using fresh food ingredients. Far too many college students feed themselves on a constant, daily diet of microwaved ready meals with very little or no fresh fruit or vegetables.

Fast food's bad reputation stems from a number of factors, but the primary issue is that fast foods are abundant in a handful of unsavory substances like sodium and trans-fats. These compounds wreak havoc in your body, and the more of them you eat, the more damage they do. The food available in fast food restaurants is notoriously high in sodium. Your kidneys are responsible for ridding your body of salts, but consuming too much causes a buildup in your system, as it can't be eliminated fast enough. This results in the accumulation of sodium in your bloodstream, which forces your heart to work harder, in turn causing high blood pressure and potentially heart disease. That much pressure on your kidneys also increases your risk of kidney disease. Perhaps the most deadly substance in fast food is trans-fat. Trans-fats are created when hydrogen is added to liquid oils so that they stay solid at room temperature. The resulting fat is considered by the American Heart Association to be one of the most deadly things you can consume today.

Many of us treat ourselves to a meal out by visiting a burger or pizza restaurant, or if we're feeling in need of a healthy meal, a steak and fries restaurant. This lifestyle places you at risk of strokes from high blood pressure, type II diabetes from irregular blood sugar levels, heart attacks from raised LDL cholesterol levels, cancer of the colon because it cannot process the waste products properly, and more frequent illness as your immune system is compromised and a greater chance of contracting other cancers as your levels of antioxidants is so low. Unhealthy eating also increases your chances of contracting arthritis and other inflammatory diseases at a younger age as your overall body acidity rate increases, lowering your ability to process and remove excess uric acid from your bloodstream. It also leads to weight gain and obesity, further increasing the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks. All in all, eating unhealthy paints a pretty grim picture for our future if many of us maintain the lifestyles we currently have.

So what can you do in order to avoid many of the health issues I just listed? Well, for starters when your diet is lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables, your intake of essential nutrients that are derived from these sources is almost nothing. Your intake of dietary fiber is also low to nonexistent. You need to cut out most of the fast, processed food from your diet food delivery system and replace it with traditional, home-cooked meals prepared and made from fresh vegetables, meat and fish. You should include fresh fruits and berries in that diet and switch to whole meal bread and pasta to increase your body's intake of the all-important dietary fiber. You may have spent years doing untold amounts of damage to your body, but that damage can be undone and fixed by switching up your diet.

One thing that has been helping me is the development of a food pyramid. Starting from the bottom up, my food pyramid consists of large amounts of meat, fish, and eggs. The second largest category is vegetables. There is an abundant number any types of vegetables that are nutritious and add a large amount of antioxidants to our body. Next is a healthy fat- that’s right, a healthy fat.

Healthy fats include animal fats, butter and coconut oil for cooking, avocados, and macadamia nuts. The next category is moderation foods, such as fruits and rice. The last category consists of sensible indulgences like dark chocolate that’s ironically rich in anti-oxidants, and red wine, of course in moderation. The use of supplements, such as a protein shakes after working out at the gym can be crucial to those of you out there that go to the gym regularly. Protein is the building block of muscles, there is no denying that. After working out, you can absorb and utilize almost 50 percent more protein than you can at a regular meal. Protein synthesis is highest at this time, so it only makes sense to feed your muscles what they need. I hope this advice is as beneficial to you, as it has been to me. Since I can’t do any cardio until after my surgery, this meal plan has truly been beneficial.

Douglas is a senior studying public relations. You may contact him at dougal_131@hotmail.com.