Art of Diet

Health and diet

by Ms H    Judit Hadnagy

The food choices we make can have an important impact on our health. Understanding the link between diet and health drives  you to  change your lifestyle, food shopping and food preparation. What is available on the shelf will also have an impact on the choices you make, thereby affecting your wellbeing.  Unfortunately your diet greatly manipulated by the food industry, here is a list of examples; fortification and enrichment of cereal grains with vitamins, calcium and sugar, increased production of unsaturated vegetable oils and margarine, -hydrogenated fat, as substitutions for lard and butter- lowered cholesterol content foods, reduced sugar content foods, lower sodium foods, decreased portion sizes in pre-packaged foods for use in weight loss and increased calcium levels to prevent osteoporosis. Even more substances are added to food to preserve it and enhance its taste and appearance –food additives-. These additives must be assessed for safety before they are used in food. To inform consumers, each additive is allocated a unique number, called as E number, which is used in Europe for all approved additives. 

Do you check the list of ingredients when you pick up the food from the shelf?  

Studies have indicated that nutritional factors do contribute to the development of some diseases like cancer, atherosclerosis, bone disease, arthritis, and dementia. The diet could influence all of these disease states. The patterns in our food consumption have changed and will continue to change. Here are some examples. Decreased consumption of saturated fats, salt and sugar advised due to benefit of cardiovascular health. Increased intake of fish /fish oil, seeds and nuts is recommended because of the numerous effects of omega-3 fatty acids including they lower the risk of coronary heart disease and perform improvement in cholesterol level. Fish oil has also been recommended for disease states including arthritis, cancer, and diseases of the immune system. Eating healthily doesn’t have to be complicated or tedious!  Make sure you get all the nutrients you need and maintain a healthy weight. Good diet is about not eating too much of some things – like saturated fat, sugar and salt – while getting enough of others – like fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. Research shows that people who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables are less likely to develop heart disease and certain cancers.

About the food labels

Information on the back of a pack is compulsory that gives details about the ingredients, nutritional composition, known allergens, ‘best before’ or ‘use-by’ dates and the weight of the product. The ingredients are listed in order, starting with the highest-quantity ingredient first, down to the lowest- quantity ingredient last. So, if you find sugar at the top of the list, the food is likely to be high in sugar.

The traffic light system for ‘front of pack’ labelling has been around for a while now which is an easy way to check at a glance how healthy a food is. The labels show how many calories are in the food or drink and are also colour coded to show whether the food is low (green), medium (amber) or high (red) in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. The information on the front of the pack also tells you how the portion of the food contributes to the Reference Intake (RI) of an adult. Try to choose foods with more greens and ambers and fewer reds.