Importance of a Healthy Diet

¶ … healthy diet" is and what it is not. When using the term "diet" most people instantly think of "weight loss" and deprivation. Many of us know from painful experience that the weight loss accomplished by starving our body is rarely sustained on a long run. We fall back in our old bad eating patterns ending up with more weight than we had when we started "dieting." Few of us know that the word "diet" comes from the Latin word "diaeta" which means "way of living." The report will point out that we need a new nutritional perspective on the way of leaving instead of falling victim to fat diets, such as low-fat, high carbohydrate diets or their counterpart: high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets. The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet popular among millions of Americans since the 1980s has failed us completely. The low-carbohydrate, high fat diet forms are reportedly more successful. Nevertheless, today we are the fattest people in the developed world. We are in the midst of a national obesity crisis, and Americans are still getting heavier. Today, about 65% of adults and 15% of children and adolescents in the U.S. are overweight or obese (Klein 1). What I strongly recommend against this epidemic obesity is a balanced diet consisting of all three macronutrients: Protein, carbohydrates and fat. I will show by example of scientific research of the diet that French people live on, that it is possible to become slim and healthy simply by watching portion size and following a balanced diet.

Ever since the surgeon general recommended in 1988 that Americans severely reduce their consumption of fat, especially saturated fat (Eades 5), millions of Americans hopped on this bandwagon in a desperate desire to lose weight. A natural consequence of our obsession with severally reducing our daily fat consumption was a dramatic increase in the carbohydrate intake. Superior sources of protein, such as eggs, meat and fish almost became a side dish on our daily plate. Interestingly enough, the desired effect stayed away. The result of the "no-fat mania" as the Eades (ibid) point out has been a fatter and less healthy America. Since the 1990s, a "counter-movement" against "low fat" appeared on the stage in the shape of so called "low carb." Advocates of this diet regimen, many of them medical doctors -- advocate a high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate diet regimen reportedly with good weight loss results naturally resulting in an overall-improvement of the "dieter's" health. The range of carbohydrate intake that these diets permit varies from 0 g carbohydrates per day to about 40 g carbohydrates per day for weight loss. Keep reminded that one single (1) five grain bagel has already more than 45 grams of carbohydrates and would surmount the daily allotment of carbohydrates. I wonder whether this sustainable in the long run. I also wonder whether it is necessary to succumb to either one of these extreme diets.