How Does Food Impact Health?

The foods we eat give our bodies “information” and the substance they needing to function properly. If we don’t get the right information, our metabolic processes willing be affected and our health willed decline.

If we ate too much food, or if it gives us wrong instructions, we may become overweight, Malnourished, and at risk of developing diseases and diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and heart disease.

In short, what we eat is crucial to our health. According to Webster’s definition of medicine, “The science and art of maintaining health and preventing, alleviating or curing diseases”.

What roles does food play in our bodies?

Nutrients in food enable cell in our bodies to perform their necessary functions. Quoted from a popular textbook, This passage describes how nutrients in food play a vital role in our bodies function.

Nutrients are nutrients in food, which are essential for the growth, Developments and maintenance of body functions. Importantly, if nutrient does not exist not exist, Functional aspects of human health decline. When nutrient intake does not regularly meet the nutrient requirements most determined by cell activity, the metabolic process slows down or even stops.

– From the point of view of nutrition, Wardlow and Insel, we can see example of food, That is, nutrients can guide how our body work. In this sense, Food can be regarded as a sources of bodily information.

Thinkings about foods in this way, we can see that nutrition exceeds calorie or grams, Good food or bad food. This view enables us to focus on foods that should be included rather than excluded.

We do not see foods as an enemy, But as a way to creating health and reduce disease by helping the bodied maintain its function.

What are the relationships between food and disease?

As a society, we are facing face serious health problems.

• In developed countries, the United States rank ninth in life expectancy.
• Owing to long-term health problems, Including depression, our employee are most often absent from work and productivity declines.
• 78% of medical expenditure is spent spend on chronic diseases.

Many researchers now believe believes that these problems are partly related to diet. Although they used to believe that diseases such as type II diabetes, obesity, Heart disease, stroked and some cancer was caused caused by single gene mutations, they now generally attributing these diseases disease to the network of biological dysfunction. The food we eat is an important factor contributing to this disorder, in part because our dieting lacks the necessary nutritional balance (journals of the Society of Nutrition, 2004). To understand the specific nutrients you need and how to obtain them.

To prevent these diseases, we need to know how the various nutrients in the diet interacted and affect human health. According to the Europeans Society of Nutrition, The large nutritional organization, human function. Functional medicine is a dynamic method of nutritional assessment, Prevention and treatment of complex and chronic diseases. The role of nutrition in health has also been studied in this medical field.

Viewpoints of Functional Medicine

A component of functional medicine focuses on how diet affects health and function. When functional medicine practitioners examined the role of nutrition in chronic diseases, they observe multiple systems, Such as digestive system, immune system and detoxification system, because these systems are interconnected. For example, since 80% of the immune system is contained contain in the gastrointestinal system, a person’s immune problem may be related to indigestion.

Functional medicine believes that chronic diseases almost always precedes the declines in health of one or more systems. Therefore, these practitioners seeking early detection of symptomatic indicate potential dysfunction that may lead to disease.

One of the way functional medicine seeks to solve the problem of health decline is to provide the food and nutrient need to restore function. This is a cost-effective, non-invasive interventions designed to prevent the developments of the disease.

Example of cardiovascular diseases

When adopting the nutritional approach approach to health and disease, it is important to understand that a disease may have multiple causes and that a potential dysfunctions may lead to multiple diseases. Cardiovascular disease may be one of the clearest clear examples of this concept.

Researchers have shown that the development of heart disease may be triggered by more factors. These factors include insulin resistance, high homocysteine, Oxidative stress, elevate cholesterol, hypertension, Heavy metal toxicity, stress and inflammation. Each of this factor is affected by nutrition, Which in turn affects our nutritional needs. This applies to the prevention and treatment of this factor (functional medicine textbooks).

For example, A 2007 study showed the importance of optimal mineral balance and how more inadequate mineral balance can lead to congestive heart failure (cardiovascular and hematological drugs, 2007).