A good cook is better than a good doctor - Unknown
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a nutritionist, please consult a nutritionist or medical personnel for a professional opinion. This is just my thoughts and opinions.
You are having a busy day at work, seeing as it is the last day of the work month you have to sort out a lot of documents, graph and reports. You hear a rumbling sound coming from... Wait.. Your stomach and an accompanying mild irritation/pain. What's that? Without being told, you leave your desk for the nearest eatery, to do what? Eat food! Now, you went to eat, but didn't you eat food, did you now? To successfully answer that question, we have to really understand;
What is Food?
According to en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food, "Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for an organism. Food is usually of plant, animal or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth" while according to https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en&ved=2ahUKEwiZioCiue3zAhXIi1wKHQsGDD4QvecEegQIBhAK&usg=AOvVaw3kNBXVjbAIAFeyFQVCJmJF, "any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.
From the above definition, we can draw out some properties of what we ought to call food.
1. It should be consumable: One of the first questions to be asked when some "food" is put before you is whether it is edible ( oh please, ask yourself, not the waitress or your wife😂😂, unless of course you want to eat shards of glass for your next meal). A food substance is only edible/consumable if it is known to cause no harm to humans or whatever will be eating it. This is a very important consideration as there are substances that are sweet, nutritious but contain poisonous elements or compounds, rendering them unsafe for consumption. It is also worthy of note, that two food substance that are consumable in themselves can become unsafe for consumption when combined together. In that same vein, when two substances that are same are brought forward, one can be consumable, while the other is not, due to the difference in concentration of whatever renders them toxic.
2. It should be nutritious: Any substance that will be considered as food must contain certain chemical components and nutritional factors ( carbohydrates, protein, fat and oil, minerals, vitamins, water) that are required for the proper physiological functioning (maintenance of life) as well as growth.
3. It should be digestible and assimilable: A substance containing all the required nutrients and growth factors in forms which the body can not digest or assimilate csn not be considered a food substance. This is the reason fibres are not considered as a food substance.
Having clarified the above, I repeat my question;
Did you eat food?
Most of us eat when sensory cells in our digestive tracts tell our brains that it's empty ( that's what we know as hunger), but we really do not pay much attention to what we are eating. Eating food as we have seen is more than just filling our stomach with the next available thing. We ought to pay attention to what we eat, so as to ensure our diet is adequate both in quality and quantity to meet our energy, growth and physiology needs. While there are places where this is easily achievable like the developed countries, there are places where it is a luxury, such as the developing and underdeveloped countries. Notwithstanding, we should do our best to eat right as much as means allows us.
The habit of eating to maintain our stomachs instead of life can be very dangerous. This can lead to all sort of medical issues. For example, there are some food substance that are known to be cancernogenic if taken too often.
How do you ensure you are eating right?
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a nutritionist, please consult a nutritionist or medical personnel for a professional opinion. This is just my thoughts and opinions.
1. Eat at the right time, do not starve yourself
2. Do not eat heavy meals to bed
3. Do not eat late and sleep
4. Try to balance your diet ( per diet or per day or per week, you get the gist)
5. As much as you can, avoid eating out as you really can not vouch for what went into the cooking of that food
6. Try to cook your own meals to ensure it safety and quality
7. If you must eat out, use a reputable eatery ( to avoid story that touch😂😂)
8. Always eat fruits, as they contain most if not all the minerals and vitamins your body needs.
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A little in moderation of anything won't harm you, but yes too much and you are in trouble