Be attentive to your health

Promote good health and wellness to everyone.

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ACTIVE VS SEDENTARY Which you are these?

Hi guys! Do you see yourself at the mirror? Now may I ask, what kind of life do you have right now? Do you consider yourself as healthy or unhealthy? Hmmmm, let’s find it out here. 

In the picture above, which are these do you particularly does? 

In the picture below again, what kind of body frame do you have? What kind of foods do you eat, that fruits/vegetable? or fries and burgers?

Refer to the picture below again, what do you think of how many hours of sleep do you usually get?

Question: Do you know that if you don’t have proper exercise, always eat burgers, fries and processed foods and doesn’t have enough rest otherwise known as sedentary lifestyle may lead you to unhealthy life?

Yes, it can lead you to have unhealthy life; in fact, it can lead you to have a disease and to occur some risky complication if this will not be cured and if you will just leave it behind. There are certain characteristics you may experience whether you had an active lifestyle and sedentary lifestyle. For an active or healthy lifestyle, you always feel great, have a clear skin, you’re happy and confident, lots of energy, strong hair and nails, healthy body weight and can reduce risk for chronic health conditions. For the sedentary or unhealthy lifestyle, you can’t feel not-so-great, troubled skin, sad and little self-esteem, lack of energy, brittle hair and weak nails, unhealthy body weight and can increase risk for chronic health conditions.

So guys, that are the consequences you may experience and develop if you had an active or sedentary lifestyle. Always consider your health as a capital since it is the only  the best way in order you can execute your life without any unnecessary complications. “Always choose the right way”

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JULY: Nutrition Month

In a year, it composes of a month, thus, it also composes weeks, days and so on. Most people can determine dates based on month that is being experienced. It could be possibly talking for example of “it is1st day of January or February” and so on from the netizens. Every month has its corresponding feast to celebrate like for example in January, it can be called a new year and new month of the year. In February is heart’s/love’s month, March is fire protection month, October is world teacher’s day and December as English month. And most especially, to the most I awaited month of the year is July in which we celebrates the Nutrition Month.

Yes! It’s nutrition month! July is one of the highlighted months being experienced since it is where everyone advertising and keep on talking on how to be healthy and have a good nutrition in our body. Nevertheless, every July or nutrition month, the National Nutrition Council declares nutrition month theme. In last year’s theme (2017) is “Healthy Diet Gawing Habit for Life”. But now this year (2018), this nutrition month theme is “Ugaliing Magtanim, Sapat na Nutrition Aanihin”.

In talking about this year’s theme, it is all about highlighting and informing everyone to plant more on fruits and vegetables since it is rich in vitamins and minerals that can sustain the needs of our human body and systems to enable us to work efficiently and actively. There are a lot of factors can contribute if we plant more vegetables. First, it can save budget for the family due to the lower cost that could spend rather than buying to the stores or malls. Next factor is it can lessen the time to consumed since you don’t need to go far to buy ingredient, you will just have to go to your backyard to get your food item what you need. Last, it can be a medium in which you can use these vegetables as business wherein you neighbors would buy from it. Examples of fruits and vegetables that you can be plant are malunggay, talong, okra, alugbati, manga, sili, herbs and spices. As to see the picture, it is an example where you can plant you fruits and vegetables.

This theme was formulated in order to encourage everyone to have a backyard either how big or small to plant more vegetables. Through this idea, people can get enough food to eat, in addition to, they’re just not eating those kinds of foods but yet they’re still get the proper amount of vitamins and minerals that is essential to our body needs. But it doesn’t mean that fruits and vegetables are the only foods that can be eaten for our body essentially but also rice, rootcrops and meats or follow the Pinggang Pinoy meal.

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Food? Read it!

Ever heard of the term: Nutrition Facts? Yup, it’s part of the food packaging on your favorite grocery food item. Of course you’ve seen it. Might have even read it. But the question is, do you even understand what it says and do you know how to properly interpret it?

Before I get deep into the topic, I would like to share a personal experience of mine regarding a colleague’s interpretation of her “Nutrition Facts” found on her favorite chocolate. Take note that she is pre-diabetic and is already advised to consume only 1850calories a day as part of her medication in order to transition from pre-diabetic to normal. (Fun Fact: Once a diabetic, always a diabetic! It’s irreversible)

Here is a picture of the nutrition facts that she interpreted for me:

Before I interpret this for you and continue sharing my experience, kindly grab a piece of paper and pen and try to answer these simple questions:

Total Amount of Calories in this food package:

Total Amount of Sugars in grams (g):

*************************************************************************************

In continuation, I asked her on what’s her plan about the chocolate. I was even planning to ask her if I can have some for I personally like sweets too.

She proudly told me that she would consume it all after eating her pre-packed lunch that her mother carefully prepared. That it would only take a small portion of calories (just178calories) out of her total 1850calories per day.

She also shared that she is allowed by her nutritionist to consume as much as 616calories per meal (At this point she is still right. She simply divided 1850 into 3) she continued: that 616calories minus 178calories is 438calories and that her pre-packed meal doesn’t even add to 438calories.

“So technically I am safe, my diet is still safe”

The question is, is she?

I carefully told her to first, negate the bold letters as it would somehow confuse you in interpreting the table.

That after reading the words “Nutrition Facts”, she must directly look for the words “Serving Size” and most importantly, “Serving per package” as the serving size would tell her how much only she must consume to obtain the figures on the table. That the serving per package would indicate how many times she must multiply the figures on the actual table if she is to consume the entire package.

I told her that the figures on the table is the exact amount of calories, sugar, fats, etc “per (1) one serving” as indicated. So I proceeded to ask her how many calories are there per serving. She answered 178, confidently.

Now, I asked her to tell me how many serving per package there is on her sweet. She told me: 6.

I then asked her. How many calories do you think are there in the entirety of this pack? She hurriedly grabbed her phone and I saw her jaw dropped. She answered: 1068 calories!!! So if you answered 178calories and 22g, you are mistaken. The answer must be 1068calories and 132g (Fun Fact: healthy individuals are allowed to consume up to 7 servings of sugar per day in average. One serving of sugar is equivalent to 5grams only)

In summary: There are 6 servings on the entirety of the sweet as shown and there is 178calories per serving. Thus if you want to know how many calories you’d consume after consuming the entirety of that tiny package of sweet, you simply need to multiply Serving per package to the figure on the table

It took me the rest of the afternoon to tackle deeply about sugar, diabetes, pre-diabetes and nutrition in general with her after. She thanked me immensely as I opened her eyes and thought her on how to properly read the simple yet tricky table she constantly sees every day.

My dear readers; I do hope that you learned something from me today and that you find this personal story both helpful and eye opening. What I learned in life in general is that things are not always what they seem. So learn how to study them, and look at them deeper.

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“How to eat?”

Major fact: Everyone needs to eat in order to survive. All of us even the tiny fetus developing inside a pregnant woman. However, little do we know that human life cycle tells us that eating patterns from early stages of life follows a special identical pattern. Every fetus for example, no matter the gender or ethnicity, so long as in inside the womb, it receives its nutrients via the umbilical cord attached to his/her mother. It is then born as an infant with a Rooting Reflex which occurs when a mother touching her breast to the center of the baby's lips or stroking a baby’s cheek causing the baby to open his mouth and turn his head to one side seemingly looking for the breast and the milk – Magical isn’t it?

Conversely at a very early age of probably 6months old; behavior, food choices, and eating patterns starts to drastically change. Thus the uniformity of acquiring one’s nutrients branches out considerably for us humans. These simple changes happen once complimentary feeding is introduced to the baby.

With all these being said; one truth remains: There is a proper way to eat! This is despite cultural differences, food choices, body clock differences, eating patterns, diet options, religious beliefs, or for whatever reason one may have. After all, we still have a uniform body structure. Our anatomy is still designed very similarly therefore an identical way of eating is still true to all.

I am not saying to follow strictly this proven suggestions for one may find it difficult due to personal deep reasons or perhaps mere stubbornness. All I am saying is, if you want to lessen your risk of acquiring and developing diseases, might as well follow these simple tips:

1st Fun Fact: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

Why?: From the term itself , it technically BREAKs your FASTing. People sleeps in average for about 7hours a day. Thus our body enters a slight fasting from food.

Tip: Never skip breakfast

 2nd Fun Fact: Fresh fruits first

Why?:  The best time to eat fruits is first thing in the morning after a glass of water. Eating fruits right after a meal is not a great idea, as it may not be digested properly. The nutrients may not be absorbed properly either. You need to leave a gap of at least 30 minutes between a meal and a fruit snack. Ideally, one should eat fruits an hour before the meal or two hours after, if they have diabetes or any other digestive problem like acidity.

Tip: Consume your fresh fruits 30min-1hour prior to eating your meal

 3rd Fun Fact: Eat Most - Eat Moderately - Eat Least

Why?: As the day goes by, our daily activities normally lessens. Therefore, one must allocate most of his food in his breakfast, while consuming less food for lunch, and the least chunk for dinner as we no longer have much activity at night time. An unspent food/calories will be stored in our body. Therefore gaining more weight.

Tip: Breakfast must be your heaviest meal as it is also the most important. Try consuming less for lunch and lesser for dinner.

 4th Fun Fact: Skipping meals leads to more caloric intake

Why?: Skipping a meal will not only lead to a higher concentration of HCL in your stomach but also it will lead you to consume more food on your next meal. Eating twice a day will lead you to consume more calories than eating 3times a day as study shows.

Tip: Never skip your meals

 5th Fun Fact: Chew your food

Why?: Chewing one’s food is part of the mechanical digestion. It is important as it will evenly divide the surface area of the food and will lead to better digestion and absorption of nutrients in food. People who tends to not chew their foods properly often leads to difficulty in defecating and less absorption of nutrients.

Tip: Chew your food properly and don’t swallow it whole. After all, you are not a snake. - *laughs

 The mentioned tips and fun facts are only some of the many keynotes in eating properly. There’s still a lot of things to be taken into consideration however I chose 5 of the best out of the big pile of goodies. You may notice that I did not specified which foods to eat. After all, this blog is about “How to eat properly – mechanically and procedurally speaking.”

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A Journey: From Carnivore to Omnivore

Have you eaten foods you dislike? How about foods you do not know? Do you think it’s bad for you? Or you don’t want to feel anything for it, just like its taste. As you go along with this blog, this can make realizations on my journey, that it is the best to introduce to yourself to surround with foods that you don’t want to eat, but later time goes on, you are going to love what you did and happened now.

In my lower years, before going to college, I did not eat foods such as fruits and vegetables, especially broccoli, spinach, malunggay, asparagus, beans, avocado and so on. I never knew what these foods meant and the benefits to our body. Actually, I always wondered why people always eat it and do not understand why they liked it, but I don’t have problems in terms of its availability. My usual meal in that time is always the meat and rice with “Otan Bisaya” but only its SOUP. I didn’t try to corporate my meal with vegetable; it’s always meat and rice, that’s it.

When I was enrolled in the Nutrition and Dietetics program, I wondered what this course was because it was not my chosen course, although I did not know what would happen at that time, in fact, this program was only requested one of my best-known relatives.

However, on my journey in college, our discussion is about nutrition that we do not forget to deal with healthy food items like fruits and vegetable. Later goes by, I learned and understood how it would help our everyday lives. In school, during our laboratories, we cooked healthy recipes and purchased from a market that was so fresh. In fact, all of us should taste all of our products to evaluate, as part of our objective.

Now, I am complementing my meal with fruits and vegetables and I am conscious if I don’t have fruits and vegetables on my plate. This program, Nutrition and Dietetics, really helped me to become health conscious and needed to eat fruits and vegetables not just sticking to the meat and rice. I did not feel reluctant to find out why I was trying to choose this course because I knew it would help not just only to me but to all people who wanted to have a healthy life.            

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Diet and Nutrition, a Perfect Combination

Everyone has their own eating habits and food is one of the primary sources of our daily life. Diet is the food that people consumed and nutrition is the science of food that has a systematic process in which food is used to preserve life and growth. Eating healthy food items in cooperation with adequate exercise and enough rest may be the best daily routine can be done and in fact, it can prevent the occurrence of illnesses and may extend our life.

In this generation, people, including young people and adults tend to buy cheap food and for their own convenience that are usually like street food and fast food chains which is not healthy and unwanted for our physical and biological needs. The prevalence of the following store is expanding and is usually one of today's trends. In consuming to this kind of food should be lessened and reduced to diminish the risk of illness and to keep away from sickness because this type of food can infect our body, thus it contains fatty substances and most of it we do not know how much it is clean. Even though it's very difficult to change on what you normally and usually do, but it's not too late to acquaint and try healthy foods.

To provide a good health and wellness in our body we should start to choose nutritious food items and keeping our body to improve and to have proper nutrition, which it involves eating the right kind and amount of food, at the right time. Completing the three meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner; including morning and afternoon snacks. Advices to those who want to change their lifestyle and want to have healthy living body, start selecting foods that are nutrient-dense like fruits and vegetable, follow the Pinggang Pinoy or My Plate – a plate which one-fourth part of your plate is carbohydrates, particularly rice for Filipinos, one-fourth part is the protein like meat and one-half part of it are the fruits and vegetables and last is a glass of water, executing exercises like walking, light jogging, biking, etc. in about 30 minutes to 1 hour daily and last is get enough rest or sleep into 8 hours per night.