Nutrition and Weight Management
When you hear these three words: nutrition and weight management. what is the first thing that pops up on your mind? In my opinion, these three words is something that always comes together. You can’t manage your weight, if you do not know what nutrition is.
Nutrition as described by the Council of the American Medical Association, is the science of food, the nutrients, and other substances within food; their action, interaction, and balance in relation to health and disease; and the processes by which the organism ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, uses and excrete substances. Nutrition is an important part of maintaining a healthy body weight.
Weight management is a long term approach to a healthy lifestyle. it includes a balance of healthy eating and physical exercises to equate energy expenditures and energy intake. It is common used to those people who are overweight or obese. Why it is a long-term approach? Because you can’t actually achieve something like having a healthy lifestyle without undergoing a certain process like having a slow weight loss followed by retention of an ideal body weight for age, sex, and height. Weight management is one of the factors that can prevent chronic diseases.
There are simple methods in managing a person’s weight. First, increase protein intake especially breakfast because a high protein breakfast appears to slow gastric emptying, which attributes to the fact that protein appears to be the most satiating macronutrient. Second, use a smaller plate because using smaller plates helps to consume smaller portion sizes and this leads to the consumption of fewer calories. Third, eat more soup because soups have a significant satiety effect and studies have demonstrated that compared to solid foods, soup ingestion decrease the amount of energy intake. Fourth, choose the low calorie foods because a moderate decrease in caloric intake will lead to a slow weight loss, which may be more beneficial for long term weight management. Fifth, eating more dairy can aid in fat loss, because studies have shown that a diet high in dairy decreases total body fat. Six, incorporate more vegetables into your meals because Fruits and vegetables have been shown to increase satiety and decrease hunger. Seven, eat more fiber because dietary fiber has been suggested to aid weight management by inducing satiety, decreasing absorption of macronutritient and promoting secretion of gut hormones.
There are certain people who specialize in these field, they are called a Nutritionist-Dietetian. They are the ones who are responsible for making sure that the person who want to have a weight loss, will achieve it by a given time. They are the ones who also make the diet that is based on what the person really needs. They also gave advice that can help on achieving on one’s goal.
when assessing one's diet, it's important to understand the person's food preferences, lifestyle and medical conditions should be taken into consideration when choosing the diet.
References:
ABCs of Nutrition and Diet Therapy for Nursing and Health Care Practitioners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight_management
