What
is the definition of diet?
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A diet comprises those foods that one lives on from day to day.
Generally, humans are either omnivores or vegetarians. Omnivores
are people whose diets consist of plant and animal food sources;
whereas, vegetarians live on vegetables and fruits only.
The New Webster’s Dictionary of English Language defines
diet as; the food and drink normally taken by an individual or a
group or a prescribed course of what is to be eaten and what is
not. This definition takes into account the fact that what you drink
e.g. Milk, water, beer, whisky etc is part of your diet.
There is a saying that, you are what you eat, meaning that your
diet can go a long way to predict what you will become in future
considering that some diets confers longevity and some kill you
fast.
Imagine a diet of ice creams and chocolates, or beer, whisky and
beef etc.
Problems of Dieting
Diets come with some problems especially bad diets. When a person
becomes addicted to a particular unhealthy diet, there is predisposition
to several diseases simply because of the diet. The subject of healthy
dieting is now a very popular one across the globe and more and
more people are realizing the need to develop a well thought out
diet deemed fit for themselves. High fat diet may cause stroke,
hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity and low
self esteem.
Low Protein diet results in malnourishment and depressed immune
system, anemia (this is common in vegetarians), and in children
kwashikor, a form of protein energy malnutrition.
Dietary Supplement
It is becoming more difficult for one to actually consume all the
nutrients needed for proper functioning of the body from food alone
and as such it is common to see people who eat less because of their
diet but try to supplement with pills.
Some of the pills are to induce anorexia and help you reduce the
number of times you eat as well as the amount of food per day. In
selecting these supplements, a thorough research is necessary as
they are too many dietary pills and fat binders out there that fail
to achieve what they promise.
Dieting is an important aspect of healthy living and everyone needs
to be on one form of diet or the other. Yours may have been prompted
by an illness, or maybe you want to loss weight, you are trying
to maintain weight loss or you do not just want to grow fat. Before
any decision is taken on what kind of diet you should be on, your
doctors advice must be sort-only he is in the position to advice
you appropriately.
Dieting will only make sense when we decide on it and stick to
it as well. It is very important that people have control over the
things they eat. Diet is the biggest single determinant of whether
or not we will have good health. It affects health more than any
other thing one can thing of.
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