The Importance of Nutrition

Introduction

The triumphant and successes of nutrition cannot be underestimated as many people have now longer life expectancy than before. These triumphant has also enabled the world to defeat malnutrition diseases and conditions that are common in developing nations. However, the 21st century has presented the ugly side of nutrition to the people. The ones believed to be good food and an excellent source of proteins- beef- is now a cause of lifestyle diseases. Currently, lifestyle diseases are the number 1 killer of people compared to natural causes. It is now evidenced that nutrition is not helping people as much. Even though, these lifestyle diseases caused mainly by saturated and fatty foods. It is the role of nutrition to rectify that. It is sad to note that nutrition is now reducing the life expectancy of people instead of increasing it. Over the last five decades, the technological advances ensured that nutrition was significant to the consumers. But who is at fault? The purpose of the research paper would discuss the significance of nutrition, success, and failures in the 21st century.

The significance of Nutrition in the 21st century

Over the past two decades, there have been increasing interest and importance in the role of nutrition in the growth and development of people. Many scholars have come up with researches and studies on the importance of nutrition and how poor nutrition is now a killer of people. Furthermore, technological advancement in the production of food has been the major problem and stain in the gains made by nutrition in the past two decades. The research on Long Chained Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LUPUFA) in the diet and its positive and negative effect on the brain development has been vital. It is significant to give credit where it is due, but these studies on LCPUFA has no born any meaningful results.

The focus on prevention of diseases and conditions is another importance of nutrition. People are now aware of the type of foods that is significant during the certain period such as neonatal. It is also significant to understand that medical practitioners are playing a fundamental role in successful implementation of best nutritional practices and diet. They are now advising people on what types of foods to eat when they have a certain type of diseases. Hence, they ensure that diseases are prevented. Secondly, prevention also goes a long way in helping the population on how to manage certain types of diseases. Due to the prevention focus campaigns and efforts to increase the life expectancy of people, people are advised to avoid too much food with sugars such as sweets and fast foods. According to recent research, people who take more than the recommended amount of beef and other proteins in their meals are most likely to contract cancer in their lifespan.

The importance of nutrition is also depicted in the life of children. During pregnancy and birth of children, proper and correct nutrition is vital since it determines the health of the child through his or her lifespan. The nutritionists and pediatricians work with parents closely by monitoring and evaluation their dietary in turn and their impact on them. These relationships enable the stakeholders to identify any problem with the children and document them as part of practices to avoid and best practices. For instance, a recent study shows that there is an increase in obesity created disorders such as Polycystic ovary syndrome, sleep disorders, type II diabetes and hirsutism among children because of the use of fatty foods.

The Success of Nutrition in the 21st century

The current population of the world is a little over seven billion. The rapid growth of population is attributed to the best practices of nutrition and food security. Due to nutritional practices and dietary needs, food security is now a thing of the past except for some parts of the world. It is significant to understand that nutrition and food security goes hand in hand since one cannot be successful without the other. The availability of food has also led to the increase in life expectancy. It is normally said that healthy nation is the most productive nations.

The second success of nutrition is the implementation of disease and condition preventive measures. People are now aware of the “bad and harmful” foods that can cause lifestyle diseases and conditions. Additionally, people understand that the causes of disease and how to prevent them using nutritional guidelines. The implementation of preventive measures for diseases and condition is vital as it enables people to lead a healthy life. It also helps them to keep away from the visiting the doctors and medical practitioners. The role of doctors and other medical practitioners cannot be underestimated as they are on the forefront on teaching and informing the general population of the people.

The Failures of Nutrition in the 21st century

The biggest failure of nutrition is lifestyle disease and conditions especially obesity which is rampant amongst children in developed countries. It is a serious condition that is characterized by excessive accumulation and storage of body fat. Obesity has many effects on both health and social life. On the health side, obesity leads to hypertension. Excess fat tissues require nutrients and oxygen for it to survive, thus requiring the arteries and other blood vessels to circulate additional blood to the fat tissue. It results to increase the workload of the heart. Since the arteries must pump extra blood to additional blood vessels. If there is a lot of blood circulating it would mean that there is an unexpected pressure on the artery’s walls. This pressure results to increase in blood pressure. The extra weight in the tissues raises the heart rate.

There are several contributing factors towards obesity. The behavior of an individual may contribute towards obesity. When an individual chooses to eat a lot of fats, oversize portions or high sugar, he/she increases the chances of getting obese. When one also decides to adopt a sedentary lifestyle and avoiding physical activities, it ends up increasing the stored fat in the body. There are quite some recommendations that one may take to reduce the chances of getting obese. Regular physical exercises are one of them. Eating food with low amounts of fats is also a way to reduce the chance of getting obese.

Prevention of Chronic Diseases

Even though there are many prevention methods of chronic diseases caused by nutrition, the research paper would use dietary cholesterol and carbohydrates. The dietary cholesterol and carbohydrate are an essential part of a person’s diet on a daily basis. The prevention of lifestyle diseases like obesity is essential. Obesity can lead to other lifestyle diseases like hypertension, type II disease and heart attack amongst others. According to recent studies, too much cholesterol is dangerous the health of an individual. There is no denying that people takes cholesterol but is advised that it is minimized in the intake. The muscle cell membrane contains a lot of cholesterol as fat cell membranes; it is recommended that people avoid foods with high cholesterols such as low-fat beef and fish. Secondly, it is also advisable for people to avoid diet with refined carbohydrates as they have a rising cholesterol fatty acid. The prevention of these diseases lies in the prevention or avoidance of any cholesterol which is higher than 200 mg/d. The level would prevent overweight as the serum cholesterol would be about 8mg/dl.

The second way of preventing cancer and obesity is by watching the carbohydrates intake. Carbohydrate is an excellent source of energy, and it is essential. However, according to recent studies, most Americans gets half of their energy from carbohydrates including 15% added sugars. The consumption of food with CHO that arranges from 34% to 67% is dangerous as it increases these chronic diseases. There is no denying that carbohydrate is essential, but it is recommended that people get their CHO from vegetables and fruits and whole grains cereals.

Conclusion

All in all, it is significant to know that the success and failures of nutrition in the 21st century are caused and prevention by Nutrition. Nutrition is the backbone of a healthy nation as it informs people on how to stay healthy preventing some foods. According to the nutrition, all types of foods are good for a person’s healthy, but it should be taken in moderation. A lot of carbohydrates in the diet can lead to obesity that can also cause hypertension and Type II diabetes. It is the duty of everyone to understand that it’s the responsible of anyone to take care of their health.