Blog - Side Point - Food - The Basics Part 1

I've recently become absolutely obsessed with reading about food and also have been on a number of diets so I thought I would share my limited knowledge and opinions with you and refer you on to people who are much more knowledgeable than me!

With food there is a wealth of stuff out there and 90% of it contradicts itself due to the authors particular bias' and opinions. I'm ashamed to say I am likely to be similar!

Let's start off with my least favorite thing in the world diets. From detox diets to weight loss diets they are very fashionable. In fact the value of the U.S. weight loss industry was worth 60.9 billion in 2011 (and that is just after recession!). This huge industry has done exceptionally well. However, the key is in how they make money. They need people to be overweight, or at least perceive themselves to be overweight, to gain customers. Therefore, diets would not be economically viable if they made every one of their customers thin for long periods of time. The best way for them to make money is therefore the yo-yo dieting that many people do.

With yo-yo diets people keep to a diet for a period of time before ditching the diet either before or after their required weight targets and then eating/over eating again which put the weight straight back on, often more than before. The argument is raging over whether it actually does any damage to your health  but it is certainly not a great way to lose weight permanently.

Dieting is done by many facets of the population from bodybuilders to women looking to get the bikini body they have long desired. For the most part these diets are proven not to work. Diets such as crash diets or low carbohydrate diets such as the Adkins diet have been proven, in some cases, to have negative health consequences to the consumers when people are on them for long periods of time.

However, this is not the whole story. Although diets themselves do not work there are things to be gained from the principle of changing a person's diet. Half of the men in the UK are predicted to be obese by 2030 meaning that diets need to seriously change to avoid the risks of heart attacks, diabetes and cancers as well as many other problems. Therefore, to live longer people need to change their lifestyles DRASTICALLY.

There are a wealth of sources out there for people to gain information on the types of food they need and every person is different. However, on today's blog we will keep it general and leave athletes and the variety of sports people out of it for the future. Today, we shall focus on the problems of the average Joe, or as I call them, the average Tom (due to my friend Mr. Tom Hue who currently eats an average diet).

In my opinion the average Tom eats a few vegetables every now and then but not often. Lots of carbohydrates of both the simple and complex variety with protein as and when. Fast food is eaten when they feel like it and little attention is paid to anything in their diet. Sometimes they might take up a diet of some kind but this inevitably yo-yos almost immediately until it gets to the point where they do not care anymore. It is, of course, not the end of the world for these people. However, they are the tip of the ice-burg and with the current level of obesity in the UK diets need to improve.

The body needs many different nutrients and to make sure all of these are gleaned foods are usually split into five food groups:

Meals, Fatty foods, Carbohydrates, Vegetables and dairy

This is because they cover the main nutrients in the body:

Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins

However, the body does need just these it is vital it gets the appropriate vitamins, minerals, fibre etc. that can literally cause the body to stop functioning, such as a lack of potassium, where you will die if you do not get enough.

So lets look at the essential vitamins and minerals that humans need:

Vitamin A
Vitamin B (complex) (no link due to 1-12)
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Phosphorus
Sodium
Iron
Zinc
Potassium
Magnesium
Calcium
(there are also several trace elements that are important but otherwise this will go on forever!)

This list has links to it with some basic information on each of them. They are vital to the human body and deficiencies in these can have dire consequences! Therefore, eating foods that are rich sources of each can help people change their bodies into healthier and more resiliant beings.

As you can see here there are many, many things the body needs to intake. As well as the energy requirements of the human process. This therefore, means diet is a balence and getting this balence right is essential to the body.

So as this is getting long enough we will go into further detail in part 2!