Imagine there’s a food that most people can eat, such as peanuts, but it might potentially kill you. You’re going to keep a close eye out for it, and check everything you eat to make sure it’s not included.
Most people don’t have such extreme reactions to food. However, if you believe that a food might affect your health, and you’re motivated to protect yourself, you’re probably going to avoid the food if you think it’s bad for you or try to have more of it if you think it’s good for you.
Then there are a few well-known physical and health conditions that are tied to food recommendations:
- Heart disease — According to the CDC, 25.1 million people in the USA, 11% of adults over age 18, have heart disease and it is the number one cause of death. Hypertension affects 52.9 million people, 24% of adults over 18. The American Heart Association recommends keeping track of calories, eating a variety of nutritious foods from all the food groups, and minimizing intake of fat, cholesterol, and salt.
- Diabetes — The American Diabetes Assocation reports that 23.6 million people in the USA have diabetes, 7.8% of the population. 17.9 million are diagnosed, but 5.7 million don’t know they have it. It’s the 6th biggest cause of death. There are also 57 million people in the USA with pre-diabetes — blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes. The American Diabetes Association has similar healthy-food recommendations to the AHA. Diabetics using insulin have to plan the timing and size of their meals, and many have to control the amount of sugar and simple carbs they eat.
- Food allergies — According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, 6 1/2 million Americans, or 2.3% of the population, are allergic to seafood, more than 3 million are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts or both, and food allergies affect about 6% of children under the age of three.
And those are just a few of the big ones. Other conditions that may be affected by food include: acid reflux/GERD; headaches/migraines; cancer; arthritis; lactose intolerance; and celiac disease. People who are immunocompromised, including the very young, the very old, and pregnant women, have to avoid foods that most of us can eat because their defenses against food poisoning are minimal. Millions of people have trouble chewing and swallowing. Some conditions affect millions of people, others hundreds of thousands of people, and some affect very few people. To each of those people, their requirements are important. There’s a very long list of conditions potentially affected to food, and the number of solutions is even longer.
Many people want to lose weight for health reasons. 35% of USA adults are overweight but not obese, and 27% are obese, according to the National Health Interview Survey in 2008. The CDC survey behavioral risk each year in the BRFSS, and reported in 2005 that 46% of women and 33% of men were dieting. Other reports have suggested that 54 million, or 45 million, or 90 million Americans are dieting at any time. There are hundreds of weight loss diets, and it seems like another one is at the top of the bestseller lists every week. Some people will find a diet they like and stick with it or keep going back to it, while others will keep looking for the latest trends, believing that the new diet must be an improvement over the old ones.
In many cases, there are official recommendations and alternative health recommendations. People who are desperate to be healthy may look outside the regular medical community for possible cures. Also, official recommendations also change over time — we don’t yet know everything.
What foods do you choose for physical and health reasons? Is there anything you’d like to learn more about?
CDC — www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/default.htm
CDC National Health Interview Survey www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm
CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System BRFSS www.cdc.gov/BRFSS
American Heart Association AHA www.americanheart.org
American Diabetes Association www.diabetes.org
American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology www.aaaai.org
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