Eating for Health

The Diet

When talking about diet it is important to focus on the concept of general health. Dieting for weight loss is a common approach for many people, however it may not necessarily mean that the person is practicing good health care. Severe dietary restriction can lead to malnourishment and impaired immunity as well as organ damage.

For this reason we would like to refer to eating for health rather than dieting for weight loss alone.

Dietary Calories

A calorie is technically the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius. What many people refer to as calories in food is actually a kilocalories or Kcal. Modern terminolgy refers to the kilojoule. 1 Kcal = 4.18 Kjoules.

The average adult male requires 2500 Kcal per day. The average female requires 2000 Kcal day.

To reduce your body weight by 1kg of fat you need to have metabolised 7800 kcal or 32 600Kj from body fat.

This cannot be consistantly achieved by reducing the amount or type of food we eat. Some body weight loss will occur however it will also mean loss of muscle tissue and slowing other body growth and repair mechanisms. After a period of time the metabolism slows, so that rate of weight loss also reduces.

In our modern lives work and leisure have generally become much less active. Therefore we have to do something in order to offset this change in habits. Eating habits are an important part of life to pay attention to.

We should eat less high calorie foods such as refined starch and sugars, saturated fats, and processed products, and increase our energy output. Take part in sustained activity for at least 30 - 60 minutes three to five times per week. Ideally a combination of both should be done.