Effects Of Age And Physical Work On Diet
The word “diet” had always tormented me when I have heard it. Being a “foodie”, depriving myself from the some of the mouth watering cuisines and tempting dishes would always drive me crazy.
Every time people would advice me, “restrict your diet”, “” do not eat so much of fat”, “restrain yourself from those carbohydrates”, “why do you eat so much of sweets?” and things like that I would become pissed off and disgusted and even would try to avoid a second encounter with those people.
They would actually become my arch rivals in worst to worst cases when they kept on advising me against my greatest “crime”! Those of whom, who would be either very “fatherly” or “motherly” or “sisterly” or whatever who would try to make be convinced that my obsession is only going to make me land in deep trouble in the days to come, I had a prompt answer. My answer would always be “Does not those who are very strict about food and diet fall ill?” they would instantly become startled and silent.
But of late this repeated warning is alarming me a bit. I just keep pondering if all the advices I get have a substantial fact or not. Thus to clear my doubts and not to restrain my food obsession I met a dietician friend of mine, who cleared all my doubts. Hence, I wish to share this information with those my health conscious and “foodie” friends like me as well.
The word “diet” does not mean restricting yourself from any thing and entering an almost starving phase. It neither denotes to a condition when have to curtail out all goodies like ice creams, red meat, confectionery, butter, oily fishes, and spicy, tangy preparations altogether and you platter will only include boiled vegetables, salads, bakes beans and all “tasteless” health food. ‘Diet” is a scientific concept that includes all the things but in restriction. So avoid nothing but eat right is basically what a balanced “diet” means.
Diet differs from people to people, age to age, climate to climate and even country to county. When a growing child would require certain types of food in greater quantity, the same food can be inappropriate for an aged person due to certain health facts.
Even more interesting is the fact that what we eat in summers will not be similar when it is winter as the bodily demands get changed due to alterations of climate and its subsequent requirements fro nutrients. Added to this, the dietary requirements are even different for different countries too, which is majorly based on the climatic conditions, and physical structure too. For instance, a Chinese or an Indian would require nutrients in a different quantity as compared to a Russian or a British.
Dietary requirements according to age
As indicated earlier, dietary requirements are different for different ages. A toddler would have a different requirement as that of a growing child, again a growing child would require different qualities of nutrients that that of an adult.
Even the nutritional needs of a child vary from stage to stage. On this basis the age group is generally divided as 0 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 1 to 3 years, 4 to 6 years, 7 to 9 years, 10 to 12 years, 13 to 15 years, 16 to 18 years, 18 to 40 years and above 40, then 70 ages above that.
It is to be understood that a breast feeding baby in an age group will require less quantity of nutrients as his or her digestive system has still not grown and matured fully and major part of the necessary nutritional needs are being compensated by breast milk.
Again, when the kid stops feeding breast milk, this sudden drop in nutrition needs to be compensated with additional nutrients from outside in the form of food.
Again, in the growing years, when the body and the various organs of the child grow a greater quantity of nutrient is required to assist this growing process. So the nutritional requisites get altered again.
In various stages of growth of a child, regulated quantity of protein, calcium, fat, carbohydrates, and calcium is required in the form of meat, chicken, eggs, milk, butter, dry fruits, vegetables, sugar, pulses, legumes, lentils, etc. All these are essential to boost up the mental and physical growth and development, that occurs during these growing years.
After the age of 30, the digestive system and other associated organs very gradually cease to function as efficiently as that of the previous years. So there are restrictions to be drawn on certain food that do not get assimilated easily and can cause several ailments.
Again, in case of a pregnant woman, the nutritional requirements are double as that of what her age or circumstances would have demanded otherwise. The obvious reason for this is that her body now has to provide nutrition for her as well as the growing fetus in the womb.
Dietary requirements according to profession
A person who indulges in a greater physical activity would necessarily require more of proteins, calorie and fat as that of another person who has a lesser level of physical work. This can be understood with a good example. A teacher, a doctor, banker, engineer, housewife, airhostess belong to the category of “low physical activity” group.
On the other hand, a driver, salesman, electrician, house maid, mechanic would fall under “medium physical exercise” category. But a farmer, mine worker, a construction site worker, would involve much more physical labour than that of the other groups. So the calorific need and requirement of fat would be greater in the third category.
Food rich in calorie and fat, burn during physical activity, to provide the necessary energy to carry on the work. In absence of this energy the worker will get exhausted easily, feel weak and will be unable to carry in the work. But if this similar quantity of calorie and fat is consumed by a person who belongs to the category of “low physical activity” group, will never get burned up in lack of physical work and get accumulated in the body in the form of body fat and lead to obesity.
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