Choices we make in life define us. I’ll be discussing some of the factors that influence our choices of food and how we can intentionally make better and smarter choices in our diets. Hippocrates, the father of medicine said let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food. This is so very true, because what we eat eventually impacts our health, both in the short and in the long run.
Many factors influence our diet choice. I will focus on just three.
One, our background and how we are raised in terms of the food we eat growing up. The food that is passed on to us by our parents
Two, the culture within our community
Three, the environment we find ourselves
Now let me touch on the first factor which is my background or the food that was passed on to me. When I was growing up, I was never taught how nutrition could effectively impact on my health and general wellness. I ate the food that was provided by my family members. I did not see anything wrong with the diet. There was no way I could have thought I needed to change my diet in order to improve my health.
The food was very delicious and tasty. Also, I was very strong, no health challenge until I grew up and got married and started raising children. Then I started having health challenges much later in my 30s. Some of these health challenges were probably traceable to the food I had eaten when growing up.
The diet was mainly loaded with high cob and fat with some protein and little or no vegetables and fruits. It was not balanced at all. Eventually, it was after diet modification that some of those meals were taken out of my diet. A number of those symptoms disappeared afterwards.
Culture We all have different cultural foods. We have Indian food, Caribbean food, Chinese food, European and African food. Some of these foods are very safe and healthy. However, some of them are very greasy, loaded with high cob and may not be healthy for us
Environment where we live could generally influence our diet. It could be because of the climate of the environment or the type of food that is available there . The food that’s available in the developed countries may be largely non-organic and grown with chemicals. Research has shown that they contribute to the development of certain diseases.
The caution for us is to avoid flowing into the defaults of what is available and to be intentional about making smarter choices about our diet
Here are some of the tips that can help us to do that
We can adopt the ERA acronym to do this. The E stands for eliminate. Yes, there are certain things in our diet that we should not even eat at all. The food that are high in fat and can easily block the arteries or some other food that are highly poisonous
The food that you should reduce is the food that is still good for you but you don’t need to take in excess. Food like high carb or high animal proteins, or food, and drink with lots of high sugar content.
The food to develop alternatives for are the ones you are eliminating. You can replace some of the highly fatty food with plant-based food. which are low in calories and rich in vitamins
The reason for this topic is to encourage us to eat wisely. Like one of my mentors normally puts it before you eat any food ask yourself what the food is going to do in your body. Is the food going to make you healthy or compromise your health?.
You don’t have to eat the food passed on to you . Some people are sick today because they eat the food that is innocently passed on to them. Les Brown said do not go where the path may lead but develop a path that leaves a trail. As you eat smarter, you may become a model and trailblazer for others to follow. Your family members and friends and people close to you may be inspired to choose healthy diet because you motivate them
As I conclude , I have looked at factors that influence the choice of our diet. I’ve also looked at tips on making smarter choices about our diet .
