Food Is Innocent

Summary: Any organism needs to be fed in order to grow and survive. Just like any animal, humans need food in order to receive the necessary energy with which they will grow and continue to function properly. But food has lately been blamed as the cause of obesity, and has been accused to be linked to a number of diseases and eating abnormalities. Fortunately for human beings, these accusations are far away from the truth. In fact, what mistakenly people consider to be the enemy is no...

Any organism needs to be fed in order to grow and survive. Just like any animal, humans need food in order to receive the necessary energy with which they will grow and continue to function properly. But food has lately been blamed as the cause of obesity, and has been accused to be linked to a number of diseases and eating abnormalities. Fortunately for human beings, these accusations are far away from the truth. In fact, what mistakenly people consider to be the enemy is not. Food is not to be blamed because none of the food substances have a negative outcome if people do not oversize their food portions or eat without any control. Thus it is important to understand what food is and what can we do to balance our eating habits, without loosing in taste or variety. Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats and proteins that are consumed by all animals-including humans-for nutrition or pleasure. It is also widely known that almost all foods come from plants or animals-except water, salt, baking soda, fungi, and processes foods-and humans as omnivorous animals are able to consume everything. After developing agriculture and becoming hunters, humans managed to add to their dietary habits different tastes that came from mixing and matching a variety of ingredients to improve the final culinary result. But recently, the once healthy portions of food people used to eat have dramatically increased and due to lack of time and focus people are now battling with their dietary habits against diseases and various types of illnesses. In particular, concerns about foodborne illnesses have long influenced the human diet. Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans, and one needs only to consider that eating disorders interfere with normal food consumption leading to excess weight or a skinny human silhouette. But food is not to be blamed for these dramatic results. The changes in nutrient content of diets in industrialized countries have come to produce foods that contain more animal fat, sugar, alcohol and less dietary fiber, carbohydrates and antioxidants. Today's working habits and family stress, alongside with reduced exercise patterns, have caused considerable concerns to health practitioners who examine the traditional eating habits and reveal negative results for humans. Thus, it is imperative for contemporary people to be informed and educated from an early age in relation to the effects of adopting a healthy diet plan and maintaining their weight constant and within a logical range when they have reached adulthood. Food is not the enemy in this issue; people's dietary habits are the cause of the health problems related to food.