Written by Dr. Yana Shevchenko
April 2012
Is My Diet Healthy?
I arrived in San Francisco in 1998. During my first year in America, I did not have a kitchen or a refrigerator in my room. I lived like many other students on a campus where we were served breakfasts and dinners. It was convenient for us. We could spend all our time studying without worrying about cooking. By the end of that year, I gained a few pounds despite going to a fitness club on a regular basis. Back home, I always cooked my food from scratch. I learned this from my grandmother and mother, as almost all Russians do. I can cook anything: salads, main dishes, soups, pies, cakes, etc. Everything we ate back then was homemade and some fresh products were home grown in our organic garden. For all my life in Russia, my weight always was stable. What was different here? Food provided on our campus, our everyday diet. Luckily, I moved out of the campus and was able to go back to my regular diet where I could eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, and prepare meals that were healthy. My weight returned to normal. After that experience, I became very conscious about the food which I chose to put in my mouth.
I took a nutrition class at MPC where we studied and discussed in details the strong connection between food and health. Many people have only a limited, basic understanding; they lack a deep knowledge why and how their food choices affect their well-being. A mineral, potassium, for example, plays an important role in the transmission of nerve impulses and the contraction of muscles. Also, it is important in homeostasis and heart-beating. By consuming meat and milk products, fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, we deliver potassium to our body, a vital mineral to keep us healthy. When our bodies suffer from a low level of potassium, it affects blood pressure, kidney function, muscle strength, and glucose intolerance (He 728.) In my opinion, unfortunately, many people have a strong belief that taking supplements will create a miracle for them. They do not understand that toxicity comes from consuming supplements, not from overeating. Another important fact is that supplements do not need the FDA’s approval to be sold. Presently, we have no standards or regulations for potency, dosage requirements, or rules for providing information on possible side effects (DiRenzo III.) The FDA will stop sales of a product only if people die. This is why I do not use supplements, but instead regularly eat fresh, homemade food that provides important minerals and vitamins for my health.
What about vitamins? They are essential for our health. For example, vitamin B 12 is involved in the synthesis of DNA and RNA, bone cell activity, red blood cell development, metabolism, and it protects nerve fibers, promoting their normal growth. Deficiency of this vitamin affects our intelligence and short-term memory. In cases of advanced deficiency, neurological symptoms develop beginning from our extremities and work inward, and up the spine. We can deliver vitamin B 12 by eating meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, milk, cheese, and eggs. B 12 can be obtained only from animal proteins (Lipman 11.)
Can we apply “the more, the better” to vitamin supplements? No. We easily forget that vitamin toxicities from foods are unknown, but we know they occur when people overuse supplements. One small capsule can deliver 2 milligrams of vitamin B 6, but it would take more than 3,000 bananas or 3,600 chicken breasts to deliver the same amount. Do these numbers show you how dangerous supplements can be? Do you see the importance of a variety of foods in your diet? When our kidneys detect excessive amount of water-soluble vitamins in the blood stream, they remove it. They work harder than they should. We need our kidneys for a life time and their overuse can affect our health. We cannot live without kidneys.
I will not consider becoming a vegetarian because many vitamins and minerals we can only get from meat, eggs, and dairy products. I have a friend who was a vegetarian for a few years, and one day his body started showing negative effects because his diet was not well-balanced. He started losing his hair. It looked like someone shaved roundish spots on his head. Hair would never grow back on these bald spots. This was his doctor’s final statement. What happened? His body had used crucial vitamins and minerals stored in his system prior to his newer, vegetarian life-style. It can take years before symptoms will show up. His body started shutting down less important functions like hair production. Our body is extremely smart and will continue surviving as long as it can, but I do not want to put my body in a position of suffering or surviving.
According to Barry M. Popkin, a professor of nutrition, Mexico is the most striking example of the obesity epidemic. In 1989, fewer than 10 percent of Mexicans were overweight. In 2006, national surveys showed that 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of Mexican men were overweight or obese. Diabetes was almost nonexistent in Mexico 15 years ago. Presently, almost one seventh of the country suffers from type 2 diabetes (Popkin.) Why? Products from America flooded Mexico with cheap sweeteners, oils, and meat while nothing was done to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Pepsi, Coca Cola, and other soft drinks became available on every corner. “One of the biggest contributors to obesity in Mexico is the consumption of soft drinks,” said Popkin. People who do not have enough education and knowledge about what is healthy vs. unhealthy products pay with their health. Bonnie Liebman states that an average American consumed 53 gallons of soft drinks per year in 2004. In contrast, other drinks are in a range from 9 to 25 gallons, which includes water, beer, milk, coffee, tea, and juice (Liebman 8.) I completely refuse to consume any soft drinks, sweetened teas, energy drinks, and juices from concentrates because they contain enormous amounts of unnecessary sugar. There is no health value in them, even if they may taste good. They bring “empty” calories without nutritional value. I prefer to eat fresh fruits that provide natural sugars, water, minerals, vitamins, and fiber. For drinking, I consume water, unsweetened tea, unsweetened coffee, and milk. They do not deliver many calories as soft drinks. Professor Popkin wrote in his article that the proportion of calories from beverages has been relatively small until the past 50 years, when Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other soft drinks began spreading across the world.
Customers are confused and mislead when they read labels saying “Super Food”, “Cholesterol-Fighting Power!”, “100% Whole Grain Goodness”, and many others when they shop (“Smarter” 4.) These health claims on packaged goods are to make customers buy the products. According to a professor of nutrition, Marion Nestle, who spent a year studying American supermarkets, companies pay the supermarkets to buy the best shelf space in the store. They are at eye level, at ends of aisles and around cash registers. Products located there are, in Nestle’s words, “mostly junk” and “the most profitable” (“Smarter” 4.)
Another huge difference in my diet in contrast to many Americans is that I like to have a bowl of soup for lunch. I make soups using a variety of vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery, cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, beets, and others. Soups deliver liquid, full of minerals, vitamins, and fiber. It makes us feel full, but it does not bring too many calories. Many Americans eat sandwiches for their lunches. By using small slices of tomato and onion, and a leaf of lettuce, they mistakenly think that they got required vegetables in their diet. In reality, this is not enough fiber to stay healthy.
In addition, the artificial (synthetic) food colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, stabilizers, and other manmade additives that have been used in foods to keep them attractive for customers as products need to have a long shelf-life. All these additives offer no nutritional value to our bodies; just the opposite: our bodies react negatively to them. They can provoke coughing, asthma, rhinitis, constipation, and headaches, to name a few (Feingold 553.) After many years of chemical exposure to the artificial food flavors and colors, irreversible neurological damage can occur (Feingold 558.) There are about 1,610 synthetic flavorings, 33 preservatives, 34 food colors, and 39 stabilizers that can be used in foods (Feingold 552.) As consumers, we need to be careful when shopping for our food. Most of the time the best practice is to prepare your meals at home from simple ingredients where you are in control.
I have evaluated the situation and I feel sorry for people who do not eat well-balanced food because it is so important to their well-being. In the worst scenario, it may make them irreversibly sick. Who is responsible? I think, people should be more proactive in educating themselves about healthy choices. They should question the whole system of food availability, overprocessed foods and nutrition, and what role they play in it. Companies, producing processed products or supplements, care only for sales. The more they sell, the higher their profits. They spend millions of dollars advertising their products. If their products bring too much sugar to your body; it changes your homeostasis, the balance of your system. If you become sick with diabetes, you will visit a doctor to make your blood sugar stable. The doctor will prescribe you medication. Then, pharmaceutical companies will make a great profit, too, as you will need your medication for the rest of your life. Do you want to become a part of this chain? Or would you like to stay healthy? It is your choice and my choice to consume healthy food. Be smart, proactive, and take a good care of your health as you cannot replace it.
Work Cited
DiRenzo III, Joe, Moretti, Katie, and Salvon-Harman, Jeffrey. “Supplements: The Whole Truth.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 138.1 (Jan. 2012): 73-76. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
Feingold, Ben F. “Hyperkinesis and Learning Disabilities Linked to the Ingestion of Artificial Food Colors and Flavors.” Journal of Learning Disabilities 9.9 (Nov. 1976): 551-559. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
He, Feng J. “Beneficial Effects of Potassium on Human Health.” Physiologia Plantarum 133.4 (Aug. 2008): 725-735. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.
Liebman, Bonnie. “The Changing American Diet: a Report Card.” Nutrition Action Health Letter 22.5(June 1995): 8. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
Lipman, Marvin M. “Vitamin B12: Panacea or Placebo?” Consumer Reports on Health 24.2 (Feb. 2012): 11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
Popkin, Barry M. “The World Is Fat.” Scientific American 297.3 (Sept. 2007). Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
“Smarter-And-Healthier-Supermarket Shopping Made Simple.” Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, 24.7 (Sept. 2006): 4-5. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.