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Food habits - nutrition
The changes occurring in society, in contrast to decades ago, the new lifestyles, and increasingly common lack of time, have brought about that individuals eat breakfast more and more hurriedly and loosely or even omit this meal. This situation worsens if we consider that, in addition, the tendency to lighten dinners has almost generally been determined, thus resulting in an abnormal time distribution of meals with serious effects on nutritional status and, ultimately, on health. People who eat breakfast daily still sometimes believe that breakfast is unpleasant from a nutritional perspective.
It may be that breakfast is only associated as the first meal throughout the day. This idea ignores the real importance of breakfast, especially for infants and adolescents, who are the ones who most frequently skip this meal.
Skipping breakfast or having several nutritionally wrong breakfasts a week is related to a decrease in physical and mental performance, as well as a lower intake of nutrients, which results in dietary imbalances and imbalances. For example, infants who do not eat breakfast or eat it unsatisfactorily show difficulties in achieving normalized energy and nutrient intake. In addition, once these habits are established from childhood, they will be extremely difficult to solve in adulthood.
Adequate nutrition is essential to achieve an optimal state of health. All meals of the day must be taken into account as measured sources of energy. It has been demonstrated that a diet that does not include breakfast is almost impossible to be nutritionally correct. This is due to the fact that the breakfast must contribute the fourth part of the daily calories, that is to say, it is the meal that contributes the greater portion, and also constitutes a good opportunity to add essential foods in the diets: dairy, fruits and cereals, etcetera. Having breakfast is definitely more than having a coffee, since coffee and infusions in general do not contribute practically any nutrients.
Having said all this, it is clear that eating breakfast every day is not just a matter of routine, but is essential for normal physical and intellectual performance. The body requires a certain availability of energy and nutrients for proper functioning, especially after the fasting inherent in the sleep schedule. Breakfast effectively provides the energy to start the day. On the other hand, having a good breakfast is to correctly deposit the consumption in the different meals, avoiding an overabundance at lunch or dinner.
In the vital moments of constant development [childhood and adolescence] breakfast plays a major role. The consumption of dairy products [the main source of calcium] is linked to breakfast time, so that if breakfast is not consumed, the lack of calcium would induce insufficiencies that would imply ailments [growth alterations, osteoporosis, etc.]. In the case of adults, it ensures the preservation of a balanced diet and in older adults, in addition to being a tasty and desired meal, it has benefits such as the fact that foods that are easy to store, cook, chew and assimilate can be included.
According to some it is easier for an individual to change his religious beliefs than his eating habits, both factors in any case are the result of a line of successive generations. But in the case of food, the projections of the changes of present-day life become more evident. We have already alluded to the significance this has for man, with a view to preserving his health, obtaining energy and nutrients.
The different adjustments that man has generated throughout his evolution have allowed him to use different products today. Even so, he does not consume all the foods that are available to him, because his food management has remained patterned, either by nutritional agents connected with persistence or other factors that fix the choice and eating habits.
Nutritional requirements are presented in a similar way in all people [excluding particular circumstances such as age, sex, physical activity, etc.] but each state, group and even each individual resolve them depending on their different eating habits, which establishes a limit between what is needed and what can be acquired. Influencing instinctive behavior and what man feels like consuming.
For a formal concept of eating habits: "more or less conscious behavior, collective in most cases and always repetitive that leads people to select, prepare and consume a certain food or menu as one more part of their social, cultural and religious customs and which is influenced by multiple factors [socioeconomic, cultural, geographical, etc.]."
The Mediterranean diet is considered as an archetype of healthy eating, being thus declared as Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010. The first scientific references about this diet date back to 1948, when the epidemiologist Leland g. Allbaugh investigated on the way of life of the natives of the island of Crete. The term acquired a higher category when Ancel Keys, from the University of Minnesota, USA, who understood the good habits of those who lived in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, perceived that the recurrence of coronary ailments was lower in that area.
With this evidence, he began his studies on the diet and practices of the people who lived in that environment with the aim of finding a hypothesis that would reveal, beyond genetics, the reason for the lower number of events and deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases. The basis of his hypothesis was vegetables sprinkled with raw olive oil and wheat bread, since these were the most popular foods among the inhabitants of Naples [the first population studied].
Some time later, he established that the lowest number of cardiovascular events could correspond to a diet based on fruits and vegetables, cereals and unprocessed grains, legumes, fish, raw nuts such as walnuts and almonds, olive oil and wine at meals. All this cooked in the healthiest and most natural way. To the characterization of consumption was added the report of a regular physical activity, which at that time had causality in the delivery of the population to agriculture.
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