Facultatea de Bioinginerie Medicală

Specializarea Balneo-fiziokinetoterapie și
Recuperare
 Food is life: every day we all need different amounts of water, oxygen and food. By choosing
a balanced diet we can avoid chronic and cardiovascular diseases, but also reduce the impact on
the environment and greenhouse gas emissions, thus improving the health of our planet. In fact,
one of the main causes of CO2 production stems from what we put on the table every day. If we
consider greenhouse gas emissions, it is food that makes the biggest contribution to climate
change, accounting for 31% of the total (a higher percentage than transport or heating).
Our health cannot and should not depend only on the quality (and quantity) of the medical
treatments we do, or the medicines we take. This also goes through prevention, physical activity
and healthy eating. Taking care of your body is not just vanity, on the contrary, it is a very pure
form of love for yourself and for the people who are our relatives.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is the best way to protect our health and, in all likelihood, the
most effective form of prevention there is. One of the fundamental pillars of a healthy body
structure is nutrition. Everyone can find their balance as long as they have a healthy diet.
Physical health, but also mental health, is to a large extent correlated with food. This text was
copied from Ziare.com The importance of a healthy diet and how it can be balanced. First we
must commit ourselves personally and take care of ourselves. Many foods, in addition to
harming the environment, can harm us directly. To understand the above, we don't have to go
far: an excessive consumption of beef, for example, can make our body sick. Tumors,
cholesterol, cardiovascular problems. The same happens with excessive consumption of sugars,
alcohol or foods rich in saturated fats.
In August 2016, the American Heart Association published a press release titled "Added
Sugars and Cardiovascular Risk in Children," offering three very important pointers:
• Sugar should not be added to food and drinks intended for children in the first two years of life;
• Do not allow children and adolescents to consume more than one dose of sweet drink per week;
• Do not take more than 25 g of sugar per day in total, so including the sugars present in
industrial products.
Drastic diets, immediate changes, can produce traumatic effects on our body and on our
psyche. That is why it is not recommended to change food from evening to morning, our body
must get used to it gradually. For example, if we are not used to eating a lot of vegetables,
legumes or whole grains, we could experience intestinal and digestive disturbances in the
following days. This makes us understand that a healthy diet must be followed constantly, not
intermittently and stopped, and must be associated with the search for quality food and products,
with daily physical activity and with the desire to change.
Our body is made up of different systems that cooperate and interact with each other and thus
enable life. Taking care of it allows us to maintain a high quality of life and therefore guarantee
the well-being of the whole organism.
The energy supplied to the body should come from 60-70% carbohydrates from grains, fruits,
legumes and vegetables, 20-30% from lipids and 10-12% proteins. The diet involves reducing
the consumption of cholesterol-intensive foods (bacon, butter, thick margarine, egg yolk cream,
meat - especially red meat). This proves that there is an increasing risk of cancer, gall bladder,
obesity and clear cancer. The most suitable for the body is a moderate consumption (<30% of
total calories) of healthier fats, vegetable oils (non-hydrogenated), sunflower, soy, olives. This is
important if the food is cooked in low-sugar and refined sweets, and a diet that consists of
cereals, fruits and legumes from the total daily calories consumed.
Too much protein intake overloads the functioning of the kidneys and induces a sharp loss from
the body. Protein sources are: dried legumes (beans, peas, lentils), nuts, whole grain bread,
cereals, milk, eggs and meat.

Basil, thyme, dill, garlic, parsley, mint, sage, chives, cumin and juniper, in addition to greatly
improving the taste of food, contribute to the process of digestion and elimination of fats. Fruits
such as: pineapple, apples, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, grapefruit and
lemon have a role in protein breakdown. Healthy food is fresh, varied food, rich in vital, alkaline
substances, with many mineral salts and trace elements. Nutrition is the field in which the most
serious errors are made. Modern man feeds in an unhealthy way, eats irregularly and a lot. This
is why a person suffers from excess weight (exceeding by more than 10% of the normal weight),
this has a harmful effect on the bone system, the skeleton and the motor apparatus, especially on
the lower part of the body. The higher the excess weight, the higher the percentage of people
suffering from coronary disease (angina, myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis) or cancerous
conditions, such as bowel cancer. Statistics show that
over 30% of obese people die from liver disease or diabetes. Obese people can too
had much more problems than those of normal weight in case of surgeries. The biggest mistake
made in the field of nutrition concerns the excessive absorption of carbohydrates, which are
devoid of nutritional value and which are found in: sugar, sweets, flour and alcoholic beverages.
These are transformed by the body into fat deposits. The obese are inside a vicious circle. They
face a psycho-social stress that generally causes them to eat more and more.
Many people, especially women, take synthetic weight loss drugs that have the effect of
suppressing their appetite by acting as a laxative.
To have a healthy diet it is very important to know what, how much and how to eat. Healthy
nutritious food must meet 5 criteria:
1. to be adequate (suitable), so that the food consumed brings essential nutrients, fiber and
energy in sufficient quantities to maintain the health and weight of the body;
2. to be balanced, a certain proportion between nutrients must be respected (the pyramid of
nutrients is a good guide in this regard);
3. to be calorically controlled to ensure body weight control;
4. to be moderate, moderation in food refers to the possible excess of salt, sugar and fats;
5. to be varied, the variety of the diet implies avoiding the consumption of a certain food,
day after day, for long periods of time (we must consume portions of everything
steps of the pyramid).
A healthy diet also reduces the risk of:
- myocardial infarctions and strokes: a study found that women and men who followed the
advice of nutritionists reduced the incidence of myocardial infarctions by 28%, and strokes by
14%, compared to those who did not follow the rules of a healthy diets;
- hypercholesterolemia: reducing saturated and hydrogenated fats and cholesterol in the diet,
reduces the risk of hypercholesterolemia (increased level of cholesterol in the blood) and
coronary heart disease;
- high blood pressure: eating plenty of vegetables and fruits (8 to 10 snacks per day), reducing
fats in the diet and consuming skim milk products (3 snacks per day) lowers blood pressure and
reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke;
- osteoporosis: a sufficient amount of calcium protects against the occurrence of osteoporosis;
calcium is found in dairy products, in certain green vegetables and in foods enriched with
calcium
- spina bifida: pregnant women should consume folates or folic acid (found in vegetables or
cereals enriched with folic acid) before and during pregnancy, this protects the child from the
occurrence of this malformation; women of childbearing age should take a supplement of 400 g
of folic acid per day.
Bibliography
https://www.sfatulmedicului.ro/Alimentatia-sanatoasa/alimentatia-sanatoasa_1471
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A2ncare
https://www.reginamaria.ro/articole-medicale/o-alimentatie-sanatoasa