A Diet is the kinds of food that a person eats habitually. The diet that you eat have a significant effect on your health and wellness. Since a dieting is a habit, changing what a person eats on a daily basis is going to be challenging, just like any other habit you may have.
WHY DO PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR DIET?
When people hear the word DIET, they often assume it means someone is trying to lose weight. However, people change their diet for many reasons that have to do with the health and wellness.
- A person may change their diet and nutrition for the purpose of weight management, which can be related to both weight loss and weight gain.
- A person who wants to gain weight may be trying to build muscle or they may be overcoming being underweight.
- A person who wants weight loss may want to change the way they look, but they may be doing it in order to manage a health condition, such as cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, or lactose or gluten intolerance.
- Other people change their diet because they want to change their lifestyle, such as going vegetarian or vegan, which they think is better for maintaining wellness.
- And others are seeking to change their nutrition and curb a specific food habit, such as eating sweets or snacking at night, which is definitely not good for maintaining a well body.
Consuming a healthy diet throughout your life helps to prevent malnutrition in all its forms as well as a range of other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and conditions. However, the increased production of processed foods made available, rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles have led to a shift in dietary patterns. People are now consuming more foods high in energy, fats, free sugars and salt/sodium, and many people do not eat enough fruit, vegetables and other dietary fiber such as whole grains.
The exact make-up of a diversified, balanced and healthy diet will vary depending on individual characteristics (e.g. age, gender, lifestyle and degree of physical activity), cultural context, locally available foods and dietary customs. However, the basic principles of what constitutes a healthy diet remain the same, in order to optimize your health nd wellness.