Free Example of Dieting in North America Essay

A century ago, the different ways of understanding medicine and health were defined by two known scientists, Antoine Beauchamp and Louis Pasteur. Pasteur believed was that the environment we live in has become hostile by invasion of diseases into our bodies in terms of harmful bacteria. Thus, he aimed at the protection of the body from the harmful bacteria, which caused sickness. On the contrary, Beauchamp belief was based on the theory that a healthy body offered immunity against the harmful bacteria. He argued that the destructive effects of bacteria on the body are more pronounced when body cells become sick and weak. In the end analysis, Beauchamp’s theory was overlooked, whereas that of Pasteur got acknowledged. This resulted in prejudice directed towards preventive disease treatment present up to date in the medical community.

The North American diet has evolved dramatically ever since the early 1900’s into a variety of foodstuffs that threaten life, packed with dangerous vegetable and animal fats deficient in most essential minerals, vitamins and crucial fatty acids as well as becoming unhealthier. The ancestors of the North Americans relied mostly on agricultural production, whereby they lived in the rural areas or the family farms.

Heart attacks were unheard of before 1910 and by 1930 they accounted for less than 3000 deaths per year. This number of deaths had risen beyond 500000 by the 1960’s. This rapid increase in the number of deaths was due to some changes in people’s lifestyles. These comprised people spending a lot of time doing deskbound jobs as well as driving at the expense of doing less physical or exercising work and walking. This work life trend on a positive note has made the North Americans financially better off in reference to increasing their personal incomes as well as their economic output.

PROS AND CONS

On the contrary, this trend is detrimental in that fewer calories get burned, therefore, posing a challenge in terms of cutting down the resultant excess weight gain. Moreover, innovations affecting their metabolism and energy absorption are not in tandem when compared to the fast-paced economic process. Consequently, large masses of these people are seeking refuge in unsafe methods of controlling weight gain. For instance, these methods comprise of smoking and other potentially unsafe methods such as dietary food supplements. On the other hand, a lot of innovation has taken center stage in food production making meal preparation very easy as well as availing dirty, cheap calories. These food preparation innovations, packaging, and storage, including the presence of a wide variety of meals prepared easily are attraction points for busy people who are more than willing to cough an extra buck in terms of payment.

Therefore, enjoying a tasty meal at dinnertime is getting easier at home, whereas physical exercises are becoming harder. This is courtesy of technological advancement that has enabled people to get access to cheaper and varied foodstuffs, easy to use and with a better taste.

Even though technology is valuable, definitely more innovation is required in assisting people in selecting diets that are not only better tasting and easily prepared, but also better in terms of their health. The Food Guide Pyramid is a better way of theoretically determining a healthy and balanced diet. Its development is so as to offer an easy and quick guide to people on the food amounts and types to be eaten from the major five food groups: fruits, grains, meat, vegetables and dairy.

On the other hand, physical exercises are a very crucial determinant of one being healthy instead of overweight. About a third of the North American population get regularly hooked up some type of physical workouts, despite the fact that the merits of doing so get thoroughly demonstrated by the print and mass media. For instance, physical activity, even if it is just taking the dog for a walking or climbing stairs to work, is essential towards good health. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that more attention had to be paid towards the acquisition of sufficient physical activity as well as the reversal of the skyrocketing obesity cases experienced over the last decade.

CONCLUSION

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  reiterates that it was pertinent for adults to have at least 30 minutes of reasonable physical workouts on most weekdays to aid in the prevention of chronic diseases, as well as health promotion. The study further indicates that chronic diseases related to diet account for two-thirds of United States deaths. It estimated that improvement in diets could recover lost productivity and save annual costs of medical attention to the tune of 48 billion US dollars.