This section of the book covered chapters’ 13-18,
pages 251 to 359.
One of the main topics covered was the politics and
backings of health organizations and how the author came to be with all of his
research. It was very interesting
to learn that a lot of his research wasn’t approved of or it was looked down
upon. These chapters went more in
depth on the science of nutrition and cancer and how food plays a vital role in
diseases.
A big issue is how Americans eat so much more meat
and fat then other developing countries.
People in Western countries are mostly meat eaters and people in
traditional countries are mostly plant eaters. As mentioned before, we consume a large amount of protein,
most of it being animal protein and we eat very few fruits and vegetables, and
when we do eat these things a large amount of them are processed. There was a very interesting chart that
labeled 38 countries and where they stood when it compared fat intake with
breast cancer. Not surprising the
U.S. was towards the top.
It is discussed on how doctors rarely talk about
nutrition with patients and that they should be talking about it. The system we are currently in, the
system that takes responsibility for promoting health of Americans, is not
working, something is failing us.
The medical community relies heavily on medication and surgery, and it
is said that doctors have virtually no training in nutrition and how it relates
to health. Nutrition is often not
taught in relation to public health problems- This worries me since the field I
am getting into is community health and I want to be adequately trained in
nutrition and how it plays a large role for public health. People should be concerned that they
are being misinformed and uneducated in this area. For people getting into the community health occupations, it
is our careers that may take a toll.
In order to help people help themselves we need to give all the
appropriate and necessary information, and in order to do this we need to be well
educated, as well.
“More people die because of the way they eat than
by tobacco use, accidents or any other lifestyle or environmental factor.” This quote pretty much sums up the book
and all that it is trying to explain, prove, and help treat. People need to first realize they need
to make a change in their eating habits before anything else can happen. We need to acknowledge that we are the
ones producing disease upon ourselves and to stop trying to blame everyone else
for our problems. Yes, we are
given choices everyday to either eat a fruit or eat something bad for us, it is
up to us to say no, to making our bodies healthier. We need to all start caring more of what we put in and on
our bodies, our health and lives are at stake and no one else is going to
change these problems.
This book was very informative and I highly
recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about nutrition and
cancer/diseases. Anyone that is
going into a health-related field should read this book. Some of the more significant things I
learned was how having too much protein in your diet can be a bad thing; it
increases your risk of getting cancer by a lot. This is an important thing to know because so many Americans
incorporate way too much protein into their diets. Too much of any one thing is bad. Another significant thing learned is the importance of plant-based
foods and we should all be consuming more of them and less meat. And the last and more important fact is
that certain diseases can in fact be reversed by a proper diet. This proves just how much our bodies
can do when given the right food.
These are all very important to me because they are life lessons that I
will always carry with me, and I can educate others on them.
There are a few American consumers that know that plant based meals are better than meat but I wonder why most of them continue to eat the amount of meat that they do. I think it's odd that nutrition isn't talked about as much as it should be. It's an important component for developing a healthy diet which leads to healthy weight management and good health. This book just goes to show just how important nutrition should be in our lives but it's not. We need to change this by actively thinking about the food that we are taking into our body.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that doctors are all about giving their patients medication for any problem that they have. For many of those people just a few simple changes in their diet could eliminate their need for the medications in the first place. It is very important to know about proper nutrition. This book sounds pretty interesting. I am glad that you learned so much!
ReplyDeleteIt's the truth, American portion sizes are way too big, full of meat and limited in vegetables. We have become use to huge plates of food that are truly having negatives effects on our health. I definitely see your point about how doctor's are only ever talking about meds and surgery, not usually about preventative meausures. People need to be educated about food and it needs to happen soon than later. I feel that younger people have had more of an education on healthy eating compared to baby boomers but still, not enough. Doctor's are a good candidate to talk about nutrition because they see many people and people trust their knowledge and advice!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you learned life lessons and that you will carry them with you!