Free Research Paper Example about Nutrition

For the human body, nutrition is everything. It has a huge physical and mental impact on you, and without it, you won't be able to live your life to the fullest and feel fantastic.“Good nutrition is essential in keeping current and future generations of Americans healthy across the lifespan”(CDC). Even though we understand the importance of nutrition, the statistics on healthy nutrition aren't encouraging; rather, they are alarming.“Fewer than 1 in 10 children and adults eat the recommended daily amount of vegetables…Only 4 in 10 children and fewer than 1 in 7 adults eat enough fruit”(CDC). These figures are appalling, and they have a significant impact on your physical and mental health. It's difficult to comprehend how society has arrived at a point where everything we consume is highly processed and organic foods are largely neglected.

Nutrition and exercise are nearly totally responsible for physical well-being. It's not true that if you're skinny, you're healthy, or that if you're overweight, you're unwell. Being healthy, on the other hand, means feeling well, being energetic, and not having any health problems as a result of it. “It is well established that healthy nutrition and physical activity are key lifestyle factors that modulate lifelong health through their ability to improve body composition, musculoskeletal health, and physical and cognitive performance, as well as to prevent metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease across the lifespan” (Koehler). This is correct; you are what you eat and exercise. This means that if you eat well and exercise regularly, your body will be healthier and you will live a longer, happier, and healthier life. Your everyday habits and choices have a domino influence on your life. One of the most significant advantages of exercise is the positive impact it has on your mental health. It has been confirmed multiple times that practicing any type of exercise at least three times a week has a tremendous impact on your life.“Research has also shown that physical activity can improve mood, reduce stress and anxiety and help prevent mental health problems” (Salmon, et al.).

Another factor that nutrition can affect is mental health. There are numerous studies that show that poor nutrition can make a person depressed, while people who eat healthily are generally often very happy.“Ongoing research has found a strong link between gut health and brain function. For example, healthy bacteria in the gut produce approximately 90 of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects mood” (McGrane). This study is so interesting. Here we can prove once again that nutrition is so important that it even has the magnitude to affect your neurotransmitters, and the number is not small, it is ninety percent! “For example, a 2019 review of 56 studies found an association between a high intake of healthful foods, such as olive oil, fish, nuts, legumes, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables, and a reduced risk of depression during adolescence” (Mcgrane). 

You might want to eat healthy, but maybe you don’t know what that really means… The media has twisted nutrition a lot. Carbs? Fats? Are they okay? The answer is yes! And according to Dr. Korn, this is what should be included in your diet to maintain good nutrition. “In general, everyone functions best by eating three to six meals a day, including snacks … and combining vegetable carbohydrates with healthy, high-quality fats like butter, avocado, coconuts, nuts, and eggs. Eating organic starchy and non starchy vegetables as the primary source of carbohydrate is optimal. Eating small amounts of high-quality protein, fat, and vegetables every 3 hours is an essential dietary approach”. According to this expert, this is the perfect nutrition, but the problem is that it all becomes more convoluted and twisted when we go to the supermarket and buy products without recognizing the chemicals that are used in many of them and how they affect us.“The standard American diet (SAD) makes us sad! This too-frequently prescribed diet consists of overly processed foods containing refined sugars in fruit juices and sugary drinks, and highly refined rice, pastas, and flours used in breads and bakery goods.These processed products are loaded with chemicals and synthetic preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, and food colorings that are known to alter our mood”. It is part of our daily lives to go and do our food shopping at the supermarket, but the truth is that we are unaware that they are full of chemicals and other harmful substances that affect our health and, as a result, our mood. This of course has a significant impact on your mental health. This is why we are usually told that we should aim to incorporate organics as much as possible into our everyday diet.

As a result of my research and reading of many articles, I've come to the conclusion that eating may make or break your life over time. The answer is simple: eat healthy if you want to live a long life with good mental health and a good mood. Ann Wigmore stated it best: “The food you eat can be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison”.