YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
You’ve all heard the old adage “you are what you eat,” but have you ever stopped to think about exactly how true that is?
The most obvious example is that if you eat enough donuts you'll probably end up looking like a donut. But really the adage goes much deeper than that, with food affecting every aspect of you and your life.
Put simply, healthy eating is the key to wellbeing.
We all have up to 100 trillion cells in our bodies, each one demanding a constant supply of daily nutrients in order to function optimally. Food affects all of these cells, and by extension, every aspect of your being: mood, energy levels, food cravings, thinking capacity, sex drive, sleeping habits and general health.
If you feed your body junk and convenience foods it’ll simply lay down fat, lower your energy and even your brain power.
Many people who exercise regularly think they can eat whatever they like, because they’ll burn it up. The news is, that’s not exactly true.
Exactly how are you fuelling your body for that output of energy? With good or bad food? Over a week try writing down everything you eat; you may be shocked when you review what’s gone in your mouth!
Optimal body tuning
The healthier you eat the more you‘ll be in tune with what your body really needs. Instead of rubbish, you’ll find you start to crave a variety of highly nutritious food.
Carefully planned nutrition must provide both an energy and nutrient balance. The nutrients are:
- Proteins - essential to growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues
- Fats - one source of energy and important in relation to fat soluble vitamins
- Carbohydrates - our main source of energy
- Minerals - inorganic elements occurring in the body which are critical to its normal functions
- Vitamins - water and fat soluble vitamins play important roles in many chemical processes in the body
- Water - essential to normal body function as a vehicle for carrying other nutrients and because the human body is 60% water
- Roughage - the fibrous indigestible portion of our diet that is essential to the health of the digestive system
Daily energy requirements
The energy obtained from food is measured in kilojoules (kJ).
It is worth investigating exactly how many kilojoules your body requires each day. Everyone has a personal requirement depending on their weight and energy output.
Estimated range of kilojoules per day for males to maintain a healthy weight
(ranges from sedentary through to active lifestyle)
Age (years) |
kJ per day |
| 19-30 | 9,000-16.900 |
| 31-50 | 8,900-15,800 |
| 51-70 | 8,200-14,700 |
| 70+ | 6,300-13,500 |
Estimated range of kilojoules per day for females to maintain a healthy weight
(ranges from sedentary through to active lifestyle)
Age (years) |
kJ per day |
| 19-30 | 7,100-13,900 |
| 31-50 | 7,300-12,500 |
| 51-70 | 6,900-12,000 |
| 70+ | 5,600-11,500 |
Notes
Protein contains 17 kJ per grams; fat contains 37 kJ per gram and carbohydrate 16 kJ per gram. Therefore, the amount of carbohydrate, protein and fat in a diet will determine the daily energy intake.
Dietician and nutritionists generally recommend that your daily diet is made up of:
- 15-20% of total kilojoules from protein
- <30% of total kilojoules from fat (with no more than 10% saturated fat); and
- 50 - 55% of total kilojoules from carbohydrate