EXERCISE
Food has a great
significance for healing. If we eat harmful food for many years, is
does no good to our body and can at some stage cause diseases. On the
other hand, if the diet is replaced early enough with a healthier one,
it can reduce the problems and even heal some diseases. Many may have
experienced this.
Another important
factor is exercise, since mere diet does not always guarantee good
health: we also need a suitable amount of exercise and need to reserve
time for it. It is good to note that everyday routines can amount to a
lot of exercise during one year. If we, for example, walk up stairs
every day for 2 minutes instead of taking the lift, it adds up to over
12 hours of exercise per year, which is already quite a lot. If we
walk, for example, 700 meters back and forth once a week instead of
taking the car, it also adds up to 12 hours of exercise per year.
Exercise is important
for better health. The benefits appear especially in the prevention of
cardiovascular diseases, because exercising improves the condition of
these body parts. Exercise is also useful for people who try to lose
weight. They can reach their objective easier with the help of
exercise. Let’s look at these both separately:
Effect on heart and
circulation.
A good idea of the significance of exercise versus immobility is given
by a study made in Gothenburg. Swedish men were put into their beds to
perfect rest for five days. When the muscle power of the heart was
measured both after and before the study, it was observed that the
pumping ability of the heart decreased by as much as 26 per cent
during the five-day rest. This indicates that if we do not move at
all, activity of the heart will decrease.
On the other hand, if
we move even a little regularly (it has been presented that even ½ - 1
hours of daily exercise would be sufficient; this can include chores
like vacuuming, carrying the shopping bags, clearing snow of the
roads, chopping wood and such), it immediately decreases the risk of
heart diseases and increases the amount of good HDL cholesterol, which
prevents veins from calcifying. Research has indicated that the amount
of good HDL cholesterol increased already after about 2.5 hours weekly
walks.
The next example also
indicates the usefulness of walking on the heart. People in the
example ate fatty food, but when they walked enough, they were still
in good condition in spite of their diet:
(…) Mann was interested
in these people, because they ate enormous amounts of fat, but had
hardly any heart diseases.
Mann got a permission
to make autopsies after members of the tribe died. The cause of death
wasn't a heart disease, but Mann in any case examined their hearts and
observed that their heart veins were in as bad condition as those of
modern Americans.
He observed something
else as well. The arteries in the hearts of the Masai tribesmen were
twice as big as those of the Americans because these people walked
tens of kilometers a day. Walking kept the veins in good condition.
The Masai people were in good condition in spite of their fatty diet.
(5)
Effect on weight.
Exercise is beneficial also for those who are trying to lose weight,
because all exercise consumes energy and fat. All activities that
consume energy more than we can get from food, automatically lead to
losing weight. A general rule is that if we get about 500 kilocalories
(kcal; for example one grill flank portion has 350 kcal, and a
donut 290 kcal) less energy per day than we consume, we will loose
about half a kilo a week. Correspondingly, if the energy deficit is a
little smaller, losing weight is also little slower.
This is can be well
illustrated by the next quote. It indicates how slight changes in diet
and increase of exercise can easily cause you to lose several
kilograms. Already after one year the change is noticeable:
- Walking is the best.
It is the easiest, nicest and cheapest, although it takes time.
Walking consumes six kilocalories a minute, 360 kilocalories an hour,
if we walk quite briskly; something like six kilometers an hour. If
you could walk an hour per day and eat 140 kilocalories less than you
normally do, you would use up 500 kilocalories more than before. Seven
times five hundred is three thousand five hundred. That amounts to
half a kilo of fat. After a week, you will weigh half a kilo less.
This time next year, you will have lost all of your extra twenty
kilos. It may feel like a long time in the future, but think about
what you did this time last year, and you'll notice that it is just
like yesterday! When you begin to see the results, time will pass
quickly.
(...) It is true. You
can make it sound so easy; yes, there must be some truth in it, Donna
thought. (6)
HEALTHY TEETH
The food we eat also has
an impact on the condition and health of our teeth. Most teeth
diseases do not come by accident: they are usually caused by the food
we eat and bad tooth hygiene. If we pay a little attention to both of
these, we can avoid unnecessary problems with our teeth. Important and
noticeable points are for instance the following:
Sugar.
First of all, ordinary sugar that is rife in lemonades (up to 45–60
pieces in 1.5l bottle; many juices also have a lot of sugar, but they
are easy to dilute with water), sweets, and pastries makes them
dangerous for the teeth. Neither do they contain important nutrients,
only calories; it is the largest cause of cavity formation in the
teeth. It is easy for the bacteria to form glutinous ingredients from
sugar, which then attach to the surface of the teeth and form plaque.
Other ingredients are not that big of a danger, with the exception of
sour ingredients, found in, for example, soft drinks, sport drinks,
and juices. For example, protein and fats do not damage the teeth at
all. In the same way, eating food containing fiber is useful, because
it keeps the teeth and gums in good condition.
The importance of
brushing our teeth
can surely not be exaggerated. If we brush our teeth regularly at
least two times a day, plaque cannot form on the teeth. It is
certainly wise to brush them immediately after eating food that
contains sugar to prevent acid attacks. Chewing gums containing
xylitol can also be good after meals.
Time between meals.
One cornerstone against cavity formation is to keep the times between
sugary meals long enough. Whether it is a question of the children's
sweet day, munching pastries or soft drinks containing sugar, it is
good to eat them with the main meal and not too often. If we eat them
constantly throughout the day, it is extremely bad for the teeth and
bacteria can easier destroy our teeth. Instead, if the times between
meals are kept long enough, there is no danger of this.
