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<i>What should we eat?</i>
These days, throughout the world lots of urban people — both young and old are fat and growing ever fatter. Did you know that it's on the World Health Organisation's list of major global health risks.
A ''new and striking'' discovery in the western countries found that nearly 25 percent of women in their 50's had too much body fat to measure in the usual way, by grabbing a fold of skin with calipers that gauge the layer of fat underneath.
Last year there was a book published named, ''What Are You Looking At?'' — that describes itself as ''the first fat fiction anthology'' and its introduction says, ''Fat has earned its way into the realm of human conditions that concern literary artists.''
Well it does not mean our bodies do not need 'fat' or it does not have any beneficial effects! But undoubtedly, the risk is more than benefits at this moment.
This increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and top of these — 'lost productivity'. People who are reading this article will be surprised to know that how fast calories add up, and unless they eat a lot of vegetables, how little food provides 2,000-3000 calories.
A small cone ice cream or a medium/large serving of French fries can have more than 400 calories, for example, a cheese sandwich more than 800 and chocolate sundae more than 1,000.
How much fat we should consume is controversial; it varies from person to person. But the Harvard nutritionists say that the problem is not so much the amount of fat that we eat but rather the kind of fat is very important. We need to know about different types of 'fat' properly and see what is good and what is bad.
Discouraging as it all may seem, the good news is that the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health has developed a 'Healthy Eating Pyramid'. A lot of people believe that this pyramid is trustworthy and simple guide to choose a healthy diet.
Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence our chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that we should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (sweets, red meat, cheese).
A food guide pyramid for a healthy diet is built like this: At the tip are fats, oils and sweets, all foods that we should eat most sparingly. At the next level are milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts, a food group that should be consumed in some form three times daily. At the next level of the pyramid are vegetables and fruits, which should be eaten about five times daily.
At the pyramid's base is a food group that includes bread, cereal, rice and pasta. 6 to 11 servings from this menu are recommended daily.
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