Killer Inputs

How many of you are seriously health conscious? Forget about health. Do you really care about the foods you take daily? Maybe, that sounds like a difficult proposition for people in a hustle-bustle life. When you are hungry, you don't look for the protocols, and what comes your way, well justifies your crave for foods. Right. Pause. Think for a moment. It's not all about delectably packaged junk foods from branded companies, there are many delicious local food items that could have charmed you for long, all for sumptuously satisfying your epicurean taste buds, would have a complete bearing on your health. Remember, food items rich in fat, sugar and salt are directly associated with a higher chance occurrence of many modern health problems be it heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, or thyroid. And the explosive fact that may give you a shocker is the higher sugar, salt, and fat components in food, the more your affinity for eating. And the vicious circle of eating more and getting inflicted with killer diseases starts with the “dangerous trios” - sugar, salt, and fat.

As chefs emphasize sugar, salt, and fat make a food unbelievably palatable. These basic three ingredients stimulate neurons, which in turn they trigger the release dopamine, a chemical that influences your craving for foods. Like a perfect foreplay that stimulates you to reach at the highest orgasmic level, a judicious combination of sugar, salt, and fat drives you towards an “epicurean bliss point”. From there your flight for indulgence takes off. Perhaps, this secret is known to the barons of food business. Restaurants, multinational fast-food companies, and even your local dhabas, they all create magic around this “epicurean bliss point”. A judicious mix of sugar, salt, and fat is loaded into the royal dishes you often hanker everyday. That's not just the whole truth, the more you take such foods, an unfailing addiction level grows in your mind, and whenever you come across such food items, your brain triggers an unusual high appetite for that food.

Whether it's a packet of potato chips, a piece of hamburger, or a bottle of soft drink, the marvel of “modern food engineering” has elevated the epicurean level. What flavor would delight customers is not a prerogative of cook, rather it's a complex food designing process that stems from the “blissful stimulation” - a pleasurable experience felt when layers of food ingredients melt over your taste buds, and you desire more. And this influences hypereating syndrome, a psychological condition which is difficult to avoid once generated.

So, the consequences are hitting hard on our face. The people across the globe, especially in western countries like US and UK, are getting fatter and fast catching up the modern ailments such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart stroke, and specific type of cancer. Cancer researchers at the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) claim that a reduction in the intake of sugar, salt and fat would certainly help decrease the growth rate of disease. Similarly, a high intake of salt and fat is directly related to to occurrence of high blood pressure. Patients with high blood pressure are 300 percent likely to have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure. Again, saturated fat, popularly known as raising “bad cholesterol” is mostly found in food items such as butter, cream, cheese, cakes, biscuits, pies, pastries, and chocolates increases the risk of heart disease.

Well, as the saying goes “prevention is better that cure”, it's now your turn how you manage your life and lead a healthy lifestyle. Remember, a balanced intake of killer inputs (sugar, salt, and fat), as defined as GDA (Guideline Daily Allowance) would help you reduce the chance of getting inflicted with modern diseases. A GDA of 90 g of sugar, 6 gram of salt, and 70 gram of fat are advised for an adult. Beyond that you have the freedom of eating more healthy fats found in foods such as nuts, olive oil, and avocado. Moreover, going for sweets, you can always bank on honey, dates, and other fruits. And yes, a caution for salt, the less the healthier.