Head Strong Nutrition Blog

In today’s blog post, I want to refer to and put together the relationship between our lifestyle and diet with clinical alterations.

We already know that precooked foods, unbalanced diets, a sedentary lifestyle, toxic habits (tobacco, alcohol), etc., are behind many pathologies and metabolic alterations that lead to diseases, starting with being overweight.

Today I want to go deeper and look a little further, and unravel some of these processes.

When we talk about the importance of a varied diet, we do so because of our body’s need for different vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates as a source of energy that our body needs “daily”.

When we use the term balanced, it refers to the proportion of them that our body needs and that depends on the age, sex and energy expenditure of each individual (an athlete is not the same as a woman going through menopause or a adolescent compared to an older adult), to cite an example.

I want to add and emphasize these two areas, because it is here that the key to health and quality of life lies.

In matters of balance, it is important to know what calories we need and from what source we are going to consume them. The latest studies show and it is being observed that diets rich in carbohydrates, whether they are integral or not, can lead us down the path of overweight and arterial disease.

I will clarify this concept:

The body needs glucose to carry out energy functions itself, but what is clear is that if we consume more than our body needs at that time, lipogenesis (fat production in our liver) is activated, with it excess energy.

To regulate this, it is important to know the “glycemic load” that the food contains (that is, the amount of sugar) and the glycemic index (the speed with which glucose is absorbed into the blood), in order to avoid these glucose spikes and thus normalize the formation of fats by our body.

It has been shown that glucose from legumes, tubers, vegetables and fruit has a lower glycemic index than cereal (rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, cookies, etc.). Therefore it is important to pay attention to what is making us fat.

To finish, I would like to say that it is important to regulate and normalize the different types of fats that the body manages, in order to avoid vascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis or the formation of atherogenic plaques, which is the leading cause of death in the world. Avoiding insulin resistance, inflammation and oxidation of low-density lipoproteins LDL, is very important in terms of prevention.

 

In today’s blog entry I want to talk to you about physical exercise and its relationship with longevity.

Performing physical exercise on a regular basis throughout our lives has protective effects against both physical and psychological illness.

Our immune system is an excellent indicator of the individual’s health status and therefore is a good predictor of longevity.

It is interesting to practice exercise from childhood, youth, maturity and in the older stage. In this way we will optimally maintain our bodily functions, promoting qualitatively superior aging and the possibility of living longer.

If the practice of exercise is also carried out in the period of involution, a higher quality aging will be achieved, that is, with a better quality of life.

In aging according to statistics, the most common pathologies are: High blood pressure, Heart disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Rheumatism, Osteoporosis.

All these diseases are related to our lifestyle and can be prevented and even managed by intervening from physical activity. 85% of older people suffer from some type of pathology.

Performing physical activity in the older stage supposes a satisfaction when feeling busy and doing some useful activity. Performing activity at this age in a regular and structured manner affects three areas of our body: the musculoskeletal system, the cardiovascular system and the psychological area.

• In the musculoskeletal system, it prevents muscle atrophy, favoring joint mobility.
• In the cardiovascular system, it increases cardiocirculatory and respiratory capacity, increasing blood flow and metabolism.
• In the psychological area, it keeps us useful and busy, increases oxygenation of the brain, producing endorphins.

In this way, through physical activity, we facilitate a higher quality of aging, reduce the risk of premature death and increase life expectancy.

Check out this video to help you understand better what happens to your body when you exercise and work out.

Let’s not forget that with the practice of physical exercise the need to consume drugs is reduced.

It is important to create adherence, that is, that the activity we do is to our liking and has fun.

To finish, I would like to tell you that the organizations and the protocols indicate that the minimum activity that adults and the elderly must carry out is 150 minutes a week. This physical activity should be moderate to vigorous. While the little ones and schoolchildren should do 60 minutes of vigorous activity daily.