Philosophy of Eating - Essay Example

Philosophy of Eating Obesity or overweight is a big problem in most of the countries. Both children and adults are equally vulnerable to obesity related health problems. Overweight reduces the mobility of the people and therefore it is difficult for obese people to maintain a sound health. Cardiac problems, cholesterol, diabetes, lack of self-esteem etc are some of the major obesity related physical and mental health problems. Obesity is mostly caused by the unhealthy eating habits of the people. Current generation is giving more importance to taste rather than nutrition while they cook foods in the kitchen or taking foods from restaurants. I have few friends in my school who are suffering from obesity related health problems. These friends do not have the ability to play with us because of their overweight. Because of the severe harassments facing from their friends, they like to spend their leisure time either in the library or in front of the computers. Replying to one of my question, one of these obese friends told me that it is difficult for him to take less food even though he likes to reduce his weight. In other words, it is better to take preventive measures before obesity actually strikes a person. The above fact taught me a lesson and I decided to control my eating habits in order to escape from the threat of obesity related problems. This paper describes my philosophy of eating, formulated based on the data collected from my surroundings. My current philosophy of eating can be described in few words; eat nothing unless it’s worth eating. In other words, it is better to eat something only at times when we experience hunger. There are many people who eat something even if they don’t feel hunger, in order to give company to others. I also had such habits. Foods should be consumed only at times when a person feels hungry. Our body has the ability to remind us the necessity of energy in the form of hunger. The energy or calorie received from foods taken at the time when a person feels hungry, will be utilized for some bodily functions. Therefore extra energy or calorie will never be accumulated in our body if we take normal food at the time of hunger. On the other hand when we take food during unwanted times, the body forced to store the extra calorie in the form of fats which will make the person obese. Another major point in my current eating philosophy is the avoidance of fast foods as much as possible. Fast foods are tastier than other foods and people who take fast food may consume more than what is required for the body because if this extra taste. Most of the fast foods are enriched with fat contents. Moreover fast foods are comparatively cheaper and easy to cook. And therefore people make use of it more frequently. Half boiled or half cooked foods are popular in all over the world at present. Nobody wants to spend too much time in kitchen after a busy day schedule. So, people will purchase half boiled foods from groceries or supermarkets and prepare it quickly using a microwave oven or some other cooking equipment. Frequent use of foods cooked using microwave oven could raise radiation related health problems. In short, fast foods, half boiled or half cooked foods can create lot of health problems and it is better to avoid it as much as possible. It is better to eat slowly rather than attacking the dishes in a hurry. Slow eating will help us to eat only the required amount of food, Moreover, such habits will help the digestion process. I have a friend who does have the habit of taking foods in a hurry, irrespective of whether the food is tastier or not. His philosophy of eating is take food as quickly as possible. He faced lot of problems in the past because of this peculiar eating style. Many times, the bones of fried chicken and fishes get jammed in his throat because of his speedy eating style. Since he is taking food in a hurry, he doesn’t have any idea about the volume of food he has taken. For him taking food three or four times in a day is a routine job and he followed it, even when he was not hungry. Regularisation of eating food as a routine job will never help a person in maintaining his health. It should be noted that more food is required for a person when he works more and less food is required when he works less. In other words, the requirement of the food depends on the nature of the work undertaken by the person. It should be noted that administrative staff who work inside the offices may require less foods than workers working in the construction sites. Even the same person may require different volumes of food based on the variations in his daily jobs. Thus, eating habits should be adjusted based on the circumstances. Some people have the habit of purchasing food items based on the information provided in the food labels affixed on food packets. However, food manufacturers have the habit of providing false information about the ingredients in their food items. Hidden food allergens are part of the reason that an estimated 30,000 Americans are rushed to the emergency room each year and another 150 die - most of them children. The issue was brought to light when three-year-old Patrick Pridemore ate Wellshire Kids' Dinosaur Shapes Chicken Bites and began having trouble breathing. His mother jabbed his leg with an epi needle and rushed him to the hospital, where, thankfully, he recovered. Patrick has a severe allergy to wheat, and the packaging label said the product was "gluten-free" (containing no wheat, rye, or barley proteins). Mrs. Pridemore meticulously scrutinizes labels to ensure that Patrick is not exposed to gluten. Amazingly, when she contacted Wellshire and the USDA to report Patrick's health crisis, neither organization would test the product to confirm the presence of gluten. The Tribune then sent the chicken bites to a leading food allergy lab on two separate occasions, and both times gluten was found (Segala) The above example clearly underlines the meaninglessness in assessing the quality of a food based on the information supplied on food labels alone. So, I decided to give less importance to the information provided on the food labels while purchasing food items. It is a fact that non- vegetarian food is far more dangerous than vegetarian food as far as obesity or health problems are concerned. Excessive fat contents are there in most of the non- vegetarian foods which is dangerous to health. So I decided to practice vegetarian foods more frequently than non-vegetarian foods. Three four month before, I got an opportunity to speak with one of my Indian colleagues about the healthy food habits. He was a pure vegetarian since he belongs to the Hindu Brahmin community (Brahmins normally avoid non-vegetarian foods). He told me that obesity related health problems are very less among Brahmin community because of their peculiar food habits. He also told me that Brahmins are considered to be the most intellectual community in India. In his opinion, practicing vegetarian food is the major reason for the higher level of intelligence found among Brahmin community. Vegetarian foods are easily digestible than non-vegetarian foods. In other words, our body needs to work less for digesting the vegetarian foods. Most of the Americans and Europeans fail to extend their life span because of their increased appetite for non-vegetarian food. My Indian friend has told me that the average life span of Brahmin people in India is comparatively more than that of the people from other religions. I have realized the importance of practicing vegetarian food for good health and extended life span from the above discussion from my Indian friend. Recently, I read the story of a person who started to gain overweight even from his childhood. All the other family members of this person had enough body weight and strength. But only this person succeeded in gaining overweight despite the attempts made by him for reducing his weight. His parents were worried about his overweight and sought the advices of many pediatricians. All the healthcare professionals unanimously asked the parents to reduce the volume of food given to this person in order to reduce his weight. But it was difficult for this person to reduce weight because of the extreme hunger he faced frequently. He faced lot of harassments from his family members and also his school friends because of his overweight and lack of mobility. He had 130 kilograms at the age of 18. He spent majority of his times inside his house because of the fear of teasing from his peers. Many people told him that no woman would take the risk of marrying him unless he decreases his weight somehow. Such comments decreased his mental health also. He lost interests in his studies or other daily activities. He started to behave abnormally and the parents sought the advice of a psychologist. After some comprehensive psychotherapy sessions, the psychologist realized that his problems were not physical, but mental. The psychologist identified that the above person was a victim of attention deficit disorder. His parents were extremely busy working professionals. They spent little time with this person during his childhood. In order to compensate for the lack of care extended to him, his parents always fed him with tasty fatty foods which they brought for him from fast food restaurants while they return home every day. The failure in getting proper love and care from his parents, forced him to find comfort in over eating. He started to attack food more vigorously because of his desperation and developed a kind of food addiction. The psychologist succeeded in helping this person to come out from this problem with the help of psychotherapy and some medicines. The above story taught me the lesson that obesity may lead towards both physical and mental problems and a sound philosophy of eating is necessary to lead a healthy life. To conclude, my new philosophy of eating is formulated based on the principle; eat nothing unless it’s worth eating. Another major point in my eating philosophy is that eat less while work less and eat more while work more. Avoidance of non-vegetarian food as much as possible is another major point in my new philosophy of eating. Slow eating is better than rapid eating since slow eating help a person to eat only the amount of food required by the body. On the other hand rapid attacking of dishes will force a person to eat more than what is required by the body and subsequently such people may develop obesity related health problems. Works Cited Segala, Melanie. “The Food Labeling Scam”. Web. 07 September 2011. Read More