The "D" Word - Diet & Health

Diet and dieting are two very different topics. Diet is not just a venue for losing weight.  Diet is health. A diet is a prescribed selection of foods that one needs to eat to help control a medical condition and for optimal health. That takes a bit of knowledge, good nutrition, portion control, and exercise.

Dieting on the other hand takes that prescribed selection of foods and modifies it to lessen the intake of calories, fats, carbohydrates, sugars, and sodium to create a venue for weight loss. There are many types of diets from dangerous fad diets to medical diets such as the diabetic diet and the DASH diet for lowering high blood pressure.

Not a One Size Fits All Diet

Nutrition is a key factor in any diet.  The food pyramid was used pervasively in the twentieth century, but since has been modified and personalized today.  Science has found that nutrition isn't a one size fits all guide to diet.  Every person, every body, requires different types of nutritive elements to remain at their optimum operating level.  What is nutrition?  Nutrition is food, how the body breaks down those elements within the food and how the food is utilized by the body. Nutrition is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States that is much more than nutritionists dictating what you should eat to be healthy.  Read your labels and know what nutrients are the best fuel for your body.  In this age of readily available information at your fingertips, there really is no reason not to research and understand proper nutrition.

Nutrition By Any Other Healthy Name

The health food trade is a sub-industry of the nutrition industry and a very lucrative one at that.  What is health food?  Most people lump organic, natural, non-processed and diet foods, and nutritionally-enhanced foods as health foods.  However, health food is not a catch-all term.  Each type of food has its own standards to be met by its manufacturer.  For instance, organic food is regulated by the National Organic Program out of the United States Department of Agriculture.  The generic term health food is not regulated by any such agency.  Prepare to pay premium pricing for both organic and health food however.