HOW MUCH FOOD SHOULD YOU EAT TO BE HEALTHY?

How much food is enough for you!  For us to be healthy, we need adequate food.

Each day of our lives we depend on food. David Ssemata , a renowned writer and public speaker one day while giving a public speech about the value/ importance of doing work, informed the audience that when he was still young, his mother told him that  “my son, if you feel you should not do work, sell your stomach first and then sit to relax.”

Again, many people have said it, that we work to be able to put food on our tables. This too is true, because no man will save money if their stomachs are demanding food. Food takes a foremost priority in our lives.

But the question is how much food is enough for you? Science teaches that the amount of food we consume depends of several factors including: - Age, sex, job occupation, level of activity, health condition et cetera.

It is known that young children eat more than the adults. The reason is simple; these children are forming new cells to grow, they are very active and restless, thus they have high food demands. Feed them rightly on nutritious food so that they grow healthy.

Commonly if taken on average, the females eat less food than the males. This is so because men tend to participate in heavier activities which have high energy demands than the females. I believe this you have seen even where you come from or stay.

Occupation: we know it that men and women do a variety of activities to earn a living. Some simply sit in offices on turning chairs and with elevators if they have to move from one storey to the next. Others sit in cars from home to work place and back. Such a type of people need less food because their daily activities do not require much energy. But those, who work in the garden, fetch water, lay bricks, ride on bicycles, play foot ball, do athletics, and many of such activities need much more food.

Level of activity: if you engage in active work, your bodily food needs grow. Work consumes energy which must be replenished to keep activities going on. Did you know that the brain cells need a lot of food to be able to help you think! Haven’t you discovered it that whenever you have to read a lot you happen to get hungry very fast? It is simple logic, brain cells need more food. You if you have to do a heavy activity, prepare adequate food to meet your energy requirements. And if you have people who are doing heavy work for you do not deny them food.

Health condition: the non sick eat more than the sick. While you are sick, the appetite tends to go low, and the level of activity of a person is also less. The healthy do a lot that takes their energy and thus demands for food.  Pregnant mothers consume more food than the non pregnant; why? This is because they need to meet the needs of the growing baby and their own. So do not deny them food!

Is there any problem with eating less or too much? Surely there is. If you feed on less carbohydrate, less protein, less vitamin C, you will suffer deficiency diseases like marasmus, kwashiorkor, and scurvy respectively. Then eating too much may lead you into becoming obese.

To conclude the matter, I beg you kindly to look for nutritious food and use it appropriately. In addition to the food, take enough water too.