The Effects Of Healthy And Unhealthy Foods On Your Body

Food is anything, raw or cooked, which when consumed, provides the body with nutrients, essential for the growth and management of the human body.

Although many food-producing businesses, from huge and small farms to restaurants, and then, fast food joints, continuously try to convince the masses of how nutritious and healthy their products are, people still have question marks about how credible those claims really are.

There has been an upsurge in diabetes, heart-related problems, liver and kidney failures, and the like. Lifestyle, undeniably has a hand in all of these health problems, but if food, really has the tendency of helping to manage and even cure the body of some illnesses and infections, how then are the masses going through this dilemma? Could it be that the food-producing companies and businesses are pulling the public’s leg?

Whether it is true or not, it has become very important for people to want to know how the food they eat affects their bodies. You must know that food and health walk hand in hand.

For several million years of being on this planet, mankind has been inseparable from food, it is what has affected our biological transformations since those times till now, therefore food is a crucial part of human life, and whether healthy or not can impact our health.

Healthy foods affect your body in a very positive way, they help to promote heart strength, clear your skin, and a whole lot more, we will go more into them later in this article.

Unlike the unhealthy ones, they can pose several health issues to your body. Since you are here to know how healthy foods, as well as unhealthy ones, affect our bodies, I will cut down on the long talk.

This article will provide you with comprehensive knowledge, first on the effects of healthy and unhealthy foods on the body in terms of how it affects your mind, your heart, and many other parts of your body and then the need to know this information, how they will help you to guard your health. Are you ready? Let us dive in.

What Are Healthy Foods?

Healthy foods basically are those that have the necessary nutrients, which help to enhance the quality of your health. These foods help your body to increase metabolism such that unwanted toxins are eliminated from the body while the body gets to perform at its optimal level.

Healthy food contains good nutrients, and when I say nutrients, I mean the right nutritional content to help the various aspects of your body. These good nutrients give your body instructions on how to do things the right way.

Food affects your body in not as a whole, but in units. For instance, your body is made up of many units that make you a person. Some of these units include your brain, heart, kidneys, muscles, skin, and many more, and most of these are organs.

Once food nutrients are assimilated into the body after digestion, the nutrients are absorbed into your bloodstream and then, these nutrients through your capillaries, travel to all parts of your body including your muscles, your brain, your heart, and the rest.

So after eating a healthy diet, individual aspects of your body assimilate their own need for nutrients for their optimal functions. When one or more of these individual body parts do not get their share of nutrients, then that means certain cells do not get their incentives, which will lead to them dilly-dallying with their work or failing outright. So you see, for the body to work as it should, all aspects of it must benefit from the right nutrients.

What Are Unhealthy Foods?

These foods basically, contain little or no essential nutrients and are high in fats, carbohydrates, and calories that are more than what the body can handle. Most of these foods are mostly junk and highly processed, and most of these foods are the causes of various heart diseases, kidney failures, and the like.

When you consume these foods, the individual aspects of your body assimilate the empty nutrients and calories, when that happens, instead of the body getting the right nutrients, it gets these toxic goods, which in the end, compromise the quality of your health.

How Healthy And Unhealthy Foods Affect Your Body

Let us get into how food affects some individual aspects of the human body. Let us begin with the brain.

How Food Affects The Brain

When you eat healthy foods, the brain benefits a lot, naturally, the brain is a power-hungry organ in our body, therefore, whenever we eat, it makes sure to get its fair share.

The brain uses more glucose in the form of energy, but when it is too much in the body, as in, when the body absorbs too much from unhealthy foods, it causes ruptures in the blood vessels that carry healthy oxygenated blood to the brain, that can lead to a condition called vascular dementia. This is a condition that occurs when the brain cells are deprived of oxygenated blood, they eventually die and this condition occurs.

Also when you consume foods rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, they help the brain to generate and maintain brain cells. These acids prevent the brain cells from degenerating by coating them. Helping the brain to be more flexible.

In the end, it helps you to think and process information clearly. However, when you consume more unhealthy fats ( trans and saturated fats ) for a long time, you put yourself at risk of having Alzheimer and dementia.

To protect your brain, you must reduce intake of large amounts of carbs and saturated fats. For the fats, you are advised to prioritize the ones stated above ( the omega 3 and 6 fatty acids ) as they help you to increase your brain power. You are able to remember things clearly, as well as process information in a quick fashion.

How Food Affects The Heart

The food we eat affects our body in a lot of ways through the heart. Let us begin with the good news first. When you consume a healthy diet, rich in whole grain foods, these foods contain soluble fiber that helps the body to reduce LDL cholesterol levels also known as ( low-density lipoprotein ) or bad cholesterol.

Aside from that, eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids is said to increase the elasticity of your blood vessels by lowering triglycerides, this is a type of fat, and also increasing HDL cholesterol also known as ( high-density lipoprotein ) or the good cholesterol which is good for your heart health.

However, consuming foods high in sodium and other forms of unhealthy fats and calories is said to increase your LDL cholesterol levels, as well as causing blockages in your arteries. These blockages are caused by the activities of cholesterol in your body, as you age.

It builds up gradually over time. When you don’t quit unhealthy foods, they can block your veins completely, which in turn leads to various cardiovascular diseases like stroke, blood pressure, and the like. Eating healthy foods like those rich in fiber and good fats like vegetables and fatty fish respectively, however, can help you a lot to minimize all the effects.

How Food Affects The Kidneys

Your kidneys are organs that help to keep the body running by examining excess fluids and toxins, as well as expelling them from the body. When you dine and wine, your body assimilates the nutrients it wants while it transports the unwanted ones to the kidney, the kidney, in turn, filters them, and the unwanted ones come out as urine.

When this important organ is affected, mostly, it is due to the food we eat. When your kidney fails, some other organs in the body also suffer due to the fact that, toxins and other harmful wastes start to build up in your body causing them to slow down or fail to work entirely.

When we eat unhealthy foods, especially those high in animal protein, the kidney is put through a lot of stress when trying to expel the high protein wastes, as this wears it out. Continuously stressing your kidney with high protein wastes can lead to kidney problems or worse, it can fail.

Aside from that, foods that are rich in sodium, are typically junk foods and fast foods. These foods are the major causes of cardiovascular diseases, most notably blood pressure. This in turn puts a lot of pressure as well on your kidneys. When this goes on for a good amount of time, you might risk being put on dialysis or worse, have a kidney transplant.

However, the good news is you can avoid it. To do that, you must eat foods that are kidney-friendly and do not strain the little guy. And also avoiding processed foods as much as possible.

How Food Affects The Skin

Your Skin is by far the largest organ in the human body. As much as there are factors that we can not control concerning our skin, such as age, genetics, and hormones, there is that we can control and that is the food we eat. And so the food you eat affects your skin positively and negatively.

When you eat healthy foods, it is the skin that reflects the change, however, when you continuously consume unhealthy food, it is also reflected in your body.

Unhealthy foods like fast foods have a lot of carbs that when digested into the body, release a lot of glucose. When these glucose are released in our blood, they cause a spike which in turn reflects on our face in the form of pimples and acne. This is because the insulin increase in your body causes more oil production on your face which clogs your pores with dead skin cells.

Aside from all these when you eat foods rich in vitamin C, it helps your body in a lot of ways such as helping your body to heal faster when you get hurt. Also, when you enjoy more watermelon and cucumbers, your body immensely from hydration.

Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids like salmon and other seafood foods also provide the body with anti-inflammatory properties. They help the skin to control oil production as well as breakouts, thereby helping acne-prone skin to be free.

How Food Affects Your Eyes

Your eye is the window to your body. And as far as your body is concerned, whatever food you eat, the eye has its own share in the nutrients, therefore when you consume anything, have your eye in mind. The food we eat affects the eye a lot, depending on what gets into the stomach.

As I said previously, when you consume food, the nutrients are taken all around your body through the numerous capillaries in your body.

When you eat foods that contain a lot of saturated fat, it also travels along your blood vessels. These fats as stated previously have the tendency of blocking these vessels and causing many problems to your body. And of those problems, your eye has its share. Since the blood vessels transporting nutrients to the eye are relatively small, they are easily blocked by these fats.

Although it may not seem very serious because a healthy eating habit may control it, continued consumption may be disastrous. Also, it is shown that AMD (age-related macular degeneration ) an eye problem in most adults is caused by continued sugar spikes in the body from carbohydrate.

As much as cataracts are age-influenced, it is shown that excessive consumption of alcohol as well as continued spike in blood sugar levels have a hand in it.

Therefore to avoid these, one must control the intake of carbs and alcohol and start consuming healthy food. Aside from all these, consuming foods rich in carotene, zinc, vitamin C, E and others can help you to significantly improve your eye health.

How Food Affects Your Hair

Aside all the above, the food you eat also affects your hair a big deal. A protein called keratin is responsible for hair growth, therefore, when you eat the right proteins in their right proportions, your body helps to also produce more of these proteins leading to more hair growth.

Aside from that, consuming foods rich in vitamin C is also said to help your body produce more collagen, a protein whose job is to help keep your hair stronger and prevent it from breaking, thereby keeping your hair looking shiny as well as strong.

Iron-rich foods also help to keep your hair growing strong and healthy. This nutrient helps to transport oxygenated blood to all parts of your body including your hair. That is why when you have iron deficiency, your hair thins out, leading to hair loss.

Diabetes?

Aside from all the above points, I intentionally made diabetes the special one of them all since diabetes type two is on a killing spree endangering peoples’ lives. Diabetes has a way of killing people that makes it dangerous. How does one get diabetes? Well technically, for a person to be called diabetic, the food they eat plays a very important role.

When a person consumes food rich in carbs. The blood sugar in the body leads to insulin resistance because the pancreas can not seem to keep up with the increase in blood sugar. Therefore, causing a person to be diabetic.

Diabetes has no cure, as far as recent studies are concerned. However, it can be reversed. Yes, and that is only when the blood sugar is managed and controlled over time when the person at some point will have no need for medications.

Final Words

The Food we eat has a direct link with everything that goes on in and on our bodies. Therefore we must be very conscious of what we decide to put in our bellies. A healthy eating habit means a healthy brain, kidney, heart, and ultimately a healthy body.

So my dear readers make sure to cut down or stop entirely eating unhealthy foods that can compromise the quality of your health. Your medicine can indeed be your food. Just prioritize a healthy eating habit.