Lifestyle and Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Lifestyle and Health - Essay Example This is so for the different elements of the physical body generally work in harmony with each other to maintain a good health, but this can only be possible if a healthy lifestyle is maintained (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). Positive lifestyle factors can hugely improve the state of health of the individual. The World Book Dictionary defines health as that state of being well or not sick. Hodal (2005) further asserts that this should also encompass the optimal state where the physical, mental and social well being of the individual is attained. There should be a more holistic approach in considering health. There should be an interrelation among the different aspects of the human body, including the lifestyle, to achieve the optimum state of health (Hodal, 2005). Everyone has always been told to eat a healthy diet. What does this proposition really entail Having a healthy diet means eating the right food and feeding the body with the essential minerals, vitamins, proteins, fats and carbohydrates that are crucial for an individual to properly function (Hodal, 2005). Food is needed to support the body. Food is needed to make one healthy. Food is also part of the lifestyle of any individual. This is why any food, particularly eating the healthy diet, is one big chunk in the positive lifestyle factors and a necessary element to fight off nutritional diseases like obesity or extreme fatness (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). Being active and mobile are also essential to health. It was declared not too long ago that one epidemic that is threatening Asians is the diabetes (Zabriskie, 2002). Diabetes, once it has invaded the body, cannot anymore be eradicated; the adverse effects, however, can still be avoided (Zabriskie, 2002). The best solution so far, to control the disease is to have an active. It was further pointed out by Zabriskie (2002) that having a healthy diet, lots of exercise, seeking regular check ups and controlling the weight are important elements in the lifestyle of a person, especially for the diabetic. It is truly undeniable that a healthy lifestyle is needed to improve on the health and whole being of the individual. In much the same way, the negative lifestyle factors also have a major impact on the health of an individual. It was shown that there are behavioural and social issues that can really threaten the healthy state of the body of the individual (Lyons and Langille, 2000). Before, society is concerned with the threat of infectious diseases; today the main concern is the hazard of leading unhealthy lifestyles (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). There are many negative factors that people imbibed in their daily life like smoking, overeating, drinking, lack of sleep and lack of exercise. Such stressful behaviours can affect the overall body of the person and lead to ailments and health problems (National Women's Health Resource Center, 2006). Obesity is one health problem that people today are facing. This is a significant problem that has come about because of unhealthy and poor diet. It was found that the average American diet is high in salt, sugar and fat, characteristic of foods that encourage obesity (Smith and Pergola, 2002). Experts also declared that there is a sudden threat of diabetes in Asia and it has been tagged as the 'silent killer' (Zabriskie, 2002). This was generally attributed to the drastic and negative lifestyle change among Asians. Eating mainly Western cuisine, drinking