Once you know what diseases you can avoid by eating a balanced diet, you will not hesitate to add the indicated foods to your diet.
As you must have heard, a healthy diet allows our body to function properly.
Eating properly helps prevent or decrease the risk of certain diseases. This means that you can extend your life and improve its quality.
In this regard, the Gerontological Institute ensures that 6 of the 10 main causes of death are related to poor eating habits.
For this reason, as they explain, the most important thing is to know that by means of an adequate nutritional intervention we can reduce cancer mortality by around 30%, cardiovascular disease mortality by 20% and anemia by almost 100%.
Here we explain the diseases and conditions that a healthy diet can help prevent or control if you already suffer from them.
In general, a poorly balanced diet results in the deficit of minerals essential for the proper functioning of the body.
On the other hand, a bad diet provides our body with an excess of harmful elements.
Both circumstances come together, generating metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure.
However, in addition to merely metabolic diseases, excesses and deficits can also contribute to the development of other conditions such as cancer.
The obesity
L obesity is a public health problem recognized by the World Health Organization.
Although it sometimes depends on a genetic factor, it is also determined by excessive food intake, coupled with a lack of physical activity.
Obesity significantly increases mortality, being related to the development of various diseases, some of which can be fatal.
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Arterial hypertension
- Diabetes
- Arthritis, gallstones (accumulation of stones in the gallbladder)
- Gout disease (formation of salt crystals in tissues and joints)
- Cancer of the breast, uterus and prostate
Diet and cardiovascular diseases
There is a direct relationship between healthy eating and cardiovascular diseases, of which the most frequent are arterial hypertension, arterial thrombosis and atherosclerosis obliterans.
The influence of diet on the development of these diseases is motivated by the fact that bad eating habits lead to an increase in bad cholesterol, which affects cardiovascular and blood function.
Diet and diabetes
Diabetes is a disease characterized by insufficient production of insulin or poor absorption thereof.
As a consequence of this insufficiency, blood sugar levels rise disproportionately. This is because insulin is responsible for the cells to absorb glucose.
Bad eating habits directly influence diabetes, since foods rich in fats, carbohydrates and sugar have effects that cause or worsen diabetes.
According to the Spanish Heart Foundation, more than half of people with type 2 diabetes suffer from obesity, in a condition that has been called ” Diabesity”.
This, according to Dr. Esteban López Sá, a cardiologist at the Hopstal La Paz in Madrid, considerably affects the risks of heart disease.
Diet and osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is characterized by decreased bone density. This causes the bones to increase their fragility, which implies greater risks of suffering fractures.
According to what the Gerontological Institute reveals, factors that determine the development of this bone condition have been identified. Among them is insufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium.
That said, it can be said that an inadequate diet, in which calcium and vitamin D are scarce, influences the appearance of osteoporosis.
Diet and cancer
One of the most feared diseases in the entire world is cancer.
According to specialized research, there is a relationship between a bad diet and its appearance.
According to data offered by the Gerontological Institute, high fat intakes increase the risk of breast, colon and prostate cancer.
Likewise, diets rich in salty, smoked and spicy foods raise the risk factor for cancer of the stomach and esophagus.
Diseases that are prevented with a healthy diet
Regarding everything we have explained to you previously, we can give you, by way of conclusion, a list with several of the diseases and conditions that you can avoid if you maintain a healthy diet.
Many of these are the ones we have already explained in detail. However, we will also include other conditions that, to some degree, are influenced by food and generate deficits.
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Diabetes
- Osteoporosis
- Cancer
- Parkinson’s
- Anemias
- Arthritis
- Alzheimer
- Acne
Physical activity is another health ally
In addition to the importance of diet to maintain good health, the prominent role played by physical activity must also be considered.
- Supports cardiovascular function.
- Facilitates the regulation of glycemia.
- Reduces the “bad” elements, such as cholesterol and triglycerides.
- It helps the digestive process.
- Regulates the intestinal rhythm.
- Improves calcium retention.
- It reduces stress.