How to keep equal weight?

We all get fat with age. Men stop playing football with their friends, prefer to watch matches while lying in front of the TV. Women usually avoided PE as early as teenagers. Gaining half a kilo in a month is unnoticeable, but it means that a 30-year-old weighing 50 kg by 40 will weigh 110. As we age, we burn calories more slowly – this is true for both men and women. So we have to reckon with the fact that even if we eat as much as ten years earlier, we will gain more weight. Lack of exercise itself is very dangerous to health – it can even lead to death – and combining it with already reduced metabolism is a deadly mixture for the figure. Inappropriate, i.e. low in fiber, proteins, good fatty acids, iron, vitamin D and magnesium (the latter supports the hormonal balance). In middle age, it is more inadvisable than before to eat processed food contaminated with pesticides and meat from animals whose food contains synthetic hormones. Such food adversely affects the secretion of estrogen.

Most of us do not read what the consumer wrote about the product, but unknowingly puts a cardboard box, jar or can into the supermarket cart. We are mainly guided by the attractiveness of the packaging. – The only thing that some people look at, apart from the aesthetics of the packaging, is the composition of the product. However, virtually no one pays attention to the nutritional tables – says Magdalena Siuba-Strzelińska from the coordinator of the project “Keep the Balance” of the Food and Nutrition Institute. – Poles do not pay attention to labels, they do not understand them. And poor nutrition shortens life. It leads not only to obesity, but also to many diseases, including cancer. We should choose products with the least amount of salt, simple sugars, fats and additives, e.g. preservatives. Pay attention to the order in which the ingredients are listed. What is the most is first and what is least is the last. That is why we can be tempted by a product advertised as a “source of vitamin C”, while this vitamin is found in, for example, trace amounts.

The project “Keep the Balance” of the Food and Nutrition Institute has shown that it is worth educating children in this regard. 20 percent of the students covered by the project stopped drinking sweetened drinks every day, 14 percent eat sweets, and 30 percent. more children began to eat 4-5 meals a day, which of course promotes health and a slim figure. And there is a good chance that they will take these new habits with them into adulthood. The best diet is one without excess fat and sugars, but rich in vegetables and fruits. From the latest report that Harvard University conducted under the guidance of prof. Frank Hu shows that a vegetarian diet reduces the risk of, for example, type 20 diabetes by as much as 2 percent. It is also worth replacing white bread with dark bread. – And choose products with a low glycemic index (IG <55), avoid saturated fatty acids, sugar and salt, eat little, but often, 4 to 5 times a day - advises Aleksandra Cichocka from the Food and Nutrition Institute.

We are afraid of sugar and fat, we track them on product labels. Unfortunately, salt is just as dangerous. And not only for those who struggle with hypertension. – Recent research shows that salt causes weight gain, especially in adolescents, and also causes several other serious diseases. Unfortunately, Poles consume two or even three times more salt than the safe daily dose, defined by WHO as five grams – says prof. Mirosław Jarosz, director of the Food and Nutrition Institute in Warsaw. Find out what, apart from hypertension, you are risking yourself by eating salt. And why you can get fat because of it. The latest research has shown that after consuming a salty product, we begin to have an increased appetite for sweets. And we usually reach for them then. As a result, the consumption of salt contributes to our weight gain. And it is not known yet why, but especially until the so-called abdominal obesity. Unfortunately, it leads to serious diseases and significantly increases the risk of premature death. In the fat tissue called visceral inflammatory processes are initiated, which over time attack the entire body and lead, among others, to for atherosclerosis and diabetes.

Most Polish children do not spend even an hour a day on sports. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why children in our country gain weight the fastest in Europe. They also start suffering from diabetes earlier and earlier, even if they are not genetically burdened. Sport is health, but we don’t mean competitive sport. All you need is recreational swimming, Nordic walking, cycling and walking. Only an hour, but every day! Age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) is common and begins in the third decade of life. Perhaps it has its evolutionary justification – this is how the young hunter’s hypothesis put forward by Pnina Vardi and Orita Pinhas-Hamiel from Tel-Aviv University. According to her, in the evolutionary past, food providers needed adequate muscles to ensure their survival during hunting. However, as the body ages, instead of building muscle, it develops fatty tissue that was supposed to protect against starvation in old age.

Children suffer from school phobia, adults experience more and more stress due to the excess of responsibilities in corporations. XNUMX-year-olds also work professionally, run a home, take care of children and aging parents, and the list of daily tasks and challenges seems endless. In difficult situations, the stress hormone cortisol sends information to the brain so that the body begins to store energy to fight adversity. As a result, we start to eat more and end up with wider hips or a tire on our stomach. In order for this not to happen, it is worth systematically reducing the level of stress through long walks, proper breathing, yoga exercises or a rational daily schedule with tasks that can be performed.

Unfortunately, half an hour of sleep is not enough to notice the disastrous effect on the figure. Sleep deprivation slows down the metabolism and also regulates hunger-controlling hormones – ghrelin and leptin. As a result, the next day we are more likely to reach for high-calorie products and eat more. Fatigue after a sleepless night, in turn, reduces the desire to exercise and makes us burn excess food worse.

– The so-called abdominal obesity. In the fat tissue called visceral inflammatory processes are initiated, which over time attack the entire body and lead to atherosclerosis and diabetes – says Prof. Mirosław Jarosz, director of IŻŻ. It is also favored by stimulants – especially alcohol abuse and smoking. Even one smoked cigarette carries the blood sugar level. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver, which is busy breaking it down and does not have time to properly regulate the sugar level. And even a small amount of alcohol drunk raises the level of sugar in the blood, but a significant amount lowers it. Alcohol abuse can lead to metabolic disturbance in the body. The Polish Diabetes Association recommends that healthy people limit their alcohol consumption as much as possible, and that diabetics – completely give up.

With age, the standards of what we consider to be the “norm of thinness” change. Research shows that the appearance of overweight in one of the members of a given social group (and most often we socialize with people of a similar age) increases the chance that other members of this group will gain weight. When our friends get fatter, our tolerance for being overweight increases. It is very difficult to mobilize yourself to play sports alone. That is why you need to look for a support group at all costs, even for one person. If we make an appointment with someone for a joint jog or going to the gym, it will be a shame to expose them to the wind. “Keep your Balance. Preventing overweight and obesity as well as chronic diseases by educating the society in the field of nutrition and physical activity »is an educational project implemented in 2011-2015 by the Institute of Food and Nutrition under the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Program (SPPW) with new member states of the European Union. The patronage over the project was taken by the health department of TvoiLokony.