We live in times of abundance in Australia. Food is everywhere. Brightly packaged and processed. Full of fat, sugar and salt. We don't yet live in a time where we could simply take a pill to get our required nutrition (unless we are an astronaut!), so we need to get our nutrition from food. To give up food and become a "breatharian" would lead to an early demise.
Before colonisation in Australia Aboriginal people lived off their land. Their food was inconvenient, relied on the weather and required great effort to hunt and gather. This burnt calories. The food was unprocessed and full of the essential nutrients needed to survive. How times have changed. Fast food, convenient food and packaged food. All tempting us with bright packaging, marketing and advertising.
Today, more than one in three of all Australians are overweight or obese. For Aboriginal people this statistic is far worse. More than two in three Aboriginal people are overweight or obese, and this begins in childhood. Less than 5 per cent of Indigenous children get the required daily intake of fruits and vegetables. This trend needs to change in a positive way. Even small changes can make a big difference, like making a picture with brightly coloured vegetables on a plate to engage the children.
It takes roughly 20 minutes for our brains to get the "full" signal, so eating more slowly can reduce the amount a person consumes. Certain foods can keep us fuller for longer. Nuts and soup are two foods that have been found to be consumed regularly by slim people. Other foods to keep us fuller are foods with a lower Glycaemic Index. These low GI foods result in a slower blood sugar rise.
With the technological age, it is easy and convenient to "google" what a low GI food is and I encourage everyone to do this. On the other hand, the foods that are turned into sugar quickly and lead to obesity tend to be white - white bread, white rice, pasta etc. When we have too much sugar in our blood and we don't need it our body turns it into fat. Do this over a prolonged period and we become at risk of diabetes, heart disease and many other adverse heath conditions.
I did a Nutrition Degree more than 30 years ago and while some things have changed, the basics of a good diet remain the same. Eat 50-60 per cent carbohydrates (preferably complex and containing fibre which keeps us fuller for longer) - such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Eat 20-30 per cent protein (eg. meat, eggs, fish), and eat 10-15 per cent fat. Bad fats (saturated fat) should be avoided (eg. butter, margarine). Good fats are found in things like fatty fish, nuts, seeds, avocados and olives. Good fats are essential for good heart health, good blood pressure and improving blood cholesterol levels.
Nutrition is such a broad topic and there are many subjects to touch on. Subjects like the essential vitamins and minerals and the issues a deficiency in these cause. Bad fats and the issues these can cause, including but not limited to, changing the bacteria in our gut and leading to acid reflux. These are nutrition subjects I would like to expand on if you, the reader, would like to know more.
Georgie Dutry (BPharm, BSc Nutrition and Food Science)
