Junpei Hasumi writes:
Mr and Mrs Mine (M) have a strong passion on their jobs and this is forcing them to live busy lives. They pay little attention to what to eat for health, which results in their having unbalanced diets and no regular exercise. It is also an urgent matter that both of them are already showing some omens of big medical problems in the future. Changes in their dairy habits are needed. Now let us see what to advise Mr and Mrs M respectively.
Mr M's problems would be as follows.
1. Taking no breakfast, or fried food if he takes some.
The first 3 problems are common to both Mr and Mrs M, so these will be focused on later. Let us see the rest one by one.
As to 4, it would be advised that he should intake healthier and better balanced food. Concretely, he should take more vegetables and fruits and lessen intake of fatty food like fried meat. Though fat is one of the important sources of energy, it is not favourable to have it much by itself. Because that is what we call an unbalanced diet. In addition, he seems not to be taking enough amount of food for lunch. So stable food like rice and some soup had better be included.
5 is possibly based on his lifestyle. His eating habit is quite unbalanced and he has no regular exercise. Advice of having a variety of food is given at several places in this paper and an effect of exercising will be focused on later.
Smoking , as in 6, has many bad effects to his body and no good effects. It is considered one of the reasons of 5. An effort to reduce the number of cigarettes is highly requested. But there is one temporary danger in quitting smoking, which is that anybody can get fatter after quitting smoking for supply of oxygen in the body gets better and metabolism also gets more active. So he had better try to stop smoking keeping that in mind
His last individual problem is the level of cholesterol. His HDL (high density lipoprotein, good cholesterol with the function of cleaning unneeded cholesterol) is less than required, while the level of LDL (low density lipoprotein, bad cholesterol with the function of being stored in the wall of arteries and causing arteriosclerosis) is 170 and higher than a dangerous level (160). It is possible to lower LDL level by exercising, quitting smoking and losing weight. So, exercising and no smoking are advised here again. HDL is a good type of cholesterol, but unfortunately it is impossible to increase only HDL because HDL is from LDL. So, what should be done is reduce the total amount of cholesterol intake. It will lessen the amount of harmful LDL and then HDL doesn't have to be so much.
Now let us move on to Mrs M and check her individual problems.
1. Taking no breakfast, or fried food if she takes some.
The first 3 problems are common with her husband and will be focused on later.
6 has already been focused on above. Her LDL level is 165 and over a dangerous level just like her husband. The same things should be advised to her, too.
As to 4, since sweet foods contain high calories, taking too much of them can be one cause of her being overweight as listed in 7. Another bad point is that sweet foods don't supply her with all kinds of nutrients she needs. So her lunch is not only too much in calories but also unbalanced. I would like to advise her to take more vegetables and fruits in place of sweets.
The reason why 5 could be a problem is that fat contains high amounts of calories. Though we need many calories every day, it is in the morning, the start of the day, that a body needs to be supplied with the most. When a body takes high amounts of calories at night, it can't consume them by the end of the day since there is little time left before going to bed. The remaining calories are stored in the body in the form of triacylgrycerol that is nothing but fat. This is another reason for her being overweight.
As to 6, high-fat foods like cheese, eggs, butter and margarine are not advisable for dinner. As written above for 5, a body doesn't need so many calories in the evening.
What we mustn't forget about Mrs M is that her aunts and mother had cancer in the past. This indicates that she has some genetic danger of having cancer, too. But fortunately, little intake of fat lowers the danger of breast cancer. So she had better keep this point in mind and it will help her avoid other diseases related to fat, like high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis, too.
Now let us move to the problems which are common to both Mr and Mrs M. They are
1. Taking no breakfast, or fried food if they take some.
First, they should have breakfast every day. Breakfast is very important in terms of supplying energy to the body at the beginning of the new day and should be most well balanced in both amount and variety. Since one reason they don't take breakfast is that they have little time in the morning, I would like to recommend they take cereals with low-fat milk, salad and fruits. These foods don't need to be cooked, so it won't be difficult to intake them in a short time.
Second, it is not good to eat late at night. Having food in the stomach while sleeping results in getting fat, since unsympathetic nervous system is active while sleeping and this system promotes absorption of nutrients through the intestines. So they should take dinner at an earlier time and it should be something lighter and lower in calories than foods like pizza, yakitori etc.
Finally, they had better have time to exercise. As already mentioned above, exercising has a good effect of increasing HDL. They can lose some weight healthily, which helps HDL increase, too. Moreover, exercising can better the circulation of blood and be a good recreation to relax. Staying away from overwork is also important for both Mr and Mrs M.
Vegetables are often recommended in this analysis while meat and oily food are not. But all such foods contain various kinds of vitamins. In terms of vitamins, meat and oil are recommended as good sources. So it must be always kept in mind that no meat or oil would be a problem, too. But they mustn't be eaten too much or taken by themselves without other kinds of nutrients. So it is advisable for Mr and Mrs M to have more vegetables and reduce meat and oily food, but never to reduce them to zero.
Rapid changes are sometimes dangerous. So I would like to advise gradual changes, for both Mr and Mrs M, in both foods and exercise to conclude this analysis.
2. Eating dinner late at night.
3. No regular exercise.
4. Taking just some hamburger and fried meat for lunch.
5. Having high blood pressure and occasionally experiencing angina chest pains.
6. Smoking a lot.
7. Low levels of HDL and LDL beyond a dangerous level.
2. Eating late at night.
3. No regular exercise.
4. Too simple lunch with too many sweets.
5. Taking too much fat for dinner.
6. A high level of LDL.
7. 10kg overweight.
2. Eating late at night.
3. No regular exercise.
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