Naosuke Kanenaka writes:
Mr and Mrs Mine are both in their late twenties. They work very hard and they aren't careful about what they eat every day. So Mr and Mrs M's diet is not a balanced one. For example, they usually skip breakfast or if there's time, they'll fry some food. Skipping their breakfast is a big problem. Another example, when Mr M comes home late, they both share fast food that Mr M picks up on his way from the office -- pizza, yakitori or Chinese noodles with eggs, pork and chicken. Another point, they have much stress because of their hard work. This is one of the reasons for eating a lot of food and keeping an unbalanced diet. So they have to know what foods are needed for a balanced diet.
Mr M usually eats a hamburger or fried chicken or fried fish and takes too much cholesterol. He is a heavy smoker too. His health is not so good. He has high blood pressure and occasionally experiences angina chest pains. In addition, he has low levels of HDL ( High Cholesterol Lipoprotein) but his LDL (Low Cholesterol Lipoprotein ) is 170 which is above normal. This is caused by his eating habits. He intakes high levels of LDL cholesterol from the food that he eats every day. LDL cholesterol is so bad for human health because LDL is stored in our arteries and causes them to narrow. The amount of the LDL cholesterol in an artery wall may be so large that the artery becomes blocked. And this will be one of factors of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. So Mr M has to make an effort to reduce his LDL cholesterol. What should he do? I have two ideas. First, he should change his food. For example, he should eat more vegetables and fruits, broiled or grilled fish and skinless chicken . Second, he needs to eat fiber-rich foods like oats and wholegrain breads, because fiber helps reduce cholesterol. Also, he should raise his HDL cholesterol level by exercising. HDL-cholesterol is good for his body and helps reduce his risk of diseases.
Mrs M eats a combination of snack food and sandwiches for dinner. She especially likes cheese or eggs and butter or margarine on her bread. She eats cake, cookies or ice cream for lunch as well. She has both high LDL and HDL levels; her LDL is 165. She is more concerned about appearance than her health. She cannot understand, for instance, why she is 10 kilos over weight though she eats only two meals. Being overweight equals excess fat in the body. That raises the risk of breast cancer. So she must keep a normal weight. My idea for her situation is that she has to have more vitamins and fiber, and avoid eating fat and sugar so much. She also needs to do regular exercise. She should walk for 20 to 30 minutes a day, so fat in the body is burned.
Both Mr and Mrs M should change their diet balance. They should take more vegetables, since vegetables contain various vitamins (particularly carotene and B-2), minerals like Fe, Ca, K, etc. And they contain fiber, so they are very useful for smooth excretion. Fruits also contain vitamins and minerals, but the amounts of vitamins and minerals are not as great as in vegetables. So fruits can't be used as substitutes for vegetables. And many fruits contain sugar, so if we eat too many fruits, fruit sugar is stored under the skin. And one can continue to get fat. In addition to the above, vegetables and fruits have vitamin C. Vitamin C makes the wall of arteries broad and strong. So eating more fruits and many more vegetables will be useful to them for preventing many kinds of adult diseases such a heart disease and high blood pressure etc.
Another piece of advice for them is that they should take breakfast and take their meals three times a day regularly, because a hunger time-lag takes place when they skip eating breakfast. When they have unbalanced nutrition, they raise their LDL-cholesterol levels. So they must change their way of thinking about eating habits, and keep having a balanced diet in their mind.
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