The latest studies and research now show that a bad diet is worse for you, and your health than smoking!
I for one agree but did not think I would see the day where medical professionals would come together in agreement and actually present it to the nation.
We all know what smoking is, though these days it’s probably more about the ‘Vape Scene’. But why is it so bad for us other than the medical professionals saying it’s bad for us? Carbon monoxide from the smoke and nicotine both put a strain on the heart by making it work faster. Other chemicals in cigarette smoke damage the lining of your coronary arteries, leading to furring of the arteries which then become blocked. The good news is that after only one year of not smoking, your risk is reduced by half. After stopping for 15 years, your risk is similar to that of someone who has never smoked. Smoking is responsible (or more, the smoker is) for 80,000 deaths per year.
How can a bad diet be worse than that? Before we can come to understand why, we ought to establish what a bad diet is.
In our eyes at Body Planners, we don’t advocate ‘following’ a ‘diet’ because diet to us is something that is constant. Everything you consume is constant and inclusive of ‘your diet’. In our opinion a ‘bad diet’ is a diet which offers little nutritional value or benefit to help sustain your body, your mood patterns, your sleep cycle, your energy levels, basically anything you do. If your diet doesn’t sustain that you need to change it.
We’re at a point in time where convenience has trumped the world. We want more in a quicker time scale. Sometimes it’s great but should you let that compromise the quality of your diet? In my opinion, no you shouldn’t. Sure, it’s quicker and easier for me to buy a meal deal for lunch but it isn’t right for what I put my body through. If you pulled up at the filling station you wouldn’t simply misfuel because there was a wait on what you actually needed, because your car wouldn’t work and when you go too long on a convenient easy diet your body will do the same.
We recently published a different article about how one single thing isn’t the issue when it comes to the individuals diet but too much of one thing (or more) can be. I.E too much refined sugar, bad news. Too much carbohydrates for your energy requirements, bad news. Too much fat in the diet, bad news. Too much convenience, bad news, because convenient things come at the price of reduced quality. This is often reflected in the price. Too much of these in our eyes are a bad diet. This is because collectively they all bring something to the table of doom when it comes to your health. They generally all point the same way, in that they all increase the risk of obesity (which is the biggest cause of cancer, not smoking) though smoking does increase the risk of cancer. Obesity is the biggest contributor, and a massive risk factor for type two diabetes. A bad diet can increase the risk of tooth decay, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, depression, cancer and increase the likelihood of having a stroke. We’re not trying to play down how bad for you smoking is, because let’s face it, it is. We’re simply trying to educate you on what a ‘bad diet’ is, and why, and more to the point how a ‘bad diet’ is worse for you than smoking. Obesity is responsible for almost 300,000 deaths annually. Now you know what the biggest contributor to obesity is you might start to understand why, and maybe put in place some changes you might need to make. You have absolutely nothing to lose by tidying up your diet, and everything to gain. You are what you eat, good food and proper nourishment will provide better sleep and mood patterns, higher activity levels and energy production whilst delivering you from the plethora of bad news that convenience has in store for you.
Jake.