It is a no brainer that we need to eat for survival. Every living organisms needs something for consumption in order to grow and live to its full potential. In our basic education, we are taught that there are animals that eats plants alone and they are called herbivores; meat eaters are carnivores; plant and meat eaters are called omnivores. We humans are omnivores.
Personally, I used to love consuming meat and processed food for faster consumption. However, everything changed when I did some research about cancer and other deadly illness. According to National Cancer Institute it is estimated that there will be 606,520 death related to cancer in USA alone this year 2020. Imagine the total numbers when scaled all over the world. Cancer related can be prevented when we are living a healthy lifestyle especially our food consumption.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), processed foods are now classified in group 1 carcinogen. Meaning there is a strong evidence that processed meat causes cancer. Red meat on the other hand are under probable cause but it depends on the frequency of consumption. It is also stated that only very few cancer are hereditary and most of it are due to our food consumption and activities.
Next illness that I want to talk about is the number one cause of death annually: the cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In 2016 alone, it is estimated that 17.9 million people died from this disease (WHO). 81% of this death related disease is caused by stroke and heart attack. We do not want our family to suffer this kind of fate that is why it is important to know what preventive actions that we have to do now to avoid it.
Again, processed foods and meat consumption comes on top when it comes to causes of CVDs. Tobacco smoking, foods and drink that are high in sugar and salt also triggers these type of diseases and also cancer.
The last topic that I want to tackle is diabetes. According to WHO, in 2016, there are an estimated of 1.6 million deaths due to diabetes. Now compared to those numbers above, this might seem small but, this disease is a silent and slow killer. Silent because symptoms are easy to miss and slow because once detected late, this eats you up bit by bit. Diabetes can cause blindness and can get you amputated. I have seen a lot of people with diabetes that has no legs, arm, are blind, and have difficulty urinating.
The number one cause of diabetes as you may know is sugar. BUT, it is not. According to studies conducted by Harvard, eating red meat larger than a deck of cards on a daily basis increases the risk of diabetes by 19%; processed meat on the other hand, even on a much smaller serving, increases adult onset diabetes by 51%. The saturated fat is the beginning as stated in their study. There are still no evidence that sugar consumption causes diabetes. It can cause CVDs for sure but not type 1 diabetes nor type 2.
Now as we have this knowledge, we will think what are the food industry feeding us. Everyday we have been consuming foods that are slowly killing us bit by bit. Our daily routine must be changed because it is not fit for us to be fit and healthy. We need to do something about our lifestyle because we may not be able to do anything about it if it is too late already. Think all of those dreams and goals that you want to accomplish in this life. It is time to change and act now before everything is too late.
I recommend eating healthy, avoiding sedentary lifestyle and reading important topics that would benefit you positively. Watching health documentaries on youtube or netflix is also recommended. What are you waiting for? The change is now.
